Acceptable Quality Level Research Articles

Designing of Variables Double Sampling Plan Under Rectifying Inspection for Consumer Protection

Designing of acceptance sampling plans based on operating characteristics fail to prescribe the corrective action for rejected lots although they guarantee the producer’s and the consumer’s protection at their corresponding quality levels. But, rectification sampling inspection plan suggests 100% inspection for rejected lots and hence, the producer’s risk is reduced and also there is a guarantee to the consumer by restricting upper limit of the maximum expected proportion of non-conforming of the shipping lot. Although the variables single sampling plan for rectifying inspection is available, variables double sampling inspection plan under rectifying inspection has not yet been designed. Hence, in this paper, we design a variables double sampling plan for rectifying inspection indexed by acceptable quality level and average outgoing quality limit to meet the needs of the producer as well as the consumer. A non-linear optimization problem is developed to determine the optimal parameters with minimum average sample number at acceptable quality level for both cases of standard deviation are known and unknown. We investigate the validation and limitation of the proposed plan through the simulation study and industrial application of the proposed plan is also given. It can be confirmed from the investigations on the results that in many situations, variables double sampling plan designed under rectifying inspection is more economical than variables single sampling plan designed with the same conditions in providing the same protection to consumer.

Exercise Training as a Non-Pharmacological Therapy for Patients with Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension: Home-Based Rehabilitation Program and Training Recommendations.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a chronic and progressive disorder with a poor prognosis associated with non-specific symptoms, including general weakness, shortness of breath on exertion, and decreased muscle strength and endurance. Despite recent significant progress in the field of PAH therapy, many patients are still characterized by a dynamic course of the disease, a significant reduction in physical performance, a constantly deteriorating quality of life, and limited activity in everyday life. Thus, the main goal of PAH therapy is to ensure an acceptable level of quality of life as early as possible in the course of the disease, reduce the progression of symptoms and, if possible, improve the prognosis, which is still poor. The perception of the importance of activity and exercise has changed significantly in recent years, and rehabilitation dedicated to PAH patients is now considered to be one of the new adjuvant treatment options. Currently, there is insufficient data on what form, frequency, and intensity of exercise are required for the best results. Nevertheless, exercise training (ET) is necessary in order to reverse the accompanying PAH impairment of exercise capacity and, without additional clinical risk, to maximize the benefits of pharmacotherapy. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on the rehabilitation of PAH patients and presents the available rehabilitation models. In addition, it includes a ready-to-use, illustrated, safe home rehabilitation program with recommendations for its use. Utilizing ET as an adjuvant treatment option to improve the functional capacity and quality of life of patients may enhance the clinical effectiveness of therapeutic management and contribute to the improvement of the quality of care for patients suffering from PAH. The beneficial effect of exercise training on the development of symptoms improves the clinical course of the disease, and a lower incidence of adverse events can lead to a reduction in health care expenditure.

Bayesian new group chain sampling plan for Poisson distribution with gamma prior through quality regions

Acceptance sampling is used to make a decision about the lot, either it will be accepted or rejected, based on inspection of a representative sample selected from the same lot. According to experts, when historical information is available the Bayesian approach is the most effective method for making good decisions. The Bayesian approach is used in this study to “estimate an average number of defectives” and proposes a Bayesian new group chain sampling plan (BNGChSP). With gamma prior, the Poisson distribution is used to estimate an average number of defectives. To estimate an average number of defects, the Poisson distribution is combined with the gamma as a prior distribution. By considering both consumer’s and producer’s risks, quality regions are estimated for the average probability of acceptance. For these quality regions, acceptable quality level (AQL) and limiting quality level (LQL) are used to find design parameters for BNGChSP. Where AQL is associated with consumer’s risk and LQL is associated with producer’s risk. The values based on all possible combinations of design parameters for BNGChSP are tabulated and inflection points are found. For industrial practitioners based on the minimum number of defective the finding exposes that BNGChSP is a better substitute for existing plans. In a comparison study, the operating characteristic (OC) curves are compared for the proposed BNGChSP and the existing Bayesian group chain sampling plan (BGChSP). In the graph, it is represented that the OC curve based on BNGChSP is more ideal than the existing BGChSP. Based on OC curves, it can be concluded that the proposed BNGChSP plan gives a smaller number of defective than the existing BGChSP.

Analysis of Daily and Diurnal O3-NOx Relationships and Assessment of Local/Regional Oxidant (OX = O3 + NO2) Levels and Associated Human Health Risk at a Coastal Suburban Site of Sfax (Tunisia).

The present study investigated the temporal variability of surface ozone and its nitrogen precursors at the proximity of a traffic crossroad (≈ 22,580 vehicles per day) located in a coastal suburban site of Sfax city (Tunisia). It was performed during January-October, 2010. The study results show that the surface ozone is characterized by a slightly modulated regime between day and night. At traffic-peak hours, the decrease of ozone concentration levels is due to the oxidation reaction of NO into NO2. Complementary statistical approaches (inter-variable correlation matrix, cluster analysis, representation quality of variables and multiple regression analysis) reveal that the excess of O3 is mainly affected by the wind speed, temperature, solar radiation and NO2 with contribution rates of 127, 21, 22 and 12%, respectively. The decrease of O3 is, however, controlled by NO, relative humidity and boundary layer height with contribution rates of 25, 21 and 16%, respectively. The regional daytime and night-time contributions to O3 are very different. The daytime intercept which is greater than that of night-time indicates there was a large NOx independent regional contribution. This could be attributed to the biogenic VOCs effect interfering in the photochemical cycle. It, therefore, implies that the study site is VOC-sensitive. The investigation of the air quality index (AQI) for O3 and NO2 showed that more than 86% of the total studied period has a good quality level. Only about 14% of total days are characterized by an acceptable air quality level, however, for a very small number of people are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

THE OPERATING CHARACTERISTICS CURVE OF THE ACCEPTANCE SAMPLING OF TYPE-A BASED ON OUTGOING PERCENT DEFECTIVE LOT

The common type-A of Operating Characteristics (OC) curve measures the consumer’s risk through the incoming quality. However, the proportion of defective can alter after the sampling process; hence, the measure of consumer’s risk is better described by the outgoing quality or lot quality of post sampling inspection. A modified OC curve is developed based on the outgoing quality for two applicable cases; returned samples to the lot and non-returned or destructive samples. This research aims to develop the algorithm and evaluate the alternative acceptance sampling plan for isolated lots by outgoing percent defective. For the returned samples, the acceptance sampling requires less sample than that based on the common OC-curve and is seen as an opportunity for sampling size reduction. The number of reduced samples varies depending on the input parameters: Acceptance Quality Level (AQL), Rejectable Quality Limit (RQL), producer’s risk (α), consumer’s risk (β), and lot size (N). For the non-returned sample, more sample size (n) is required, even more than that of using the Binomial distribution’s sample size, which has been considered conservative.

Effect of Traditional Cooking and Sous Vide Heat Treatment, Cold Storage Time and Muscle on Physicochemical and Sensory Properties of Beef Meat.

Consumers are avoiding the consumption of highly processed foods, aware of the negative effects of the additives or high temperatures used on the biological value of the food. This causes an interest in ways of minimal processing or low-temperature cooking procedures. However, to achieve the desired organoleptic quality, it is necessary to know the relationship between the parameters of the treatments and the type of raw material. The purpose of this study was to investigate the complex effects of traditional cooking and sous vide heat treatment, cold storage time and muscle on the physicochemical and sensory properties of beef. The study material consisted of samples of musculus longissimus thoracis and musculus semitendinosus obtained from beef half-carcasses. The muscles were subjected to traditional cooking in water at 95 °C until the temperature inside the piece reached 65 °C and sous vide treatment at 65 °C for 2 h. The study was performed after 2 and 21 days of cold storage. Instrumental evaluation of texture parameters, color and sensory evaluation of meat was carried out. Meat stored for 21 days was characterized by more favorable TPA test (Texture Profile Analysis) results compared to meat evaluated 48 h post mortem. The study also showed positive effects of sous vide heat treatment on texture parameters and sensory properties (especially on tenderness and palatability), as well as differences in the formation of quality traits between muscles. Given the trends associated with energy-saving technologies, it is desirable to seek the optimal combination of temperature and time of fixation treatments at an acceptable level of quality. The use of low-temperature cooking for as little as 2 h, yields positive results in sensory evaluation of juiciness, tenderness, or palatability.

Higher expectations of passengers do really sense: Development and validation a multiple scale-FliQual for air transport service quality

A large number of literatures on public transports have primarily focussed on the core perception of service quality of transit sectors. Similarly, meagre researchers have studied the augmented portion of services which, in fact, matter a lot in choosing a particular airline, but the studies have partly covered the same instead of the complete air journey. The present study proposes a complete air passenger perceived service quality (APPSQ) throughout the journey and determines all the dimensions such as availability of accessible services, food and beverage services, staff services, courteous behaviour of employees, and updated technical services with reference to the developing world. This research has attempted to develop and validate a comprehensive scale- FliQual(flight quality) to measure the contribution of the above five dimensions to APPSQ. In the line of the scale development process, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in four studies; ultimately a five-factor model -FliQual was developed, validated at confirmatory level, and was replicated to address the existing gaps. The results revealed that passengers emphasized availability of accessible services as the first priority, followed by food and beverages, staff services consecutively as core services, whereas employee behaviour and updated technology service went secondary. Furthermore, the study explores an acceptable level of service quality, i.e., 0.81 in the range of [0.6 0.9] obtained from fuzzified results.

Expedient validation of LED reliability with anomaly detection through multi-output Gaussian process regression

The existing LED reliability assessment procedures are costly and time-consuming. It poses even greater challenges for the purchasers to validate the manufacturer test results, prior to goods acceptance. In absence of a simple and expedient validation, purchasers often bear the reliability risk in good faith. Leveraging on the 3-stage early degradation modes, as a signature, for LED under the moisture-electrical-temperature (MET) test, an expedient assessment framework is proposed to validate if the supplied LED batches conform to the contracted reliability. Multi-output Gaussian process regression (MOGPR) is performed on sparse reference data to establish an acceptable threshold for the degradation signature. When regressed against the reference data with contracted reliability, the test LED that displays signature anomaly will be deliberated for rejection. The acceptable threshold is calibrated to minimise false negative rate and false positive rate. The procedure is repeated in accordance with acceptable quality level (AQL) or existing sampling policies to accept or reject the batch. The framework achieves a reduction of the validation time from 6000 h to 100 h. While the initial motivation is to facilitate acceptance by purchasers, manufacturer may also adopt this approach for out-going quality control (QC) or rapid evaluation during design prototyping.

Heating energy implications of utilizing gas-phase air cleaners in buildings’ centralized air handling units

Ventilation systems are a vital component of buildings in order to ensure a healthy and comfortable environment for the occupants. In cold climate regions, ventilation systems are responsible for approximately 30% of building heat losses. In addition to outdoor pollutants (particulate matters, NOX, etc.), indoor emissions from materials in the form of gas pollutants and emissions from occupants are the principal indoor air quality metrics for securing an acceptable indoor concentration level. Therefore, it is of great interest to study the use of gas-phase air cleaning technologies in low-energy centralized air handling units. This study focused on reducing buildings' heating requirements by recirculating indoor air while maintaining an acceptable indoor air quality level. The heating performance of a typical residential and office building in the central Swedish climate was studied by dynamic building simulations. Indoor air recirculation rates and air changes per hour were the key parameters considered during the simulation of the building's heating demand and indoor gaseous air pollution concentration. We found that introducing indoor air recirculation reduces buildings' heating demand depending on the air change rates per hour. The results show that it is possible to reduce the energy use for heating by less than approximaytely 10% and 20% for residential and office buildings, respectively and maintain acceptable indoor air quality by using gas-phase air cleaning.

Coordinating a reverse supply chain under stochastic demand and uncertain quality of returned products

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of greening and promotional effort dependent stochastic market demand on the remanufacturer's and the collector's profits when the quality of used products for remanufacturing is uncertain in a reverse supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model is developed to obtain optimal profits for the remanufacturer, the collector and the whole supply chain. Both the centralized and decentralized scenarios are considered. To motivate the collector through profit enhancement, the remanufacturer designs a cost-sharing contract. Through numerical examples and sensitivity analysis, the consequences of greenness and promotional effort on optimal profits are investigated.FindingsThe results show that the remanufacturer gets benefited from greening and promotional effort enhancement. However, a higher value of minimum acceptable quality level decreases the profits of the manufacturer and the collector. A cost-sharing contract coordinates the supply chain and improves the remanufacturer's and the collector's profits. Besides green innovation, remanufacturing mitigates the harmful effects of waste in the environment.Originality/valueTwo different viewpoints of remanufacturing are considered here – environmental sustainability and economic sustainability. This paper considers a reverse supply chain with a remanufacturer who remanufactures the used products collected by the collector. The quality of used products is uncertain, and customer demand is stochastic, green and promotional effort sensitive. These two types of uncertainty with green and promotional effort sensitive customer demand differs the current paper from the existing literature.

Bayesian Two-Sided Complete Group Chain Sampling Plan for Poisson Distribution with Gamma Prior

For statistical quality assurance based on the inspection of a random sample, acceptance sampling plan help to decide whether the lot should be accepted or rejected. Most traditional plans only focus on minimizing the consumer’s risk, but producer’s risk also should not be ignored in acceptance sampling plan. Therefore, this study focuses on reducing both producer’s and consumer’s risks through the quality region. This study proposes a Bayesian two-sided complete group chain sampling plan (BTSCGChSP) for the average probability of lot acceptance. The Poisson distribution with gamma as prior distribution is used to derive the average probability of lot acceptance. Next, R programing language is used to obtain the average number of defectives according to average probability of acceptance and pre-specified values of design parameters. For selected design parameters in BTSCGChSP, the acceptable quality level (AQL) associated with producer’s risk and limiting quality level (LQL) associated with consumer’s risk are considered to estimate quality regions. In this paper, four quality regions are measured: (i) probabilistic quality region (PQR), (ii) quality decision region (QDR), (iii) limiting quality region (LQR) and (iv) indifference quality region (IQR). Operating characteristic curves (OC) are used for performance comparison with existing Bayesian group chain sampling plan (BGChSP) for the same probability of lot acceptance and other design parameter values. Findings validate that BTSCGChSP provides more ideal OC curve than BGChSP for the same probability of acceptance. For quality regions with the same values of consumer’s and producer’s risks, then the BTSCGChSP region will contain fewer defectives than in the BGChSP region. Hence, the proposed plan is a better substitute for existing BGChSP.

A SkSP-R Plan under the Assumption of Gompertz Distribution

In this study, we designed a time-truncated SkSP-R sampling plan when the lifetime of units follows a Gompertz distribution (GmzD). The GmzD is briefly discussed. All of the plan parameters were obtained using a two-point approach, which is based on limiting quality level (LQL) and acceptable quality level (AQL). Moreover, operating characteristic (OC) values were calculated for the determined value of the plan parameters by using the OC function of the SkSP-R. Applications of two real life situations in engineering were presented to illustrate the applicability of the offered sampling inspection plan. It was found that the new SkSP-R sampling inspection plan can be used efficiently in the field.

INITIATION AND EVALUATION OF DRUG INFORMATION SERVICES PROVIDE IN NELLOE DISTRICT

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of drug information services provided in Nellore district. Materials and Methods: To provide unbiased drug information by modified systematic approach. Shows that Queries are received from various health care professionals through Hospital and classified as per educational status like Nutritionist, Lab technicians, social workers. More queries are received Nutritionist from hospital. Results: Results are predicted as Nutritionist (1.09%), lab technicians (1.09%), social worker (0.54%). Among the non-judgmental type, 25 queries were randomly selected and analyzed, 52%had a rating of 5 and 44% had a rating of 4. This indicates all responses satisfied the minimum acceptable level of quality. Non-judgmental responses did not require extensive searching and clinical judgment and thus the clinical pharmacist could answer such enquiries effectively. Conclusion: In our study we conclude that the pharmacists in other hospitals all over the Country would appreciate the value of their involvement in pharmaceutical care and attempt to extend their services for better patient care in the hospital.

Cost Calculation of a Tertiary Care Referral Dental Center Using Activity-Based Costing Method

Background: Economic evaluations in dentistry provide policymakers with information to facilitate efficient resource allocation. Dentistry involves multiple activities for one treatment outcome. This original research aims to calculate direct treatment and indirect costs for dental services provided at tertiary care referral dental center. Materials and Methods: The present original study reporting is done based on using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards statement in dentistry, the basic dental services provided are divided into direct (revenue-generating) and indirect cost centers (nonrevenue generating) using activity-based costing (ABC) method. The total cost generated is calculated by aggregating the sum of direct and indirect cost incurred and unit cost is calculated by dividing total cost obtained by the number of units. Data are analyzed using Microsoft Excel worksheet. Results: Cost calculated using ABC method differed significantly from the tariff method. The major cost components varied are human resources (848,000 INR), capital costs (3,008,500 INR), and material costs (200,000 INR). Conclusion: At a tertiary care dental hospital level, we must provide patient's perspective care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values and ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions. By taking correct economic managerial decisions using ABC and budgeting the resources to dental services, the community can approach with true patient costs at an acceptable level of quality and at the least possible cost.

Fast Coscheduling of Discrete and Continuous Resources in Active Distribution Systems

This article proposes a novel fast method for flexibility scheduling and steady-state voltage control in smart distribution systems enabled with both conventional discrete controllable devices (DCDs), e.g., capacitor banks and <sc xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">on</small> -load tap changers, and continuous and faster control devices, e.g., distributed energy resources, renewable resources, and static voltage regulators. By approximating the active and reactive losses, a linear branch flow model is presented for the optimal power flow (OPF) problem in distribution systems. Accurate models are also proposed for DCDs which suit the proposed OPF formulation and require fewer binary variables compared to those available in the literature. Conservation voltage reduction (CVR) scheme is modeled in the proposed OPF methodology. The CVR effects on energy saving, peak-load reduction, line losses, and transformer losses are analyzed in the case studies. As shown in various case studies, the proposed method is fast enough for quasi-real-time applications and is efficacious in minimizing the system operation cost, holding an acceptable level of power quality based on the available standards and evading the conflict between control actions.

Penerapan Lean Manufacturing Dengan Metode Value Stream Mapping Untuk Mengurangi Waste Pada Proses Pengecekan Material Bahan Baku Ke Lini Produksi

PT. Brigth Mobile Telemunnication is a manufacturing company that produces mobile phones, one of which is OPPO and REALME brand mobile phones. In fulfilling its production needs, PT Brigth Mobile Telecommunication works with suppliers in Indonesia. The delivery process at pt Brigth mobile telecommunications involves two divisions, namely the IQC division and the warehouse division. before sending the material must be checked first at the IQC division to prevent quality problems in the production line but delays in the delivery of raw material materials to the production line often occur due to the ineffectiveness of the checking process due to activities that do not provide added value which is a source of waste. Then the Value Stream Mapping Tools are used to identify and eliminate the waste. The purpose of this study was to determine the initial conditions of the company, as well as the final conditions after repairs using kaizen. From the research conducted, it was found that several wastes in the checking process include Transportation, Unappropriate processing (inappropriate process), Unnecessary motion (unnecessary movement)-waiting (waiting). And the result after the repair is done is the reduced time to complete the material checking process by combining several SOP and replacing the Acceptable Quality Level AQL 1 standard with the AQL S-3 standard to make it more effective because it is rare to find NG.Keywords: incoming quality control, checking process, Value Stream Mapping Tools, Waste, AQL (Acceptable Quality Level)

Combined Effect of High-Resolution Land Cover and Grid Resolution on Surface NO2 Concentrations

High-resolution air quality simulations are often performed using different nested domains and resolutions. In this study, the variability of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) concentrations estimated from two nested domains focused on Portugal (D2 and D3), with 5 and 1 km horizontal grid resolutions, respectively, was investigated by applying the WRF-Chem model for the year 2015. The main goal and innovative aspect of this study is the simulation of a whole year with high resolutions to analyse the spatial variability under the simulation grids in conjunction with detailed land cover (LC) data specifically processed for these high-resolution domains. The model evaluation was focused on Portuguese air quality monitoring stations taking into consideration the station typology. As main results, it should be noted that (i) D3 urban LC categories enhanced pollution hotspots; (ii) generally, modelled NO2 was underestimated, except for rural stations; (iii) differences between D2 and D3 estimates were small; (iv) higher resolution did not impact model performance; and (v) hourly D2 estimates presented an acceptable quality level for policy support. These modelled values are based on a detailed LC classification (100 m horizontal resolution) and coarse spatial resolution (approximately 10 km) emission inventory, the latter suitable for portraying background air pollution problems. Thus, if the goal is to characterise urban/local-scale pollution patterns, the use of high grid resolution could be advantageous, as long as the input data are properly represented.

HAY-PLASTIC COMPOSITES – EFFECT OF HAY PARTICLE SIZE ON THE WATER ABSORPTION

The main aim of this paper is to present the research findings which come out from the experimental determination of the influence of input raw material properties and composition on the water absorption of hay-plastic composites (HPC). During the HPCs production, important raw material parameters such as hay sawdust particle size, hay/plastic concentration ratio or type of plastic matrix can be recognized. In this research study, the aim was to produce HPCs of an acceptable and competitive level of quality which is determined from the final mechanical properties of HPCs. Particle size of hay sawdust used for production of HPC has significant influence on mechanical properties of composites and also on other important properties (water absorption, hardness, frost resistance, etc.). The paper deals with the determination of the impact and the relationship between the input hay sawdust particles sizes, hay/plastic concentration ratio and water absorption of composites. By side intention of authors is to determine the possibilities of waste raw materials usage. The experimental research findings were obtained using a semi-operational injection molding press where the injection is provided by a working screw. As the input raw material, meadow hay, HDPE plastic matrix and recycled HDPE, represented by lids from PET bottles, was used. The effect of the input hay sawdust particle size on water absorption was determined according to a combination and default levels of hay/HDPE concentration ratio, using recycled HDPE instead of virgin HDPE and particle size of hay sawdust.

Designing of variables repetitive group sampling plan for consumer protection

Due to the development of modern technology, it is possible to reduce the variation of products quality during the production. However, it is necessary to propose a designing methodology of sampling plans to guarantee the consumers protection in terms of maximum limit of outgoing non-conforming items while protecting the producers a good quality level. Hence, in this paper, we propose the designing methodology of variables repetitive group sampling plan indexed by acceptable quality level and average outgoing quality limit. We develop an optimization model for determining the optimal parameters with minimum average sample number at the acceptable quality level by simultaneously considering two inequalities. The optimal plan parameters are determined for both cases of known and unknown standard deviation. Results show that the proposed plan reduces the required sample size than the existing single sampling plan to provide protection to the consumers in terms of average outgoing quality.

A repetitive group sampling plan based on the lifetime performance index under gamma distribution

AbstractAs technology and living standards improve, people are becoming more concerned with the importance of quality. Quality, thus, becomes the key to company competitiveness, and process capability indices (PCIs) are effective means of measuring process performance. Most PCIs have been developed under the assumption that the quality characteristics are normally distributed; however, the lifetime of products generally possesses a non‐normal distribution. A lifetime performance index (LPI) CL has been proposed and used for measuring product lifetime performance. In this high‐quality era, the use of traditional testing methods incurs very high costs, so acceptance sampling plans have been widely used by industry to perform the inspection. This study considers the product lifetime with a gamma distribution and uses the uniformly minimum‐variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE) of the LPI to develop a repetitive group sampling plan (RGSP). For the practical purpose, this study presents a step‐by‐step procedure and tabulates the plan parameters for various combinations of acceptable and rejectable quality levels, producer's and consumer's risks, and shape parameter. Thus, practitioners can easily know the sample size and the corresponding critical values for decision making. This study also uses the results of the proposed plan to compare with the single sampling plan. Lastly, a practical example is used to illustrate how to apply this acceptance sampling plan.