Concept Of Quality Assurance Research Articles

Challenges in Food Scientist Training in a global setting

Education and training were an integral part of the MoniQA Network of Excellence. Embedded in the "Spreading of excellence programme", Work Package 9 (Joint education programmes and training tools) was responsible for establishing a joint training programme for food safety and quality within and beyond the network. So-called `MoniQA Food Scientist Training' (MoniQA FST) was offered to provide technical knowledge on different levels and research management skills as well. Training needs for different regions as well as for different target groups (scientists, industry personnel, authorities) had to be considered as well as developing strong collaboration links between network partners and related projects. Beside face-to-face workshops e-learning modules have been developed and web seminars were organized. In order to achieve high quality training, a quality assurance concept has been implemented. It turned out that these types of training are of high value in terms of bringing together scientists from different regions and cultures of the globe, involving highly qualified trainers as basis for a sustainable network in the future.

Challenges in Food Scientist Training in a global setting

Education and training were an integral part of the MoniQA Network of Excellence. Embedded in the "Spreading of excellence programme", Work Package 9 (Joint education programmes and training tools) was responsible for establishing a joint training programme for food safety and quality within and beyond the network. So-called `MoniQA Food Scientist Training' (MoniQA FST) was offered to provide technical knowledge on different levels and research management skills as well. Training needs for different regions as well as for different target groups (scientists, industry personnel, authorities) had to be considered as well as developing strong collaboration links between network partners and related projects. Beside face-to-face workshops e-learning modules have been developed and web seminars were organized. In order to achieve high quality training, a quality assurance concept has been implemented. It turned out that these types of training are of high value in terms of bringing together scientists from different regions and cultures of the globe, involving highly qualified trainers as basis for a sustainable network in the future.

Quality Assurance Concepts of Institutionalization: Some Indicators towards Higher Educational Development Policy in Libya

The aim of this paper is to lay down some indicators for establishing new Libyan national development policy in the higher education sector, after the political changes in Libya in 17-2-2011 uprising and demolishing the old mechanism of controlling the higher education system in Libya. Its attempt shall be based on rediscover ways of achieving quality and sustaining it in the Libyan higher education system. This therefore, is the task of this paper. It will examine the concept of quality assurance and apply it to a Libyan University Institute.

The Teacher Factor in Enhancing Quality Assurance in the Teaching/Learning of Social Studies

This paper examines quality assurance in social studies teaching. The laudable objectives of social studies in making students competent in decision making, problem solving, dealing with change and developing attitudes appropriate for effective citizenship in a pluralist democratic society, cannot be achieved without efficient and effective teaching of the subject. Therefore this paper examines the concept of quality assurance in relation to teaching and learning of social studies. It discusses the role of social studies education in Nigerian schools. It also examines how professionally trained, skilled and motivated teachers in adequate numbers in the school system can enhance quality assurance in social studies education. Finally, recommendations are made on strategies to improve opportunities for high quality teaching and learning in social studies.

Looking for Synergies: Education for Sustainable Development and the Bologna Process

In defining quality of higher education, competences achieved by graduates are interpreted as essential criteria. There are two political processes in education dealing, among other issues, with competence development: the Bologna Process in European Higher Education Area and a global process—the United Nations (UN) Decade (2005–2014) of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). This article presents the desired learning outcomes and the strategic principles for achieving them based on both the Bologna-2020 action lines and the UNECE Strategy for ESD as the regional strategy for the UN Decade. A possible interplay and synergy between these processes could bring a new insight to the development of the quality assurance concept within the Bologna Process. Key principles of ESD such as a value-orientation, a holistic approach, reflexivity and achieving transformation provide a learning philosophy and a strategy relevant to emerging qualities of the postmodern society.

Action patterns in business process model repositories

Business process models are extensively used in companies to document and improve business operations. In essence, there are two major challenges. The increasing number of staff with little modeling expertise involved in model design requires new concepts for quality assurance. Moreover, the huge number of process models typically maintained in a model repository impedes extraction of general process knowledge, which can be used for assistance.This article investigates action patterns as a means to address these challenges. Action patterns capture chunks of actions often appearing together in business processes. We formalize the action pattern concept, including several types of behavioral connection, different abstraction levels, and varying action sensitivity to business objects. Our concepts are evaluated based on a prototypical implementation, which we use to extract various types of action patterns from two industrial process model collections. The results demonstrate that action patterns occurring in different application domains can be discovered.

Dosimetry concepts for scanner quality assurance and tissue dose assessment in micro-CT

At present, no established methods exist for dosimetry in micro computed tomography (micro-CT). The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate practical concepts for both dosimetric scanner quality assurance and tissue dose assessment for micro-CT. The computed tomography dose index (CTDI) was adapted to micro-CT and measurements of the CTDI both free in air and in the center of cylindrical polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantoms of 20 and 32 mm diameter were performed in a 6 month interval with a 100 mm pencil ionization chamber calibrated for low tube voltages. For tissue dose assessment, z-profile measurements using thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) were performed and both profile and CTDI measurements were compared to Monte Carlo (MC) dose calculations to validate an existing MC tool for use in micro-CT. The consistency of MC calculations and TLD measurements was further investigated in two mice cadavers. CTDI was found to be a reproducible quantity for constancy tests on the micro-CT system under study, showing a linear dependence on tube voltage and being by definition proportional to mAs setting and z-collimation. The CTDI measured free in air showed larger systematic deviations after the 6 month interval compared to the CTDI measured in PMMA phantoms. MC calculations were found to match CTDI measurements within 3% when using x-ray spectra measured at our micro-CT installation and better than 10% when using x-ray spectra calculated from semi-empirical models. Visual inspection revealed good agreement for all z-profiles. The consistency of MC calculations and TLD measurements in mice was found to be better than 10% with a mean deviation of 4.5%. Our results show the CTDI implemented for micro-CT to be a promising candidate for dosimetric quality assurance measurements as it linearly reflects changes in tube voltage, mAs setting, and collimation used during the scan, encouraging further studies on a variety of systems. For tissue dose assessment, MC calculations offer an accurate and fast alternative to TLD measurements allowing for dose calculations specific to any geometry and scan protocol.

Of reality, quality and Murphy s law: strategies for eliminating human error and mitigating its effects

This paper reviews the strategies toward the verification/checking of the construction process for structural safety and performance. The notorious problem with this is that it must be enacted with limited resources in terms of expenditure, time and personnel, while not producing any tangible return. Originally, checking and verification were thought to be the essence of quality assurance, through uncovering and correcting faults and errors. The concept of quality assurance has, however, been derailed and has become mostly a documentation-producing exercise without any real effect on faultiness.

Essential medicines concept for quality assurance of health care facilities.

Essential medicines concept for quality assurance of health care facilities.

Quality assurance in higher education: A review of literature

The aim of this paper is to present a general view and a brief literature review of the main aspects related to quality assurance in global higher education. It provides an overview of accreditation as a mechanism to ensure quality in higher education, examines models of QA, and explores the concept of quality. In addition, this paper provides a review of research on the effectiveness of quality assurance practices, with a particular focus on student involvement with quality assurance. In reviewing the concept of quality assurance itself, the author noted there is a need for a common framework for a quality assurance model; however, there is no agreement as to a QA definition or a QA model. Furthermore, although quality is the utmost significant concern for accrediting bodies, accreditation structures are decentralized and complex at both the regional and international level. Another challenge identified revolves around the concerns of faculty members and other stakeholders, such as students, about the QA process. Given that students are at the center of higher education, and invest time and money in the system, the author concludes involving them could improve QA processes.DOI: 10.18870/hlrc.v5i4.257

Establishing Quality Assurance in Nigerian Education System: Implication for Educational Managers.

The importance of quality education in nation building cannot be over emphasized. There have been several calls on the educational managers on how to make the educational system to be more vibrant in the quality of its products after several quantity of mass failure and half baked products from our various educational institutions in the country. These over the years have generated a lot of debate and argument among Nigerians on the newspapers, radio and television programmed, including parent’s religious bodies and non governmental organizations. They often expressed their concern about the manner in which the system is loosing its confidence as regards to the effective and efficient nature of the system. However, this paper therefore, discusses the role of educational managers in assuring quality in the Nigerian education system. Consequently, the paper looks at the concept of quality assurance and strategies for establishing quality assurance in education and finally it also examines Educational managers’ role in assuring quality in Nigeria education system.

A Resident Conference for Systems-Based Practice and Practice-Based Learning

Improving patient safety and quality of care is part of systems-based practice and practice-based learning for residents. We expanded our obstetrics and gynecology department's regularly scheduled morbidity and mortality conferences to teach quality assurance concepts based on patient care on obstetrics and gynecology fourth-year resident rotations. Obstetrics and gynecology fourth-year residents on one of the two rotations each presented and analyzed a systems-based problem they encountered during patient care. They used an online learning module and proposed solutions, many of which were effectively implemented. Over 5 years, case presentations from 33 conferences were available with problems identified in emergency preparedness, coordination of care, scheduling and supervision, communication, medical practice, documentation, and lack of equipment or facilities. Twenty-two of the suggested solutions were partially or totally implemented. Barriers to implementation were identified. In conclusion, a conference presentation by fourth-year residents can identify patient safety problems, aid in their resolution, and suggest changes to patient care while teaching the principles of systems-based practice and practice-based learning.

EQA and laboratory quality in developing countries

The concepts of laboratory quality, quality assurance and accreditation are well established in Australian diagnostic laboratories. Australia has traditionally been one of the leaders in this area, and the Government has established a legislative and funding framework to ensure that reimbursement for laboratory testing is tied to the gaining and maintenance of laboratory accreditation to the appropriate international standards. Such accreditation includes the performance of external quality assessment (EQA) for all tests performed, where this is available. This ‘culture of quality' is not seen in some other parts of the world, and is especially difficult to find in developing countries. The health consequences of sub-standard laboratory testing are significant, and many laboratories in developing countries lack any direction from their governments on how to improve their quality. A number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been active in our region in attempting to improve the quality of selected laboratories, but these efforts have sometimes been short-term and have not established solid laboratory capacity to continue a quality system. Bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO) are especially concerned about the lack of sustainable quality in laboratories in developing countries, and have put considerable effort into developing sets of guidelines for governments to make an appropriate commitment to the establishment and maintenance of quality systems and capacity building in their country's laboratories. This talk will outline those strategies, and give some examples of successful implementation.

An Integrated Approach To Introducing Biofuels, Flash Point, and Vapor Pressure Concepts into an Introductory College Chemistry Lab

Students explore the fundamental chemical concepts of vapor pressure and flash point in a real-world technical context, while gaining insight into the contemporary societal issue of biofuels. Lab activities were developed using a closed-cup instrument to measure the flash point of various biodiesel samples. Pre- and post-tests revealed that the student’s grasp of the relationship between vapor pressure and flash point went from 46% to 91% after completing the lab and 76% of students responded that measurement of flash point helped them better understand the concept of vapor pressure. In the 3-h lab, students produce a small sample of biodiesel fuel and then evaluate the safety and quality of their product compared with a commercially available reference fuel that meets ASTM specifications. The experiment illustrates how fuel properties depend on the production process and the resulting composition and purity of the fuel product. The observed differences in fuel flash points provide for an introduction of the concepts of chemical quality assurance and quality control. The goal of this lab is to increase understanding of biofuels and associated chemical concepts that influence the properties of various renewable and fossil fuels.

A concept of quality assurance for metrics in CASE-tools

The quality of software has become more important to software companies in the past years. Software measurement is one of many approaches that is used to check the quality of software [18]. This may involve measuring some attributes of a software product or a software process and comparing these measurements to each other or to some desirable level. A software metric is "any type of measurement that relates to a software system, process or related documentation" [7]. Software metrics can help to improve the quality of the produced software. However, metrics and metrics tools are still not used in most software companies -- for example in the 3 companies where we cooperated in last 5 years. One reason is that there is lack of knowledge about metrics and hence software metrics are still unknown or difficult to use for some developers, and software measurement is still time-consuming for managers. Another reason is that, good metrics tools are still expensive for small and middle companies. In our opinion the effectiveness of metrics can be improved by simple organizational expedients. In this paper we present new/adapted requirements on metrics in CASE tools to define flexible product quality models. For this quality model we tried to use some standard techniques, e.g. metrics suite, metrics visualization or metrics filtering to show how metrics in CASE tools can be defined and how it can benefit different people who are involved in a software deployment.

Quality assurance of endoscopy in colorectal cancer screening

This chapter explores the concept of quality assurance of colorectal cancer screening. It argues that effective quality assurance is critical to ensure that the benefits of screening outweigh the harms. The three key steps of quality assurance, definition of standards, measurement of standards and enforcement of standards, are explained. Quality is viewed from the perspective of the patient and illustrated by following the path of patients accessing endoscopy within screening services. The chapter discusses the pros and cons of programmatic versus non-programmatic screening and argues that quality assurance of screening can and should benefit symptomatic services. Finally, the chapter emphasises the importance of a culture of excellence underpinned by continuous quality improvement and effective service leadership.

Establishing Quality Assurance in Nigerian Education System: Implication for Educational Managers.

The importance of quality education in nation building cannot be over emphasized. There have been several calls on the educational managers on how to make the educational system to be more vibrant in the quality of its products after several quantity of mass failure and half baked products from our various educational institutions in the country. These over the years have generated a lot of debate and argument among Nigerians on the newspapers, radio and television programmed, including parent’s religious bodies and non governmental organizations. They often expressed their concern about the manner in which the system is loosing its confidence as regards to the effective and efficient nature of the system. However, this paper therefore, discusses the role of educational managers in assuring quality in the Nigerian education system. Consequently, the paper looks at the concept of quality assurance and strategies for establishing quality assurance in education and finally it also examines Educational managers’ role in assuring quality in Nigeria education system.

Assurance de la qualité en radiothérapie

Quality assurance in radiotherapy affects the radiotherapy department organization, management, patient follow-up, distribution of responsibilities, training and equipment management. The development of innovative techniques for radiotherapy and associated radiotherapy equipment requires an adaptation of the concepts of quality assurance and quality control as practiced last 30 years. A new paradigm and new methods adapted from industry, including patient safety and quality care in a more holistic approach to quality assurance and quality control.

ESRD care in Bhutan: Common themes and unique challenges

ESRD care in Bhutan: Common themes and unique challenges

4. Concepts of Quality Assurance and Standardization

4. Concepts of Quality Assurance and Standardization