Measured Quality Variables Research Articles

The Development of MaccabiDent Quality Measures for Oral Health

Introduction: Success depends, at least in part, on the quality of the product, quality of service, and quality of infrastructure. Lack of quality measures in dentistry limits improvements in oral health care. This article focused on developing quality measures in dentistry. Materials and Methods: Quality measures were developed and data from a three-year period were evaluated for MaccabiDent, a provider of dental services in Israel, treating 650,000 patients a year. The following 4 measurements were examined: The percentage of orthodontic patients who underwent a bi-annual dental examination with x- rays and were treated by a hygienist; The percentage of children aged 3-12, in a B or C risk group that had a fluoride application twice yearly; Continuing Education for dental care providers; Implant success rate. Results: 43.3% of patients had at least one dental examination with x-rays. 76.5% of the children had a fluoride application at least twice a year, with an average of 58.9% in all clinics. 13.8% of care givers reported participation in Continuing Education courses. Success rate of implants was 99%. Discussion: Our findings, based on three years of data, will provide the foundation for the development of measures that will improve quality in all 53 dental clinics of the Health Dental Organization (HDO). Conclusion: The most important outcome of this article is to show the importance of determining and measuring quality variables which might serve as a lead for a national index.

Tolerance of codling moth, and apple quality associated with low pressure/low temperature treatments

A combination of low pressure (LP) and low temperature (LT) may serve as a phytosanitary disinfestation treatment for fresh fruit. In this study, different life stages of codling moth (eggs, 2nd to 3rd instar larvae, 5th instar larvae and pupae) were treated in hypobaric chambers maintained at 10°C and 1.33kPa with nearly saturated humidity (>98%). Weight loss, color, firmness, titratable acidity (TA), and soluble solids content (SSC) were selected as quality parameters to evaluate the quality changes of ‘Red Delicious’ apples before and after the LPLT treatment. Results showed that the 5th instar larvae were the most tolerant life stage for codling moth under LPLT treatment conditions. Insect mortality increased with increasing LPLT treatment time to >98% after 12 days of exposure to 10°C temperature and 1.33kPa pressure. Although stored in less than optimum conditions for apples, the measured quality variables of ‘Red Delicious’ were maintained relatively well after 15 days of LPLT treatment. The results suggest that LPLT technology has potential as an alternative, non-chemical disinfestation treatment for apples.

The influence of maintaining the correct whole blood‐to‐anticoagulant ratio during donation on the quality of leukoreduced whole blood

It is unclear whether maintaining the correct whole blood-to-anticoagulant (WB : AC) ratio during collection can improve the quality of red blood cell (RBC)-containing blood products to a clinically relevant degree. A total of 2 × 20 CPDA-1 leukoreduced whole blood (WB) units suspended in CPDA-1 were investigated. In one group, AC was continuously added to the donated blood, maintaining the correct WB : AC ratio during collection, using a new drawing device (MacoPharma ABC). In the other group, WB units were produced conventionally. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), 2,3-diphosphoglycerate, free hemoglobin (Hb), potassium, glucose, lactate, pH, and variables of coagulation were determined on Days 1, 7, 21, 35, 42, and 49 of storage. Variables of RBC deformability and aggregability were determined using a laser-assisted optical rotational cell analyzer. The ABC and conventional group showed comparable unit volumes of 525 (SD, 5.3) mL versus 524 (SD, 10.2) mL and Hb content of 65.9 (SD, 5.1) g/unit versus 67.5 (SD, 7.8) g/unit, but higher variation after conventional blood drawing (p = 0.006 and p = 0.07, respectively) was observed. During storage, none of the measured quality variables were significantly different between the groups. Mean (SD) ATP was 2.33 (0.41) µmol/g Hb versus 2.24 (0.39) µmol/g Hb after 42-day storage. Deformability was not different (p = 0.44), whereas the extent of the aggregability was higher in the conventional group (p = 0.04). The ABC device provided a better standardized blood product but did not improve RBC storage variables or plasma quality. It slightly reduced RBC aggregability during storage. Excess AC at the beginning of a donation appears not to significantly affect RBC storage in conventional blood drawing.

Process evaluation of Emergency Department use of an Electronic Data Collection Tool that incorporates the International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI) into the US National Burn Repository

ContextThe specific aim of our research was to evaluate the process of implementation of the International Classification of External Causes of Injury (ICECI) as an Emergency Department-based electronic surveillance tool...

Modeling and control of a food extrusion process

This contribution reports on the process systems engineering analysis of a food extrusion process leading towards the development and implementation of an on-line process control scheme. A versatile dynamic model of the process predicting the quality variables product gelatinisation, specific mechanical energy, specific volume and residence time has been developed and fitted to experimental data. The model is used to investigate the practicality of an adaptive inferential estimator (Guilandoust et al., 1987) for predicting infrequently measured quality variables on-line. The simulated performance of simple PI and model predictive control of these quality variables is compared.

Multivariate Statistical Process Control in Batch Process Monitoring

Batch processing was widely practised long before the advent of the modern chemical industry. A number of limitations have inhibited the success of batch monitoring:- the finite duration of a batch, the presence of significant non-linearities, the lack of on-line sensors for measuring quality variables, the absence of steady-state operation, the difficulty of developing accurate mechanistic models and finally, process measurements are autocorrelated in time as well as being correlated with one another at any given time. Recent approaches to the monitoring of batch behaviour have been based on the extension of univariate statistical process control (SPC) philosophy to handle multivariate processes. These tools have been the statistical projection methods of principal components analysis (PCA) and projection to latent structures (PLS), and their extensions to batch operation, i.e. multiway PCA and PLS.In this paper, multiway PCR is applied to the monitoring of a batch polymerisation reactor and an industrial fed-batch fermentation process using two alternative approaches. These tools have been found to be an effective method for monitoring industrial processes when the data is of high dimension and ill-conditioned. Furthermore, they provide a useful modelling technique for predicting key quality variables which are either not measured on-line or else are monitored at a much slower frequency than the process variables.

IMPLEMENTATION of an AUTOMATED REAL‐TIME STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROLLER

Through a simple application, this research demonstrates the potential and procedure of applying computer vision and control techniques in developing automated real‐time statistical process controllers (SPC). A computer vision system was developed to sample and measure quality variables (area, length, and width) of an extruded food product. Shewhart control charts were used to monitor the state of statistical control. Corrective actions were determined by using a PI control algorithm to minimize the product size variation caused by material inconsistency in moisture content. the system was implemented and tested. Considerable improvement was achieved in product size uniformity.

Batch process monitoring for consistent production

A number of limitations have inhibited the success of batch process monitoring:- the finite and variable duration of a batch, the presence of significant non-linearities, the lack of on-line sensors for measuring quality variables, the absence of steady-state operation, the difficulty of developing accurate mechanistic models and process measurements that are autocorrelated in time as well as being correlated with one another. Recent approaches to the monitoring of batch behaviour have been based on extensions of the statistical projection methods of Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Projection to Latent Structures (PLS) - multiway PCA and multiway PLS. These techniques form the bases of the multivariate statistical process control charts for batch process monitoring. The control limits for detecting when a process is moving out of control for multivariate SPC charts are based upon Hotelling's T 2 statistic. A new approach which allows the nominal data to dictate the form and shape of the bound, the M 2 statistic, is reviewed. Finally, an application of multivariate SPC and the impact the different confidence bounds have on process operation is highlighted by application to a batch methyl methacrylate polymerisation reactor.

Measuring Asset Values for Cash Settlement in Derivative Markets: Hedonic Repeated Measures Indices and Perpetual Futures

ABSTRACTTwo proposals are made that may facilitate the creation of derivative market instruments, such as futures contracts, cash settled based on economic indices. The first proposal concerns index number construction: indices based on infrequent measurements of nonstandardized items may control for quality change by using a hedonic repeated measures method, an index number construction method that follows individual assets or subjects through time and also takes account of measured quality variables. The second proposal is to establish markets for perpetual claims on cash flows matching indices of dividends or rents. Such markets may help us to measure the prices of the assets generating these dividends or rents even when the underlying asset prices are difficult or impossible to observe directly. A perpetual futures contract is proposed that would cash settle every day in terms of both the change in the futures price and the dividend or rent index for that day.

Measuring Asset Values for Cash Settlement in Derivative Markets: Hedonic Repeated Measures Indices and Perpetual Futures

Two proposals are made that may facilitate the creation of derivative market instruments, such as futures contracts, cash-settled based on economic indices. The first proposal concerns index number construction: indices based on infrequent measurements of nonstandardized items may control for quality change by using a hedonic repeated measures method, an index number construction method that follows individual assets or subjects through time and also takes account of measured quality variables. The second proposal is to establish markets for perpetual claims on cash flows matching indices of dividends or rents. Such markets may help us to measure the prices of the assets generating these dividends or rents even when the underlying asset prices are difficult or impossible to observe directly. A perpetual futures contract is proposed that would cash settle every day in terms of both the change in the futures price and the dividend or rent index for that day.

Artificial neural networks in process estimation and control

In this contribution, the suitability of the artificial neural network methodology for solving some process engineering problems is discussed. First the concepts involved in the formulation of artificial neural networks are presented. Next the suitability of the technique to provide estimates of difficult to measure quality variables is demonstrated by application to industrial data. Measurements from established instruments are used as secondary variables for estimation of the “primary” quality variables. The advantage of using these estimates for feedback control is then demonstrated. The possibility of using neural network models directly within a model-based predictive control strategy is also considered, making use of an on-line optimization routine to determine the future inputs that will minimize the deviations between the desired and predicted outputs. Control is implemented in a receding horizon fashion. Application of the predictive controller to a nonlinear distillation system is used to indicate the potential of the neural network based control philosophy.

Influence of Municipal Abattoir Conditions and Animal-related Factors on Avoidance-related Behaviour, Bleeding Times at Slaughter and the Quality of Lamb Meat.

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of municipal abattoir conditions and animal factors on avoidance-related behaviour (AB) of sheep at slaughter, bleeding times (BT) and mutton quality. The behaviour of 66 castrates and 19 ewes of different age categories was observed at three stages of slaughter. Higher behaviour scores indicated higher levels of AB. Time intervals between the start of blood flow and the time the flow changed from a constant stream into drips were recorded as BT. Thirty two meat samples were obtained to measure quality variables. These were colour (L*, a* and b*), pH24, temperature, cooking loss (CL) and tenderness. Correlations were determined between BT and meat quality variables. Animal behaviour at slaughter differed with breed, gender and age group. Avoidance behaviour was higher in the Dorper breed than in both the Merino breed and their crosses. It was also higher in younger (<10 months) lambs than in older sheep. Castrates were more aggressive or in panic than ewes. Castrates had longer (72.6±0.53 s) BT than the ewes (63.6±2.82 s). Ewes had higher CL (39.8±1.04%) values than castrates (35.1±0.95%). Meat from castrates was tougher (32.6±1.95 N) than the meat from ewes (24.3±1.16 N). There were no significant correlations obtained between BT and meat quality variables. It can therefore be concluded that abattoir conditions, breed, age and gender had an effect on AB at slaughter. Gender had an effect on BT and mutton quality.