Quality Assurance Problems Research Articles

Preparing England's further education system for zero-carbon construction skills

Skills issues for craft trades in building decarbonisation often focus on improving technical knowledge but known problems of quality assurance in construction also include ‘soft’ employability skills and the application of sustainability values in practice. New course content is a necessary but not sufficient component of changing practice. The real demand for skills and actual use of skills in the workplace is just as important as new skills supply. A deliberative workshop with 40 expert stakeholders investigated the preparedness of the education and training system for zero-carbon construction skills. Several challenges emerge from this research. The market context for jobs and skills training shows how the over-narrow focus on new courses leads to waste and failures. Policy has an important role to play in developing minimum vocational standards through licensing, allied to consistent, long-term industrial strategy. The low prestige of further education and vocational training hinders real skills development and recruitment and retention of the workforce. Colleges operate with limited resources and competing priorities, creating real constraints on important activities like teacher training. Short courses and continuing professional development have no common standards or link with initial education and training, leading to piecemeal learning of unknown quality.

INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE: A SOCIO-ECONOMIC VIEW

Institutional aspects of higher education quality assurance have been considered. The controversial aspects of the integration of the Kazakh higher education system into a single educational space have been studied. The factors hindering the innovative development of higher education have been analyzed. The features of the National Education Quality Assessment System, including procedures for input, intermediate and output control, have been considered. The expanding mass character of higher education and its accessibility exacerbate the problem of quality assurance as the most important competitive advantage of a university. Recommendations have been given for developing the culture of quality education, improving the National Qualifications System, increasing the effectiveness of the universityemployer social partnership in the development of practice-oriented programs in the format of a competency-based approach. The need to increase budget funding for higher education and to improve the social status of university teachers has been emphasized, which will have a positive impact on the growth of economic indicators.

Research on the Quality Assurance of Primary and Secondary After-school Services in Guizhou under the Perspective of High-Quality Development

In the context of the “double-decrease” policy, the construction of an after-school service system for primary and secondary schools is of great significance to the creation of a good educational ecology and the return of the public nature of education, and has become an indispensable part of the development of after- school services. Given the differences in resources, there are many problems with after-school services in Guizhou Province. Through the implementation of the survey on the white list of the number of afterschool services in Guizhou Province, and comparing the data between cities, it is found that the situation in the field of after-school services for primary and secondary schools in Guizhou Province has improved after the remediation, but there are still the following quality problems: unclear rights and responsibilities of the main body of after-school services, insufficient precision of the content of after-school services, lack of after- school services funding synergy, and an imperfect evaluation system of the results of after-school services. In order to solve these problems, this study proposes the following after-school service quality measures under the guidance of the concept of high-quality development of education: constructing a mechanism for the mutual sharing of rights and responsibilities among after-school service subjects, improving the accuracy of after-school service content, adjusting the mode of after-school service funding, and improving the evaluation system of after-school service quality. These measures are designed to improve the quality and effectiveness of after-school services in Guizhou's primary and secondary schools, to achieve high-quality development of after-school services in Guizhou's primary and secondary schools with the goal of the comprehensive development of students, and to promote the progress of education in Guizhou Province. Under the background of “Double Reduction” policy, the construction of after-school service guarantee system for primary and secondary schools plays an important role in the creation of good education ecology and the return of education publicity, and it is an indispensable part of the development of after-school service. Through literature research and field research, it is found that primary and secondary school afterschool services in Guizhou Province are facing quality assurance problems such as unclear rights and responsibilities of the main body of after-school services, insufficient precision of the content of after-school services, lack of synergistic funding for after-school services, and an imperfect evaluation system for the results of after-school services. Guided by the concept of high-quality development of education, a series of after- school service quality assurance measures are proposed to build mutual sharing of rights and responsi- bilities of after-school service subjects, enhance the accuracy of after-school service guarantee contents, adjust the mode of allocation of after-school service guarantee funds, and improve the evaluation system of after- school service quality assurance, aiming to improve the quality and effectiveness of after-school services in Guizhou's primary and secondary schools, and realize high-quality development of the quality assurance of Guizhou's primary and secondary schools' after-school services, with the aim of promote the overall development of students as an important goal, so as to achieve the ultimate goal of promoting the progress of education in Guizhou Province.

On the First Kilometer Problem of Agricultural Products Cold Chain Logistics in Huaihua City Considering Green Development

Huaihua has vast land and is the largest prefecture level city in Hunan Province. With abundant natural resources, it is a city with a high output of agricultural products in Hunan Province. The loss and quality of agricultural products during transportation have always been a key concern for farmers and consumers.This article analyzes the problems that exist in the first one kilometer of agricultural product cold chain logistics in Huaihua City, proposes a mobile pre cooling mode to ensure the quality of agricultural products in the first one kilometer, and conducts a simple calculation of its operational return, aiming to solve the problems of high loss and difficult quality assurance in the transportation process of agricultural products.

Міжнародні офіційні документи як джерело для вдосконалення внутрішнього забезпечення якості у вищих військових навчальних закладах

Background. In the current landscape marked by russia's armed aggression, Ukraine's higher military educational institutions continue to fortify their internal quality assurance systems. The enhancement of these systems is impossible without taking into account the best world practices and achievements in this area, notably gleaned from international official documents. This study aims to formulate proposals for improving internal quality assurance in military higher educational institutions of Ukraine, taking into account the provisions of international documents. Methods. The source base of the study is formed by documents of international organizations on quality assurance in the field of higher education, and international agreements of Ukraine on cooperation in the field of training military specialists. Dialectical, historical, comparative-legal methods are used to track the transformation of views on solving the problems of internal quality assurance in higher education institutions; systemstructural, formal-logical methods – to determine the provisions that should be taken into account in the process of improving internal quality assurance in military higher educational institutions of Ukraine; methods of analysis, generalization and synthesis – for the development of proposals. Results. Summarized and systematized international official documents (agreements, protocols, conventions, recommendations, standards, declarations, communiqués, messages, charters) are classified into three categories: documents that define national policies to encourage higher education institutions to implement internal quality assurance systems; documents that provide methodological assistance in the formation of internal quality assurance systems; documents on cooperation in the field of training military specialists. The provisions that should be taken into account in the process of improving internal quality assurance in Ukraine's military higher educational institutions have been determined. Proposals for the implementation of these provisions in domestic regulations have been developed. Conclusions. This study's outcomes develop the ideas of other researchers on the expediency of taking into account the Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area, alongside NATO Quality Standards by Ukraine's military higher educational institutions in the process of improving internal quality assurance.

Appropriate harvest age of mango (Mangifera indica cv. Arumanis) for quality assurance in long distance transportation planning in Indonesia

Transportation of mango (Mangifera indica) is a significant challenge in a large archipelago country like Indonesia. This study addresses the quality assurance problem of long-distance transportation of mangoes from Java Island, Indonesia, and recommends the optimal harvest age for different transportation schemes in the Indonesian mango supply chain. The study investigated harvested mangoes at three different maturity levels and evaluated their quality characteristics, including climacteric peak and respiration rate, total soluble solids, acidity, firmness, dry matter concentration, and weight loss. Samples were kept in their respective packaging during storage to imitate transportation conditions, and an Internet of Things (IoT)-based system was used for real-time monitoring and remote access to the storage conditions information. Long-distance transportation cases of six destinations with different distances, modes of transportation, travel durations, and environmental conditions were studied. Mango harvested at 105 and 108 days after flowering is suitable for consumption, while the harvest age of 90–95 days after flowering is recommended for longer transportation durations involving non-refrigerated and refrigerated vehicles. The harvest age of 105 days after flowering is appropriate for long-distance transportation with non-refrigerated vehicles, while 108 days after flowering is only recommended for inter-province transportation with non-refrigerated vehicles with a short duration of transportation. The existing practice where one harvest age applies for all destinations cannot be recommended as quality deterioration and/or inappropriate maturity level at destination may occur. The results emphasize the importance of determining the optimal harvest time based on the climacteric peak and quality changes during storage to ensure that mangoes meet consumer demands and maximize their quality and shelf life.

Exploring the Road of Digital Transformation of Agricultural Marketing Based on the Perspective of Platform Economy

In order to meet the trend of digital transformation and build a marketing system for agricultural products in the form of platform economy, this paper adopts the literature research method to analyze the coupling of the two concepts of platform economy and agricultural products marketing under the framework of digital transformation, and explain the immaturity of marketing subjects, non-standardized marketing channels, unsuitable logistics system, unsuitable marketing products and unclear marketing rules under the current digital transformation mode of agricultural products marketing. The problems of quality assurance and unclear marketing rules. As a result, this paper puts forward policy suggestions, namely, taking the government as the leader, actively exploring new thinking, new ideas and new roads for digital transformation of agricultural products on the basis of improving the legal system, and building a standardized, extensive and innovative Internet agricultural products marketing platform by strengthening the training for relevant practitioners.

SOME PROBLEMS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE OF MASTER'S THESES

The relevance of the article is determined by the need to improve the quality of professional training of graduates
 mastering educational programs of the II stage of higher education. A brief analysis of the practice of training masters
 in the context of history and modernity, including Belarus, is made. It is noted that only writing a high-quality master's
 thesis has always been an indispensable condition for obtaining a master's degree. Some factors, that motivate university
 graduates to further improve their professional training, are established. The criteria for assessing the quality of the
 dissertation are determined. The most typical mistakes made by undergraduates when preparing a master's thesis are
 systematized.

THE EFFECT OF IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS ON ENSURING THE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF THE ENTERPRISE

Ensuring the economic security of the enterprise plays a significant role in its functioning in general. The implementation of an effective mechanism of economic security of the enterprise requires due attention from the managers to the issues of the level of integration into the global information space, the economic interests of the company, the level of expenditure of corporate resources and a clear organization of activities. The basis of the mechanism of the process of ensuring economic security is a systematic combination of certain tools, methods, means and the information and analytical process of provision, created on the basis of objectively existing principles of the process of ensuring economic security, as well as those formulated by subjects of economic security management of the enterprise for achieving and protecting his financial interests. Currently, the problem of quality improvement is becoming the main criterion for improving the quality of life, socio-economic, foreign economic, political, and environmental security. The concept of product quality is compared with competitiveness, having a general sphere of formation and manifestation. If the competitiveness of enterprises is not increased, the development of both the economy of the state as a whole and its individual regions is impossible. The competitiveness of an agribusiness enterprise depends on the ability of a specific producer to produce a competitive product, the consumer and quality characteristics of which, compared to similar products, determine its market success both on the domestic and foreign markets. The problem of quality assurance is one of the most significant socio-economic problems of the modern world, and the sphere of agriculture is no exception. The company’s survival potential, as well as its stable position on the market, is determined by the level of competitiveness, which, in turn, depends on a dozen factors, but primarily on the level of prices and product quality. In the modern world, product quality comes first, leaving behind labor productivity, as well as saving all kinds of resources

Editorial du Professeur Serigne Omar Sarr

Dear readers, Dear authors ! The second publication of your quarterly journal is available on time thanks to the commitment of the peer reviewers, the publisher (Presses Universitaires de Dakar), the scientific and editorial committees and the Secretariat which made it possible to proceed within the planned deadlines and in scientific rigor, the evaluation and publication process. This volume 2, number 1 includes eight scientific articles submitted by young authors but also seasoned seniors which contributes to the transparent and equitable dissemination of science in open access. These original articles indexed in Scopus address medicinal and food plants, the optimization and validation of analytical methods for drug control, the quality of powdered milk sold in Dakar, the accessibility and quality of water in Mboro (Senegal), the quality of honeys from Casamance (Senegal), the continuing training of community pharmacists in particular. In the format of a Letter to the Editor, we are publishing a contribution from the American Pharmacopoeia through the PQM+ (Promoting the Quality of Medicines) team which sheds light on the problem of quality assurance of medicines in Africa South of the Sahara and the levels of performance/recognition of skills of official structures responsible for controlling the quality of medicines and other health products. The main results of this example of practical North-South cooperation are shared and bring a bit of hope in the fight against substandard/falsified medical products for better protection of population health through i) an efficient quality control infrastructure and ii) accessibility to quality, safe and effective medical products. This present issue pursues the objective of this journal which offers an opportunity to make Africa's scientific writing resonate more in a globalized world in which multidisciplinary and transversal analytical sciences are at the heart of any process of competitiveness, regulation and development. We thank the entire editorial team and peer reviewers for their collaboration. To your manuscripts and excellent reading!

HIGHER EDUCATION QUALITY ASSURANCE: CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES

The article deals with the quality of higher education in the context of global trends in higher education development, taking into account global and international influences that encourage discussion of the problem of higher education quality assurance. The concept of quality has been considered and the lack of consensus regarding its conceptualization and evaluation has been stated. The higher education quality has been considered from a pedagogical point of view – as a systematic methodological category reflecting the degree of conformity of the result to the goal set, as well as the correspondence of the product to the consumers’ requirements and as a set of its characteristics determining the degree of suitability of the product for its intended use. It has been noted that the concept of quality and its indicators are debatable due to the presence of a range of stakeholders – persons interested in higher education. The difference in the value of higher education quality for each of the interested parties has been determined by the presence of their own interests and their own vision of quality. Globalization, the massification of higher education and the ICT revolution have been stressed in the article as factors that have radically changed the higher education environment, creating new challenges for governments, higher education institutions and other stakeholders. Higher education quality assurance has been defined as a global problem, and the growing attention to this problem has been noted in connection with the rapid development of higher education and the increase in the cost of educational services for the state and the public. Recent trends in higher education have been reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages have been noted.

Semi-supervised method for improving general-purpose and domain-specific textual corpora labels

The study is devoted to the problem of label quality assurance and labeling cost minimization. It is important to have high quality labels in order to build efficient supervised machine learning pipelines. The aforementioned labels have proved to be costly to acquire; however, one can work with weaker instances of supervision that may be helpful to create a reliably set of ground truth labels for classifiers. The authors present a semi-supervised approach using pretrained language models to increase supervision information quality from general-purpose as well domain-specific document sets where weak labels and unlabeled data is present.

Medical error analysis in dermatology according to the reports of the North Rhine Medical Association from 2004 to 2018.

Assessment of complaints addressed to the Expert Committee for Medical Malpractice Claims of the North Rhine Medical Association helps to identify quality assurance problems in dermatology. 333 dermatological reports (years 2004-2018) were allocated to three five-year intervals in order to show changes of total number of reports and with regard to indications, types of care, defined diagnosis categories, and therapeutic interventions. Statistical analysis was mainly descriptive (SPSS 27). Representative cases are explained in more detail. The number of dermatological reports fell from 119 in the first to 92 reports in the last five-year interval, along with a decline in treatment error rates (43% and 29%) despite an increasing number of procedures across disciplines. 104 reports dealt with (supposed) diagnostic errors, 156 with physical or pharmacological therapies, and 73 reports with surgery. The latter had a low treatment error rate (29%). In comparison to the number of dermatological treatments in Germany, patient allegations are raised only rarely indicating greater patient satisfaction and/or a lower risk potential in dermatology. Incorrect dosages or device settings, diagnostic errors, and deficits in obtaining informed consent are relevant sources of error as underlined by the presented case reports.

Professional competencies of future software engineers in the software design: teaching techniques

The article is devoted to one of the competence components of a mobile-oriented environment for professional and practical training of future software engineers. It is shown that the introduction of higher education standard 121 “Software Engineering” for the first (bachelor) level of higher education in Ukraine has generated a number of training quality assurance problems associated primarily with the low level of detailed competencies and program learning outcomes. By solving these problems, the detailed design of the system of professional competencies for future software engineers is developed. The article deals with the approaches to developing one of the most important special professional competences of future software engineers – the ability to participate in software design, including modeling (formal description) of its structure, behavior, and processes of functioning. Based on a historical and genetic review of the software engineering training practice of future software engineers in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, recommendations for choosing forms of training organization, selection of training content, ways of students’ and teachers’ activities in software engineering, modeling and designing tools; assessment of the appropriate competence formation level are formulated. The example of organizing design training in conditions close to industrial-studio training is considered. The problems of transition from architectural to detailed design and project implementation are shown. Prospects for further development of this study are to substantiate the third (after requirements engineering and design engineering) engineering component of software engineering – the software construction.

VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS OF POTATO IN TOKHA MUNICIPALITY OF KATHMANDU DISTRICT, NEPAL

The study was carried out in Tokha Municipality of Kathmandu district from April, 2020 to June, 2020 to map the value chain of potatoes and assess the productivity and profitability within the existing value chain. Altogether 50 potato producers were selected along with 5 aggregators, 5 wholesalers, 5 retailers and 10 consumers using the random purposive sampling technique. The primary data were collected through field survey, focus group discussion and key informant interviews and secondary data were obtained from various published documents. The data obtained were analyzed in MS-Excel and SPSS. The average area under potato cultivation was 2.94 ropani with a productivity of 6.96 quintals per ropani, which is slightly lower than national-wise productivity (7.48 quintals per ropani). The cost of production per ropani was NRs. 13397 while cost incurred by traders per quintal (aggregators NRs. 3470, traders NRs. 4250 and wholesalers NRs. 3571). The average gross return was NRs. 28182.28 per ropani. The producers B:C ratio was 2.13 while aggregators (3.80), retailers (3.20) and wholesalers (1.99) with the net margin NRs. 7989.58 per ropani. The producer’s share on consumer’s price was 72.43% and the marketing margin for aggregators, retailers, and wholesalers was NRs.570.91, NRs.800, and NRs.587.44 respectively. The problems in quality assurance among traders and higher prices among the consumers were found. Thus, potato being an important cash crop, the decision¬-makers should take up initiatives for strengthening the potato value chain by establishing cold storage facilities in production belts and improving subsidized credit services to value chain actors.

A Novel Inverse P-M Diffusion Enhanced Code Spraying Robot for Express Security Inspection

Aiming at the problems of low speed and difficult quality assurance in the current security inspection and manual coding operation of express delivery companies, a new code spraying robot based on inverse P-M diffusion segmentation is designed. The designed robot is composed of a mechanical execution system, electrical control system and image processing system. The image processing system is used to obtain the location coordinates of the express, and the mechanical execution system and the electrical control system complete the operation of the express code operation. The express positioning algorithm designs an inverse P-M diffusion factor based on the gray and gradient characteristics of the express delivery boundary. Average, dust, noise and other environmental factors affect the coordinate positioning. Threshold segmentation is used to segment the target, extract the explicit center coordinates, and finally transfer the extracted coordinates to the mechanical robot for spraying operation. The experimental results show that using the code spraying robot designed in this paper to carry out the express delivery security inspection spraying experiment, the accuracy rate reaches 94%, which greatly improves the efficiency of the express delivery assembly line security inspection.

Quality of poultry meat as a basis of export potential of the meat products

The purpose of the article was to study the quality as a basis for the export potential of Ukrainian meat products and to determine the conditions for its improvement. The following methods were used: abstract-logical; monographic; comparative analysis; statistical; tabular. The results of the research show that the problem of quality assurance of both agricultural products in general and poultry meat in particular is most relevant in both domestic and foreign markets. It covers all participants in the food chain “production-processing-sale-consumption”. Product quality is the main factor in the stable development of production and ensures the export of domestic products. It is established that the production of poultry meat in Ukraine fully meets domestic demand and has reserves for export. It is substantiated that the recognition and provision of competitive advantages in the international and domestic markets can be achieved only by those enterprises that implement international standards of product quality and safety, constantly upgrade technological equipment, introduce new technologies and have highly qualified personnel, create their own feed and raw materials processing.

ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ЯКОСТІ В НАЦІОНАЛЬНІЙ СИСТЕМІ КВАЛІФІКАЦІЙ: ПИТАННЯ СТАНДАРТИЗАЦІЇ

The article presents a study of quality assurance problems of the National Quali­fications System of Ukraine by reforming the domestic standardization system in the context of its integration into the European Qualifications System. In view of this, three components of the quality system were identified, namely, quality of standardization, quality of assessment and quality of documentation. The study is also focused on issues of legal regulation of the quality of professional and educational standards. In particular, differences in the legal regu­lation of educational standards of vocational pre-higher and higher education were identified. A certain legal uncertainty in the use of the terms "learning outcomes" and "competencies" and the inconsistency of the use of these terms with the EU Council Recom­mendations of 2017 and international and national standards were revealed. Along with this, a number of short­comings were found. Particularly, there is an unresolved problem of assigning professional qualifications to the levels of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The need for independent review (expertise) of projects of professional standards was emphasized. The issue of assessment standards was considered. For instance, the lack of such standards poses a threat to the quality of professional qualifications, especially qualifications of levels 2-4 of the NQF of Ukraine, since educational institutions have the right to assign such qualifications, in addition to qualification centers. Examples of corporate assessment standards, in particular, by the American Psychological Association, were considered. It is noted, that the formation of motivation of young people and employees to obtain modern and competitive skills оn the labor market is not enough. The outdated approach to personnel training by providers of educational services also needs to be reviewed. It is shown that the National Qualifications System of Ukraine requires quality assurance tools and the use of terms harmonized with EU legislation and practice.

Challenging problems of quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) of meteorological time series data

Representativeness and quality of collected meteorological data impact accuracy and precision of climate, hydrological, and biogeochemical analyses and predictions. We developed a comprehensive Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) statistical framework, consisting of three major phases: Phase I—Preliminary data exploration, i.e., processing of raw datasets, with the challenging problems of time formatting and combining datasets of different lengths and different time intervals; Phase II—QA of the datasets, including detecting and flagging of duplicates, outliers, and extreme data; and Phase III—the development of time series of a desired frequency, imputation of missing values, visualization and a final statistical summary. The paper includes two use cases based on the time series data collected at the Billy Barr meteorological station (East River Watershed, Colorado), and the Barro Colorado Island (BCI, Panama) meteorological station. The developed statistical framework is suitable for both real-time and post-data-collection QA/QC analysis of meteorological datasets.

Quality Assurance Management of Islamic Education at Fakultas Agama Islam Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara

The problems of quality assurance of Islamic education at the higher education level are related to the meaning of quality assurance, regulation, implementation, independent standards, and quality culture. This study aims to determine the planning, organizing, implementing, and controlling of education quality assurance at Fakultas Agama Islam Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara. The type of research is qualitative research. Data was collected by observation, interviews, and document studies. Data analysis is done by compiling, connecting, reducing, presenting and concluding. The findings show that Fakultas Agama Islam Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara implements quality assurance which philosophically refers to the Deming quality cycle, namely: plan, do, check, action. Practically based on regulations, quality assurance is carried out through four stages, namely: planning, organizing, implementing, and controlling quality assurance. Quality assurance planning is carried out by involving university leaders, faculty leaders, lecturers, faculty senate, experts, students and stakeholders in the preparation of vision, mission, policies, standards, and quality documents. Organization of quality assurance is carried out by allocating resources, implementing education and training, and monitoring organizational effectiveness. Implementation of quality assurance is carried out by strengthening quality leadership and managerial functions