Quality Revolution Research Articles

Scaling Greater Heights in Higher Education Through Boundary-Spanning-Based University-Industry Collaboration: the ‘Four New’ Project in China

Abstract China’s ‘Four New Project’ initiative has been a major attempt to achieve quality revolution in higher education since 2017. Underpinning it are comprehensive strategies coordinating multiple stakeholders to span boundaries and develop a synergistic approach for collaborative education. This paper teases out China’s national policies and measures to develop a leadership-oriented innovation ecosystem for higher education, drawing upon boundary-spanning perspectives of various practices in engineering education, medical education, agriculture education, and liberal arts education. It unravels how stakeholders with different interest pursuits have been coordinated to jointly fuel the reform to China’s higher education talent cultivation patterns in response to the demands of Industry 4.0 and Biomedicine 3.0. The findings render visible the macro changes in higher education institutions across tiers, types and fields, and also unravel the project’s robust effects on teaching and learning at micro level. Challenges are also discussed to shed light upon space of improvement.

Research on the Teaching Design and Model Innovation of Economic Law Course based on the Concept of OBE

In the context of the country's efforts to promote the "quality revolution" of higher education, it is necessary to actively explore the innovation of teaching mode as the basic course of economics and management. Based on the innovation of OBE-oriented flipped classroom teaching mode, the course of Economic Law highlights the cultivation of student-centered, methodological thinking and application ability, effectively solves the long-standing pain points in the teaching process, and significantly improves students' independent learning ability and professional practice ability. At the same time, the integration of ideological and political education in the process of teaching innovation realizes the organic unity of ideological and political education and professional education, and provides a reference for colleges and universities to improve the teaching quality of the Economic Law by relying on teaching innovation.

The Hawthorne Effect: Quality and Outcomes in Neurosurgery.

Measure something, and it gets better-this is what is called as the Hawthorne effect (also known as the observer effect). The Hawthorne factory experiments in 1920s were remarkable industrial data collection and analysis exercises that lead to Edwards Deming's quality revolution. The Harvard Medical Practice Study (1991), Leape's "Error in Medicine" (1994), and the Bristol pediatric cardiac report (2001) are among many documents that have revealed the huge gap between best practices and actual medical practice. Alarmed by the poor standards of quality at the most respected institutions, the medical fraternity therefore began visiting facilities in different fields and observing their quality assessment processes. The next leap for neurosurgery is to realize that it is unacceptable to treat patients with no regard for the standard of clinical outcomes. The traditional neurosurgery residency training has long ignored the most important issues of self-assessment, reappraisal, relearning, and measurement of skill and surgical outcomes. However, the experience taken from disparate fields, especially cardiac surgery, may encourage research and progress in measurement and improvement of quality in neurosurgery. Like cardiac surgeons, neurosurgeons must examine and analyze the results of their interventions. The concept of quality measurement is the most important single advance we can make in neurosurgery practice. Meticulous and precise measurement of outcomes will allow future progress of our specialty.

Investigating the Acceptance of Meta-Universe Technology for Football Course Training among University Physical Education Teachers: A UTAUT2 and TTF Model Approach

This academic paper explores the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) in the sports industry, specifically in the context of improving the quality of football teaching in universities. The growing impact of the metaverse concept on science and technology necessitates the utilization of AI as a critical technology in virtual worlds. Furthermore, the success of AI in various fields, coupled with the advancements in information technology, underscores the inevitability of integrating AI and sports. As traditional sports undergo a quality revolution, the integration of AI and virtual reality becomes increasingly crucial. Therefore, this study focuses on the use of VR to enhance the quality of football teaching at the university level.Virtual reality, characterized by its immersive, interactive, and imaginative features, is deemed suitable for constructing physical education courses. This paper explores the strategies for improving the quality of university football courses within the context of the mobile Internet era. By combining physical education with virtual reality technology, the effects of virtual reality-based physical education curriculum and the factors influencing the willingness of physical education teachers to adopt virtual reality technology are examined. To enhance the interpretation of acceptance intentions, this study integrates the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model with the Task-Technology Fit Theory (TTF), resulting in a novel conceptual framework. Moreover, quantitative research based on collected data is conducted. The findings demonstrate that performance expectation, promotion conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and individual innovation ability serve as significant predictors of acceptance intentions towards virtual reality technology.

Building Empowered Teams

Since the beginning of the quality revolution a number of decades ago, there has been a growing realization that the most successful teams are teams of empowered employees who make the right decisions for the business based on information at hand. Successful organizations in many fields are finding that their leaders need to move beyond conventional planning and directing people skills to coaching and mentoring. At the same time, team members have to take on more ownership and responsibility for solving problems aligned with the organizational direction.

Report from 'ESCP 2021 Virtual': the 16th Scientific and Annual Conference of the European Society of Coloproctology, 22-24 September 2021.

Report from 'ESCP 2021 Virtual': the 16th Scientific and Annual Conference of the European Society of Coloproctology, 22-24 September 2021.

Lean Six Sigma Methodology and the Future of Quality Improvement Education in Anesthesiology.

Lean Six Sigma Methodology and the Future of Quality Improvement Education in Anesthesiology.

A minőség forradalmának lehetőségei a magyar társadalomfejlődésbenn

The study examines the concept of László Németh’s high-impact „Garden Hungary”. The article seeks to answer the question of how successful Németh’s third-way vision was in formulating an alternative to solving the problems of modern Hungarian social development. In doing so, the work discusses how the idea of a quality revolution, which is at a distance from the development of both Western and Eastern European societies, was intended to transform Hungarian society. In addition, the study analyzes the virtues and pitfalls of the approach built on agriculture and focusing on the intellectuals. At the end of writing, the paper compares László Németh’s concept with the contemporary reform proposals, so that we can judge the approach more realistically by interpreting it in his own social context.

Optimization of support vector machine through the use of metaheuristic algorithms in forecasting TBM advance rate

The advance rate (AR) of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) in hard rock condition is a key parameter for the successful accomplishment of a tunneling project, and the proper and reliable prediction of this parameter can lead to minimizing the risks associated to high capital costs and scheduling for such projects. This research aims at optimizing the hyper-parameters of the support vector machine (SVM) technique through the use of three optimization algorithms, namely, gray wolf optimization (GWO), whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and moth flame optimization (MFO), in forecasting TBM AR. In fact, the role of these optimization techniques is to optimize the hyperparameters ‘C’ and ‘gamma’ of the SVM model to get higher performance prediction. To develop the hybrid SVM-based models, 1,286 sample sets of data collected from a water transfer tunnel in Malaysia comprising seven input variables, i.e., rock mass rating, uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, rock quality designation, weathering zone, thrust force and revolution per minute, and one output variable, i.e., TBM AR, were considered and used. Several GWO-SVM, WOA-SVM and MFO-SVM models were constructed to predict TBM AR considering their effective parameters. The accuracy levels of the proposed models were assessed using four statistical indices, i.e., the coefficient of determination (R2), root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE), and variance accounted for (VAF). Modeling results revealed that the MFO algorithm can capture better hyper-parameters of the SVM model in predicting TBM AR among all three hybrid models. R2 of (0.9623 and 0.9724), RMSE of (0.1269 and 0.1155), and VAF of (96.24 and 97.34%), respectively, for training and test stages of the MFO-SVM model confirmed that this hybrid SVM model is a powerful and applicable technique addressing problems related to TBM performance with a high level of accuracy.

Quality and Affordable Education through Quality Management Systems in Higher Education

The general goal of education is to develop Indonesian people completely in the sense that carried out education still maintain unity, diversity and develop individual’s ideals. Every citizen has the right to obtain education equally with excellence and a balance (equity) between the utilization (access) with achievement. The higher education system must be able to create a quality higher education that is also affordable by the people of Indonesia. A university leader must be in-line and lead a "quality revolution". All energy and attention are focused on the "quality revolution". For this reason, this paper will examine the Implementation of Higher Education Quality Management Systems. As a case study is that has implemented a Quality Management System. According to Law No. 12 of 2012 concerning Higher Education. Quality Higher Education is Higher Education that produces graduates who are able to actively develop their potential and produce Science and / or Technology that is useful for the Community, nation, and country. The government operates a higher education quality assurance system to get quality education. The Higher Education quality assurance system referred to consists of: a. internal quality assurance system developed by Higher Education; and b. external quality assurance system carried out through accreditation. Implementation of Quality Management Systems in Higher Education can produce Quality and Affordable Education.

The Chinese Way Quality Revolution - Introduction

The development and promotion of quality related knowledge and technology is not developed independently, it would be developed accompany with the necessary requirements in politics, economy, industrial, and technology of community, society, region, country, and whole world. Everything should observe the world’s status, see the surrounding situation, know the people's thinking, then can understand the future trends, grasp the precise situation. The principle of the operation of an organization should be based on the trend, to obtain the advantages of future development, and then we can do something meaningful. In March 2018, before returning to Taiwan from the holiday of Jingzhou, the author visited the cousin Shipping family for a few days in Wuhan. During the period, we went to the “Wuhan Uprising Military Government Site” next to the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan. After returning to Taiwan, based on our own memory and some literatures, we compiled a list of some important events that occurred in the past 70 years of cross-strait political and economic development. The term “Quality Revolution” first appeared at the Standing Committee of the State Council of China on May 11, 2016, referring to a series of reforms aimed at increasing consumer varieties, improving product quality, creating well-known brands and upgrading people’s consumer demand. Taking steps in all sectors to improve quality, we will work toward meeting the highest international standards, encourage the spirit of workmanship, and launch a “Made in China Quality Revolution”. At this moment, the China proposed the “Made in China Quality Revolution”, which inspired the author’s inner world’s hope, and thus expanded it into the “Chinese Way Quality Revolution”. When we discuss the issue of economic and social development of a country, with quality as its topic, it will get less controversy in ideology. The quality of the subject to the “essence of substance” requirements are precise and accurate; to the “process of business” focus on efficiency, effectiveness and value; to the “conduct oneself” emphasis on words and deeds should be consistent; to the “quality of life” pursue the balance of production, ecology and life; to the society “Datong (The Ideal World)” is our dream. Under the guidance of the above-mentioned quality issues, quality professionals are engaged in scientific research, technological development, and application promotion to improve the quality of human life. There will be many projects that can be carried out, especially the establishment of “The Chinese way TQM” and carry out “The Chinese way Quality Revolution”.

Supervised Machine Learning Techniques to the Prediction of Tunnel Boring Machine Penetration Rate

Predicting the penetration rate is a complex and challenging task due to the interaction between the tunnel boring machine (TBM) and the rock mass. Many studies highlight the use of empirical and theoretical techniques in predicting TBM performance. However, reliable performance prediction of TBM is of crucial importance to mining and civil projects as it can minimize the risks associated with capital costs. This study presents new applications of supervised machine learning techniques, i.e., k-nearest neighbor (KNN), chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID), support vector machine (SVM), classification and regression trees (CART) and neural network (NN) in predicting the penetration rate (PR) of a TBM. To achieve this aim, an experimental database was set up, based on field observations and laboratory tests for a tunneling project in Malaysia. In the database, uniaxial compressive strength, Brazilian tensile strength, rock quality designation, weathering zone, thrust force, and revolution per minute were utilized as inputs to predict PR of TBM. Then, KNN, CHAID, SVM, CART, and NN predictive models were developed to select the best one. A simple ranking technique, as well as some performance indices, were calculated for each developed model. According to the obtained results, KNN received the highest-ranking value among all five predictive models and was selected as the best predictive model of this study. It can be concluded that KNN is able to provide high-performance capacity in predicting TBM PR. KNN model identified uniaxial compressive strength (0.2) as the most important and revolution per minutes (0.14) as the least important factor for predicting the TBM penetration rate.

Two-level imperialist competitive algorithm for energy-efficient hybrid flow shop scheduling problem with relative importance of objectives

Abstract Energy-efficient hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (EHFSP) has been investigated in recent years; however, the relative importance of objectives is seldom considered in the previous works. In this study, EHFSP with total tardiness, makespan and total energy consumption is addressed, in which the third objective has lower importance than other ones. A new Pareto dominance is defined to deal with the relative importance and a two-level imperialist competitive algorithm (TICA) is presented, in which two levels consist of the strongest empire and other empires, respectively. To generate high quality solutions, assimilation and revolution are executed differently in empires in the different search stages, the strongest empire is excluded from imperialist competition, memory is often combined with the strongest empire and a member of memory is added into the winning empire to avoid the inclusion of the weakest colony of the weakest empire. Extensive experiments are conducted and the computational results show that TICA provides promising results for the considered EHFSP.

Koszty jakości przedsiębiorstw w ujęciu definicyjnym

Głównym celem artykułu jest przedstawienie najważniejszych definicji kosztów jakości. W pierwszej części autor prezentuje historyczną perspektywę, która przyczyniła się do wzrostu zainteresowania kosztami jakości. Drugi punkt zawiera zestawienie najważniejszych definicji pojęcia kosztów jakości. W trzeciej części autor koncentruje się na różnicach i wspólnych elementach przedstawionych definicji. Obiektem badań są koszty jakości ponoszone przez przedsiębiorstwa we wszystkich fazach procesu produkcyjnego oraz procesu świadczenia usługi. W pracy przeprowadzono krytyczną analizę piśmiennictwa naukowego z zakresu zarządzania jakością, rachunkowości i marketingu oraz zastosowano metody indukcji i dedukcji. Już w latach czterdziestych XX wieku koszty związane z jakością zaczęły odgrywać ważną rolę w przedsiębiorstwach. Wielka rewolucja jakościowa w Japonii, zapoczątkowana przez J.M. Jurana i A.V. Feigenbauma, była bardzo ważnym bodźcem dla rozwoju jakości. Wraz z upływem czasu coraz szersze grono naukowców decydowało się na prowadzenie badań naukowych w obszarze kosztów jakości i rachunku kosztów jakości. Również liczne doświadczenia z praktyki gospodarczej przyczyniły się do pojawienia się nowych określeń pojęcia kosztów jakości. Efektem przeglądu definicji będzie uporządkowanie wiedzy na temat kosztów jakości jako przedmiotu badań nauk o zarządzaniu.

2D Numerical Simulation and Sensitive Analysis of H-Darrieus Wind Turbine

Recently, a lot of attention has been devoted to the use of Darrieus wind turbines in urban areas. The aerodynamics of a Darrieus turbine are very complex due to dynamic stall and changing forces on the turbine triggered by changing horizontal angles. In this study, the aerodynamics of H-rotor vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) has been studied using computational fluid dynamics via two different turbulence models. Shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model was used to simulate a 2D unsteady model of the H-Darrieus turbine. In order to complete this simulation, sensitivity analysis of the effective turbine parameters such as solidity factor, airfoil shape, wind velocity and shaft diameter were done. To simulate the flow through the turbine, a 2D simplified computational domain has been generated. Then fine mesh for each case consisting of different turbulence models and dimensions has been generated. Each mesh in this simulation dependent on effective parameters consisted of domain size, mesh quality, time step and total revolution. The sliding mesh method was applied to evaluate the unsteady interaction between the stationary and rotating components. Previous works just simulated turbine, while in our study sensitivity analysis of effective parameters was done. The simulation results closely match the experimental data, providing an efficient and reliable foundation to study wind turbine aerodynamics. This also demonstrates computing the best value of the effective parameter. The sensitivity analysis revealed best value of the effective parameter that could be used in the process of designing turbine. This work provides the first step in developing an accurate 3D aerodynamic modeling of Darrieus wind turbines.Article History: Received :August 19th 2017; Received: December 15th 2017; Accepted: Januari 14th 2018; Available onlineHow to Cite This Article: Saryazdi, S. M. E. and Boroushaki, M. (2018) 2D Numerical Simulation and Sensitive Analysis of H-Darrieus Wind Turbine. Int. Journal of Renewable Energy Development,7(1),23-34https://doi.org/10.14710/ijred.7.1.23-24

The relationship between TQM practices and role stressors

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are comprised 90% of all enterprises in Iran. In this regards they have significant role in the development of the country's economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to investigate the impact of multidimensionality of total quality management practices on the role stressors. Numerous studies have been done by other researchers on the quality revolution and implemented various Total Quality Management (TQM) programs such as ISO 9000 series as a way to improve quality. This paper investigates the multidimensional relationships between eight TQM practices and role stressors. The empirical data was gathered from 410 Iranian manufacturing SMEs and analysed by using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The findings indicate important association among leadership, information analysis; supplier management, employee involvement, process management and human resources focus with role stressors but no significant relationship between customer focus and supplier management with role stressors.

‘Quality revolution’ in post-Soviet education in Russia: from control to assurance?

Employing the analytical framework of a discourse-driven social change, this paper unpacks the neoliberal concept of ‘educational quality’ in the course of Russian education modernisation reform from 1991 to 2013. Since the early 1990s, the global neoliberal discourse has served as the backbone for post-Soviet educational ideology. Alongside other major reform initiatives, the ‘quality revolution,’ proclaimed by the Russian Government in the early 1990s, signified a rhetoric shift away from the Soviet-era quality control towards a neoliberal quality assurance paradigm. Through fine-grained textual analysis of policy documents and political statements by key educational stakeholders, the analysis unpacks the discursive underbelly of the new quality paradigm, in an attempt to determine whether a paradigmatic transformation has taken place. The paper argues that despite the nominally proclaimed shift towards a quality assurance model of educational governance, the representation of educational stakeholders and responsibilities within the new quality paradigm continues to correspond to the Soviet-era command-and-control authoritarian model. The study challenges the popular claim of a neoliberal turn in Russian education and suggests that a neoconservative authoritarian approach to education governance has been smuggled in under the disguise of ‘quality assurance.’

Process Mapping With Times, Process Measures, and Labor Costs.

We are aware of the story of Japan’s quality revolution after the postwar teachings of Dr W. Edwards Deming. But what motivated the Japanese business leaders and engineers to embrace his teaching and eventually create many products superior to those made in the United States? At every lecture in Japan, Dr Deming would draw on the board a diagram titled “Production as a System” (Fig 1). Later, he would tell his audience, “The flow diagram shown was the spark that in 1950 and onward turned Japan around. It displayed to top management and to engineers a system of production. The Japanese had knowledge, great knowledge, but it was in bits and pieces, uncoordinated. This flow diagram directed their knowledge and efforts into a system of production, geared to the market—namely, prediction of needs of customers.” In health care, we seem to lack an understanding of the processes as part of the “systemof care,” and lack a clear definition of the role of clinicians for improvement, a framework to align the work of clinicians, metrics needed for reporting, and the ability to hear the voice of our patients. This article aims to describe a framework of health care as a system, tools that can help understand the processes that make up that system, a method to identify the roles each member of the health-care system plays in process improvement, and, finally, a means of providing labor cost. MD Anderson Cancer Center has a diagram called “Cancer Care as a System” to guide the improvement work (Fig 2). This emulates the diagram Dr Deming used in Japan. Based on this diagram, the core process of care is the target of an endeavor called “Clinical Process Analysis,” in which a clinical team helps each center create its own process flowcharts.

Time for a quality revolution in global health

Time for a quality revolution in global health

Quality Measurement and Accountability in Cardiovascular Medicine: An Incomplete Revolution.

The rise of quality measurement and the proliferation of programs that require accountability for quality are among the most dramatic developments in cardiovascular medicine in the past 2 decades. The quality revolution now affects the daily practice of virtually every cardiovascular clinician and has influenced national health policy. Over time, however, both the successes and limitations of the quality movement have become apparent. As is often the case with revolutionary changes, quality measurement and the uses of these measures merit reflection and consideration of further change. For years, quality measurement played an insignificant role in medicine. This changed with a growing appreciation of substantial unexplained variation in healthcare practice in parallel with seemingly unrestrained increases in care costs. The actions of the Health Care Financing Administration, now the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, are illustrative of this evolution. Having employed the ineffectual approach of performing individual case review (quality assurance) of negative outliers, the Health Care Financing Administration adopted the relatively radical approach of measuring quality nationally in the hopes of stimulating improvement for all institutions and providers in the early 1990s.1 The Health Care Financing Administration’s Cooperative Cardiovascular Project measured the quality of care for acute myocardial infarction; subsequent efforts expanded to other high-impact conditions, including heart failure. Although these programs focused entirely on measuring processes of care (eg, rates of use of evidence-based therapies for acute myocardial infarction and heart failure) and did not address strategies for quality improvement, they introduced clinicians and hospitals to formal …