Benefits, Difficulties, and Success Factors of Three Different Quality Assessment Processes in Estonia

Quality assessment systems for business organisations and also for vocational schools were established in Estonia at the beginning of 2000s. Almost ten years later, corresponding systems were introduced also for higher education institutions （HEIs）. All these assessment systems are based on the European Foundation of Quality Management （EFQM） excellence model. The aim of this paper is to analyse benefits, difficulties, and success factors of quality assessment processes in Estonian business organisations, vocational schools, and HEIs. The study is based on the analysis of feedback questionnaire of 404 representatives from participating organisations （HEIs, vocational schools, and business enterprises） and assessors. Our analysis revealed that quality assessment processes including self-assessment reporting had a positive effect on organisation development and it has given the participants certain benefits and new challenges. As a consequence, knowledge about quality management as well as the self-assessment skills has been improved. The main difficulties were connected to limited time resources and with problems to recognize direct benefits of quality assessment. As substantial difficulties, limitations of analytical and report-writing skills were considered. As the biggest success factor, an involvement of managers on different levels decision making was recognized. The analysis revealed that there are a number of similar benefits and difficulties in the quality assessment systems of different organizations.

Manufacturing Process Oriented Environmental Friendly Assessment with Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution

Green manufacturing is a mode to realize environmental friendliness by considering the environmental impact and energy consumption in manufacturing process.In order to make an environmental friendly assessment for manufacturing process,a multi-criteria decision making( MCDM) model combined with fuzzy analytic hierarchy process( FAHP) and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution( FTOPSIS) is proposed in this work.The environmental and resource criteria and manufacturing process objects are identified as the first step.Then,the weights of the criteria are calculated by FAHP.Finally,based on experts' evaluation using fuzzy words,the manufacturing process objects are ranked by FTOPSIS.The proposed methodology is applied to a gear shaft manufacturing.The sensitivity analysis and comparisons are implemented to prove its robustness and effectiveness for the ecofriendly assessment for process objects.

A Practical Exploration of Process Assessment Teaching Reform

In order to effectively promote higher education reform,colleges and universities should focus not only on basic knowledge learning,but also on improving students’quality,skills,and comprehensive literacy.Through practical experience,it can be seen that the cultivation of students’comprehensive quality needs to be implemented in all teaching links,among which the assessment link is no exception.In order to enhance the effectiveness and advanced nature of the teaching evaluation mechanism,it is necessary for colleges and universities to reform the real-time process assessment.Other educational departments should also pay more attention and place importance on this work,integrating it with the curriculum to optimize the evaluation link.

Association between Phthalate Exposure and the Use of Plastic Containers in Shanghai Adults

Objective Consuming phthalates may be due to the presence of food contact materials, such as plastic containers. In this study, we investigated the association between plastic container use and phthalate exposure in 2,140 Shanghai adults. Methods Participants completed a questionnaire on the frequency of using plastic containers in different scenarios in the previous year （e.g., daily, weekly） and on the consumption of plastic-packaged foods in the previous three days （yes or no）. Urinary phthalate metabolites were used to assess the association between phthalate exposure and the use of plastic containers. Results The metabolites of di-（2-ethylhexyl） phthalate （DEHP） were the most frequently detected in urine. The results revealed that phthalate exposure was associated with consumption of plastic-packaged breakfast or processed food items in the previous three days. The consumption of these two food items had strong synergistic effects on increasing urinary concentrations of most phthalate metabolites. Conclusion Our results of plastic-packaged breakfast and processed food may be explained by the use of flexible plastic containers, indicating the importance of risk assessment for the application of flexible plastic containers.

The Biopsychosocial Vulnerability in Primary Care

The need for early screening of the biopsychosocial vulnerability within primary care is clear in the literature, but there is disagreement on the definition and type of score to be used. Health is influenced by determining not only biological, but also psychological and social. The aims of the study are research and evaluation tools to determine the biopsychosocial vulnerability and the creation of a flow-chart for the establishment of health and socio-personalized care programs, but based on scientific evidence. In our study we have built an original scale of assessment for the general medicine, which could simultaneously analyze the Bio-Psycho-Social aspect of patients. A group of GPs （general practitioners） have tested this tool on a group of complex patients. The results of the study show that a high score on our scale of assessment is not correlated with the age of a patient （R = 0.454）; instead there is a straight correlation between the high score and the number of GPs and patient contacts （R = 0.790） and a border-line significant correlation （R = 0.590） between high scores and hospital admissions and resources utilization. In conclusion, with our assessment scale we built a general medicine instrument, simple, integrated with primary care setting and tools, fast in use. In the research and validation phase we showed how this scale would be able to identify patients in need of more attention where there is a necessity to go from a Guideline and EBM-Based approach to a Personalized approach.

Research on the Practical Teaching of Data Structures and Algorithms Course

The success or failure of practical teaching in data structures and algorithms coxirse determines the success or failure of the course group.The reform of practical teaching in this course takes the course group as the background and aims to meet the needs of students at different levels.It proposes a hierarchical practical teaching mode involving three levels in terms of foundation,design,and synthesis driven by cases throughout the whole course group and a fine process control mechanism based on multi-stage process assessment.

A Systematic Risk Assessment Framework of Automotive Cybersecurity

The increasingly intelligent and connected vehicles have brought many unprecedented automotive cybersecurity threats,which may cause privacy breaches,personal injuries,and even national security issues.Before providing effective security solutions,a comprehensive risk assessment of the automotive cybersecurity must be carried out.A systematic cybersecurity risk assessment framework for automobiles is proposed in this study.It consists of an assessment process and systematic assessment methods considering the changes of threat environment,evaluation target,and available information in vehicle lifecycle.In the process of risk identification and risk analysis,the impact level and attack feasibility level are assessed based on the STRIDE model and attack tree method.An automotive cybersecurity risk matrix using a global rating algorithm is then constructed to create a quantitative risk metric.Finally,the applicability and feasibility of the proposed risk assessment framework are demonstrated through a use case,and the results prove that the proposed framework is effective.The proposed assessment framework helps to systematically derive automotive cybersecurity requirements.

Greenhouse gas emission and its potential mitigation process from the waste sector in a large-scale exhibition

As one of the largest human activities, World Expo is an important source of anthropogenic Greenhouse Gas emission（GHG）, and the GHG emission and other environmental impacts of the Expo Shanghai 2010, where around 59,397 tons of waste was generated during 184 Expo running days, were assessed by life cycle assessment（LCA）. Two scenarios, i.e., the actual and expected figures of the waste sector, were assessed and compared, and 124.01 kg CO2-equivalent（CO2-eq.）, 4.43 kg SO2-eq., 4.88 kg NO-3-eq., and 3509 m3 water per ton tourist waste were found to be released in terms of global warming（GW）, acidification（AC）,nutrient enrichment（NE） and spoiled groundwater resources（SGWR）, respectively. The total GHG emission was around 3499 ton CO2-eq. from the waste sector in Expo Park, among which 86.47% was generated during the waste landfilling at the rate of 107.24 kg CO2-eq.,and CH4, CO and other hydrocarbons（HC） were the main contributors. If the waste sorting process had been implemented according to the plan scenario, around 497 ton CO2-eq.savings could have been attained. Unlike municipal solid waste, with more organic matter content, an incineration plant is more suitable for tourist waste disposal due to its high heating value, from the GHG reduction perspective.