The principles and methods of TQM (total quality management) were applied to digital library management. TQM puts emphasis on process control and continual improvement. The TQM theories and measures explained clearly ...The principles and methods of TQM (total quality management) were applied to digital library management. TQM puts emphasis on process control and continual improvement. The TQM theories and measures explained clearly in this paper were the scientific tools used in the experiment in the Wenzhou University Digital Library. This paper deals with a very broad range of subjects related to a digital library: system model of TQM for digital library, organization structure, and tasks of Wenzhou University Digital Library, task flow chart of electronic reading room, cause and effect of electronic reading room quality man- agement, systematic model of enhancing electronic information acquisition rate, quality comparison of electronic reading room service, etc.展开更多
ISO 9000 certification has been considered as an effective competitive edge for manufacturing industries. In Hong Kong, the ISO 9000 certification has been widely adopted and extended to service industries for the so...ISO 9000 certification has been considered as an effective competitive edge for manufacturing industries. In Hong Kong, the ISO 9000 certification has been widely adopted and extended to service industries for the sole purpose of enhancing corporate image. However, complaints have been voiced by many certified organizations about increasing paperwork, non direct labour and excessive resources channelled into non core business. This paper is to propound the integrated management system, a single management system focusing on business purpose yet being flexible enough to integrate the requirements of various management standards such as the ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and future ISO 18000. This paper describes how the proposed system could be implemented to achieve the desired business results.展开更多
Through denoting each expert as an agent and viewing a multiple criteria decision-making as a synthesis problem of aggregating experts＇ ratings, a multi-agent blind model （MABM） is developed for regional eco-enviro...Through denoting each expert as an agent and viewing a multiple criteria decision-making as a synthesis problem of aggregating experts＇ ratings, a multi-agent blind model （MABM） is developed for regional eco-environmental quality assessment. In this model, the ratings of the evaluated object under an index, given by expert group, are first utilized to construct a series of blind numbers. In general, each index will correspond to different blind numbers. On the basis of aggregating index weights, the rank score in the form of a blind number is obtained for the evaluated object. Then, by means of calculating expected value of the above blind number, its rank score is further converted into a crisp value. By way of comparing the expected value with classification standards, eco-environmental quality of the evaluated sample could he identified successfully in the end. As a case, the MABM is used to evaluate the eco-environmental quality of Chaohu Lake basin. Study result shows that the MABM is a useful model for regional eco-environmental quality assessment.展开更多
This study is aimed to assess the long-term healthrelated quality of life （HRQL） of patients after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer in comparison with established norms, and to evaluate changes in HRQL during the...This study is aimed to assess the long-term healthrelated quality of life （HRQL） of patients after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer in comparison with established norms, and to evaluate changes in HRQL during the different stages of follow-up after esophageal resection. A systematic review was performed by searching medical databases （Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library） for potentially relevant studies that appeared between January 1975 and March 2011. Studies were included if they addressed the question of HRQL after esophageal resection for esophageal cancer. Two researchers independently performed the study selection, data extraction and analysis processes. Twenty-one observational studies were included with a total of 1282 （12-355） patients. Five studies were performed with short form-36 （SF-36） and 16 with European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer （EORTC） QLQ c30 （14 of them also utilized the disease-specific OESI8 or its previous version OES24）.The analysis of long-term generic HRQL with SF-36 showed pooled scores for physical, role and social function after esophagectomy similar to United States norms, but lower pooled scores for physical function, vitality and general health perception. The analysis of HRQL conducted using the Global EORTC C30 global scale during a 6-mo follow-up showed that global scale and physical function were better at the baseline. The symptom scales indicated worsened fatigue, dyspnea and diarrhea 6 mo after esophagectomy. In contrast, however, emotional function had significantly improved after 6 mo. In conclusion, short- and long-term HRQL is deeply affected after esophagectomy for cancer. The impairment of physical function may be a long-term consequence of esophagectomy involving either the respiratory system or the alimentary tract. The short- and long-term improvement in the emotional function of patients who have undergone successful operations may be attributed to the impression that they have survived a near-death experience.展开更多
Public education as well as tourism and leisure are the two important functions of national wetland park, and tourist behaviors act as the guiding factor in the national wetland park construction and management.As the...Public education as well as tourism and leisure are the two important functions of national wetland park, and tourist behaviors act as the guiding factor in the national wetland park construction and management.As the first national wetland park in China, Xixi National Wetland Park, located in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, will give constructive instructions to the construction and management of other wetland parks and ecotourism resorts.This paper analyzed the tourist behaviors in Xixi National Wetland Park.By the observation, in-depth interview and questionnaire, the results show that tourists in wetland parks are different from those in the other common destinations, and they are also different from those strict eco-tourists.In fact, the tourists in wetland park have unique characteristics, such as the intense perception to the functions of wetland ecosystem and the environment impact behaviors.Those tourists are preferred to natural landscapes in their motivations and expectations.Wetland landscapes are the main image to those tourists in the Xixi National Wetland Park.Tourist expectation, experience and satisfaction are all critical factors for the success of the planning and management in national wetland parks.Based on the results, some measures for the sustainable development of wetland parks, including to optimize wetland theme landscape and tourism products, to improve tourist facilities and services, to enhance quality of visitor experiences, and to implement total quality management based on tourist characteristics, are given to national wetland park ecotourism.展开更多
The common mystique is that ISO 9000 quality management systems are only applicable to large companies, and such systems are too expensive for smaller companies. This paper clarifies this misconception. It shows th...The common mystique is that ISO 9000 quality management systems are only applicable to large companies, and such systems are too expensive for smaller companies. This paper clarifies this misconception. It shows that the inherent ISO 9000 systems are in fact flexible that permit their application to small companies, regardless of the type of trade disciplines. In addition, it shows some of the pitfalls that certification assessors and quality management consultants should watch out for.展开更多
A curriculum is a complex system that includes a set of core competencies, objectives, contents, methodological and evaluation criteria, regulation among other things. In order to represent a curriculum as a piece of ...A curriculum is a complex system that includes a set of core competencies, objectives, contents, methodological and evaluation criteria, regulation among other things. In order to represent a curriculum as a piece of software the common tools used are databases, trees and lists of courses. However, none of these tools can capture the deep and complex relationships among the elements of a curriculum. To avoid this problem, a more complete representation of an engineering curriculum using ontologies has been developed. This paper presents the construction of an ontology for undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum domain at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which aims to represent, organize, formalize and standardize the knowledge of this domain, so that it can be shared and reused by different groups of people in the field of education and engineering. The ontology includes four curriculum aspects： knowledge in electrical engineering, skills in engineering, electrical engineering curriculum and regulation. For the ontology development, Methontology was selected as methodology and Protege as implementation tool. In addition, there is a proposal of documentation for this methodology, based on principles of quality management systems. This ontology is designed in order to be used in any field of engineering.展开更多
Based on circular economy and sustainable manufacture theories, the drawbacks in the existing quality management models are analyzed. The requests that satisfy the big system 'environment-society-economy' are ...Based on circular economy and sustainable manufacture theories, the drawbacks in the existing quality management models are analyzed. The requests that satisfy the big system 'environment-society-economy' are summarized to build up a model. A Chinese traditional cultural principle is applied and the relevant contents are sublimated as the platform to set up the model. The new quality management concept models are put forward: 'T-D-R' three dimension structures and 'ecological quality loop' model, from which the new quality concepts are formed. The paper elaborates the contents and the process of setting up the models. The big system quality problems can be handled by the new quality concept and model that are validated in practice.展开更多
This paper proposes an improved performance appraisal system (PAS) that is based on the philosophy of total quality management(TQM). It focuses on understanding the customer′s (both management and employees) requirem...This paper proposes an improved performance appraisal system (PAS) that is based on the philosophy of total quality management(TQM). It focuses on understanding the customer′s (both management and employees) requirements for the PAS in order to prioritize and simplify the basic elements of the appraisal system and implementation process. The improved process is defined by performance planning, counseling and evaluation with assessments for individual, team and management contributions. In addition, reducing the rating scale to three categories should facilitate a very positive evaluation process for most employees and still allow a constructive focus on those individuals that must be improved. Finally, if people come first in the TQM organization, then the personnel systems must reflect this philosophy.展开更多
Based on the analysis of current Quality of Service (QoS) management on IP network, new genera-tion of QoS architecture QoSAF is proposed. QoSAF is divided into three layers: resource control layer, net-work service l...Based on the analysis of current Quality of Service (QoS) management on IP network, new genera-tion of QoS architecture QoSAF is proposed. QoSAF is divided into three layers: resource control layer, net-work service layer and business layer. QoS management is accomplished by interactivity of layers. In this ar-chitecture, mechanism of feedback control enhances the functions of resource management and system moni-toring. The principle of design and logical architecture of system is discussed in detail.展开更多
Environmental concerns associated with nutrient-oriented eutrophication phenomenon have become a serious issue and a major cause of water quality deficiency nowadays. This necessitated eutrophication to occupy a front...Environmental concerns associated with nutrient-oriented eutrophication phenomenon have become a serious issue and a major cause of water quality deficiency nowadays. This necessitated eutrophication to occupy a front seat in research accompanied with climate change. Climate change has revealed to be a key player and a main contributor in the occurrence of such phenomenon. This paper discusses the ever-growing concern about eutrophication as a cause of climate change. Climate change affects storms intensity, changing the precipitation regime and increasing temperature. These effects increase the nutrient loading diffusion and cause excessive nutrients accompanied with storm water runoff, domestic wastewaters, and agricultural discharges to pour into water bodies. Eutrophication conversely contributes in the global wanning by releasing greenhouse gases from deoxygenated waters and sediments. Some control and mitigation measures are needed to fight climate change and achieve desired water quality goals. These measures include mitigation of climate change causes, enhancement of natural ecohydrological processes, application of proper integrated water resource management and participation of communities and governments.展开更多
Corporate Performance Management （CPM） system is an information system used to collect, analyze, and visualize key performance indicators （KPIs） to support both business operations and especially strategic decisio...Corporate Performance Management （CPM） system is an information system used to collect, analyze, and visualize key performance indicators （KPIs） to support both business operations and especially strategic decisions. CPM systems display KPIs in forms of scorecard and dashboard so the executives can keep track and evaluate corporate performance. The quality of the information as shown in the KPIs is very crucial for the executives to make the right decisions. Therefore, it is important that the executives must be able to retrieve not only the KPIs but also the quality of those KPIs before using such KPIs in their strategic decisions. The objectives of this study were to determine the role of the CPM system in the organizations, current data and information quality state, problems and perspectives regarding data quality, as well as data quality maturity stage of the organizations. Survey research was used in this study; a questionnaire was sent to collect data from 477 corporations listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand （SET） on January, 2011. Forty-nine questionnaires were returned. The results show that about half of the organizations have implemented CPM systems. Most organizations are confident in the information in CPM system, but information quality issues are commonly found. Frequent problems regarding information quality are information not up to date, information not ready by time of use, inaccuracy and incomplete. The most concerned and frequently assessed quality dimensions were security, accuracy, completeness, and validity. When asked to prioritize, the most important quality dimensions are accuracy, timeliness, completeness, security, and validity respectively. In addition, most organizations concern about data govemance management and have deployed such measures. This study showed that most organizations are on level 4 on Gartner＇s data governance maturity stage in which data governance is concerned and managed, but still not effective.展开更多
This paper presents a case study that demonstrates how models can be used to support water management decisions before sufficient data to verify the model are available. In developing areas, and for new reservoirs, ex...This paper presents a case study that demonstrates how models can be used to support water management decisions before sufficient data to verify the model are available. In developing areas, and for new reservoirs, extensive data for model calibration and validation are often not available. As a case study we developed a CE-QUAL-W2 model of Aguamilpa Reservoir using minimal data and used the model to create a data acquisition plan to support early planning decisions. We based the model on a two-year period and compared the model results to data recently collected with our acquisition plan. We present how we developed and used the model to design the data acquisition plan which identifies and collects data to update and calibrate the model to support future decisions. We show that a minimally calibrated model based on scarce data can support management decisions and be the first step in a spiral engineering approach to system management. Spiral engineering uses models and data to both support early decisions and to iteratively improve this information to support subsequent decisions and models. This case study can be used as a guide for developing water quality models with minimal data and uses the models to support early decision requirements.展开更多
The revised version of ISO 9001：2015 places a demand before many food producers to face the problem of updating the old or developing new food quality and safety management systems. In order to help the organizations...The revised version of ISO 9001：2015 places a demand before many food producers to face the problem of updating the old or developing new food quality and safety management systems. In order to help the organizations in this endeavor, this paper presents a model for planning and implementation of IMS （integrated management system） for quality and food safety, using the example of biscuit products manufacturing, and explains its conception. The integrative approach is based on the synergetic effect between the mutually related business processes. It has been established that the introduction of the model can help the biscuit producers in efficiently addressing such challenges as limited resources, increasing competition, as well as higher expectations of customers and other stakeholders.展开更多
文摘The principles and methods of TQM (total quality management) were applied to digital library management. TQM puts emphasis on process control and continual improvement. The TQM theories and measures explained clearly in this paper were the scientific tools used in the experiment in the Wenzhou University Digital Library. This paper deals with a very broad range of subjects related to a digital library: system model of TQM for digital library, organization structure, and tasks of Wenzhou University Digital Library, task flow chart of electronic reading room, cause and effect of electronic reading room quality man- agement, systematic model of enhancing electronic information acquisition rate, quality comparison of electronic reading room service, etc.
文摘ISO 9000 certification has been considered as an effective competitive edge for manufacturing industries. In Hong Kong, the ISO 9000 certification has been widely adopted and extended to service industries for the sole purpose of enhancing corporate image. However, complaints have been voiced by many certified organizations about increasing paperwork, non direct labour and excessive resources channelled into non core business. This paper is to propound the integrated management system, a single management system focusing on business purpose yet being flexible enough to integrate the requirements of various management standards such as the ISO 9000, ISO 14000 and future ISO 18000. This paper describes how the proposed system could be implemented to achieve the desired business results.
基金Under the auspices of the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (No. 050450303 )
文摘Through denoting each expert as an agent and viewing a multiple criteria decision-making as a synthesis problem of aggregating experts＇ ratings, a multi-agent blind model （MABM） is developed for regional eco-environmental quality assessment. In this model, the ratings of the evaluated object under an index, given by expert group, are first utilized to construct a series of blind numbers. In general, each index will correspond to different blind numbers. On the basis of aggregating index weights, the rank score in the form of a blind number is obtained for the evaluated object. Then, by means of calculating expected value of the above blind number, its rank score is further converted into a crisp value. By way of comparing the expected value with classification standards, eco-environmental quality of the evaluated sample could he identified successfully in the end. As a case, the MABM is used to evaluate the eco-environmental quality of Chaohu Lake basin. Study result shows that the MABM is a useful model for regional eco-environmental quality assessment.
文摘This study is aimed to assess the long-term healthrelated quality of life （HRQL） of patients after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer in comparison with established norms, and to evaluate changes in HRQL during the different stages of follow-up after esophageal resection. A systematic review was performed by searching medical databases （Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library） for potentially relevant studies that appeared between January 1975 and March 2011. Studies were included if they addressed the question of HRQL after esophageal resection for esophageal cancer. Two researchers independently performed the study selection, data extraction and analysis processes. Twenty-one observational studies were included with a total of 1282 （12-355） patients. Five studies were performed with short form-36 （SF-36） and 16 with European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer （EORTC） QLQ c30 （14 of them also utilized the disease-specific OESI8 or its previous version OES24）.The analysis of long-term generic HRQL with SF-36 showed pooled scores for physical, role and social function after esophagectomy similar to United States norms, but lower pooled scores for physical function, vitality and general health perception. The analysis of HRQL conducted using the Global EORTC C30 global scale during a 6-mo follow-up showed that global scale and physical function were better at the baseline. The symptom scales indicated worsened fatigue, dyspnea and diarrhea 6 mo after esophagectomy. In contrast, however, emotional function had significantly improved after 6 mo. In conclusion, short- and long-term HRQL is deeply affected after esophagectomy for cancer. The impairment of physical function may be a long-term consequence of esophagectomy involving either the respiratory system or the alimentary tract. The short- and long-term improvement in the emotional function of patients who have undergone successful operations may be attributed to the impression that they have survived a near-death experience.
基金Under the auspices of Forest Science and Technique Support during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period of China (No.2006BAD03A19)National Wetland Park Model Project of State Forestry Administration,P. R. ChinaHangzhou City Government (No.xixi2006-1-12)
文摘Public education as well as tourism and leisure are the two important functions of national wetland park, and tourist behaviors act as the guiding factor in the national wetland park construction and management.As the first national wetland park in China, Xixi National Wetland Park, located in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, will give constructive instructions to the construction and management of other wetland parks and ecotourism resorts.This paper analyzed the tourist behaviors in Xixi National Wetland Park.By the observation, in-depth interview and questionnaire, the results show that tourists in wetland parks are different from those in the other common destinations, and they are also different from those strict eco-tourists.In fact, the tourists in wetland park have unique characteristics, such as the intense perception to the functions of wetland ecosystem and the environment impact behaviors.Those tourists are preferred to natural landscapes in their motivations and expectations.Wetland landscapes are the main image to those tourists in the Xixi National Wetland Park.Tourist expectation, experience and satisfaction are all critical factors for the success of the planning and management in national wetland parks.Based on the results, some measures for the sustainable development of wetland parks, including to optimize wetland theme landscape and tourism products, to improve tourist facilities and services, to enhance quality of visitor experiences, and to implement total quality management based on tourist characteristics, are given to national wetland park ecotourism.
文摘The common mystique is that ISO 9000 quality management systems are only applicable to large companies, and such systems are too expensive for smaller companies. This paper clarifies this misconception. It shows that the inherent ISO 9000 systems are in fact flexible that permit their application to small companies, regardless of the type of trade disciplines. In addition, it shows some of the pitfalls that certification assessors and quality management consultants should watch out for.
文摘A curriculum is a complex system that includes a set of core competencies, objectives, contents, methodological and evaluation criteria, regulation among other things. In order to represent a curriculum as a piece of software the common tools used are databases, trees and lists of courses. However, none of these tools can capture the deep and complex relationships among the elements of a curriculum. To avoid this problem, a more complete representation of an engineering curriculum using ontologies has been developed. This paper presents the construction of an ontology for undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum domain at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, which aims to represent, organize, formalize and standardize the knowledge of this domain, so that it can be shared and reused by different groups of people in the field of education and engineering. The ontology includes four curriculum aspects： knowledge in electrical engineering, skills in engineering, electrical engineering curriculum and regulation. For the ontology development, Methontology was selected as methodology and Protege as implementation tool. In addition, there is a proposal of documentation for this methodology, based on principles of quality management systems. This ontology is designed in order to be used in any field of engineering.
基金The Support from Science Foundation(51489030205JB3501)
文摘Based on circular economy and sustainable manufacture theories, the drawbacks in the existing quality management models are analyzed. The requests that satisfy the big system 'environment-society-economy' are summarized to build up a model. A Chinese traditional cultural principle is applied and the relevant contents are sublimated as the platform to set up the model. The new quality management concept models are put forward: 'T-D-R' three dimension structures and 'ecological quality loop' model, from which the new quality concepts are formed. The paper elaborates the contents and the process of setting up the models. The big system quality problems can be handled by the new quality concept and model that are validated in practice.
文摘This paper proposes an improved performance appraisal system (PAS) that is based on the philosophy of total quality management(TQM). It focuses on understanding the customer′s (both management and employees) requirements for the PAS in order to prioritize and simplify the basic elements of the appraisal system and implementation process. The improved process is defined by performance planning, counseling and evaluation with assessments for individual, team and management contributions. In addition, reducing the rating scale to three categories should facilitate a very positive evaluation process for most employees and still allow a constructive focus on those individuals that must be improved. Finally, if people come first in the TQM organization, then the personnel systems must reflect this philosophy.
基金Partially supported by the Research Fund for the Doc-toral Program of Higher Education (No.20010013003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.90204003), the 863 program (No.2003AA121220), and the 973 program (No.2003CB314806).
文摘Based on the analysis of current Quality of Service (QoS) management on IP network, new genera-tion of QoS architecture QoSAF is proposed. QoSAF is divided into three layers: resource control layer, net-work service layer and business layer. QoS management is accomplished by interactivity of layers. In this ar-chitecture, mechanism of feedback control enhances the functions of resource management and system moni-toring. The principle of design and logical architecture of system is discussed in detail.
文摘Environmental concerns associated with nutrient-oriented eutrophication phenomenon have become a serious issue and a major cause of water quality deficiency nowadays. This necessitated eutrophication to occupy a front seat in research accompanied with climate change. Climate change has revealed to be a key player and a main contributor in the occurrence of such phenomenon. This paper discusses the ever-growing concern about eutrophication as a cause of climate change. Climate change affects storms intensity, changing the precipitation regime and increasing temperature. These effects increase the nutrient loading diffusion and cause excessive nutrients accompanied with storm water runoff, domestic wastewaters, and agricultural discharges to pour into water bodies. Eutrophication conversely contributes in the global wanning by releasing greenhouse gases from deoxygenated waters and sediments. Some control and mitigation measures are needed to fight climate change and achieve desired water quality goals. These measures include mitigation of climate change causes, enhancement of natural ecohydrological processes, application of proper integrated water resource management and participation of communities and governments.
文摘Corporate Performance Management （CPM） system is an information system used to collect, analyze, and visualize key performance indicators （KPIs） to support both business operations and especially strategic decisions. CPM systems display KPIs in forms of scorecard and dashboard so the executives can keep track and evaluate corporate performance. The quality of the information as shown in the KPIs is very crucial for the executives to make the right decisions. Therefore, it is important that the executives must be able to retrieve not only the KPIs but also the quality of those KPIs before using such KPIs in their strategic decisions. The objectives of this study were to determine the role of the CPM system in the organizations, current data and information quality state, problems and perspectives regarding data quality, as well as data quality maturity stage of the organizations. Survey research was used in this study; a questionnaire was sent to collect data from 477 corporations listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand （SET） on January, 2011. Forty-nine questionnaires were returned. The results show that about half of the organizations have implemented CPM systems. Most organizations are confident in the information in CPM system, but information quality issues are commonly found. Frequent problems regarding information quality are information not up to date, information not ready by time of use, inaccuracy and incomplete. The most concerned and frequently assessed quality dimensions were security, accuracy, completeness, and validity. When asked to prioritize, the most important quality dimensions are accuracy, timeliness, completeness, security, and validity respectively. In addition, most organizations concern about data govemance management and have deployed such measures. This study showed that most organizations are on level 4 on Gartner＇s data governance maturity stage in which data governance is concerned and managed, but still not effective.
文摘This paper presents a case study that demonstrates how models can be used to support water management decisions before sufficient data to verify the model are available. In developing areas, and for new reservoirs, extensive data for model calibration and validation are often not available. As a case study we developed a CE-QUAL-W2 model of Aguamilpa Reservoir using minimal data and used the model to create a data acquisition plan to support early planning decisions. We based the model on a two-year period and compared the model results to data recently collected with our acquisition plan. We present how we developed and used the model to design the data acquisition plan which identifies and collects data to update and calibrate the model to support future decisions. We show that a minimally calibrated model based on scarce data can support management decisions and be the first step in a spiral engineering approach to system management. Spiral engineering uses models and data to both support early decisions and to iteratively improve this information to support subsequent decisions and models. This case study can be used as a guide for developing water quality models with minimal data and uses the models to support early decision requirements.
文摘The revised version of ISO 9001：2015 places a demand before many food producers to face the problem of updating the old or developing new food quality and safety management systems. In order to help the organizations in this endeavor, this paper presents a model for planning and implementation of IMS （integrated management system） for quality and food safety, using the example of biscuit products manufacturing, and explains its conception. The integrative approach is based on the synergetic effect between the mutually related business processes. It has been established that the introduction of the model can help the biscuit producers in efficiently addressing such challenges as limited resources, increasing competition, as well as higher expectations of customers and other stakeholders.
