The adoption of advanced quality practices and its impact on manufacturers

Presently, the manufacturing sector faces unprecedented levels of competition in both the domestic and international markets. This competition is mainly as a result of rapidly expanding international trade, gradual removal of protection, substantial reforms in labour markets and industrial relations, rapid technological changes and discerning customers. Intense global competition requires manufacturers to deliver products with higher quality in a shorter time. Simultaneously, owing to new technological innovations, the complexity of the products is increasing. In Australia, the impact of this intense competition and structural changes appear to be having negative effects on the manufacturing sector. This paper discusses the quality and reliability (Q & R) practices and associated drawbacks of Australian manufacturers and presents the findings of an investigation of the challenges Australian manufacturers are currently facing. The results reported in the paper are based on the data collected from a survey using the standard questionnaire. The study was driven by a conceptual model, which relates advanced quality practices to manufacturing performance and manufacturing difficulties.Evidence indicates that Q & R is the main competitive factor for Australian manufacturers. Design capability and on time delivery (OTD) came second. Results show that Australian manufacturers in general are facing some manufacturing difficulties. The relationship between advanced quality practices and company performance and manufacturing difficulties are explored. It is found that the companies who have more emphasis on advanced quality practices have fewer problems in manufacturing practices. Moreover, companies who have actively implemented the advanced quality practices have managed to improve the quality of the product continuously. The results validate the proposed hypothesis and lend credence to current thinking that improvement in Q & R is a vital tool for competitive advantage.

Stochastic modelling of T cell homeostasis for two competing clonotypes via the master equation

Stochastic models for competing clonotypes of T cells by multivariate, continuous-time, discrete state, Markov processes have been proposed in the literature by Stirk, Molina-París and van den Berg (2008). A stochastic modelling framework is important because of rare events associated with small populations of some critical cell types. Usually, computational methods for these problems employ a trajectory-based approach, based on Monte Carlo simulation. This is partly because the complementary, probability density function (PDF) approaches can be expensive but here we describe some efficient PDF approaches by directly solving the governing equations, known as the Master Equation. These computations are made very efficient through an approximation of the state space by the Finite State Projection and through the use of Krylov subspace methods when evolving the matrix exponential. These computational methods allow us to explore the evolution of the PDFs associated with these stochastic models, and bimodal distributions arise in some parameter regimes. Time-dependent propensities naturally arise in immunological processes due to, for example, age-dependent effects. Incorporating time-dependent propensities into the framework of the Master Equation significantly complicates the corresponding computational methods but here we describe an efficient approach via Magnus formulas. Although this contribution focuses on the example of competing clonotypes, the general principles are relevant to multivariate Markov processes and provide fundamental techniques for computational immunology.

The role of soil characteristics on temperature sensitivity of soil organic matter

The uncertainty associated with how projected climate change will affect global C cycling could have a large impact on predictions of soil C stocks. The purpose of our study was to determine how various soil decomposition and chemistry characteristics relate to soil organic matter (SOM) temperature sensitivity. We accomplished this objective using long-term soil incubations at three temperatures (15, 25, and 35°C) and pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry (py-MBMS) on 12 soils from 6 sites along a mean annual temperature (MAT) gradient (2–25.6°C). The Q10 values calculated from the CO2 respired during a long-term incubation using the Q10-q method showed decomposition of the more resistant fraction to be more temperature sensitive with a Q10-q of 1.95 ± 0.08 for the labile fraction and a Q10-q of 3.33 ± 0.04 for the more resistant fraction. We compared the fit of soil respiration data using a two-pool model (active and slow) with first-order kinetics with a three-pool model and found that the two and three-pool models statistically fit the data equally well. The three-pool model changed the size and rate constant for the more resistant pool. The size of the active pool in these soils, calculated using the two-pool model, increased with incubation temperature and ranged from 0.1 to 14.0% of initial soil organic C. Sites with an intermediate MAT and lowest C/N ratio had the largest active pool. Pyrolysis molecular beam mass spectrometry showed declines in carbohydrates with conversion from grassland to wheat cultivation and a greater amount of protected carbohydrates in allophanic soils which may have lead to differences found between the total amount of CO2 respired, the size of the active pool, and the Q10-q values of the soils.

Hyaluronic acid : evaluation as a potential delivery vehicle for vitronectin:growth factor complexes in wound healing applications

We have previously reported that novel vitronectin:growth factor (VN:GF) complexes significantly increase re-epithelialization in a porcine deep dermal partial-thickness burn model. However, the potential exists to further enhance the healing response through combination with an appropriate delivery vehicle which facilitates sustained local release and reduced doses of VN:GF complexes. Hyaluronic acid (HA), an abundant constituent of the interstitium, is known to function as a reservoir for growth factors and other bioactive species. The physicochemical properties of HA confer it with an ability to sustain elevated pericellular concentrations of these species. This has been proposed to arise via HA prolonging interactions of the bioactive species with cell surface receptors and/or protecting them from degradation. In view of this, the potential of HA to facilitate the topical delivery of VN:GF complexes was evaluated. Two-dimensional (2D) monolayer cell cultures and 3D de-epidermised dermis (DED) human skin equivalent (HSE) models were used to test skin cell responses to HA and VN:GF complexes. Our 2D studies revealed that VN:GF complexes and HA stimulate the proliferation of human fibroblasts but not keratinocytes. Experiments in our 3D DED-HSE models showed that VN:GF complexes, both alone and in conjunction with HA, led to enhanced development of both the proliferative and differentiating layers in the DED-HSE models. However, there was no significant difference between the thicknesses of the epidermis treated with VN:GF complexes alone and VN:GF complexes together with HA. While the addition of HA did not enhance all the cellular responses to VN:GF complexes examined, it was not inhibitory, and may confer other advantages related to enhanced absorption and transport that could be beneficial in delivery of the VN:GF complexes to wounds.

It’s okay to ask : development and pilot testing of a question prompt list for patients with brain tumours

Background: Previous research identified that primary brain tumour patients have significant psychological morbidity and unmet needs, particularly the need for more information and support. However, the utility of strategies to improve information provision in this setting is unknown. This study involved the development and piloting of a brain tumour specific question prompt list (QPL). A QPL is a list of questions patients may find useful to ask their health professionals, and is designed to facilitate communication and information exchange. Methods: Thematic analysis of QPLs developed for other chronic diseases and brain tumour specific patient resources informed a draft QPL. Subsequent refinement of the QPL involved an iterative process of interviews and review with 12 recently diagnosed patients and six caregivers. Final revisions were made following readability analyses and review by health professionals. Piloting of the QPL is underway using a non-randomised control group trial with patients undergoing treatment for a primary brain tumour in Brisbane, Queensland. Following baseline interviews, consenting participants are provided with the QPL or standard information materials. Follow-up interviews four to 6 weeks later allow assessment of the acceptability of the QPL, how it is used by patients, impact on information needs, and feasibility of recruitment, implementation and outcome assessment. Results: The final QPL was determined to be readable at the sixth grade level. It contains seven sections: diagnosis, prognosis, symptoms and changes, the health professional team, support, treatment and management, and post-treatment concerns. At this time, fourteen participants have been recruited for the pilot, and data collection completed for eleven. Data collection and preliminary analysis are expected to be completed by and presented at the conference. Conclusions: If acceptable to participants, the QPL may encourage patients, doctors and nurses to communicate more effectively, reducing unmet information needs and ultimately improving psychological wellbeing.

Teachers’ work in curricular markets : conditions of design and relations between the International Baccalaureate Diploma and the local curriculum

School level strategy enabled by neoliberal choice policies can produce internal curricular markets whereby branded curricula such as the International Baccalaureate are offered alongside the local government curriculum in the same school. This project investigated how such curricular markets operating in Australian schools impacted on teachers’ work. This paper reports on teachers work in three case study schools that offered both the International Baccalaureate Diploma program and the local senior schooling curriculum, then draws on an online survey of 225 teachers in 26 such schools across Australia. The analysis reveals the impact of curricular markets along two dimensions: the curriculum’s internal design; and the relational aspects of how schools manage to deliver tandem offerings within institutional constraints. Teachers working in the IBD Diploma program were shown to relish its design, despite additional demands, while teachers working in just the local curriculum reported more relational issues. The paper argues that these trends suggest that there are winners and losers emerging in the work conditions produced by curricular markets.  

Approaches to learning information literacy : a phenomenographic study

This paper reports on an empirical study that explores the ways students approach learning to find and use information. Based on interviews with 15 education students in an Australian university, this study uses phenomenography as its methodological and theoretical basis. The study reveals that students use three main strategies for learning information literacy: 1) learning by doing; 2) learning by trial and error; and 3) learning by interacting with other people. Understanding the different ways that students approach learning information literacy will assist librarians and faculty to design and provide more effective information literacy education.

A parallel cooperative co-evolutionary genetic algorithm for the composite SaaS placement problem in Cloud computing

A composite SaaS (Software as a Service) is a software that is comprised of several software components and data components. The composite SaaS placement problem is to determine where each of the components should be deployed in a cloud computing environment such that the performance of the composite SaaS is optimal. From the computational point of view, the composite SaaS placement problem is a large-scale combinatorial optimization problem. Thus, an Iterative Cooperative Co-evolutionary Genetic Algorithm (ICCGA) was proposed. The ICCGA can find reasonable quality of solutions. However, its computation time is noticeably slow. Aiming at improving the computation time, we propose an unsynchronized Parallel Cooperative Co-evolutionary Genetic Algorithm (PCCGA) in this paper. Experimental results have shown that the PCCGA not only has quicker computation time, but also generates better quality of solutions than the ICCGA.

Design overview of USDL

Enabling web-based service networks and ecosystems requires a way of describing services by a "commercial envelope" as discussed in Chapter 1. A uniform conception of services across all walks of life (including technical services) is required capturing business, operational and technical aspects. Therefore, our proposed Unified Service Description Language (USDL) particularly draws from and generalizes the best-of-breed approaches presented in Part I. The following chapter presents the design rationale of USDL where the different aspects are put in a framework of descriptions requirements. This is followed by the subsequent chapters of this part that provide details on specific aspects such as pricing or legal issues.

Estimating the effects of environmental exposures using a weighted mean of monitoring stations

The health effects of environmental hazards are often examined using time series of the association between a daily response variable (e.g., death) and a daily level of exposure (e.g., temperature). Exposures are usually the average from a network of stations. This gives each station equal importance, and negates the opportunity for some stations to be better measures of exposure. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model that weighted stations using random variables between zero and one. We compared the weighted estimates to the standard model using data on health outcomes (deaths and hospital admissions) and exposures (air pollution and temperature) in Brisbane, Australia. The improvements in model fit were relatively small, and the estimated health effects of pollution were similar using either the standard or weighted estimates. Spatial weighted exposures would be probably more worthwhile when there is either greater spatial detail in the health outcome, or a greater spatial variation in exposure.