Characterization of the Japanese Management Technique 5S. Polytechnic Dining Room Case

This research aimed to characterize the Japanese 5S management technique, using a case study of the Polytechnic Dining Room, given that in this unit you can apply the 5S technique without any problem, and improve quality, productivity and competitiveness. Several elements were examined including the existence of work material, procedures for eliminating unnecessary materials, location of work materials, cleaning of work areas, standardization of processes, use of uniforms, and protective equipment, among others. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used. A documentary research instrument was applied, using a Likert scale with ordinal variables. According to the results, those that obtained the highest rating of 7 were as follows: Seiris (classification) 25%, Seiton (Order) 36%, Seiso (Cleaning) 32%, Seiketsu (Standardization) 36%, and Shitsuke (Maintenance) 57%. Therefore, we conclude that in Shitsuke there was greater employee commitment, and Seiri obtained the lowest qualification. Keywords: 5S, quality improvement, productivity, competitiveness. Resumen Con la finalidad de conocer los elementos innecesarios, existencia de material de trabajo, procedimientos de eliminación de materiales innecesarios, ubicación de materiales de trabajo, limpieza de áreas de trabajo, estandarización de procesos, utilización de uniformes, equipo de protección entre otros, la presente investigación tienen el objetivo de caracterizar la técnica de gestión japonesa 5S, caso Comedor Politécnico, considerando que en esta dependencia puede aplicar sin ninguna problema la técnica 5S, mejorar la calidad, su productividad y competitividad; la investigación tiene un enfoque cualicuantitativo, con un método analítico sintético con un nivel de investigación exploratorio, descriptivo, se aplica un instrumento de investigación documental, de escala con variables ordinales, utilizando la escala Likert, método inductivo empírico de información primaria, en la cual se obtiene la siguientes conclusiones obteniendo la calificación más alta de 7, en lo referente Seiri (clasificación) 25%, Seiton ( Orden)36%, Seiso (Limpieza) 32%, Seiketsu (Estandarización) 36%, Shitsuke ( Mantenimiento) 57%, de esta manera de concluye que en Shitsuke donde existe mayor compromiso de los empleados, y en Seiri es la que menor calificación se obtiene. Palabras clave: 5S, mejora de la calidad, productividad, competitividad

Potential role of predators on carbon dynamics of marine ecosystems as assessed by a Bayesian belief network.

While the effects of climate change on top predators are well documented, the role of predation on ecosystem level carbon production is poorly developed, despite it being a logical consequence of trophic dynamics. Trophic cascade effects have shown predator mediated changes in primary production, but we predict that predators should lower the overall biomass capacity of any system with top down control. Through a simple Bayesian belief network model of a typical marine foodweb, we show that predator removal, as is common through activities such as fishing and shark finning, results in higher biomasses of lower trophic level fish and zooplankton, resulting in higher net carbon production by the system. In situations common throughout much of the ocean, where activities such as shark finning and over fishing reduce the highest tropic levels, the probability of net carbon production increasing in the model was ~ 60%, and unlike previous studies on simple food chains, trophic cascade effects were not present. While the results are preliminary, and sources of uncertainty in data and models are acknowledged, such results provide even more strength to the argument to protect open sea fish stocks, and particularly large predators such as sharks, cetaceans and game fish

Exudative pharyngitis possibly due to Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum, a new challenge in the differential diagnosis of diphtheria.

Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum has rarely been reported to cause disease in humans, despite its common presence in the flora of the upper respiratory tract. We report here a case of exudative pharyngitis with pseudomembrane possibly caused by C. pseudodiphtheriticum in a 4-year-old girl. The case initially triggered clinical and laboratory suspicion of diphtheria. Because C. pseudodiphtheriticum can be easily confused with Corynebacterium diphtheriae in Gram stain, clarification of its role in the pathogenesis of exudative pharyngitis in otherwise healthy persons is of public health importance. Simple and rapid screening tests to differentiate C. pseudodiphtheriticum from C. diphtheriae should be performed to prevent unnecessary concern in the community and unnecessary outbreak control measures

Nanoparticles in SiH4-Ar plasma: Modelling and comparison with experimental data

Experimental and theoretical investigations for growth of silicon nanoparticles (4 to 14 nm) in radio frequency discharge were carried out. Growth processes were performed with gas mixtures of SiH4 and Ar in a plasma chemical reactor at low pressure. A distinctive feature of presented kinetic model of generation and growth of nanoparticles (compared to our earlier model) is its ability to investigate small"critical" dimensions of clusters, determining the rate of particle production and taking into account the influence of SiH2 and Si2Hm dimer radicals. The experiments in the present study were extended to high pressure (≥20 Pa) and discharge power (≥40 W). Model calculations were compared to experimental measurements, investigating the dimension of silicon nanoparticles as a function of time, discharge power, gas mixture, total pressure, and gas flow

Scaling Flow Path Processes to Fluvial Landscapes: An Integrated Field and Model Assessment of Temperature and Dissolved Oxygen Dynamics in a River-Floodplain-Aquifer System

Biogeochemical cycling within river ecosystems is strongly influenced by geomorphic and hydrologic dynamics. To scale point observations of temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) to a hydrologically complex and dynamic three-dimensional river-floodplain-aquifer system, we integrated empirical models of temperature and biotic oxygen utilization with a recently published hydrogeomorphic model. The hydrogeomorphic model simulates channel flow, floodplain inundation, and surface-subsurface water exchange on the 16 km(2) Nyack Floodplain, Middle Fork Flathead River, Montana, USA. Model results were compared to observed data sets of DO to test the hypothesis that complexity in spatiotemporal patterns of biogeochemistry emerges from a comparatively simple representation of biogeochemical processes operating within a multidimensional hydrologic system. The model explained 58% of the variance in 820 DO measurements that spanned the study site longitudinally, laterally, vertically, and across river discharge conditions and seasons. We also used model results to illustrate spatial and temporal trends of temperature and DO dynamics within the shallow alluvial aquifer, which is an extensive hyporheic zone because subsurface alluvial flow paths are recharged primarily by channel water. Our results underscore the importance of geomorphic, hydrologic, and temperature dynamics in driving river ecosystem processes, and they demonstrate how a realistic representation of a river\u27s physical template, combined with simple biogeochemical models, can explain complex patterns of solute availability

An integrated evaluation of potential management processes on marine reserves in continental Ecuador based on a Bayesian belief network model

Evaluating potential effects of conservation and management actions in marine reserves requires an understanding not only of the biological processes in the reserve, and between the reserve and the surrounding ocean, but also of the effects of the wildlife on the wider political and economic processes. Such evaluations are made considerably more difficult in the absence of good ecological data from within reserves or consistent data between reserves and the wider marine environment, as is the case in much of mainland Ecuador. We present an approach to evaluate the effects of a wide range of possible management processes on the marine ecology of the Machalilla National Park, as well as that of the surrounding marine environments (including recently established reserves) and related socio-economic pressures. The approach is based on Bayesian belief networks, and as such can be used in the presence of sparse data from multiple and disparate sources. We show that currently there are no observable benefits of marine reserves to reef and fish community structure, and that high value (normally predatory) fish, which are sought by fishers and shark finners are frequently absent from reef systems. We demonstrate that there is broad similarity in ecological communities between most shallow marine systems, in or out of marine reserves, and predict there can be a strong effect from actions outside the reserve on what is present within it. We also show that establishing a stronger link between (responsible) ecotourism and the marine environment could reduce the need for income in other more destructive areas, such as fishing and particularly shark finning, and discuss ways that high value, low impact eco-tourism could be introduced

Comparing Four Approaches for Technical Debt Identification

Background: Software systems accumulate technical debt (TD) when short-term goals in software development are traded for long term goals (e.g., quick-and-dirty implementation to reach a release date vs. a well-refactored implementation that supports the long term health of the project). Some forms of TD accumulate over time in the form of source code that is difficult to work with and exhibits a variety of anomalies. A number of source code analysis techniques and tools have been proposed to potentially identify the code-level debt accumulated in a system. What has not yet been studied is if using multiple tools to detect TD can lead to benefits, i.e. if different tools will flag the same or different source code components. Further, these techniques also lack investigation into the symptoms of TD "interest" that they lead to. To address this latter question, we also investigated whether TD, as identified by the source code analysis techniques, correlates with interest payments in the form of increased defect- and change-proneness. Aims: Comparing the results of different TD identification approaches to understand their commonalities and differences and to evaluate their relationship to indicators of future TD "interest". Method: We selected four different TD identification techniques (code smells, automatic static analysis (ASA) issues, grime buildup, and modularity violations) and applied them to 13 versions of the Apache Hadoop open source software project. We collected and aggregated statistical measures to investigate whether the different techniques identified TD indicators in the same or different classes and whether those classes in turn exhibited high interest (in the form of a large number of defects and higher change proneness). Results: The outputs of the four approaches have very little overlap and are therefore pointing to different problems in the source code. Dispersed coupling and modularity violations were co-located in classes with higher defect proneness. We also observed a strong relationship between modularity violations and change proneness. Conclusions: Our main contribution is an initial overview of the TD landscape, showing that different TD techniques are loosely coupled and therefore indicate problems in different locations of the source code. Moreover, our proxy interest indicators (change- and defect-proneness) correlate with only a small subset of TD indicator

Obesity and Respiratory Hospitalizations During Influenza Seasons in Ontario, Canada: A Cohort Study

Evidence from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic suggests that severe obesity was a risk factor for serious complications from influenza infection. Our study identifies severe obesity as a risk factor for respiratory hospitalizations during seasonal influenza epidemics