ISO 9000 maintenance measures : the case of a Malaysian local authority

Although many studies pertaining ISO 9000 initiatives have been conducted, the topic of ISO 9000 maintenance has received little attention from researchers. This paper presents a detailed case study of the ISO 9000 maintenance measures within a Malaysian local authority. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 interviewees. The findings revealed that six measures are undertaken in ISO 9000 maintenance; namely, control of documents, internal quality audit, data analysis and feedback, management review, corrective and preventative action, and training. The research findings also revealed that the ISO 9000 maintenance measures are effectively carried out at a Malaysian local authority in this study. Although adherence to work procedures and focus on customer satisfaction have been given priority, the ISO 9000 maintenance has progressed into a more advanced phase by making ISO 9000 a tool to deliver a high-quality service that results in organisational performance improvement. Continuous improvement initiatives have enabled ISO 9000 maintenance to move forward and reach its advanced stage. The findings derived from this research would facilitate managers to understand the measures needed for effective ISO 9000 maintenance. The main contribution of this study is that it is one of the first to explore ISO 9000 maintenance in a specific sector, that is local authority. Hence, the findings are significantly important in developing knowledge of ISO 9000 maintenance in the local authority sector

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CODE OF ETHICS AND CODE OF CONDUCT ON PREVENTING CORRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR IN EMPLOYEES OF THE CORRUPTION ERADICATION COMMISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA (KPK RI)

This study discusses the influence of the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for KPK personnel which includes 5 (five) basic values, namely: integrity, synergy, fairness, leadership, and professionalism towards preventing corrupt behavior among KPK employees. Integrity, synergy, fairness, and leadership are placed as independent/exogenous variables while professionalism is placed as a moderating variable. The research objective is to answer the formulation of the problem which includes 9 research questions. The research method uses a quantitative approach through SEM (Structural Equation Model) analysis. The number of samples was 321 people who were calculated based on the Slovin formula and were taken using a proportionate random sampling technique, in this case, the KPK employees who came from State Civil and Assigned Civil Servants. Variable operationalization uses indicators that have been formulated in the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct for KPK Employees, namely as stated in Perdewas KPK Number 2 of 2021, and from various theories. From the results of the study, it was concluded that there is a positive and significant influence of Integrity, Synergy, and Leadership variables on Professionalism and Prevention of Corrupt Behavior among Employees at the KPK. The justice variable was found to have no significant effect. This means that if the quality of the three variables that have had this influence is improved, it will be followed by an increase in professionalism and prevention of corrupt behavior. Fundamental improvements are needed regarding aspects of justice, which include the creation of a conducive work environment and perceptions of fairness in the fulfillment of employee welfare to improve the variables of justice

Salivary Gland Tumors in Maxillofacial Region: A Retrospective Study of 130 Cases in a Southern Iranian Population

Tumors of the salivary glands are uncommon head and neck neoplasia. We conducted a retrospective study of 392 cases over the last 6 years in Shiraz, south of Iran, to investigate the clinicopathological features of these tumors in Iranian population. The age of the patients ranged from 8 to 85 years, with the mean age 44.57 ± 14.65 years and male-to-female (M : F) ratio was 1.02 : 1. For benign tumors, there was a propensity towards females, whereas the malignant tumor was more common in males. The ratio of benign tumors to malignancies was 2.19 : 1. Pleomorphic adenoma (PA) was the most common tumor and accounted for 85% of all benign tumors, followed by Warthin's tumor (8.6%). Of the 125 malignancies, adenoid cystic carcinoma (40%), mucoepidermoid carcinoma (24%) and invasive squamous cell carcinoma (16%) were the most common histological types. Most of the salivary gland tumors (75%) originated from major salivary glands and the remained (25%) originated from minor glands. The parotid gland was the most common site both in benign and malignant tumors. Most of our findings were similar to those in the literature, with some variations. The salivary tumors slightly predominated in males. Adenoid cystic carcinoma and mucoepidermoid carcinoma constituted the most common malignancies

Pendidikan Karakter dalam Upaya Mencegah Perilaku Bullying pada Anak-Anak di Dusun Limpana Desa Rantau Bujur

Bullying dapat menyebabkan korban menjadi gangguan psikologis seperti depresi, bahkan dapat menyebabkan korban hingga bunuh diri. Maraknya kasus bullying di Dusun Limpana, Desa Rantau Bujur, Kecamatan Bungur, Kabupaten tapin cukup tinggi. Kasus bullying di Dusun Limpana biasanya terjadi antar teman sebaya yang berumur 5-12 tahun. Faktor utama yang terjadi dengan anakanak melakukan bullying yaitu kurangnya perhatian dari orang tua. Sehingga itu akan berdampak pada kondisi psikologis anak dan juga tak heran mereka mengalami kesepian dan lebih memilih menghabiskan waktu bermainnya diluar rumah. Dengan adanya pendampingan dan sosialisasi tersebut anak-anak bisa memahami apa itu bullying dan dampaknya bagi kesehatan mental sehingga dapat terbentuknya pola pikir dan tingkah laku yang baik dari pendidikan karakter. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah metode partisipatory action research (PAR) yang dilaksanakan secara partisipatif pada perilaku bullying di dusun Limpana, Desa Rantau Bujur, Kecamatan Bungur, Kabupaten Tapin, Kalimantan Selatan. Informasi atau data yang diperoleh bersumber dari observasi lapangan, dan wawancara. Proses pendampingan yang dilakukan selama 30 hari oleh Mahasiswa KKN UIN Antasari, berupa pembelajaran dan pemberian kata-kata motivasi saat kegiatan belajar mengajar di Sekolah Dasar, di TPA, dan ketika mereka berada di posko KKN. Anak-anak di Dusun Limpana termotivasi untuk tidak lagi menyakiti temannya secara berlebihan

Cardiac Tamponade Secondary to COVID-19

A 67-year-old female presented with upper respiratory symptoms and was diagnosed with COVID-19. She was found to have a large hemorrhagic pericardial effusion with echocardiographic signs of tamponade and mild left ventricular impairment. Clinical course was complicated by development of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. She was treated with pericardiocentesis, colchicine, corticosteroids and hydroxychloroquine with improvement in symptoms

The influence of academic culture on quality management system ISO 9001 maintenance within Malaysian universities

This study investigates the influence of the elements of academic culture on quality management system ISO 9001 maintenance within Malaysian universities. There is a dearth of empirical studies on maintaining ISO 9001, particularly in the higher education context. From the literature review, academic culture was classified according to four elements – academic freedom, individualism, professionalism and collegiality. Two case studies were conducted within Malaysian universities that had been ISO 9001-certified for 5 years. At the time of this research, these two were the only universities that had certification for their entire organisation. (Most organisations gain certification for specific departments). The findings showed that academic freedom, individualism and collegiality had worked against ISO 9001 maintenance, while professionalism had influenced ISO 9001 maintenance both positively and negatively. The opposites of individualism (teamwork) and collegiality (managerialism) had supported ISO 9001 maintenance in one of the cases. © 2017, Routledge. All rights reserved

Operationalization of bi-directional screening for tuberculosis and diabetes in private sector healthcare clinics in Karachi, Pakistan

Background: Many countries are facing overlapping epidemics of tuberculosis (TB) and diabetes mellitus (DM). Diabetes increases the overall risk of developing Tuberculosis (TB) and contributes to adverse treatment outcomes. Active screening for both diseases can reduce TB transmission and prevent the development of complications of DM. We investigated bi-directional TB-DM screening in Karachi, Pakistan, a country that ranks fifth among high TB burden countries, and has the seventh highest country burden for DM.Methods: Between February to November 2014, community-based screeners identified presumptive TB and DM through verbal screening at private health clinics. Individuals with presumptive TB were referred for a chest X-ray and Xpert MTB/RIF. Presumptive DM cases had random blood glucose (RBS) tested. All individuals with bacteriologically positive TB were referred for diabetes testing (RBS). All pre-diabetics and diabetics were referred for a chest X-ray and Xpert MTB/RIF test. The primary outcomes of this study were uptake of TB and DM testing.Results: A total of 450,385 individuals were screened, of whom 18,109 had presumptive DM and 90,137 had presumptive TB. 14,550 of these individuals were presumptive for both DM and TB. The uptake of DM testing among those with presumptive diabetes was 26.1% while the uptake of TB testing among presumptive TB cases was 5.9%. Despite efforts to promote bi-directional screening of TB and DM, the uptake of TB testing among pre-diabetes and diabetes cases was only 4.7%, while the uptake of DM testing among MTB positive cases was 21.8%.Conclusion: While a high yield for TB was identified among pre-diabetics and diabetics along with a high yield of DM among individuals diagnosed with TB, there was a low uptake of TB testing amongst presumptive TB patients who were recorded as pre-diabetic or diabetic. Bi-directional screening for TB and DM which includes the integration of TB diagnostics, DM screening and TB-DM treatment within existing health care programs will need to address the operational challenges identified before implementing this as a strategy in public health programs

High-level information fusion for risk and accidents prevention in pervasive oil industry environments

Proceedings of: 12th International Conference on Practical Applications of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, University of Salamanca (Spain), 4th-6th June, 2014.Information fusion studies theories and methods to effectively combine data from multiple sensors and related information to achieve more specific inferences that could be achieved by using a single, independent sensor. Information fused from sensors and data mining analysis has recently attracted the attention of the research community for real-world applications. In this sense, the deployment of an Intelligent Offshore Oil Industry Environment will help to figure out a risky scenario based on the events occurred in the past related to anomalies and the profile of the current employee (role, location, etc.). In this paper we propose an information fusion model for an intelligent oil environment in which employees are alerted about possible risk situations while their are moving around their working place. The layered architecture, implements a reasoning engine capable of intelligently filtering the context profile of the employee (role, location) for the feature selection of an inter-transaction mining process. Depending on the employee contextual information he will receive intelligent alerts based on the prediction model that use his role and his current location. This model provides the big picture about risk analysis for that employee at that place in that moment.This work was partially funded by CNPq BJT Project 407851/2012-

TCT-126 Outcomes of Chronic Total Occlusion Percutaneous Coronary Intervention of the Left Anterior Descending Artery

Background: Improvement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) after chronic total occlusion (CTO) percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has been modest in prior studies. Methods: Our cohort included patients who underwent LAD CTO PCI at a single center (Henry Ford Hospital) from 2014 to 2021. We evaluate the change in LVEF after LAD CTO PCI using the paired t test in all patients, those with ischemic cardiomyopathy (CM), and those who underwent a viability test. Results: From December 2014 to February 2022, a total of 237 LAD CTO PCI procedures were performed at Henry Ford Hospital (proximal LAD: 56.6%). In-hospital MACE occurred in 13 patients (5.5%; death: 1.3%). Landmark analysis after discharge showed an overall survival of the cohort was 92.7% and MACE-free survival of 85.0% over a median follow-up of 2 years. The median baseline EF was 50% (IQR 35%-55%). Only 51 patients had reduced baseline LVEF (40% or less). After a median follow-up of 9.2 months (IQR 3-28.6 months), there was a significant improvement in LVEF after LAD CTO PCI (mean 10.9%, 95% CI 7.1%-14.8%, P \u3c 0.001). When limiting the analysis to patients who had ischemic cardiomyopathy, proximal LAD CTO PCI, and were on optimal medical therapy (n = 29), LVEF was significantly improved (mean increase of 14%, 95% CI 9.5-18.5%, P \u3c 0.001) after a median follow-up period of 6.2 months (3-29.5 months). Conclusion: LAD CTO PCI was associated with a significant 10% improvement in LVEF in ICM patients and was more pronounced (14% improvement) in those who had proximal LAD treated and were on optimal medical therapy. Categories: CORONARY: Complex and Higher Risk Procedures for Indicated Patients (CHIP

Modeling the behavior of radially pinned brick triplets

The continued use of many UK highway and railway masonry arch bridges is dependent upon maintaining robustness as the materials deteriorate over time. A common failure in multi-ring brickwork arches subject to fatigue, is ring separation. This paper offers some early results from an investigation of a ring separation repair technique involving radial pinning. Triplet testing is used to establish and compare the structural behavior of two types of shear reinforcement, which are validated by finite element modelling. Conclusions are drawn which are potentially of significant practical interest to masonry arch bridge owners and assessors