The design of education in 'Manufacturing Quality Management' to enable quantifiable industrial improvements by students

Degree apprentices (DAs) undertake an exciting, alternative route to academic qualifications, combining real employment with University study. Here, we discuss their education in ‘Quality Improvement’ at WMG, focusing on the development of statistical expertise in Year 2 of their programme to procure real improvements in manufacturing and service operations. We show how the preparation for these in Year 1 and the further extension of these in Year 3, interleaved with work-based projects, ensure that DAs can make a significant impact during their apprenticeships. This provides a rapid return on investment for employers, and recognition and faster career progression for DAs

Access and use of interventions to prevent and treat malaria among pregnant women in Kenya and Mali: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Coverage of malaria in pregnancy interventions in sub-Saharan Africa is suboptimal. We undertook a systematic examination of the operational, socio-economic and cultural constraints to pregnant women's access to intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp), long-lasting insecticide-treated nets (LLINs) and case management in Kenya and Mali to provide empirical evidence for strategies to improve coverage. METHODS: Focus group discussions (FGDs) were held as part of a programme of research to explore the delivery, access and use of interventions to control malaria in pregnancy. FGDs were held with four sub-groups: non-pregnant women of child bearing age (aged 15-49 years), pregnant women or mothers of children aged <1 year, adolescent women, and men. Content analysis was used to develop themes and sub-themes from the data. RESULTS: Women and men's perceptions of the benefits of antenatal care were generally positive; motivation among women consisted of maintaining a healthy pregnancy, disease prevention in mother and foetus, checking the position of the baby in preparation for delivery, and ensuring admission to a facility in case of complications. Barriers to accessing care related to the quality of the health provider-client interaction, perceived health provider skills and malpractice, drug availability, and cost of services. Pregnant women perceived themselves and their babies at particular risk from malaria, and valued diagnosis and treatment from a health professional, but cost of treatment at health facilities drove women to use herbal remedies or drugs bought from shops. Women lacked information on the safety, efficacy and side effects of antimalarial use in pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Women in these settings appreciated the benefits of antenatal care and yet health services in both countries are losing women to follow-up due to factors that can be improved with greater political will. Antenatal services need to be patient-centred, free-of-charge or highly affordable and accountable to the women they serve

A study of effect of intra umbilical oxytocin in active management of third stage of labour

Background: Postpartum haemorrhage is a single major and leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. PPH is the loss of more than 500 ml blood following vaginal delivery or 1000 ml blood following caesarean section. India has a maternal mortality ratio of 167 per 1 lakh live births. The most common cause of maternal mortality is haemorrhage which accounts for 25-30% of maternal mortality of which PPH is a significant cause. Methods: 200 patients were included in this prospective observational study and divided into two groups, group A, underwent only active management of third stage of labour and group B received intra umbilical oxytocin administration in addition to AMTSL. The maternal and neonatal outcome was observed between the two and the difference was noted. Results: Mean duration of third stage of labour of group A patients was 3.89±0.89 minutes and Mean blood loss was 386±85.30 ml and that of group B patients was 1.96±0.68 minutes and 235±72.99 ml respectively. These were found to be statistically significant among all the other parameters. Conclusions: The duration of third stage of labour and the amount of postpartum blood loss was significantly less when intra umbilical injection of oxytocin was used in addition to AMTSL. So, to conclude intra umbilical vein oxytocin injection should be used routinely in addition to AMTSL in order to prevent PPH

Sustainable Approaches to the Management of Innovation and Technology in Engineering (SAMITE II)

Engineering gives rise to some of the most vibrant and fast-paced industries in the world; yet, these industries and innovations can exact a heavy price, impacting people and the planet in the procurement of profits. Growing awareness of environmental issues and concerns over the cumulative environmental impact of extraction, manufacturing and transport have provoked increasing demands for accountability and responsibility; there is a groundswell of opinion that industries must be more transparent. The innovation of new, more sustainable practices cannot be done in isolation: practitioners must work with other professionals, if the needs of all stakeholders are to be respected and embraced. To address contemporary challenges and create a more sustainable world, graduates must know whom to speak with, why and about what. As a key step towards this, we present a framework to provide a holistic perspective on the intersections of the various value chains that obtain in engineering, manufacturing and product development; this framework makes explicit the many paths through which products and services are created and developed, through what we term ‘innovation trajectories’; and the (artificial and natural) contexts from which these draw; this in turn helps to identify key partners from professions and stakeholder groups. Knowing whom one needs to engage with and why directly supports softer skills that are an essential foundation of an effective professional engineering practice. Thus, we also consider this framework a useful mechanism to inform the discussion around employability and professional competence

HST Morphologies of z~2 Dust Obscured Galaxies I: Power-law Sources

We present high spatial resolution optical and near-infrared imaging obtained using the ACS, WFPC2 and NICMOS cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope of 31 24um--bright z~2 Dust Obscured Galaxies (DOGs) identified in the Bootes Field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. Although this subset of DOGs have mid-IR spectral energy distributions dominated by a power-law component suggestive of an AGN, all but one of the galaxies are spatially extended and not dominated by an unresolved component at rest-frame UV or optical wavelengths. The observed V-H and I-H colors of the extended components are 0.2-3 magnitudes redder than normal star-forming galaxies. All but 1 have axial ratios >0.3, making it unlikely that DOGs are composed of an edge-on star-forming disk. We model the spatially extended component of the surface brightness distributions of the DOGs with a Sersic profile and find effective radii of 1-6 kpc. This sample of DOGs is smaller than most sub-millimeter galaxies (SMGs), but larger than quiescent high-redshift galaxies. Non-parametric measures (Gini and M20) of DOG morphologies suggest that these galaxies are more dynamically relaxed than local ULIRGs. We estimate lower limits to the stellar masses of DOGs based on the rest-frame optical photometry and find that these range from ~10^(9-11) M_sun. If major mergers are the progenitors of DOGs, then these observations suggest that DOGs may represent a post-merger evolutionary stage.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures, 6 tables, accepted to ApJ; lower limits on stellar mass revised upwards by factor of (1+z

Placental polyp after normal vaginal delivery: a rare diagnostic dilemma

Placental polyp is retained placental tissue within the endometrial cavity, which forms a nidus for inflammation and bleeding. Placental polyp is a rare entity with an incidence of less than 0.25% of all pregnancies as reported. Here, we report a case of 23-year-old P2L2 woman with complaints of intermittent vaginal bleeding since her recent normal vaginal delivery, 1.5 months back. A polypoid mass (51×41 mm) with abundant vascularity was detected as retained products of placenta (RPOC) within the endometrial cavity by imaging studies. A combination of polypoidal mass within the endometrial cavity with normal beta human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) of &lt;2.0 mIU/ml raising the suspicion of retained products of placenta or trophoblastic neoplasms. After yielding an unsatisfactory biopsy containing only fibrin deposition, total hysterectomy was performed due to profuse bleeding during biopsy. The uterus specimen showed slight globular enlargement with presence of a red-coloured polypoid mass within the endometrial cavity with rough outer surface and fragile consistency. The histological specimen of the protruding lesion, from the exaggerated placental implantation site, showed intermediate trophoblastic cells infiltrated into the myometrium, which might lead to the diagnosis of placental polyp. However, since placental polyp and uterine arteriovenous malformation have similar clinical characteristics, it is important to accurately identify and differentiate between them to ensure optimal treatment therapy. Definite diagnosis is ultimately made by histopathological examination. We report here a case that is suggestive of either a placental polyp or uterine arteriovenous malformation and will discuss the differential diagnoses and treatments for both diseases, based on a literature review

Bifurcations in Globally Coupled Map Lattices

The dynamics of globally coupled map lattices can be described in terms of a nonlinear Frobenius--Perron equation in the limit of large system size. This approach allows for an analytical computation of stationary states and their stability. The complete bifurcation behaviour of coupled tent maps near the chaotic band merging point is presented. Furthermore the time independent states of coupled logistic equations are analyzed. The bifurcation diagram of the uncoupled map carries over to the map lattice. The analytical results are supplemented with numerical simulations.Comment: 19 pages, .dvi and postscrip

Prognosis of operable squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Relationship with clinicopathologic features and DNA ploidy

Background: Reports on the influence of various prognostic factors in carcinoma of the esophagus are conflicting. The prognostic value of a set of clinicopathologic factors and DNA ploidy were examined in 74 patients with surgically resected squamous cell carcinoma of the lower and middle third of the esophagus. Methods: All patients had surgery performed in a single thoracic surgical unit at the Tata Memorial Hospital between January, 1984 and December, 1987. The clinicopathologic factors studied were (1) gross residual disease at operation; (2) morphology of the tumor; (3) depth of microscopic invasion; (4) lymph node involvement; (5) histologic grade; (6) vascular and lymphatic embolism; and (7) sex. DNA ploidy and S-phase fraction (SpF) were determined by flow cytometry on archival tissues extracted from paraffin blocks. Ploidy status could be determined successfully in all 74 tumors, whereas SpF could be assessed only in 25. Results: Of the various prognostic factors examined with the Cox stepwise regression model, residual disease (P = 0.000), depth of invasion (P = 0.047), and lymph node status (P = 0.077) were found to be correlated with overall survival. Conclusions: DNA ploidy was not related to prognosis. The overall survival of this group of patients at 36 months was 28%, and median survival was 18 months

A Rapid Cellular FRET Assay of Polyglutamine Aggregation Identifies a Novel Inhibitor

AbstractMany neurodegenerative diseases, including tauopathies, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and the polyglutamine diseases, are characterized by intracellular aggregation of pathogenic proteins. It is difficult to study modifiers of this process in intact cells in a high-throughput and quantitative manner, although this could facilitate molecular insights into disease pathogenesis. Here we introduce a high-throughput assay to measure intracellular polyglutamine protein aggregation using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). We screened over 2800 biologically active small molecules for inhibitory activity and have characterized one lead compound in detail. Y-27632, an inhibitor of the Rho-associated kinase p160ROCK, diminished polyglutamine protein aggregation (EC50 ≅ 5 μM) and reduced neurodegeneration in a Drosophila model of polyglutamine disease. This establishes a novel high-throughput approach to study protein misfolding and aggregation associated with neurodegenerative diseases and implicates a signaling pathway of previously unrecognized importance in polyglutamine protein processing