Students' Perceived Image of the University before entering and during study

The study goals were to investigate what images have the high school and the university students about university, before entering and during study. A tool was developed consisting of (54) items. Face validity, Cronbach alpha coefficient, ANOVA, and Scheffe post-hoc tests were computed. Results show that university image mean is high among high school and university students, but the high school students' image is higher than that of the university students, and the university students' image during study is lower than theirs when they were in high school. All these differences are statistically significant. Keywords: perceived image, university climate, service quality

Quality improvement in ammonium nitrate production using Six Sigma methodology

Six sigma has been used in different industries to reach operational excellence. However, in the chemical industry, the application of this methodology is limited. This research presents an implementation of the six sigma method for ammonium nitrate (AN) content optimization in condensate production for a fertilizer company in Colombia. The paper aims to determine the levels for input variables in the process, to meet desirable standards for condensate quality in terms of ammonium nitrate content. Based on the DMAIC steps implementation, it was possible to establish the main variables affecting the condensate quality and their optimal levels to reach an ammonium nitrate content below 15,000 ppm. These results demonstrate the impact that a six sigma project may have on operational effectiveness and quality improvement for meeting the customer requirements

Use of twitter data for waste minimisation in beef supply chain

Approximately one third of the food produced is discarded or lost, which accounts for 1.3 billion tons per annum. The waste is being generated throughout the supply chain viz. farmers, wholesalers/processors, logistics, retailers and consumers. The majority of waste occurs at the interface of retailers and consumers. Many global retailers are making efforts to extract intelligence from customer’s complaints left at retail store to backtrack their supply chain to mitigate the waste. However, majority of the customers don’t leave the complaints in the store because of various reasons like inconvenience, lack of time, distance, ignorance etc. In current digital world, consumers are active on social media and express their sentiments, thoughts, and opinions about a particular product freely. For example, on an average, 45,000 tweets are tweeted daily related to beef products to express their likes and dislikes. These tweets are large in volume, scattered and unstructured in nature. In this study, twitter data is utilised to develop waste minimization strategies by backtracking the supply chain. The execution process of proposed framework is demonstrated for beef supply chain. The proposed model is generic enough and can be applied to other domains as well

Mobile Applications and Wearables for Chronic Respiratory Disease Monitoring

Mobile health (mHealth) has tremendous potential to benefit patients, providers, and the entire healthcare system. Benefits for patients to adopt mHealth include more effective access to health providers, reduced costs of care, and better health control. For physicians and the healthcare system, reasons to embrace mHealth are enhanced health outcomes, facilitated access to patients for care, and decreased time required for administrative tasks. Currently, some mobile apps and wearables dedicated to respiratory health provide medical education and messaging services, enable diary logs, aid with disease self-management, and include educational games. Major challenges for mHealth to be widely adopted include lack of studies demonstrating effectiveness, limited access to technology by all patients, decreased adoption over time, high costs, and data privacy concerns

Achievement and self-concept relation: An evidence of the adequacy of the I/E model with a short version of the self-description questionnaire-ii among school students in oman

© 2019, Padova University Press. All rights reserved. Due to the segregated nature of schools in Arab countries and the differential socialization of boys and girls, the Arab culture presents interesting aspects to explore. In the current research, we tested the generalizability of the social comparison and dimensional comparison theory among school boys and girls in Oman. A sample of 700 students (334 boys and 366 girls) with ages between 13 and 20 years old participated. Two subscales of the Self-Description Questionnaire-II (SDQII, short form) were used: Arabic and math self-concepts. Statistical procedures included confirmatory factor analysis, invariance tests, and path analysis using AMOS (v.23) and MANOVA. The results revealed positive paths between achievement and respective self-concept domains (external comparison), and negative paths between achievement and non-matching domain (internal comparison). Differences in achievement were observed for girls, although boys presented higher math self-concept. Overall, the propositions of the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model were valid in the Omani society, although more studies, especially longitudinal and using nationally representative wide samples of Arab countries are recommended

Qualitative and quantitative comparison of PET/CT and PET/MR imaging in clinical practice

The aim of this study was to prospectively compare whole-body PET/MR imaging and PET/CT, qualitatively and quantitatively, in oncologic patients and assess the confidence and degree of inter- and intraobserver agreement in anatomic lesion localization. Methods: fifty patients referred for staging with known cancers underwent PET/CT with low-dose CT for attenuation correction immediately followed by PET/MR imaging with 2-point Dixon attenuation correction. PET/CT scans were obtained according to standard protocols (56 ± 20 min after injection of an average 367 MBq of 18F-FDG, 150 MBq of 68Ga-DOTATATE, or 333.8 MBq of 18F-fluoro-ethyl- choline; 2.5 min/bed position). PET/MR was performed with = min/bed position. Three dual-accredited nuclear medicine physicians/radiologists identified the lesions and assigned each to an exact anatomic location. The image quality, alignment, and confidence in anatomic localization of lesions were scored on a scale of 1-3 for PET/CT and PET/MR imaging. Quantitative analysis was performed by comparing the standardized uptake values. Intraclass correlation coefficients and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test were used to assess intra- and interobserver agreement in image quality, alignment, and confidence in lesion localization for the 2 modalities. Results: two hundred twenty-seven tracer-avid lesions were identified in 50 patients. Of these, 225 were correctly identified on PET/CT and 227 on PET/MR imaging by all 3 observers. The confidence in anatomic localization improved by 5.1% when using PET/MR imaging, compared with PET/CT. The mean percentage interobserver agreement was 96% for PET/CT and 99% for PET/MR imaging, and intraobserver agreement in lesion localization across the 2 modalities was 93%. There was 10% (5/50 patients) improvement in local staging with PET/MR imaging, compared with PET/CT. Conclusion: in this first study, we show the effectiveness of whole-body PET/MR imaging in oncology. There is no statistically significant difference between PET/MR imaging and PET/CT in respect of confidence and degree of inter- and intraobserver agreement in anatomic lesion localization. The PET data on both modalities were similar; however, the observed superior soft-tissue resolution of MR imaging in head and neck, pelvis, and colorectal cancers and of CT in lung and mediastinal nodal disease points to future tailored use in these locations