Quality Management in China: Effects of Company Ownership and Size

Purpose – The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the effect of company ownership and size on Chinese company’s QM development and their choices of QM initiatives, the effect of ISO 9000 series on other QM practices and the attitudes of the workers towards these initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – The research is entirely based on case studies in six Chinese manufacturing companies, covering all types of companies. Interviews are done with both the managers and workers in each company, and observations and documents are available in some of the cases. Findings – SOEs and foreign-owned companies have more progress compared with POEs, while larger companies are performing better in terms of Process control & continuous improvement, Education and training, Recognition and reward, and Supplier participation than the SMEs. For the choice of QM initiatives, SOEs prefer TQM and have made attempt for Six-Sigma, foreign-owned companies have developed their QM system based on their own experience and POEs are performing less inspiring. The company size is found to have no significant influence on this issue. The ISO 9000 series are found to have a facilitating effect to other QM practices as it provides the companies with a general framework to build the QM practices. When regarding worker’s attitudes, the majority of Chinese workers wish that financial incentives could be used to promote the QM practices. The empowerment and teamwork are receiving mixed feelings, as some workers have concerns about the associated extra workload and a tighter control from the managers. Research limitations/implications – The geographic concentration of the case companies and the small sample size for each type of the companies have brought the concern on the generality of the findings. Because of the author’s limited access to the companies, the interviews did not cover the top managers which are considered to be crucial to QM. Also, the effect of industry type is not tested in this dissertation. Practical implications – Chinese companies may consider using ISO 9000 series to build up the basis of QM system and develop based on their own experience. The company may also consider using TQM to educate the workers. In that case, Six-Sigma can be used to elevate the QM results. Financial incentives should be used to promote the practices. Keywords: TQM, Six-Sigma, IOS 9000 series, ownership, size, Chinese manufacturer

Preparation of Functionalized Graphene and Gold Nanocomposites – Self-assembly and Catalytic Properties

Nanocomposites and nanomaterials have been attracting more attention in various fields. Nanocomposites can be prepared with a variety of special physical, thermal, and other unique properties. They have better properties than conventional microscale composites and can be synthesized using simple and inexpensive techniques. A composite material consists of an assemblage of two materials of different natures completing and allowing us to obtain a material of which the set of performance characteristics is greater than that of the components taken separately. In our recent research, some functionalized nanocomposites and nanomaterials have been prepared and investigated. In addition, some of the analytical methods, theoretical treatments, and synthetic tools, which are being applied in the area of self-assembly and supramolecular chemistry, will be highlighted. In this chapter, we summarize our main research contributions in recent years in two sections: (1) preparation and catalytic properties of some functionalized graphene nanocomposites; (2) preparation and catalytic properties of some functionalized gold nanocomposites. These works not only provided important inspirations for developing graphene-hybridized materials but also opened new possibilities to improve the photocatalytic activity of photocatalyst

Process monitoring based on orthogonal locality preserving projection with maximum likelihood estimation

By integrating two powerful methods of density reduction and intrinsic dimensionality estimation, a new data-driven method, referred to as OLPP-MLE (orthogonal locality preserving projection-maximum likelihood estimation), is introduced for process monitoring. OLPP is utilized for dimensionality reduction, which provides better locality preserving power than locality preserving projection. Then, the MLE is adopted to estimate intrinsic dimensionality of OLPP. Within the proposed OLPP-MLE, two new static measures for fault detection TOLPP2 and SPEOLPP are defined. In order to reduce algorithm complexity and ignore data distribution, kernel density estimation is employed to compute thresholds for fault diagnosis. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by three case studies

Facile Preparation of Silver Halide Nanoparticles as Visible Light Photocatalysts

In this study, highly efficient silver halide (AgX)-based photocatalysts were successfully fabricated using a facile and template-free direct-precipitation method. AgX nanoparticles, which included silver chloride (AgCl), silver bromide (AgBr) and silver iodide (AgI), were synthesized using different potassium halides and silver acetate as reactive sources. The size distribution of the AgX nanoparticles was determined by the reaction time and ratio of the reagents, which were monitored by UV-vis spectra. The as-prepared AgX nanoparticles exhibited different photocatalytic properties. This shows the differences for the photodegradation of methyl orange and Congo red dyes. In addition, the AgCl nanoparticle-based photocatalyst exhibited the best photocatalytic property among all three types of AgX nanoparticles that are discussed in this study. Therefore, it is a good candidate for removing organic pollutants

Observation of the Effect of Gait-induced Functional Electrical Stimulation on Stroke Patients with Foot Drop

Objective: To explore the effects of functional electrical stimulation and functional mid frequency electrical stimulation on lower limb function and balance function in stroke patients. Methods: 20 cases of stroke patients with foot drop after admission were randomly divided into the observation group and the control group, 10 cases in each group. On the basis of the two groups of patients, the observation group used the gait induced functional electrical stimulation to stimulate the peroneal nerve and the pretibial muscle in the observation group. The control group used the computer medium frequency functional electrical stimulation to stimulate the peroneal nerve and the anterior tibial muscle for 2 weeks. Before and after treatment, the lower extremity simple Fugl-Meyer scale (FMA), the Berg balance scale (BBS) and the improved Ashworth scale were evaluated respectively, and the comparative analysis was carried out in the group and between the groups. Results: After 2 weeks of treatment, the scores of FMA and BBS in the two groups were significantly higher than those before the treatment (P < 0.05), and the scores of FMA and BBS in the observation group were higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05), and the flexor muscle tension of the ankle plantar flexor muscle of the observed group was lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Exercise therapy combined with gait induced functional electrical stimulation or computer intermediate frequency functional electrical stimulation can significantly improve lower limb function and balance function in patients with ptosis, and the therapeutic effect of functional electrical stimulation combined with gait is better.

Terpenoids and other secondary metabolites produced by the Eutypella fungi and their bioactivities

The fungi Eutypella could metabolize a myriad of natural products with unique structures and diverse bioactivities, which were deemed as key sources for lead compounds in drug discovery. Since the first research on the genus Eutypella in 2009, a myriad of secondary metabolites including terpenoids, alkaloids, and polyketides have been discovered in this genus, and most of them exhibited significant pharmacological activities. However, there are no systematic reviews that reported about the structures and bioactivities of Eutypella up to now. In this review, a total of 153 secondary metabolites and 42 references have been systematically summarized, and we found that the terpenoids (68.09%) and alkaloids (19.15%) were the new main components of this fungi, and the primary antiproliferative activity (64.89%) was mainly derived from the terpenoids and alkaloids. Thus, this review about the chemical diversity and biological activities of the metabolites from the fungus Eutypella provided a new perspective for the development of new drugs for pharmacologists

Evidence of the Efficacy and the Effectiveness of First Generation COVID-19 Vaccines in Clinical Trials and Real-world Studies

More than 300 COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been developed or are currently in development. COVID-19 vaccines on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing and other COVID-19 vaccine products conditionally approved by national regulatory authorities are already in large-scale use, thus preventing severe illness or death and inducing herd immunity at the population level in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In this review, we systemically assess the efficacy and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in clinical trials or real-world studies, in various populations, including healthy adults, children, older people, pregnant people, people with cancer, and people receiving long-term hemodialysis or solid organ transplantation. In addition, we review available evidence regarding the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine immunization strategies in people with a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and the enhanced effectiveness conferred by various booster immunizations. We also discuss knowledge gaps in the persistence and spectrum of vaccine protection of currently available COVID-19 vaccines