The classical funnel experiment was used by Deming to promote the idea of statistical process control (SPC). The popular example illustrates that the implementation of simple feedback rules to stationary processes violates the independence assumption and prevents the implementation of conventional SPC. However, Deming did not indicate how to implement SPC in the presence of such feedback rules....

BS5750 is the British Standard on "Quality Systems". Its equivalent in European Standards is EN29000 and in the International Standards Organisation ISO9000. This paper points out that these standards lay down formalised procedures and require documentation but do not ipso facto lead to quality assurance. The author points to the Japanese post-war industrial success as being an example of Total...

Mentoring is an important teaching-learning process in undergraduate nursing curricula. There are relatively few studies specifically evaluating nursing students’ perceptions of mentorship. In the period 1999 – 2002, thirty-nine students were mentored during a year-long program. This descriptive, exploratory study used a quality improvement framework informed by the Deming Cycle of Plan, Do, Ch...

Mentoring is an important teaching-learning process in undergraduate nursing curricula. There are relatively few studies specifically evaluating nursing students' perceptions of mentorship. In the period 1999-2002, 39 students were mentored during a year-long program. This descriptive, exploratory study used a quality improvement framework informed by the Deming cycle of Plan, Do, Check and Act...

The aim of this article is to present “a closer look” at the management theory of “Six Sigma Quality” and to contrast it with the management theory of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. This paper will offer a perspective that the critical differences between “Six Sigma Quality” and the teachings of Dr. Deming are not technical, but rather philosophical in nature. This explanation briefly compares the tech...

Bacterial dissolution and degradation of particles is an important process in the cycling of organic matter in the ocean. Because particles are the primary vehicles for vertical export of organic material from the oceans’ productive surface layer to the deep sea, bacteria associated with marine particles contribute to the export of organic matter and to the regulation of its magnitude and compo...

A total of 1628 human plasma samples from Cycle 1 of the Canadian Health Measures Survey were assayed for total 25-hydroxyvitamin D using the DiaSorin RIA method and the Diasorin “LIAISON 25 OH Vitamin D Total” method. Bland-Altman comparison showed an average bias of 4.8 ± 16.7 nmol/L (6.3%: P<0.001) with the LIAISON method giving higher values. The relationship was investigated using linear a...