Quality Assurance of Medical Ontologies

2006 ◽  
Vol 45 (03) ◽  
pp. 267-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Rogers

Summary Objective: To review the literature concerning the quality assurance of medical ontologies. Methods: scholar.google.com was searched using the search strings (+ontology +”quality assurance”) and (+ontology +”evaluation/evaluating”). Relevant publications were selected by manual review. Other work already familiar to the author, or suggested by other researchers contacted by the author, were included. The papers were analysed for common themes. Results: Four broad properties of an ontology were identified that may be quality-assured: philosophical validity, compliance with meta-ontological commitments, ‘content correctness’, and fitness for purpose. Each published methodology addressed only a subset of these properties. ‘Content’ may be divided into domain knowledge content, and metadata describing either the provenance of domain knowledge content, or relationships between it and lexical information (e.g. for display and retrieval). ‘Correctness’ (whether of domain knowledge content or metadata) may also be further subdivided into truth, completeness, parsimony and internal consistency. Conclusions: Understanding of how to assure the quality of ontologies, or evaluate their fitness for specific purposes, is improving but remains poor. A combination of methodologies is required, but tools to support a comprehensive quality assurance programme remain lacking.Perfect quality of an ontology is not provable and may not be desirable: an ontology compliant with all current philosophical theories, following necessary ontological commitments, and with entirely ‘correct’ content, may be too complex to be directly usable or useful.The extent to which an ontology’s fitness for purpose is predicted or influenced by its other properties remains to be determined. Field studies of ontologies in use, including interrater effects, are required.

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 605-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parastou Kharazmi

Abstract Water and wastewater pipes require some of the highest levels of infrastructure investment; they also deteriorate faster than they can be repaired. The use of alternative rehabilitation technologies, which are quicker and less expensive than pipe replacement, has therefore increased significantly in recent years, worldwide. Field studies on relined wastewater pipes removed from buildings in different parts of Sweden revealed the existence of a variety of common defects, most of which could have been prevented by better installation. Increased quality-focused monitoring could help to ensure that relined pipes reach their expected service life, while comprehensive documentation could assist in providing sufficient information to facilitate progress in the field. This paper includes a brief overview of the technologies used in Sweden, current quality control practices, repeated observed defects related to installation, crucial steps that affect final quality, and recommendations to be considered in the contexts of detailed quality control and quality assurance procedures.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lazarus Nabaho ◽  
Wilberforce Turyasingura

Quality assurance of African higher education is at the top of the region’s development agenda. Prompted by the imperative to enhance the quality of higher education, the Africa Union Commission is implementing the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM). The AQRM is a continental tool that affords higher education institutions an opportunity to conduct self-assessment and compare their performance against similar institutions based on a set of common criteria. The mechanism is envisaged to engender institutional cultures of quality and enhance the quality of African higher education. However, a dearth of knowledge exists about the latent notions of quality in higher education that the AQRM aims to assure and the implicit institutional-level quality assurance practices in the AQRM. Therefore, this interpretivist article, based on a review of the AQRM survey questionnaire, answered the following research question: What notions of quality in higher education and the institutional-level quality assurance practices are inherent in the quality standards of the AQRM survey questionnaire? The findings revealed that quality as fitness for purpose and exceptional are the notions of quality in higher education in the AQRM. Nevertheless, fitness for purpose is the dominant notion of quality and this symbolises an imperative to re-direct higher education to serve social and economic ends. Distinguished (excellent) teacher awards, applied research excellence awards, staff professional development, tracer studies, external examination, and the involvement of key external stakeholders in programme development are the latent institutional-level quality assurance practices in the AQRM. These quality assurance practices are in sync with the notions of quality and aim at bridging the gap between the academy and the labour market. Methodologically, the AQRM survey questionnaire is devoid of benchmarks to inform the rating, and quality assurance practices such as student evaluation of teaching, peer observation of teaching and moderation of examination items are unnoticeable in the survey questionnaire.Received: 28 December 2018Accepted: 19 April 2019Published online: 29 May 2019


Author(s):  
Ling Zheng ◽  
Yan Chen ◽  
Hua Min ◽  
P. Lloyd Hildebrand ◽  
Hao Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Ontologies house various kinds of domain knowledge in formal structures, primarily in the form of concepts and the associative relationships between them. Ontologies have become integral components of many health information processing environments. Hence, quality assurance of the conceptual content of any ontology is critical. Relationships are foundational to the definition of concepts. Missing relationship errors (i.e., unintended omissions of important definitional relationships) can have a deleterious effect on the quality of an ontology. An abstraction network is a structure that overlays an ontology and provides an alternate, summarization view of its contents. One kind of abstraction network is called an area taxonomy, and a variation of it is called a subtaxonomy. A methodology based on these taxonomies for more readily finding missing relationship errors is explored. Methods The area taxonomy and the subtaxonomy are deployed to help reveal concepts that have a high likelihood of exhibiting missing relationship errors. A specific top-level grouping unit found within the area taxonomy and subtaxonomy, when deemed to be anomalous, is used as an indicator that missing relationship errors are likely to be found among certain concepts. Two hypotheses pertaining to the effectiveness of our Quality Assurance approach are studied. Results Our Quality Assurance methodology was applied to the Biological Process hierarchy of the National Cancer Institute thesaurus (NCIt) and SNOMED CT’s Eye/vision finding subhierarchy within its Clinical finding hierarchy. Many missing relationship errors were discovered and confirmed in our analysis. For both test-bed hierarchies, our Quality Assurance methodology yielded a statistically significantly higher number of concepts with missing relationship errors in comparison to a control sample of concepts. Two hypotheses are confirmed by these findings. Conclusions Quality assurance is a critical part of an ontology’s lifecycle, and automated or semi-automated tools for supporting this process are invaluable. We introduced a Quality Assurance methodology targeted at missing relationship errors. Its successful application to the NCIt’s Biological Process hierarchy and SNOMED CT’s Eye/vision finding subhierarchy indicates that it can be a useful addition to the arsenal of tools available to ontology maintenance personnel.


Author(s):  
Nina Batechko

The article outlines the conceptual framework for adapting Ukrainian higher education to the Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European higher education area. The role of the Bologna Declaration in ensuring the quality of higher education in Europe has been explained. The conceptual foundations and the essence of standards and recommendations on quality assurance in the European higher education area have been defined. The Ukrainian realities of the adaptation of higher education of Ukraine to the educational European standards of quality have been characterized.


Author(s):  
Yohannes Anton Nugroho ◽  
Ari Zaqi Al Faritsy ◽  
Ari Sugiharto

The Community Partnership Program in partnership with the Tani Rahayu Women's Group and the Bakpia Jurug Industry Association have succeeded in helping create economic independence. The results of this program are increased capacity and quality of production of bakpia and tempeh nuggets in the partner group. The implementation of mechanical and automation technology-based tools is able to increase the production capacity of tempe nuggets from 2 kg to 24 kg in a production time of 8 hours. While the implementation of the use of bakpia kumbu processing equipment was able to increase the production of 3 kg to 24 kg in a production time of 8 hours. The utilization of these tools has also been followed by quality assurance training and assistance, so that the quality of the products produced is uniform.


1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-305
Author(s):  
Louisiana Lush ◽  
George P. Cernada ◽  
A. K. Ubaidur Rob ◽  
Mohammed Shafiq Arif ◽  
Minhaj Ul Haque ◽  
...  

This article presents the results of a number of operations research studies (OR) of family planning services provided by a new cadre of female village-based family planning workers in Punjab Province, Pakistan. This cadre of workers, recruited nationwide, have been trained to visit women in their villages to provide information and family planning services. The studies were conducted as part of a broad program of technical assistance to the Government of Pakistan. Surveys investigated the quality of their training as well as attitudes among clients to the new program. They found that the program is developing well but there is room for improvement, particularly in counseling and training. Additional field studies are ongoing and recommendations for change have been incorporated in training and supervision. The program is expanding on a national scale.


Author(s):  
Ruchika Verma ◽  
Seema Dhawan

The study attempted to find out the quality of the evaluation procedure of B.Ed. programme of Garhwal University, the Central University in view of NCTE Norms. The study also reveals the method and procedure of evaluation according to the latest 2 years B.Ed. programme. For the study, purposive sampling method was used. The tools – questionnaire and interview schedule was developed. On the basis of findings, it concluded that the evaluation procedure was in accordance with the NCTE Norms. With the implementation of two years B.Ed. course, the method of evaluation has also become more practical oriented, which has become a remarkable achievement and surely enhance the quality of prospective teachers


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