Response Surface Optimization for Simultanous Estimation of Sofosbuvir and Velpatasvir in Human Plasma Sample

An efficient column friendly, buffer free, highly sensitive, cost effective RP-HPLC method was developed by considering the criticality of different method parameters on analytical attributes like tailing factor, resolution and retention time in preliminary risk analysis and screening designs. The Pareto analysis of screening design highlighted the need for optimization of resolution and its influencers (capacity factor and theoretical plates) for both the drugs to imbibe quality in the method. The suggested method of optimization design was developed using ZODIAC C18 ODS (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) column in isocratic mode using mobile phase acetonitrile : methanol : water in the ratio of 60:10:30 at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min and UV detection wavelength of 262 nm. The retention times of drugs were found to be 3.488 minutes for sofosbuvir, 5.387 minutes for velpatasvir. The linear regression analysis data for the calibration plots showed good linear relationship with r2=0.997 for sofosbuvir, r2=0.988 for velpatasvir, in the working concentration range of 1000-5000 ng/mL, 250-1250 ng/mL respectively. The AQbD devised method was applied for quantification of drugs in plasma and validated as suggested in ICH M10 guidelines.

Application of FMEA and Pareto Analysis Methods in the Process of Industrial Bread Making in Romania

Zero defects or nearly zero faulty products production process represents a new and important concern towards quality control of production systems. The requirement of a pertinent statistical control is important for identifying and monitoring defects, the main source of defects that occur in industrial bread making process. The current study was focused on applying two analysis methods Failure Mode and Effects Analyses, abbreviated FMEA and Pareto. Analysis concerning two technological stages that were considered as having a major impact on the quality of the final products. It was observed that the percent of nonconformities decreased in a significant manner – from 30% in 2018 to 5% in 2019 by applying the FMEA analysis. Also, the Pareto diagram showed that the application of several corrective measurements conducted to important decreases of Risk Priority Number from 288 to 128 and the severity decreased from 8 to 5 in the mixing process and from 128 to 81 for the baking process.

Creating Promotional Mix and Improving Physical Evidence to Attract Potential Customers of Suci Shoelab

The increasing number of MSMEs in Indonesia creates even more competition among businesses, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This difficult situation causes a decline in revenue and forces MSMEs in Indonesia to find strategies to survive. This study aims at helping an MSME in the shoe laundry industry called Suci Shoelab. This study employs qualitative and business coaching methods. The data were collected through interviews with the MSME owners and the employees as well as questionnaires given to customers. Several analytical methods, namely Business Model Canvas (BMC), Porter's Five Forces analysis, PESTEL analysis, Service Marketing Mix, SWOT analysis, TOWS analysis, Gap analysis, and Pareto Analysis, were used to identify the problems and generate solutions. The findings revealed that the MSME had not promoted its products consistently and the location of Suci Shoelab was unknown to many potential customers. The MSME improved the promotional activity and placed signage to enhance its physical evidence to address this issue. Sales promotions and digital/internet marketing were also used for the promotional mix, and discount prices and drop stations were applied as promotional programs. For increasing its physical evidence, the MSME placed signage at the store to attract potential customers. After the solutions were applied, the sales of the MSME increase.

Quality management practices and quality of work life – a conceptual model development

PurposeThe present study analyzes the research articles linking quality management practices (QMP) and quality of work life (QWL). The investigation leads toward the formulation of the hypothesis and developing a conceptual framework of QMP and QWL.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a systematic literature review to explore the relationship between QMP and QWL using the Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, Eric, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), and Google Scholar database and identifies critical factors of QMP and QWL using Pareto analysis. Further study proposes a conceptual framework of articles linking QMP and QWL.FindingsA thorough review of the literature identifies three different categories of research articles: “factor identification” articles, “QMP implementation” articles, “scale development” articles, and “influence of QMP on various organizational and employees-related factors” articles. Many studies have attempted to study the relationship and influence of QMP on employee-related factors but not by considering them holistically, thus, underlining the significant gap in the QMP and HRM literature.Research limitations/implicationsTo review the literature on QMP and QWL, only a handful of databases were reviewed. Further, the proposed conceptual model is based on the QMP and QWL/HRM literature review, and it is not empirically validated. Further research can be considered to test and validate the proposed conceptual framework empirically.Practical implicationsThis study highlights a gap in the existing research studies and an incomplete consideration of employees' aspects of QWL. Researchers and organizations are advised to adopt a broader view while assessing QMP implementation's influence on employees.Originality/valueThis study uses a systematic literature review and Pareto analysis to find the critical factors of QMP and QWL, thus providing a new research avenue for researchers, quality experts and human resource managers to consider all the aspects of employees, that is, QWL of employees, to understand the influence of QMP on employees to achieve firm success.

Quality Study on Vehicle Heat Ventilation and Air Conditioning Failure

The automotive industry has set a highly demanding standard to meet customer satisfaction. The paper aimed to detail how quality analysis has been conducted to state the main causes that generated nonconformities of heat, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Problems have been reported on HVAC systems, such as noise, not being cold enough and moldy smell issues. All three problems determined by customer reports initiated the first contribution of this paper, namely by an initial quality study, and generated the investigation using is/is not problem scoping, data analysis, and graphical analysis. Pareto analysis and the Plan, Do, Check and Act (PDCA) approach are used to highlight the traceability of the actions performed in the evaluation of the problems and the detection of the causes related to each problem. The data analysis process and the data obtained from the analysis are the core of this paper. An immediate action plan is proposed, concluding with the hypothesis that the root cause is the blockage of the heater. This methodology has significant potential for being implemented, even for other components in the same industry or different sectors.

8D Problem Solving Methodology: Continuous Improvement in Automation Organization

The Eight Disciplines (8D) is a problem-solving technique methodology to identify the root cause of a problem, devise a short-term fix and implement a long-term solution to prevent recurring problems. 8D is a remarkable first step to enhancing Quality and Reliability when the product is defective or not satisfying the customer. The study was conducted in a manufacturing company producing and assembly wire harness. The data was collected for a period of Three months from July 2020 to September 2020, to identify defective percentage of wire harness and they were found to be high at the average rate of 51.39%. In this work the objective was set to investigates quality issues and provides a solution to reduce the rejection of wiring harness mainly in crimping process. In order to achieve this, 8D problem solving technique was used to analyze and solve the problem. Then, Pareto analysis was done to identify vital causes contributing defectives. From the Pareto analysis, it was found that functioning contact crimp condition with percentage 66.67% is the major cause for rejection. Further brainstorming sessions was held to identify the root causes. After the brainstorming session, cause and effect diagram was constructed and it was found to be variation in the that the connector near cable chain is moving area. Thus, the wire assembly with too high radius may caused external force to the wires when machine running with speed and the end of wire may break off when the wire stretched. The suggestions to reduce the rejection percentage were to install mounting bracket prevent wires shaking when machine running and use proper crimp tools. After implementing the suggestion, the total rejection for wire harness particularly contact crimp condition was reduced to 0.93% in December 2020, from average rejection of 66.67%. (3 months data).

Electropolishing Parametric Optimization of Surface Quality for the Fabrication of a Titanium Microchannel Using the Taguchi Method

Titanium is widely used in biomedical components. As a promising advanced manufacturing process, electropolishing (EP) has advantages in polishing the machined surfaces of material that is hard and difficult to cut. This paper presents the fabrication of a titanium microchannel using the EP process. The Taguchi method was adopted to determine the optimal process parameters by which to obtain high surface quality using an L9 orthogonal array. The Pareto analysis of variance was utilized to analyze the three machining process parameters: applied voltage, concentration of ethanol in an electrolyte solution, and machining gap. In vitro experiments were conducted to investigate the fouling effect of blood on the microchannel. The result shows that an applied voltage of 20 V, an ethanol concentration of 20 vol.%, and a machining gap of 10 mm are the optimum machining parameters by which to enhance the surface quality of a titanium microchannel. Under the optimized machining parameters, the surface quality improved from 1.46 to 0.22 μm. Moreover, the adhesion of blood on the surface during the fouling experiment was significantly decreased, thus confirming the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Production of Aluminum AA6061 Hybrid Nanocomposite from Waste Metal Using Hot Extrusion Process: Strength Performance and Prediction by RSM and Random Forest

To date, various studies have analysed the effects of reinforced ceramic on the properties of AA6061 recycled aluminum alloy chips, such as the tensile strength and fractography. However, a comprehensive analysis of the properties of hybrid composite with the addition of nano-silica oxide and nano-copper oxide reinforcements is still very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to optimise the factors comprising the preheating temperature (PHT), preheating time (PHti), and volume fraction (VF) of reinforcements then determine their impacts on the physical and mechanical properties of the recycled solid-state extruded composite aluminum chips. A total of 45 specimens were fabricated through the hot extrusion technique. The response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to study the optimisation at a PHT range of 450–550 °C with PHti of 1–3 h and VF of 1–3 vol% for both reinforcements (SiO2 and CuO). Moreover, a random forest (RF) model was developed to optimize the model based on a metaheuristic method to improve the model performance. Based on the experimental results the RF model achieve better results than response surface methodology (RSM). The functional quadratic regression is curvature and the tested variable shows stable close data of the mean 0 and α2. Based on the Pareto analysis, the PHT and VF were key variables that significantly affected the UTS, microhardness, and density of the product. The maximum properties were achieved at an optimum PHT, PHti, and VF of 541 °C, 2.25 h, 1 vol% SiO2 and 2.13 vol% CuO, respectively. Furthermore, the morphological results of the tensile fractured surface revealed the homogenous distribution of nano-reinforced CuO and SiO2 particles in the specimens’ structure.

Heuristic Evaluation of a Top-Rated Diabetes Self-Management App

Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a top-rated diabetes app. Such apps are intended to markedly support the achievement of optimal health and financial outcomes by providing patients with substantive and continual support for self-management of their disease between periodic clinician visits. Poor usability can deter use which is especially concerning in patients with diabetes due to prevalence of the disease and impact of self-management on long-term prognosis. Methods A diabetes app was selected due to the prevalence and seriousness of the disease. A heuristic evaluation was then performed to collect and analyze data on the usability of the app based on Nielsen's heuristics. Pareto analysis was used to illustrate the contribution of each type of heuristic violation, augmented by a stacked bar chart illuminating associated severity. Results There were 51 heuristic violations on the opening screen, violating 6 of Nielsen's 10 heuristics. Pareto analysis revealed 29 (57%) of the heuristic violations involved a match between system and real world and 8 (16%) aesthetic and minimalist design. Severity ratings ranged from 1.0 to 4.0 (mean: 3.01) with 80% comprising a major usability problem and 6% a usability catastrophe. Conclusion Studies show that people with diabetes are more likely to receive greater benefit from a diabetes app if they are easy to use. The number and severity of heuristic violations in this study suggest that the commercialization of mobile health apps may play a factor in bypassing experts in clinical informatics during the design phase of development. Usability and associated benefits received from mobile health apps can be enhanced by debugging the user interface of identified heuristic violations during design. Waiting to correct ongoing usability issues while apps are in production can result in patients disengaging from use of digital health tools engendering poorer outcomes.