Quality is the main focus in management of all laboratories. Accurate results of the analyses are not only determined by the analytical procedure but also by preanalytical factors. In the total analytical process of clinical specimens, there are many possible preanalytical sources of error. Monetoring of temperature on test samples of the transport boxes is one way to reduce the mistakes in the preanalytical phase. In this study, four laboratories from primary health care were invited to participate. The temperature has been measured on test samples of the transport boxes being delivered to the laboratory. In three cases the temperature remained within the limits, but in the fourth case the temperature varied more than the allowed interval. Mistakes found in the preanalytical phase, especially in the handling and processing in the process before complete distribution of test samples to laboratory. This suggests that good communication and cooperation among the personnel is the key to improvement of the laboratory quality.

Abstract Bachelor’s degree thesis in Business Administration School of Economics and Management, University of Växjö, FEN 330, Spring 2006 Authors: Malin Jansson and Mirja Wynn-Williams Supervisor: Stig Malm How does Good Laboratory Practice improve quality? Background: The quality systems that steer manufacturing of pharmaceutical products from the testing phase to commercial manufacturing are the national and international regulatory frameworks and legislation. Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) is a quality system concerned with the organizational process and the conditions under which non-clinical health and environmental safety studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, archived and reported. In Sweden the Medical Products Agency monitors and regulates compliance with the principles of Good Laboratory Practice. Aim: The aim of our thesis is to explore the reasons why companies/laboratories adopt Good Laboratory Practice. We shall do this by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of adopting GLP principles for companies/laboratories, and how quality is improved by adopting GLP principles. We have summarized our aim in one principal question: How does Good Laboratory Practice function as a tool for quality improvement? Limitations: We will focus on GLP, and this thesis will not consider other Good Practice procedures such as Good Manufacturing Practice or Good Clinical Practice. Only laboratories in Sweden monitored by the Medical Products Agency are targeted in the empirical part of this work. Method: Literature research and interviews with GLP contact persons listed by MPA. Results and conclusions: Though costumers’ needs and legislation seem to be the motivations for companies deciding to comply with GLP, quality improvement seems to be the biggest advantage of validation. Proposal for further research: Do laboratory assistants and technical employees differ from management in their experience and views on GLP?

Equipped with advanced field instruments in the past few decades, oceanographers have been able to comprehend some characteristics of the internal waves(IWs), such as the generation, propagation and energy dissipation, as well as to promote understanding in oceanography and marine ecology affected by IWs in the world ocean. Although surface gravity wave and internal wave are two of the most common natural phenomena in the ocean, the interaction between them has not been fully investigated, despite limited theoretical derivations in the literature, nor using laboratory experiments to verify the theory. A series of laboratory experiments were conducted at the National Sun Yen-sen University to study the waveform evolution of continuous IWs propagation on the flat bottom and across a trapezoidal obstacle. Surface waves were generated on a density stratified fluid system in a wave flume, from which IWs were induced indirectly to investigate their wave properties associated with their propagation . The experimental results are then used to determine the maximum depth which could be affected by surface waves in different wave conditions(wave height and period), as well as the amplitude of the IWs induced. The relationship between them are then presented in graphic form. Experiments were also conducted in uniform density and stratified fluid system with a trapezoidal obstacle. The results reveal that (1)long-period surface waves were susceptible to the interaction with the IWs in a stratified system, thus rendering wave height reduction, and (2)short-period surface waves interactions with their IWs counterparts was insignificant, hence yielded wave height similar to that in uniform density fluid system. Moreover, experiments were also conducted to study for long and short period IW propagated over pseudo slope-shelf(using trapezoidal obstacle). The results show that the variation in the IWs significantly affected the strength of internal hydraulic jump and vortices on the front slope and subsequent waveform inversion on the horizontal plateau. For IWs with short period, the horizontal distance on the plateau affected by the IWs was shirter and the total time of wave-topography interaction decreased.

Cell count is an important metric in neurological research. The loss in numbers of certain cells like neurons has been found to accompany not only the deterioration of important brain functions but disorders like clinical depression as well. Since the manual counting of cell numbers is a near impossible task considering the sizes and numbers involved, an automated approach is the obvious alternative to arrive at the cell count. In this thesis, a software application is described that automatically segments, counts, and helps visualize the various cell bodies present in a sample mouse brain, by analyzing the images produced by the Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope (KESM) at the Brain Networks Laboratory. The process is described essentially in five stages: Image acquisition, Pre- Processing, Processing, Analysis and Refinement, and finally Visualization. Nissl staining is a staining mechanism that is used on the mouse brain sample to highlight the cell bodies of our interest present in the brain, namely neurons, granule cells and interneurons. This stained brain sample is embedded in solid plastic and imaged by the KESM, one section at a time. The volume that is digitized by this process is the data that is used for the purpose of segmentation. While most sections of the mouse brain tend to be comprised of sparsely populated neurons and red blood cells, certain sections near the cerebellum exhibit a very high density and population of smaller granule cells, which are hard to segment using simpler image segmentation techniques. The problem of the sparsely populated regions is tackled using a combination of connected component labeling and template matching, while the watershed algorithm is applied to the regions of very high density. Finally, the marching cubes algorithm is used to convert the volumetric data to a 3D polygonal representation. Barring a few initializations, the process goes ahead with minimal manual intervention. A graphical user interface is provided to the user to view the processed data in 2D or 3D. The interface offers the freedom of rotating and zooming in/out of the 3D model, as well as viewing only cells the user is interested in analyzing. The segmentation results achieved by our automated process are compared with those obtained by manual segmentation by an independent expert.

A laboratory experiment was performed to investigate the three-dimensional turbulence and kinematic properties that develop due to a breaking solitary and an irregular shallow water bathymetry. A large basin equipped with a piston-type wavemaker was used to generate the wave, while the free surface elevations and fluid velocities were measured using wave gauges and three-dimensional acoustic-Doppler velocimeters (ADVs), respectively. From the free surface elevations, the evolution and runup of the wave was revealed; while from the ADVs, the velocity and turbulent energy was determined to identify specific turbulent events and coherent structures. It was found that shoaling was confined to areas with gentler sloping bathymetry near the basin side walls and the runup shoreward of the still water shoreline was not uniform. The runup was characterized by a jetting mechanism caused by the convergence of water mass near the basin centerline as the wave refracted during breaking. The jetting mechanism caused the greatest cross-shore velocities to be located near the basin centerline. The greatest turbulent events were well correlated to borefronts, resembling hydraulic jumps, where the greatest shear and fluid accelerations occurred. Because of an abrupt change in the bathymetry, a coherent structure developed which was found to have a three-dimensional flow field. It was proposed that variations in the internal flow with depth were due to the orientation of multiple vortex rings.

Based on the importance place of metacognition in education, the current study aimed to investigate whether the embedded metacognitive prompts in the manual lead a change in PSTs&rsquo / metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skills. Throught 2009-2010 Fall semester, the data were collected from pre-service science teachers (PSTs) who enrolled in the Laboratory Applications in Science Education course. The course was offered as a must course in Elementary Science Education programme in one of the biggest universites in Ankara. The method selected for the study was mix method. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. Quantitative data was collected from 28 PSTs and qualitative data was collected from 7 PSTs who were the members of the researcher&rsquo / s group. In accordance with the purpose of the current study, descriptive statistics and independent samples t-test was conducted for quantitative data. In terms of qualitative part, the study was case study and interviews which were conducted before and after the course were analyzed to observe the change of PSTs&rsquo / metacognition. The result of the study revealed that before the course most of the PSTs did not report metacognitive skills. After the course it was observed that their metacognitive skills were developed. Among metacognitive skills, the most reported skill was monitoring skill after the course. It can be concluded from the study that metacognitive prompts embedded into the manual provided a metacognitively learning environment and a development in PSTs&rsquo / metacognition.

No description available.

Cell count is an important metric in neurological research. The loss in numbers of certain cells like neurons has been found to accompany not only the deterioration of important brain functions but disorders like clinical depression as well. Since the manual counting of cell numbers is a near impossible task considering the sizes and numbers involved, an automated approach is the obvious alternative to arrive at the cell count. In this thesis, a software application is described that automatically segments, counts, and helps visualize the various cell bodies present in a sample mouse brain, by analyzing the images produced by the Knife-Edge Scanning Microscope (KESM) at the Brain Networks Laboratory. The process is described essentially in five stages: Image acquisition, Pre- Processing, Processing, Analysis and Refinement, and finally Visualization. Nissl staining is a staining mechanism that is used on the mouse brain sample to highlight the cell bodies of our interest present in the brain, namely neurons, granule cells and interneurons. This stained brain sample is embedded in solid plastic and imaged by the KESM, one section at a time. The volume that is digitized by this process is the data that is used for the purpose of segmentation. While most sections of the mouse brain tend to be comprised of sparsely populated neurons and red blood cells, certain sections near the cerebellum exhibit a very high density and population of smaller granule cells, which are hard to segment using simpler image segmentation techniques. The problem of the sparsely populated regions is tackled using a combination of connected component labeling and template matching, while the watershed algorithm is applied to the regions of very high density. Finally, the marching cubes algorithm is used to convert the volumetric data to a 3D polygonal representation. Barring a few initializations, the process goes ahead with minimal manual intervention. A graphical user interface is provided to the user to view the processed data in 2D or 3D. The interface offers the freedom of rotating and zooming in/out of the 3D model, as well as viewing only cells the user is interested in analyzing. The segmentation results achieved by our automated process are compared with those obtained by manual segmentation by an independent expert.

A new hardware system for the ECE 4550 Control System Design lab is proposed. The current hardware is examined and its shortcomings are documented. Design guidelines for the new system are put forth and interfaces between hardware elements are defined. Four hardware elements are developed: a motherboard, an I/O daughtercard, a DC motor driver daughtercard, and an AC motor driver daughtercard. Each of these systems is examined in depth from a design decision standpoint as well as from the standpoint of the design guidelines promulgated earlier. Technical limitations for each system are disclosed and examined in detail.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Bachelor’s degree thesis in Business Administration</p><p>School of Economics and Management, University of Växjö, FEN 330, Spring 2006</p><p>Authors: Malin Jansson and Mirja Wynn-Williams</p><p>Supervisor: Stig Malm</p><p>How does Good Laboratory Practice improve quality?</p><p>Background: The quality systems that steer manufacturing of pharmaceutical products from the testing phase to commercial manufacturing are the national and international regulatory frameworks and legislation. Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) is a quality system concerned with the organizational process and the conditions under which non-clinical health and environmental safety studies are planned, performed, monitored, recorded, archived and reported. In Sweden the Medical Products Agency monitors and regulates compliance with the principles of Good Laboratory Practice.</p><p>Aim: The aim of our thesis is to explore the reasons why companies/laboratories adopt Good Laboratory Practice. We shall do this by identifying the advantages and disadvantages of adopting GLP principles for companies/laboratories, and how quality is improved by adopting GLP principles. We have summarized our aim in one principal question: How does Good Laboratory Practice function as a tool for quality improvement?</p><p>Limitations: We will focus on GLP, and this thesis will not consider other Good Practice procedures such as Good Manufacturing Practice or Good Clinical Practice. Only laboratories in Sweden monitored by the Medical Products Agency are targeted in the empirical part of this work.</p><p>Method: Literature research and interviews with GLP contact persons listed by MPA.</p><p>Results and conclusions: Though costumers’ needs and legislation seem to be the motivations for companies deciding to comply with GLP, quality improvement seems to be the biggest advantage of validation.</p><p>Proposal for further research: Do laboratory assistants and technical employees differ from management in their experience and views on GLP?</p>