Asset managers recognise that high-quality engineering data is the key enabler in gaining control of engineering assets. Although they consider accurate, timely and relevant data as critical to the quality of their asset management (AM) decisions, evidence of large variations in data quality (DQ) associated with AM abounds. Therefore, the question arises as to what factors influence DQ in engineering AM. Accordingly, the main goal of this research is to investigate DQ issues associated with AM, and to develop an AM specific DQ framework of factors affecting DQ in AM. The framework is aimed at providing structured guidance for AM organisations to understand, identify and mitigate their DQ problems in a systematic way, and help them create an information orientation to achieve a greater AM performance.

University of Technology, Sydney. / This overall objective of this research was to identify factors that were important in forming middle managers' attitudes toward quality and quality programs in their organisations. An underlying assumption of the research, supported by the literature, was that a middle manager's attitude toward his/her quality program could be an important indicator of behaviour toward the program e.g. resistance, willingness to be involved. Reviews of the literature on middle management, quality, attitude measurement and research more specifically related to the research topic was undertaken. The work of Ajzen (1988) was particularly useful in devising an overall theoretical framework for the research . A number of hypotheses related to the overall research question were formulated. Twenty-one organisations agreed to participate in the research. These all had a quality program. Some of the organisations were quite advanced in quality, a number had won Australian Quality Awards, others were much less advanced. Organisations were drawn from manufacturing and services in both private and public sectors. Data was collected in two main ways. Firstly, a questionnaire was designed, piloted and distributed to approximately 1100 middle managers in participating organisations. The response rate was approximately 50%. Secondly, in depth interviews were carried out with middle managers, senior managers and quality managers in a number of the participating organisations. The results generally confirm the importance of the middle management group as key to the success of a quality program. Middle managers across all of the participating organisations generally believed that the TQM approach to management was an effective one. Their views on the effectiveness of IS09000 were less positive. Middle managers generally believed that the quality programs were more likely to benefit their organisations rather than to directly benefit themselves, although quality programs did provide some opportunities for some middle managers. Middle managers generally believed that their quality programs provided both operational and strategic benefit for their organisations. Paradoxically, a widely held belief among middle managers was that quality programs did not reduce short term thinking and over-reacting to short term goals. Positive attitudes to quality in the organisation were associated particularly with the values and beliefs that middle managers held regarding: a) program support from top management, from their direct boss and from their colleagues; b) a range of program outcomes for the organisation and c) a range of program outcomes related to the individual middle manager. For middle managers actively involved in their organisations quality program the clarity of their program role was positively related to program attitudes. Training/education in quality was also significantly related to some beliefs and attitudes towards quality and quality programs. Middle managers generally believed that quality programs involved a significant increase in paper work and bureaucracy. However this was not a significant influence on their attitudes toward quality in their organisations. An important finding was that for a wide range of beliefs and attitudes related to quality no significant differences were found between the types of jobs held by middle managers. An exception was the quality specialist group who generally had significantly more positive attitudes and beliefs about quality and their quality programs than did other job categories. Middle managers seemed relatively at ease with most of the changes that were taking place as part of their programs. In particular they had relatively positive views on devolution of responsibility to lower level employees. Middle managers also seemed relatively at ease with their own performance being more tightly monitored with program implementation. The research supported the more optimistic view of middle Management that has been reported recently (e.g. Fenton-O'Creevy 1998). The notion of the middle management still had currency in all of the organisations participating in the research despite the many structural changes that had taken place.

University of Technology, Sydney. / This overall objective of this research was to identify factors that were important in forming middle managers' attitudes toward quality and quality programs in their organisations. An underlying assumption of the research, supported by the literature, was that a middle manager's attitude toward his/her quality program could be an important indicator of behaviour toward the program e.g. resistance, willingness to be involved. Reviews of the literature on middle management, quality, attitude measurement and research more specifically related to the research topic was undertaken. The work of Ajzen (1988) was particularly useful in devising an overall theoretical framework for the research . A number of hypotheses related to the overall research question were formulated. Twenty-one organisations agreed to participate in the research. These all had a quality program. Some of the organisations were quite advanced in quality, a number had won Australian Quality Awards, others were much less advanced. Organisations were drawn from manufacturing and services in both private and public sectors. Data was collected in two main ways. Firstly, a questionnaire was designed, piloted and distributed to approximately 1100 middle managers in participating organisations. The response rate was approximately 50%. Secondly, in depth interviews were carried out with middle managers, senior managers and quality managers in a number of the participating organisations. The results generally confirm the importance of the middle management group as key to the success of a quality program. Middle managers across all of the participating organisations generally believed that the TQM approach to management was an effective one. Their views on the effectiveness of IS09000 were less positive. Middle managers generally believed that the quality programs were more likely to benefit their organisations rather than to directly benefit themselves, although quality programs did provide some opportunities for some middle managers. Middle managers generally believed that their quality programs provided both operational and strategic benefit for their organisations. Paradoxically, a widely held belief among middle managers was that quality programs did not reduce short term thinking and over-reacting to short term goals. Positive attitudes to quality in the organisation were associated particularly with the values and beliefs that middle managers held regarding: a) program support from top management, from their direct boss and from their colleagues; b) a range of program outcomes for the organisation and c) a range of program outcomes related to the individual middle manager. For middle managers actively involved in their organisations quality program the clarity of their program role was positively related to program attitudes. Training/education in quality was also significantly related to some beliefs and attitudes towards quality and quality programs. Middle managers generally believed that quality programs involved a significant increase in paper work and bureaucracy. However this was not a significant influence on their attitudes toward quality in their organisations. An important finding was that for a wide range of beliefs and attitudes related to quality no significant differences were found between the types of jobs held by middle managers. An exception was the quality specialist group who generally had significantly more positive attitudes and beliefs about quality and their quality programs than did other job categories. Middle managers seemed relatively at ease with most of the changes that were taking place as part of their programs. In particular they had relatively positive views on devolution of responsibility to lower level employees. Middle managers also seemed relatively at ease with their own performance being more tightly monitored with program implementation. The research supported the more optimistic view of middle Management that has been reported recently (e.g. Fenton-O'Creevy 1998). The notion of the middle management still had currency in all of the organisations participating in the research despite the many structural changes that had taken place.

Degradation of streams in urban-rural fringe regions occurs through complex interactions between hydrological, physical, chemical and biological mechanisms of the stream environment and surrounding landscape. Biological monitoring using macroinvertebrates may capture the complex and cumulative influences of land activity on the stream environment. The Salmon River catchment in the township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada straddles urban and rural environments in the Lower Fraser Valley. To date the Salmon River catchment has been subject to several environmental surveys. Following these earlier investigations, this study quantified relationships between the stream environment and changing land activity, across multiple scales, from 1975 to 2005, using macroinvertebrates as environmental integrators. Current and historical water, sediment, and macroinvertebrate information along with land use and land-cover evaluations were used to quantify relationships between the macroinvertebrate community and land activity in the catchment. Spatial and seasonal results for specific conductivity (a total dissolved ion indicator) and NO������-N and PO����� (nutrient indicators) traced groundwater and overland inputs to the stream environment. Nitrate guideline exceedances occurred at groundwater-influenced sites. Elevated sediment trace metal concentrations and Zn guideline exceedances occurred mid-reach in the catchment. Peak total macroinvertebrate and sensitive taxa abundance occurred mid-reach in the catchment in 2005, while richness and proportional sensitive abundance peaks were seen at groundwater-influenced sites. The dominance of tolerant to moderately pollution tolerant taxa occurred throughout. Despite historical water quality concerns at groundwater-influenced sites, greater shifts in community composition occurred in headwaters regions. Patterns of land use and land cover changed in sensitive areas (i.e. above aquifer and in the headwaters). A greater number of correlations between land activity and macroinvertebrate measures occurred at streams sites with 100 m buffers. The abundance of sensitive taxa positively correlated with the amount of agricultural land use, while rarefaction declined. Several Macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups correlated positively to forest cover, while sensitive taxa abundance and Zn concentrations declined. Results suggest continued water quality and sediment trace metal concerns, while macroinvertebrate results point to nutrient enrichment and greater historical variability in headwaters regions. Agricultural activity appears to have a stronger influence on aspects of the stream environment despite the presence of urban-rural land activity.

War between malware and antimalware software started two decade back and have adopted the modern techniques with the evolution of technological development in the field of information technology. This thesis was targeted to analyze the performance of freeware antivirus programs available in the market. Several tests were performed to analyze the performance with respect to the core responsibilities of these software’s to scan and detect the viruses and also prevent and eradicate form them. Although irrelevant for common users may be but very important for technical professionals, many tests were performed to analyze the quality of these softwares with respect to their effects on the system it-self like utilization and engagement of precious resources, processing times and also system slowdown because of monitoring techniques. The results derived from these tests show not only the performance and quality of these softwares but also enlighten some areas to be focused for further analysis.

Globalization has developed more and more within the business world as well as private life during the last decades. Globalization has influenced the way companies are conducting business and their approach towards the consumers which can have an influence on their way of purchasing. Consumers nowadays have more than ever the possibility to get involved and gather experiences from abroad, as well as companies are taking advantage of this globalization. Within this thesis the following question will be discussed: Do consumers see the value companies try to create for them with an identical offer the same way in different markets? This idea is based on Theodore Levitt’s theory of globalization which comprises standardization of an offer since consumer needs are homogenizing globally. Douglas & Wind instead state that segmentation with adaptations is necessary to fulfill all consumer needs. Within this elaboration the question whether standardization is accepted and liked by the consumers is discussed and analyzed by including an empirical research. This research is based on Zeithaml’s model of the Perceived Quality Components, which was the fundamental base behind formulating the survey questions. These were submitted in Germany, the Republic of Ireland and Sweden to be able to discuss and visualize how the consumers of these different markets perceive different aspects of a company’s offer. One particular company, which is seen as doing business globally, was chosen as a test object. Based on the test object Lidl - which consumers were questioned about in the survey - it was possible to conduct a comparison of consumers’ general expectations against components of Lidl’s offer such as price, weekly specials, product range, etc. where differences and similarities between the three countries of Lidl’s fulfillment of these expectations were achieved. They were analyzed to discover to which extent globalization is present. Resulting from the comparison it was concluded that nowadays segmentation is important but developing with time globalization seems to increase in significance. Recommendations for further research about topics which were omitted due to limited resources are presented.

In tourism, the product is the experience. The destination sets the stage, which facilitates the experience. First impressions, based largely on visual cues in the environment, help to determine the level of quality tourists should expect from their encounter. While much research has focused on destination image in advertising, little attention has been given to on-site assessments of tourists’ perceptions of the visual environment. This study had three specific objectives. The first was to determine if changes in the visual environment affect respondents’ attitudes, perceptions of quality and satisfaction. The second objective set out to determine which visual quality elements have the strongest influence on respondents’ attitudes, their perceptions of quality and satisfaction. The final objective was to explore the interrelationship between attitudes, quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Utilizing a series of digitally modified photographs and an experimental design approach with three treatments, this study examined how selected visual environmental cues affected respondents’ perceptions. The relatively high adjusted R2 values across the three treatments suggests the strong influence of visual quality elements on hedonic (R2 values ranging from .16 to .27) and utilitarian attitudes (R2 values ranging from .16 to .24), and particularly on satisfaction (R2 values ranging from .31 to .44) and overall quality (R2 values ranging from .28 to .35). The visual cues having the strongest influence on perceptions were level of crowding, available seating, maintenance and upkeep, and type of signage. Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study examined the interrelationship between the endogenous variables in the model. The influence of hedonic attitude on overall quality and satisfaction was confirmed, but the influence of utilitarian attitude on overall quality and satisfaction was not. This suggests that some tourism experiences are more hedonic in nature. This research supports previous literature suggesting that a high level of quality will result in a high level of satisfaction for the visitors (significant path estimate of .422). Additionally, standardized path coefficients indicate that overall quality (.416) and satisfaction (.486) were both related to behavioral intentions, with satisfaction being a stronger predictor.

The medical quality becomes a very important issue of a scholar and the public opinion. The high quality medical service of patients center and customer direction already has been necessarily prepare conditions to get the best competition advantage of all levels hospital in Taiwan, now.¡CTherefore, all hospital manager believe that promote medical quality is the very important issue¡CThe medical service quality of Emergency Department plays the very important role in the whole hospital. The medical service quality indicator is acknowledged well trusty medical quality measurement tool. Donabedian point out that medical quality measurement is compose of structure¡Bprocess and outcome, and that the outcome quality indicator measurement is the trend¡CAsthma is one of the most common diseases among children. Because of rising morbidity, mortality and medical costs all over the world, asthma becomes a very important issue. So, The purpose of this study is to identify the key factors associated with the of outcomes quality. The example of Pediatric Asthma in a Teaching Hospital. Data take from the Teaching Hospital¡¦s TQIP database through 2003. There are 534 Pediatric asthma patients who are research samples and care take by 25 physicians. The research analyze patient¡¦s and physician¡¦s characteristic to described data, Correlation and Regression with SPSS software. Look for the characteristic what influence the outcome quality of Emergency Department. The outcome quality include that patient¡¦s state after the treatment, patient¡¦s stay time and unscheduled revisit to Emergency Department.¡CRegression analysis showed that. 1.patient¡¦s state after the treatment trend to be inpatient who care by experienced physician, younger, illness serious and reach on day shift. 2.patient¡¦s stay time longer who care by experienced physician, so that the consultations effectiveness should promote to reduce .patient¡¦s stay time¡C3.patient¡¦s stay time longer who younger, so that the staff take care more careful and pay attention to patient¡¦s condition change frequently¡Ato reduce uneasy of long-term stay in Emergency Department. 4.unscheduled revisit ratio in the study is 4.7%¡Abut not discover the correlation factor¡C Integrate above-mentioned¡Athe study find that ¡Aphysician¡¦s and patient¡¦s characteristic will influence medical outcome quality. The project hospital should with different influence factor to draw quality manage policy and stratagem, and improve Emergency Department quality will raise the satisfied degree.

The range of definitions involving ¡§service¡¨ is wide. For example, plumbers or lawyers offer technique or profession; consultants or teachers offer knowledge or information; meeting room or car rental agencies as well as people in movie industries offer facilities or space. Of course, a particular place like a hospital provides more than one service, including profession, skills, knowledge, space, etc. In Taiwan, the employment rate in service industry reached 50.2% in 2000. It was the first time the percentage exceeded the one in labor industry, and it is increasing gradually every year. The development of service industry is predicted to influence the economy in the future. The most important factor in service industry is the quality of service. Some even connect service quality with customer satisfaction as well as employees¡¦ rewards. Medical care is a kind of service, too. However, the complication and variation make it hard to measure the quality, especially when it is related to the quality of technique (result). The researchers have a lot of issues about the structures of service quality. In the earlier documents, people agreed with using SERVQUAL to measure the quality. However, European scholars have considered other aspects of service quality. They pointed out that there should be three aspects of service quality for customer satisfaction, including functional (procedure), technological (result), and impressional (image), etc. Although most of the scholars agreed that service quality has multi-structures, they don¡¦t have the same opinion about the essence and the content of it. In Taiwan, most of the people who study for the quality of medical service adopt the theory of P.Z.B. However, my report is trying to use Ward et al (2005) to study the chart of medical service quality. This is to test if the medical service quality of a particular clinic meets the expectation, then we can analysis the relationship of overall quality (patients¡¦ satisfaction) and service quality. Thus we can establish the pattern of prediction, and provide the particular clinic with the references to evaluate the medical service quality. China Steel established a particular clinic in order to respond to ¡§Employee Health Protection Regulation¡¨. The aim of having this clinic is to take care of the employees¡¦ health. The first priority is to provide the basic medical service for them. China Steel has about 8600 employees. The market has about 30 thousand people, including sub-manufacturers and families. Therefore, the clinic is designed to be much bigger than the average ones, and it has 24 staff. This clinic doesn¡¦t have to be responsible for whether it is making money or not. The results of service became the only standard to evaluate the operation. The development of pattern for measuring service quality is necessary for evaluating the results of it. In addition, it can be used to improve the service and promote the welfare of the employees¡¦ physical and mental health.

In tourism, the product is the experience. The destination sets the stage, which facilitates the experience. First impressions, based largely on visual cues in the environment, help to determine the level of quality tourists should expect from their encounter. While much research has focused on destination image in advertising, little attention has been given to on-site assessments of tourists' perceptions of the visual environment. This study had three specific objectives. The first was to determine if changes in the visual environment affect respondents' attitudes, perceptions of quality and satisfaction. The second objective set out to determine which visual quality elements have the strongest influence on respondents' attitudes, their perceptions of quality and satisfaction. The final objective was to explore the interrelationship between attitudes, quality, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Utilizing a series of digitally modified photographs and an experimental design approach with three treatments, this study examined how selected visual environmental cues affected respondents' perceptions. The relatively high adjusted R2 values across the three treatments suggests the strong influence of visual quality elements on hedonic (R2 values ranging from .16 to .27) and utilitarian attitudes (R2 values ranging from .16 to .24), and particularly on satisfaction (R2 values ranging from .31 to .44) and overall quality (R2 values ranging from .28 to .35). The visual cues having the strongest influence on perceptions were level of crowding, available seating, maintenance and upkeep, and type of signage. Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study examined the interrelationship between the endogenous variables in the model. The influence of hedonic attitude on overall quality and satisfaction was confirmed, but the influence of utilitarian attitude on overall quality and satisfaction was not. This suggests that some tourism experiences are more hedonic in nature. This research supports previous literature suggesting that a high level of quality will result in a high level of satisfaction for the visitors (significant path estimate of .422). Additionally, standardized path coefficients indicate that overall quality (.416) and satisfaction (.486) were both related to behavioral intentions, with satisfaction being a stronger predictor.