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AbstractRegulations governing the quality of drinking water within the European Community must be based on Directive 80/778/EC, although Member States may impose tighter or additional limits if they so wish. The Directive is substantially derived from standards set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 1970. Revised 'Guidelines Values'for water contaminants were issued by WHO in 1984, and a further revision will be published in 1993. Modest changes in the guidelines set by WHO for microbiological parameters since 1970 have been accompanied by a large increase in the number of limits set for chemical parameters. This is particularly marked for organic compounds including pesticides and disinfection byproducts. The new WHO guidelines will inevitably have an impact on water supplies in the UK, but the timescale for a significant change in the outmoded EC Directive is uncertain.

Within the globalization, the information, the people, the price and the capital is speeded up, causing the tourism to dynamically develop and valorize. The study points out the economic, social and environmental effects of tourism, and the importance of the government's role, as well as the increasing role of the regions and touristic destinations, and the needs of information. The EU's Grant System also requires the development of tourism in the assessment of choosing the impacts and indicators professionally, and use of the design during the planning phase.

Quality requirements (QRs) are a key artifact needed to ensure the quality and success of a software system. Despite their importance, QRs rarely get the same degree of attention as their functional counterpart in agile software development (ASD) projects. Moreover, crucial information that can be obtained from software development repositories (e.g., JIRA, GitHub) is not fully exploited, or is even neglected, in QR elicitation activities. In this work, we present a data-driven tooled approach for the semi-automatic generation and documentation of QRs in the context of ASD. The approach is based on the declaration of thresholds over quality-related issues, whose violation triggers user-defined alerts. These alerts are used to browse a catalog of QR patterns that are presented to the ASD team by means of a dashboard that implements several analysis techniques. Once selected, the patterns generate the QRs, which are documented and stored in the product backlog. The full approach is implemented via a configurable platform. Over the course of 1 year, four companies differing in size and profile followed this approach and deployed the platform in their premises to semi-automatically generate QRs in several projects. We used standardized measurement instruments to elicit the perception of 22 practitioners regarding their use of the tool. The quantitative and qualitative analyses yielded positive results; i.e., the practitioners' perception with regard to the tool's understandability, reliability, usefulness, and relevance was positive. We conclude that the results show potential for future adoption of data-driven elicitation of QRs in agile companies and encourage other practitioners to use the presented tool and adopt it in their companies. ; This work is a result of the Q-Rapids project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 732253. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (author's final draft)

A plan was developed for evaluation of the relationship between ride and ride quality of vehicles currently used in public transportation systems and new prototypes. The components of ride as the physical environment and ride quality as passenger response were defined and articulated. Three settings were recommended for conduct of research: a simulator, rides by captive passengers, and rides by revenue passengers. A procedure was described for the implementation of experimental studies. Key features involved accumulations of a growing data bank describing ride-ride quality relationships and forecasting results of future experiments from the data bank. An experiment was conducted in the NASA Langley simulator to examine the relationships between ride vibrations derived from actual railway track signatures and ride quality as rated by subjects. When the design was replicated, comfort ratings by subjects were highly reliable. Subjects could discriminate between stimulus amplitudes for continuous rough track and diamond crossings; they could not discriminate amplitude variations well for roll. These data fail to show that subjects can discriminate well between the different types of vibration that define ride.

Complex software-based systems must comply with both functional and non-functional requirements (NFRs) to provide usefulness. This paper presents a structured catalogue of quality requirements and a model-based approach to collect NFRs from the catalogue in a given project context. The NFR catalogue is structured according to the quality criteria from the ISO 25000 series of standards and can be further extended. This catalogue can be applied in specific software development or modernization projects and in the preparation of tenders. This application to a specific project context is achieved by using the BPMN-NFR method presented in this paper. In this method, pattern recognition in system models is used to build a soft-goal model that serves as a filter mechanism for selecting relevant quality requirements from the catalogue. Through enrichment with context information concrete system related non-functional requirements are derived, which can be used for the system development. This model-based method was developed and applied in the context of the modernization of the budgetary procedures of Germany's federal government.

Agile methods can deliver software that fulfills customer needs rapidly and continuously. Quality requirements (QRs) are important in this regard; however, detailed studies on how companies applying agile methods to manage QRs are limited, as are studies on the rationale for choosing specific QR management practices and related challenges. The aim of this study was to address why practitioners manage QRs as they do and what challenges they face. We also analyzed how existing practices mitigate some of the found challenges. Lastly, we connect the contextual elements of the companies with their practices and challenges. We conducted 36 interviews with practitioners from four companies of varying sizes. Since each company operates in different domains, comparing QR management strategies and related challenges in different contexts was possible. We found that the companies apply proactive, reactive, and interactive strategies to manage QRs. Additionally, our study revealed 40 challenges in six categories that companies applying agile methods may face in QR management. We also identified nine contextual elements that affect QR management practice choices and which, importantly, can explain many related challenges. Based on these findings, we constructed a theoretical model about the connection between context, QR management practices, and challenges. Practitioners in similar contexts can learn from the practices identified in this study. Our preliminary theoretical model can help other practitioners identify what challenges they can expect to face in QR management in different developmental contexts as well as which practices to apply to mitigate these challenges. ; This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement 732253. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)

AbstractThe growing pressure for service quality has led to an increase in the dissemination of quality models in nonprofit human service organizations. In spite of this, little is known about their implementation. The present study therefore examines how quality management directives imposed by public authorities affect the adoption and use of quality measurement systems under different sets of conditions. Key findings, based on survey data from 536 human service nonprofits in Switzerland, suggest that external quality requirements foster the adoption of measurement systems to the greatest degree, but simultaneously reduce their actual utilization for service improvement. The strength of these effects is contingent on the organizations' resources and the quality of indicators. Managers' commitment to quality measurement shows the strongest effect on the use of quality measurement systems. These findings and the implications for future research and practice will be discussed.

In the past decade the issue of patient mobility has emerged on the European health policy agenda. Although the volume of patients crossing borders to obtain healthcare is low, it is increasing continuously and, due to its legal, financial and medical implications, has generated considerable interest among health policy and other decision makers. However, there is little information available on the safety and patient-centredness of cross-border care and neither governments nor citizens have an explicit basis for comparing healthcare delivery in Europe. This study investigated the viewpoints of patients, professionals and healthcare financiers on the safety and patient-centredness of cross-border care. Qualitative interviews were carried out during 2005 and early 2006 with 40 patients, 30 professionals (doctors, nurses and managers) and 3 healthcare-financing bodies. Although cross-border care has become a common issue in many European countries, there remain uncertainties on the side of each of the parties addressed-patients, professionals and financiers-with regard to the provision of cross-border care. One of the most striking results of this project is the current lack of research on systematic knowledge on the quality of cross-border care. Many of the issues identified through this research may have a potential impact on the quality and safety of cross-border care and will support further investigation and help shape the health policy agenda on patients crossing borders in European Union countries.

BACKGROUND: In the past decade the issue of patient mobility has emerged on the European health policy agenda. Although the volume of patients crossing borders to obtain healthcare is low, it is increasing continuously and, due to its legal, financial and medical implications, has generated considerable interest among health policy and other decision makers. However, there is little information available on the safety and patient-centredness of cross-border care and neither governments nor citizens have an explicit basis for comparing healthcare delivery in Europe. METHODS: This study investigated the viewpoints of patients, professionals and healthcare financiers on the safety and patient-centredness of cross-border care. Qualitative interviews were carried out during 2005 and early 2006 with 40 patients, 30 professionals (doctors, nurses and managers) and 3 healthcare-financing bodies. RESULTS: Although cross-border care has become a common issue in many European countries, there remain uncertainties on the side of each of the parties addressed--patients, professionals and financiers--with regard to the provision of cross-border care. One of the most striking results of this project is the current lack of research on systematic knowledge on the quality of cross-border care. CONCLUSION: Many of the issues identified through this research may have a potential impact on the quality and safety of cross-border care and will support further investigation and help shape the health policy agenda on patients crossing borders in European Union countries.

Hasil survey kerusakan bangunan pasca gempa bumi Sumatera Barat beberapa tahun yang lalu menunjukkan bahwa komponen bangunan yang paling banyak mengalami kerusakan adalah bagian non-struktur, yaitu dinding berbahan batu bata. Salah satu penyebabnya adalah mutu batu bata yang rendah. Hal ini mendorong pemerintah melakukan sosialisasi membangun rumah yang lebih aman terhadap gempa, yang berisikan metode pelaksanaan dan penggunaan bahan yang memenuhi standar.Penelitian mengambil sampel batu bata yang berasal dari rumah masyarakat yang sedang membangun di 5 kecamatan (Batang Anai, Lubuk Alung, Sintuak Toboh Gadang, Enam Lingkung dan Nan Sabaris) kabupaten Padang Pariaman. Terhadap sampel tersebut dilakukan pengujian densitas, warna, tekstur dan bentuk, dimensi, penyerapan air dan kuat tekan.Hasil penelitian menunjukkan rerata kuat tekan sebesar 13,35 kg/cm2, nilai ini tidak memenuhi persyaratan pokok membangun rumah aman gempa (≥ 30 kg/cm2). Penyerapan air rata-rata memenuhi persyaratan yaitu 17, 72% (< 20%). Sifat tampak sebagian besar tidak memenuhi persyaratan, sedangkan nilai densitasnya hanya 10% yang memenuhi persyaratan. Sebanyak 70% sampel memenuhi persyaratan ukuran panjang dan 60% memenuhi persyaratan ukuran lebar batu bata, tetapi seluruh sampel tidak memenuhi persyaratan ketebalan dengan penyimpangan 10 - 17 mm. ; The survey of earthquake damage to buildings in West Sumatra a few years ago showed that the most components of the buildings damaged are non-structural parts, that is wall made of brick. It caused by quality of the bricks are low. This encouraged the government disseminate how to build safer homes against earthquakes, which contains the methods of implementation and use standard materials.The samples of this study were bricks coming from people whose build homes in 5 districts in Padang Pariaman. The sample to be tested density, color, texture and shape, dimensions, water absorption and compressive strength. The results showed the average of compressive strength is 13, 35 kg/cm2, this value is not fulfill essential requirements to build earthquake-safe house (≥ 30 kg/cm2). The average of water absorption appropriate with requirements, 17, 72% (<20%). Most of the bricks were not fulfill the physical requirements. There were only 10% appropriate with density standard, as many as 70% and 60% of samples fulfill the essential requirements for length and width of bricks, but the entire sample did not appropriate with thickness which the deviation value are 10 – 17 mm.