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In a complex and dynamic business environment, managers widely appeal to modern methods and techniques that would help them cope with the competition and offer their customers new, attractive, good quality products and services and at competitive prices. In this context, total quality management is a viable and sustainable option that can systematically contribute to the consolidation of the capacity of organizations.The aim of this paper was to put forth a three-dimensional approach of total quality management and provide some concrete action ways through which organizations in Romania that implement total or partial quality management integrated systems would produce significant competitive advantages.The main research methods used were: the questionnaire, document analysis, applications offered by Word and Excel and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, one of the most complete software packages with which we calculated means and standard deviations and determined and analysed correlations between variables and various quality parameters.In this research, have been identified the main key success factors, the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the systems, their causes and the necessary changes through which the three-dimensional approach of total quality management could become a preferred strategic option with a major positive impact upon business excellence.The most important results obtained are a three-dimensional approach of the Total Quality Management and a substantial number of certain proposals for the Romanian firms in order to achieve business excellence.

Families of gender nonconforming children need to negotiate the interactions between two gender systems: a rigid gender binary imported from familial, social, and cultural experiences and a fluid gender spectrum articulated by their child. This article reviews parental reactions to nonconforming gender developments and poses that the parental mandates of protection and acceptance are problematized by the difference of gender norms between the child and the family, as well as the child and the environment. Through multiple therapeutic modalities—parental coaching and education, parent support group, and child and family therapy—the author illustrates interventions supporting both parents and prepubescent children in their negotiation of safety, connection, and fluidity. Case vignettes illustrate the method in action. 家有异性特质孩子的家庭需要协调两种性别体系之间的互动。这两种性别体系一个是源于家庭、社会和文化经历的严格的性别二分法,另一个是由其孩子明确表达的流动的性别光谱。本文评论了家长对异性特质发展的反应,并提出家长的保护与接受因孩子与家庭以及孩子与环境之间在性别规范上的差异而出现问题。本文作者通过多种治疗方式——家长辅导教育、家长支持小组、儿童与家庭治疗——阐明了支持家长以及青春期前孩子协调安全、关系以及流动性的干预治疗。本文以案例场景来阐明实践方法。 Las familias de niños de sexo indefinido necesitan negociar las interacciones entre dos sistemas de género, un binario de género rígido importado de experiencias familiares, sociales y culturales y un espectro de género fluido expresado por su hijo. En este artículo se analizan las reacciones de los padres a los desarrollos de género indefinido y se plantea que los mandatos paternales de protección y aceptación se problematizan por la diferencia de normas de género entre el niño y la familia así como entre el niño y el entorno. Mediante múltiples modalidades terapéuticas (preparación y enseñanza para padres, grupo de apoyo para padres, terapia infantil y familiar) el autor pone de manifiesto las intervenciones que apoyan tanto a los padres como a los niños prepúberes en su negociación de seguridad, conexión y fluidez. Se presentan casos para ejemplificar la implementación del método.

Exposure to adversity in childhood is associated with elevations in numerous physical and mental health outcomes across the life course. The biological embedding of early experience during periods of developmental plasticity is one pathway that contributes to these associations. Dimensional models specify mechanistic pathways linking different dimensions of adversity to health and well-being outcomes later in life. While findings from existing studies testing these dimensions have provided promising preliminary support for these models, less agreement exists about how to measure the experiences that comprise each dimension. Here, we review existing approaches to measuring two dimensions of adversity: threat and deprivation. We recommend specific measures for measuring these constructs and, when possible, document when the same measure can be used by different reporters and across the lifespan to maximize the utility with which these recommendations can be applied. Through this approach, we hope to stimulate progress in understanding how particular dimensions of early environmental experience contribute to lifelong health.

For more than a century, research on psychopathology has focused on categorical diagnoses. Although this work has produced major discoveries, growing evidence points to the superiority of a dimensional approach to the science of mental illness. Here we outline one such dimensional system—the Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP)—that is based on empirical patterns of co-occurrence among psychological symptoms. We highlight key ways in which this framework can advance mental-health research, and we provide some heuristics for using HiTOP to test theories of psychopathology. We then review emerging evidence that supports the value of a hierarchical, dimensional model of mental illness across diverse research areas in psychological science. These new data suggest that the HiTOP system has the potential to accelerate and improve research on mental-health problems as well as efforts to more effectively assess, prevent, and treat mental illness.

Self-determination theory presents a multi-dimensional approach to human motivation in which motivation is driven by a range of classifiably distinct regulation styles. However, these different regulations are also considered to fall along a continuum of self-determination which implies that a global dimension reflecting the degree of self-determination present is important. The lack of explicit integration between these two aspects in the conceptualization of motivation has recently led to debates and a flux of research on the structure of motivation as defined in self-determination theory. This review comprehensively explores recent advances in this area as well as more classical approaches in order to establish an optimal and empirically supported conceptualization of motivation. A novel solution is proposed, namely a semi-radex structure of motivation, in which types of motivation are predictably ordered by degree of self-determination while also maintaining their unique contribution as distinct factors. Theoretical and practical implications for researchers who use self-determination theory are made.

It is necessary to analyze the intake/exhaust gas flow of a diesel engine when turbocharger matching and when installing emission control devices such as exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), selective catalytic reduction (SCR), and scrubbers. Analyzing the intake/exhaust gas flow using a 3D approach can use various analytical models, but it requires a significant amount of time to perform the computation. An approach that combines 1D and 3D is a fast numerical analysis method that can utilize the analysis models of the 3D approach and obtain accurate calculation results. In this study, the flow characteristics of the exhaust gas were analyzed using a 1D–3D coupling algorithm to analyze the unsteady gas flow of a diesel engine, and whether the 1D–3D approach was suitable for analyzing exhaust systems was evaluated. The accuracy of the numerical analysis results was verified by comparison with the experimental results, and the flow characteristics of various shapes of the exhaust system of a diesel engine could be analyzed. Numerical analysis using the 1D–3D approach was able to be computed about 300 times faster than the 3D approach, and it was a method that could be used for research focused on the exhaust system. In addition, since it could quickly and accurately calculate intake/exhaust gas flow, it was expected to be used as a numerical analysis method suitable for analyzing the interaction of diesel engines with emission control devices and turbochargers.

Three-dimensional (3D) pair-matching has brought about an innovative approach for the analysis of commingled skeletal remains, and it has been tested on bone models acquired through CT and laser scans. Here, 3D models of 40 innominate bones (20 left and 20 right) of 20 documented male individuals from a cemeterial skeletal collection were acquired through a stereophotogrammetric device (VECTRA M3, Canfield Scientific, Inc.). The ventral iliac surface was chosen as the anatomical region of interest (ROI) for the analysis. Each left ROI was mirrored and superimposed on the matching right ROI (contralateral element from the same individual) and mismatching ROIs (contralateral elements from different individuals). The point-to-point distance between models was calculated through the Vectra Analysis Module (VAM) software and the root mean square (RMS) point-to-point distance value was used to evaluate the sorting performance of the method, in terms of sensitivity and specificity rates. Differences in RMS between matches and mismatches were investigated through a Student’s t test (p < 0.05). The state of preservation of the remains was assessed following an index of anatomical completeness and differences in RMS distances of true matches according to different anatomical completeness were assessed through the Mann–Whitney test (p < 0.05). RMS point-to-point distances of matches and mismatches were significantly different (p < 0.01), being the matches lower than mismatches. The RMS threshold of 2.9 mm identified all the true pairs; the test was 100% sensitive and 51% specific. The RMS of matches with a better state of preservation are significantly lower than the less preserved matches (p < 0.05). In general, a low RMS distance value may indicate a true match, being it to be further verified. The 3D approach for sorting innominate bones provides a valid screening test that could complete subjective and osteometric methods with numerical evidence of the match. Preliminary data suggest a possible relation between RMS distance values and taphonomic condition, which would benefit from further research.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative aims to understand the mechanisms influencing psychopathology through a dimensional approach. Limited research thus far has considered potential racial/ethnic differences in RDoC constructs that are influenced by developmental and contextual processes. A growing body of research has demonstrated that racial trauma is a pervasive chronic stressor that impacts the health of Black Americans across the life course. In this review article, we examine the ways that an RDOC framework could allow us to better understand the biological embedding of racial trauma among Black Americans. We also specifically examine the Negative Valence System domain of RDoC to explore how racial trauma is informed by and can help expand our understanding of this domain. We end the review by providing some additional research considerations and future research directives in the area of racial trauma that build on the RDoC initiative.

The overarching objective of the present study is to apply a quasi-two-dimensional approach to analyze the laminar flow of lubricating oil. Lubricating oils are non-Newtonian by nature. For these types of oils, the Sisko fluid model is the most suitable model of the nonlinear stress–strain relationship for these types of oils. It is hoped that by omitting the dependence of flow quantities in one direction, more qualitative information can be obtained on the characteristics of the purely three-dimensional boundary layer flow of lubricating oils. Some of the most familiar flow geometries discussed are steady flow over a flat plate, a corner of a wedge, and a stagnation region; steady flow in a convergent and divergent channel; and impulsively started flow over an infinite flat plate and semi-infinite flat plate. The governing equations of all flow geometries are transformed into nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODE) using the free parameter transformation. The results are discussed briefly in the graphical presentation.

Informed by the dimensional approach to adversity, this study disaggregated child maltreatment effects to examine how abuse versus neglect influenced cortisol at the baseline assessment and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol among a sample of Chinese children and adolescents ( N = 312; aged 9–13 years; M age = 10.80, SD = 0.84; 67% boys). The moderating roles of resilience and sex differences in these associations were also explored. Results revealed distinct effects of abuse versus neglect on diurnal cortisol in girls, but not boys, which varied by the time scale of assessment and type of cortisol measure. Specifically, abuse was associated with girls’ longitudinal changes in awakening cortisol, cortisol awakening response, and diurnal cortisol slope over one year, whereas neglect was associated with girls’ awakening cortisol and cortisol awakening response at the baseline assessment. Further, resilience moderated the effects of abuse on girls’ baseline awakening cortisol and longitudinal changes in diurnal cortisol slope, suggesting both the potential benefits and costs of resilience. Findings support the application of the dimensional approach to research on stress physiology and deepen our understanding of individual differences in the associations between child maltreatment and diurnal cortisol.