AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Gastritis is an inflammation of the lining of the stomach. It has many possible causes. The main causes are drinking too much alcohol, or using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (also known as NSAIDs) such as aspirin or ibuprofen for too long. Sometimes gastritis starts after major surgery, serious injury, burns, or infections. People who have had weight loss surgery may also get gastritis. Long term causes are infection with bacteria, mainly "Helicobacter pylori". Certain diseases, such as pernicious anemia, chronic bile reflux, stress and certain autoimmune disorders can cause gastritis as well. The most common symptom is abdominal pain. Other symptoms are indigestion, abdominal bloating, nausea, and vomiting. Some may have a feeling of fullness or burning in the upper abdomen. A gastroscopy, blood test, complete blood count test, or a faeces test may be used to diagnose gastritis. Treatment includes taking antacids or other medicines, such as proton pump inhibitors or antibiotics, and avoiding hot or spicy foods. For those with pernicious anemia, B injections are given.
Susan Greenfield
Susan Greenfield, Baroness Greenfield, (born Hammersmith, London, 1 October 1950) is a British scientist, writer and broadcaster. She specializes in studying how the human brain works and has done a lot of research into diseases such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease which are common in older people. She has written several books and appeared frequently on radio and television. She is very good at explaining what she does to the wide public, using words that ordinary people (non-scientists) can understand. In 1994 she gave the series of Christmas lectures on television for young children.
Susan Greenfield was born in Hammersmith, West London. Her parents were of Russian and Austrian origin. She studied at the University of Oxford and also got a doctorate degree from the College de France in Paris. She is Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Oxford and fellow of Lincoln College. She is the head of a group of 18 scientists who study degenerative brain diseases. Until recently she was director of the Royal Institution.
Susan Greenfield is very well known to the wider public through the books she has written and the lectures she has given on radio and on television. In 1994, she was the first woman to give the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures which were sponsored at that time by the BBC. She called those lectures "Journey to the centre of the brain".
Greenfield frequently lectures about the future of the brain and, in particular, the effect that computers are having in the way we think. She says that computer could be very useful for old people because it keeps their minds active. On the other hand she is worried that young people are using computers too much. Although activities such as video games are good for developing certain skills (such as quick reactions), there are many other skills that we need in life (such as the ability to communicate with people and understand other people’s emotions) that they do not teach us.
Baroness Greenfield sits in the United Kingdom Parliament in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. She does not belong to any particular party.
She has been given many awards, including the CBE for helping the public to understand science. a Chevalier Légion d'Honneur by the French Government. She has been given several honorary degrees and in June 2001, she was made a Life peer, as Baroness Greenfield, of Ot Moor in the County of Oxfordshire.
Greenfield was married to an Oxford University Professor of Physical Chemistry, Peter Atkins; they divorced in 2005.
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/2000/greenfield
Sébastien Bourdais
Sébastien Olivier Bourdais (born 28 February 1979 in Le Mans) is a French race car driver. He is one of the most successful drivers in the history of the Champ Car World Series. He won four championships in a row, from 2004 to 2007.
He drove in Formula One for the Toro Rosso team during the 2008 and 2009 seasons. He was unable to repeat his past successes. Bourdais currently drives for Peugeot Sport in the Le Mans Series and for French football club Olympique Lyonnais in the Superleague Formula series.
Born into a racing family, Bourdais began his racing career at age 10 in kart racing. Bourdais progressed to single-seater racing in 1995, finishing 9th in the Formula Campus Championship. He then spent two years in the French Formula Renault Championship. He finished second in points in 1997. In 1998, he won five races to become Rookie of the Year (6th overall) in French F3. He won the series outright in 1999, with eight wins and three poles.
In 2000, Bourdais joined the Prost Junior Team in the International F3000 Championship. He finished ninth in the series. In 2001, he moved to the DAMS team and took his first win in the series. He changed teams again for 2002, joing Super Nova Racing. Bordais had three victories and seven pole positions. He won the championship by two points.
Bourdais moved to Champ Car racing in the United States. He and joined Newman-Haas Racing for the 2003 CART World Series season. At St. Petersburg, Florida, Bourdais became the first rookie since Nigel Mansell to claim pole position for his first race. His first Champ Car victory came at Brands Hatch.
For 2004, Bourdais dominated the Champ Car series. He had seven wins and eight poles in his Lola. His won his first championship. Bourdais won a fourth consecutive Champ Car title in 2007 with victory at Lexmark Indy 300 on October 21.
On 16 March 2008 Bourdais competed in his first Formula One Championship race, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne. He finished the year in 17th place with four points.
Bourdais tested for the Toro Rosso team during the winter. On 6 February 2009 he was confirmed as a Toro Rosso driver for a second year. He had two points finishes in at the Australian Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix.
On 16 July 2009, Toro Rosso announced that Bourdais would no longer be driving for the team. It was reported that Bourdais was thinking about sueing Toro Rosso, claiming that the team breached his contract. It was then reported that Toro Rosso paid him $2.1 million to avoid legal action.
Bourdais has frequently raced the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. He entering for the first time in 1999, at the aged of 20. He drove a Porsche 911 GT2 run by Larbre Competition. He returned in 2000, finishing fourth with Emmanuel Clerico and Olivier Grouillard for the Pescarolo team behind the three dominant Audis.
His next three appearances did not go so well. In 2001 his car retired after 271 laps. The next year, he finished ninth in the LMP900 class. He missed the 2003 race and returned in 2004, but his car retired after 282 laps.
Bourdais' next race at Le Mans would come in 2007. He drove a factory-backed Peugeot 908. The car he shared with Stéphane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy finished the race second. In 2009 he drovr for the Peugeot factory team again. He finished in second place, one lap behind the winning Peugeot. Bourdais was to drive the pole-winning #3 Peugeot in 2010. A suspension failure halted the car before Bourdais could turn a lap in the race
After leaving Formula One, Bourdais signed up to drive the Sevilla FC car in the Superleague Formula series. He won on his debut weekend at the 2009 Estoril round in the Super Final. Bourdais won again at the next round, winning race 1 of the 2009 Monza round. He returned for the 2010 season racing for Olympique Lyonnais.
Bourdais made several appearances in other championships. He won the Spa 24 Hours in 2002 in a Larbre Compétition Chrysler Viper GTS-R. He also won his class at the 2006 12 Hours of Sebring in a Panoz Esperante. In 2005 he also competed in the International Race of Champions, winning his first stock car race at Texas Motor Speedway. In 2009, he set the official lap record at Sebring International Raceway, during the 12 Hours of Sebring. In 2010, Bourdais raced in a Level 5 Motorsports prepared Daytona Prototype in Rolex 24 at Daytona, held at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.
New points system introduced in 2004
Did not finish the race but was classified as he completed more than 90% of the race
William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer who improved how companies manage making products. He was a statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and consultant. He is perhaps best known for his work in Japan. Starting in 1950, he taught top Japanese business managers how to improve design, product quality, testing and sales. He taught the importance of using Statistical Process Control (SPC), to manage quality by measuring, or counting, many steps of complex manufacturing and services, in order to reduce the variation in results. This should reduce defects and errors. Deming described periodic monitoring, by repeating the steps of Plan-Do-Check-Act, known as the Deming Cycle.
he went to triton central highschool. He entered the University of Wyoming at Laramie in 1917 and graduated in 1921. He earned a BSc in electrical engineering. He then went to graduate school. In 1925, he received an M.S. from the University of Colorado. In 1928, he received a Ph.D. from Yale University. Both graduate degrees were in mathematics and mathematical physics.
Yo-yo
The yo-yo is a popular toy made with of a length of string tied at one end to a flat spool. It is used by holding the free end of the string (usually by inserting one finger in a slip knot) and pulling at it so as to cause the spool to turn while it is hanging in mid-air, either winding or unwinding the string. It first became popular in the 1920s.
In the simplest play, the string is wound on the spool by hand. The yo-yo is then thrown downwards, so that it goes down and unwinds the string. It then (by inertia) climbs back, winding the string up. Finally the yo-yo is grabbed, ready to be thrown again. Many other trick plays exist, most based on the basic "sleeper" trick.
One of the most famous tricks on the yoyo is "walk the dog". This is done by throwing a strong sleeper and allowing the yoyo to roll across the floor.
English historical names for the yo-yo include "bandalore" (from French) and "quiz". French historical terms include "bandalore", "incroyable", "de Coblenz", "emigrette", and "joujou de Normandie" ("joujou" meaning little toy).
The earliest surviving yo-yo dates to 500 BC and was made using terra cotta (clay) disks. A Greek vase painting from this date shows a boy playing yo-yo(see right). Greek records from this time describe toys made out of wood, metal, or painted terra cotta. The terra cotta disks were used to ceremonially offer the toys of youth to certain gods when a child came of age. Disks of other materials were used for actual play.
Philippine historical records show that 16th century hunters hiding in trees used a rock tied to a string up to 20 feet in length to throw at wild animals beneath them. The string meant they could get the rock back without having to come down from the tree.
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 when the six self-governing British colonies, agreed to join together as one nation. These colonies became the six states of Australia. The written agreement is the Australian Constitution. This was written at a Constitutional Convention and voted for by the people of the colonies.
The way the Australian Government is organized can be looked at in two ways. The first is federalism which organizes the way powers are distributed between the Australian Government and the state governments. The second is separation of powers into legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. The Constitution supports the separation of powers in the way it sets out the roles of the branches of government.
Section 1 of the Australian Constitution sets up a democratic legislature, the bicameral Parliament of Australia. This is the Queen and two houses, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Section 51 of the Constitution sets out the Commonwealth Government's legislative powers and gives certain powers and responsibilities (known as "heads of power") to the federal government. All remaining responsibilities are kept by the six States. Each State has its own constitution, so that Australia has seven sovereign Parliaments, none of which can take over the powers of any other. The High Court of Australia rules on any arguments between the Commonwealth and the States, or among the States, about their powers.
The Commonwealth Parliament can propose changes to the Constitution. To become law, the proposals must be put to a referendum of all Australians of voting age. The changes must get a "double majority": a majority of all votes, and a majority of votes in a majority of States.
The Commonwealth Constitution also says that the States can agree to give any of their powers to the Commonwealth. This can be done by an amendment to the Constitution through a referendum. More commonly, if all the states agree, then all state and Commonwealth parliaments pass laws to allow the transfer. These "transfer" laws may have a "sunset clause". This is a part of the law that means the law is only in place for a certain time. After this, the original division of powers is put back.
Australia has several territories, three of which are self-governing: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the Northern Territory (NT) and Norfolk Island. The legislatures of these territories have powers given to them by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth Parliament keeps the power to overturn territorial legislation and to give or take powers. While Australian citizens living in the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory are represented in the Commonwealth Parliament, Norfolk Islanders are not.
Australia's other territories, (Jervis Bay, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands) are not self-governing. Instead, these territories are governed by federal laws, with Christmas Island and the Cocos Islands also having local governments. The largely uninhabited Coral Sea Islands was set up as a Territory of the Commonwealth in 1969. The Ashmore and Cartier Islands has been a territory since 1933 run under the laws of the Northern Territory.
The federal nature of the Commonwealth and the structure of the Parliament of Australia were the subject of long negotiations among the colonies. The House of Representatives is elected on a basis which shows the different sized populations of the States. So New South Wales has 50 members while Tasmania has only five. But the Senate is elected on a basis of equality among the States: all States have 12 Senators, regardless of population. This was so the Senators of the smaller States could form a majority and change or even reject laws from the House of Representatives. The ACT and the NT elect two senators each.
The third level of government after Commonwealth and State/Territory is Local government. These are organized as shires, towns or cities. Local governments are made up of elected representatives (known as either councilor or alderman depending on the State), usually serving on a part-time basis.
Government is undertaken by three inter-connected arms of government:
The "Separation of powers" is the principle whereby the three arms of government do their activities separate from each other:
Before the Australia Act 1986, and matching legislation in the parliament of the United Kingdom, some Australian cases could be sent to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for final appeal. Australian law is now only decided on in Australia, and the High Court of Australia is the highest court of appeal. The possibility of the British Parliament making laws to overturn the Australian Constitution was also removed.
The Legislature makes the laws, and supervises the activities of the other two arms with a view to changing the laws if needed. The Australian Parliament is bicameral, made up of the Queen, a 76-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. Twelve Senators from each state are elected for six-year terms, using proportional representation and the single transferable vote (known in Australia as "preferential voting", with half elected every three years.
There are also two senators elected by voters from the Northern Territory (and including the Indian Ocean Territories, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands). Another two senators are elected by the voters of the Australian Capital Territory (including the Jervis Bay Territory). Senators from the territories are also elected using preferential voting, however, their term of office is not fixed: it starts on the day of a general election for the House of Representatives and ends the day before the next such election day.
The members of the House of Representatives are elected by preferential voting from single-member areas spread among the states and territories roughly in proportion to population. In ordinary legislation, the two chambers have the same powers, but all laws for spending money or charging taxes must come from the House of Representatives. In the Westminster system, the leader of the political party or group of parties that holds the support of a majority of the members in the House of Representatives is asked to form a government and is named Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to the Parliament, of which they must be members. General elections are held at least once every three years. The Prime Minister can advise the Governor-General to call an election for the House of Representatives at any time, but Senate elections can only be held within certain periods set out in the Constitution. The most recent general election was on 21 August 2010.
The Commonwealth Parliament and all the state and territory legislatures use the Westminster system. They have a recognised Leader of the Opposition, usually the leader of the largest party outside the government. There is also a Shadow Cabinet of Opposition members who "shadow" each member of the Ministry, asking questions on matters about the Minister's responsibilities. The government, because it has a majority of members in the lower house of the legislature, can usually pass its legislation and control the workings of the house. The Opposition can slow down the process and obstruct government business if it chooses. The day-to-day business of the house is usually worked out between a senior Minister, who holds the title Leader of the House, and an Opposition frontbencher known as the Manager of Opposition Business.
The Australian Constitution was written in 1901, when the Dominions of the British Empire were not independent countries, and does not use the words "head of state". In practice, the role of head of state of Australia is divided between two people, the Queen of Australia and the Governor-General of Australia. The Governor- General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia. Though in many respects the Governor-General is the Queen's representative, and exercises various constitutional powers in her name, they are also independently vested with many important constitutional powers by the Constitution.
The Sovereign of Australia is currently Queen Elizabeth II. She is also the Sovereign of fifteen other Commonwealth Realms including the United Kingdom. Like the other Dominions, Australia gained legislative independence from the Parliament of the United Kingdom through the Statute of Westminster 1931. This came into force in Australia in 1942, but back dated to 3 September 1939. With the Royal Style and Titles Act 1953, the Australian Parliament gave the Queen the title Queen of Australia. In 1973 her Australian title no longer included her status as Queen of the United Kingdom and Defender of the Faith.
Section 61 of the Constitution says that 'The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor‑General as the Queen’s representative, and extends to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the Commonwealth'. Section 2 of the Australian Constitution says that a Governor-General shall represent the Queen in Australia. In practice, the Governor-General carries out all the tasks usually done by a head of state, without asking the Queen.
The question of whether the Queen is Australia's head of state became a political one during the 1999 Australian republic referendum, when opponents of the move to make Australia a republic claimed that Australia already had an Australian as head of state in the person of the Governor-General, who since 1965 has invariably been an Australian citizen. The former Governor-General, Major General Michael Jeffery, said in 2004: "Her Majesty is Australia's head of state but I am her representative and to all intents and purposes I carry out the full role." However, in 2005, he declined to name the Queen as head of state, instead saying in response to a direct question, "The Queen is the Monarch and I represent her, and I carry out all the functions of head of state." The Governor-General represents Australia internationally, making and receiving State visits.
In 2009 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the Governor-General the Australian head of state. He said an overseas visit by Quentin Bryce "...to Africa of this scale by Australia's Head of State will express the seriousness of Australia's commitment".
Under the Westminster system the Governor-General's powers are almost always used on the advice of the Prime Minister or other ministers. The Governor-General retains reserve powers similar to those possessed by the Queen in the United Kingdom. These are rarely exercised, but during the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 Governor-General Sir John Kerr used them independently of the Queen and the Prime Minister.
Several times people in Australia have wanted to remove the monarchy. In a 1999 referendum, the Australian people voted on a proposal to change the Constitution. The proposal would have removed the Queen from the Constitution and replaced the Governor-General with a President nominated by the Prime Minister, but needing the approval of a two-thirds majority of both Houses of the Parliament. The proposal was defeated. The Australian Republican Movement continues to call for an end to the monarchy in Australia, opposed by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.
The Federal Executive Council consists of the Governor-General, the Prime Minister and Ministers. It is a formal body which exists to give legal effect to decisions made by the Cabinet, and to carry out various other functions. Members of the Executive Council are entitled to be styled "The Honourable", a title which they retain for life. The Governor-General usually presides at Council meetings, but a Minister with the title Vice-President of the Executive Council serves as the link between the government and the Council.
The Constitution of Australia does not mention the Cabinet, and its decisions have no legal force. All members of the ministry must be sworn as members of the Federal Executive Council. This council is chaired by the Governor-General and which meets solely to approve and give legal force to decisions already made by the Cabinet. That is why there is always a member of the ministry holding the title Vice-President of the Executive Council.
Until 1956 all members of the ministry were members of the Cabinet. With more ministers added in the 1940s and 1950s this made the cabinet too big. In 1956 Robert Menzies created a two level ministry, with only senior ministers in the Cabinet. These are known as the front bench because the sit on the front bench seats in the Parliament. This practice has been continued by all governments except the Whitlam Government.
When the non-Labor parties have been in power, the Prime Minister has made all Cabinet and ministerial appointments. When the Liberal Party and its predecessors (the Nationalist Party and the United Australia Party) have been in coalition with the National Party or its predecessor the Country Party, the leader of the junior Coalition party has had the right decide his party's members of the Coalition ministry, and to work with the Prime Minister to give them their responsibilities.
When the Labor first held office under Chris Watson, Watson used the right to choose members of his Cabinet. In 1907, however, the party decided that future Labor Cabinets would be elected by the members of the Parliamentary Labor Party, the Caucus. The Prime Minister would allocate their responsibilities. The Labor Prime Ministers had a lot of influence over who was elected to Labor ministries, although the leaders small groups inside the party also had a lot of power. Prior to the 2007 general election, Kevin Rudd, said that he and he alone would choose the ministry if he become Prime Minister. His party won the election and he chose the ministry, as he said he would.
The cabinet meets not only in Canberra but also in other Australian state capitals, most often Sydney and Melbourne. Kevin Rudd said he wanted the Cabinet to meet in other places, such as major regional cities. The Commonwealth Parliament Offices in Sydney are located in Phillip Street.
There are times when the government acts in a "caretaker" capacity, principally in the period prior to and immediately following a general election.
The Judiciary interprets the laws, using as a basis the laws as enacted and what was said in the Legislature while the laws were being passed.
Before 1931, the junior status of dominions was shown in the fact that it was British ministers who advised the King, with dominion ministers, if they met the King at all, escorted by the constitutionally superior British minister. After 1931 all dominion ministers met the King as "His" ministers as of right, equal in Commonwealth status to Britain's ministers, meaning that there was no longer either a requirement for, or an acceptance of, the presence of British ministers. The first state to exercise this both symbolic and real independence was the Irish Free State. Australia and other dominions soon followed.
The Met Office (now the official name for the Meteorological Office) is the United Kingdom's national weather service.
More than 50% of its revenue comes from goods and services. This is why it is a 'trading fund' of the Ministry of Defence.
Part of the Met Office headquarters at Exeter in Devon is the Met Office College. This does the training for internal personnel and many forecasters from around the world.
One of the British stalwarts, the Shipping Forecast, is produced by the Met Office and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. The Shipping Forecast has long been vital to the safety of mariners on the seas around the British Isles.
The Met Office is responsible for issuing Severe Weather Warnings for the United Kingdom through the National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS). These warn of weather which may affect transport and lives. In March 2008, the system was improved and a new stage of warning was introduced, the 'Advisory'.
Its main role is to produce forecast models. It gathers information from weather satellites in space and observations on earth. The information is fed into two IBM supercomputers. The computers use models based on a software package known as the Unified Model. The principal weather products for UK customers are 36-hour forecasts from the newly operational 1.5 km resolution UKV model covering the UK and surroundings (replacing the 4 km model); 48-hour forecasts from the 12 km resolution NAE model covering Europe and the North Atlantic; and 144-hour forecasts from the 25 km resolution global model (replacing the 40 km global model). A wide range of other products for other regions of the globe are sold to customers abroad. They are used by MOD operations abroad or provided free to developing countries in Africa. If necessary, forecasters may make adjustments to the computer forecasts.
Statistical process control
Statistical process control (SPC) is the use of statistical methods to assess the stability of a process and the quality of its outputs. For example, consider a bottling plant. The entire system of production that produces filled bottles is termed a "process". Suppose the weight of liquid content added to a bottle is critical for cost control and customer satisfaction. The content should weigh 250 grams, but it is acceptable if the actual weight is between 245 and 255 grams. "Monitoring" means that the weight of every bottle is measured and recorded; sampling means that only a few bottles (say one in a thousand) are actually weighed (analysis to determine the rate of sampling and to assess sample representativeness is a well-established part of SPC.)
SPC relies on quantitative and graphic analysis of measurements to evaluate observed variation. If the attributes of interest (content weight in this example) vary within an acceptable range, a process is said to be "in control," "in statistical control," or "stable." When unacceptable variation is noted, actions are typically taken to determine and correct their cause. In the bottling example, suppose too many bottles are filled with less than 245 grams. Checking the plant equipment reveals that one of ten filler valves is malfunctioning.
SPC has had broad application in manufacturing since its introduction in the 1920s and in many other kinds of repetitive activities.
Much of the power of SPC lies in the ability to examine a process, for the sources of variation in that process, by using tools which give weight to objective analysis over subjective opinions and which allow the strength of each source to be determined numerically. Variations in the process, which might affect the quality of the end-product or service can be detected and corrected, thus reducing waste as well as the likelihood that problems will be passed on to the customer. With its emphasis on early detection and prevention of problems, SPC has a distinct advantage over other quality methods, such as inspection, which apply resources to detecting and correcting problems after they have occurred.
In addition to reducing waste, SPC can lead to a reduction in the time required to produce the product or service from end-to-end. This is partially due to a reduced likelihood that the final product will have to be reworked, but it may also result from using SPC data to identify bottlenecks, wait times, and other sources of delays within the process. Process cycle time reductions, coupled with improvements in yield, have made SPC a valuable tool from both a cost-reduction and a customer-satisfaction standpoint.
Statistical process control was pioneered by Walter A. Shewhart in the early 1920s. Shewhart created the basis for the control chart and the concept of a state of "statistical control" by carefully designed experiments. While Dr. Shewhart drew from pure mathematical statistical theories, he understood that data from physical processes seldom produces a "normal distribution curve" (a Gaussian distribution, also commonly referred to as a "bell curve"). He discovered how the observed variation in manufacturing data did not always behave the same way as data in nature (for example, Brownian motion of particles). Dr. Shewhart concluded that while every process displays variation, some processes display controlled variation that is natural to the process (common causes of variation), while others display uncontrolled variation that is not present in the process causal system at all times (special causes of variation). Uncontrolled variation is often associated with defective products, providing a data-driven means to identify problems and improve quality.
W. Edwards Deming later applied SPC methods in the U.S. during World War II, thereby successfully improving quality in the manufacture of munitions and other strategically important products. After the war ended, he was instrumental in introducing SPC methods to Japanese industry. Deming's approach of using SPC with related management practices came to be known as a quality management system.
The following description relates to manufacturing rather than to the service industry, although the principles of SPC can be successfully applied to either. For a description and example of how SPC applies to a service environment, refer to Roberts (2005). Selden describes how to use SPC in the fields of sales, marketing, and customer service, using Deming's famous Red Bead Experiment as an easy to follow demonstration.
In mass-manufacturing, the quality of the finished article was traditionally achieved through post-manufacturing inspection of the product; accepting or rejecting each article (or samples from a production lot) based on how well it met its design specifications. In contrast, Statistical Process Control uses statistical tools to observe the performance of the production process in order to predict significant deviations that may later result in rejected product.
Two kinds of variation occur in all manufacturing processes: both these types of process variation cause subsequent variation in the final product. The first is known as natural or common cause variation and consists of the variation inherent in the process as it is designed. Common cause variation may include variations in temperature, properties of raw materials, strength of an electrical current etc. The second kind of variation is known as special cause variation, or assignable-cause variation, and happens less frequently than the first. With sufficient investigation, a specific cause, such as abnormal raw material or incorrect set-up parameters, can be found for special cause variations.
For example, a breakfast cereal packaging line may be designed to fill each cereal box with 500 grams of product, but some boxes will have slightly more than 500 grams, and some will have slightly less, in accordance with a distribution of net weights. If the production process, its inputs, or its environment changes (for example, the machines doing the manufacture begin to wear) this distribution can change. For example, as its cams and pulleys wear out, the cereal filling machine may start putting more cereal into each box than specified. If this change is allowed to continue unchecked, more and more product will be produced that fall outside the tolerances of the manufacturer or consumer, resulting in waste. While in this case, the waste is in the form of "free" product for the consumer, typically waste consists of rework or scrap.
By observing at the right time what happened in the process that led to a change, the quality engineer or any member of the team responsible for the production line can troubleshoot the root cause of the variation that has crept in to the process and correct the problem.
SPC indicates when an action should be taken in a process, but it also indicates when NO action should be taken. An example is a person who would like to maintain a constant body weight and takes weight measurements weekly. A person who does not understand SPC concepts might start dieting every time his or her weight increased, or eat more every time his or her weight decreased. This type of action could be harmful and possibly generate even more variation in body weight. SPC would account for normal weight variation and better indicate when the person is in fact gaining or losing weight.
Statistical Process Control may be broadly broken down into three sets of activities: understanding the process; understanding the causes of variation; and elimination of the sources of special cause variation. Key tools in SPC are control charts, a focus on continuous improvement and designed experiments.
In understanding a process, the process is typically mapped out and the process is monitored using control charts. Control charts are used to identify variation that may be due to special causes, and to free the user from concern over variation due to common causes. This is a continuous, ongoing activity. When a process is stable and does not trigger any of the detection rules for a control chart, a process-capability analysis may also be performed to predict the ability of the current process to produce conforming (i.e. within specification) product in the future.
When excessive variation is identified by the control-chart detection rules, or the process capability is found lacking, additional effort is exerted to determine causes of that variance. The tools used include Ishikawa diagrams, designed experiments and Pareto charts. Designed experiments are critical to this phase of SPC, as they are the only means of objectively quantifying the relative importance of the many potential causes of variation.
Once the causes of variation have been quantified, effort is spent in eliminating those causes that are both statistically and practically significant (i.e. a cause that has only a small but statistically significant effect may not be considered cost-effective to fix; however, a cause that is not statistically significant can never be considered practically significant). Generally, this includes development of standard work, error-proofing and training. Additional process changes may be required to reduce variation or align the process with the desired target, especially if there is a problem with process capability.
In 1989, the Software Engineering Institute introduced the notion that SPC can be usefully applied to non-manufacturing processes, such as software-engineering processes, in the Capability Maturity Model (CMM). This idea exists today within the Level 4 and Level 5 practices of the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). However, this notion that SPC is a useful tool when applied to non-repetitive, knowledge-intensive processes, such as engineering processes, has encountered much skepticism, and remains controversial today. The problem lies in numerous areas of software which are not repetitive, but instead are one-time or one-off aspects of quality, rather than being observed for repeated performance over a long-term view.
A consultant (from the Latin "consultare" meaning "to discuss" also the basis of words such as "consul" and "counsel") is a professional who provides expert advice in a particular area of expertise. Various consultants offer advice in management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law (tax law, in particular), human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, statistics, software, life management, economics, public affairs, communication, engineering, sound system design, graphic design, or waste management.
A consultant is usually an expert or a professional, in a specific field, who also has a wide knowledge of the subject matter. A consultant usually works for a consultancy firm or is self-employed, and engages with multiple and changing clients. Thus, clients have access to deeper levels of expertise than would be feasible for them to retain in-house, and may purchase only as much service from the outside consultant as desired.
'Consultant' is also the term used to denote the most senior medical position in the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland (e.g., a consultant surgeon).
Some consultants are employed by a consult staffing company, a company that provides consultants to clients. This is particularly common in the technology sector. Consultants are often called contractors in the technology sector in reference to their employment contract.
Strategy consultants are common in upper management in many industries. There are also independent consultants who act as interim executives with decision-making power under corporate policies or statutes. They may sit on specially constituted boards or committees.
Consultants work at client places on behalf of a consultancy or Billing company.
The Lesser Polish Way of Saint James
The Lesser Polish Way of Saint James is a popular pilgrimage route in Eastern Europe. This particular route was created in Poland. It starts in the city of Sandomierz, and end in the city of Krakow began in medieval times when many pilgrims travelled through Europe to Santiago de Compostela. The other places on The Lesser Polish Way are: Klimontów, Szczaworyż, Wiślica, and Więcławice.
Carnarvon, Western Australia
Carnarvon is a coastal town about 900 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia. It is at the mouth of the Gascoyne River on the Indian Ocean. The popular Shark Bay World Heritage Site lies to the south of the town. In 2006, there were 5,283 people living in Carnarvon.
The town began in 1883, as a port and supply centre for the surrounding region. It is the administrative centre for the Shire of Carnarvon, the town site was officially listed on 4 June 1891. It was named after Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Carnarvon has had three tramways.
Carnarvon has a warm to hot dry climate. Average yearly rainfall is with the rainiest months being in May and June. Occasionally tropical cyclones will influence Carnarvon and bring very heavy rain, high temperatures and strong winds. Apart from possible cyclones, summers are usually dry. Temperatures range from an average maximum of in February to in July. Average minimums are and respectively.
Main industries of the area include:
During the 1960s, NASA set up the Carnarvon Tracking Station to support the Gemini and Apollo space program. The tracking station was closed in the mid 1970s. Only the foundations of this historical site remain.
Radio Australia had a shortwave relay station (built during the 1970s) that used to relay programming to Europe, South Asia and South East Asia.
There are five schools in the town, three government-run and two independent. These schools are: St Mary's Star of the Sea Catholic School which was built in 1906, Carnarvon Senior High School, East Carnarvon Primary School, Carnarvon Primary School, Carnarvon Christian School and Carnarvon School of the Air.
In 1964 and 1965, 12 rockets were launched from Carnarvon to a maximum altitude of .
On 20 May 1988, the bulk carrier "Korean Star" ran aground in bad weather near Cape Cuvier, within the port limits of Carnarvon. Around 600 tonnes of fuel oil were spilled into the ocean. Damage was limited to of remote beaches and coastline. The ship was left grounded, however very little of the wreck remains to be seen.
Postcodes in Australia
Postcodes are used in Australia to sort and send mail to the correct address. All postcodes in Australia have four numbers and are placed at the end of the address. Australian postcodes are managed by Australia Post.
Postcodes are published in small books which can be collected from your nearest post offices, or online at the Australia Post website.
On envelopes and postcards there are often four square boxes printed in orange ink at the bottom right for the postcode numbers. These are used when addressing mail by hand.
Postcodes were started in Australia in 1967 by the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG), now called Australia Post. They replaced earlier postal sorting systems, such as Melbourne's letter and number codes (e.g., "N3", "E5") and a similar system once used in rural and regional New South Wales.
Australian Postcodes are four digits, and written after the name of the city, suburb, or town, and the state or territory:
When writing an address by hand, a row of four boxes (pre-printed on the lower right hand corner of many envelopes) is usually used.
Australian postcodes are sorting information. They are often linked with one area (e.g. 6160 belongs only to Fremantle, Western Australia). But sometimes they can be quite complex, especially in country areas (e.g. 2570 belongs to twenty-two towns and suburbs around Camden, New South Wales). The south-western Victoria 3221 postcode of the Geelong Mail Centre also includes twenty places around Geelong with very few people. This means that mail for these places is not fully sorted until it gets to Geelong. Some postcodes cover large populations (e.g., postcode 4350 serving some 100,000 people in the City of Toowoomba), while other postcodes have much smaller populations, even in urban areas. The postcode numbers range from as low as 0200 (for the Australian National University) to 9729 (mail addressed to the Gold Coast City Council).
Some towns and suburbs have two postcodes—one for street deliveries and one for [post office box]es. For instance, a street address in the Sydney suburb of Parramatta would be written like this:
But mail sent to a PO Box in Parramatta would be addressed:
Many big businesses, government departments and other institutions receive large volumes of mail. They can have their own postcode as a Large Volume Receiver ("LVR"), e.g. the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital has the postcode 4029. More postcode ranges were made available for LVRs in the 1990s.
The first one or two numbers usually show the state or territory that the postcode belongs to
Sometimes near the state and territory borders, Australia Post finds it easier to send mail through a nearby post office that is across the border:
These are postcodes that does not follow the above rule.
3691
Some or all of the postcodes above may cover two states. For example postcode 2620 covers both a suburb in NSW ("Gundaroo") as well as a suburb in the ACT ("Hume") - the postcode is within the ACT range.
Jervis Bay Territory, once an exclave of the ACT but now a separate territory, is geographically located on the coast of NSW. It is just south of the towns of Vincentia and Huskisson, with which it shares a postcode. Mail to the Jervis Bay Territory is still addressed to the ACT.
The numbers used to show the state on each radio callsign in Australia is the same number as the first number for postcodes in that state, e.g. "2xx" in New South Wales, "3xx" in Victoria, etc. Radio callsigns pre-date postcodes in Australia by more than forty years.
Australia's external territories are also included in Australia Post's postcode system. While these territories do not belong to any state, they are addressed as such for mail sorting:
Three scientific bases in Antarctica operated by the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions share a postcode with the isolated sub-Antarctic island of Macquarie Island (part of Tasmania):
Each state's capital city ends with three zeroes, while territorial capital cities end with two zeroes. Capital city postcodes were the lowest postcodes in their state or territory range, before new ranges for LVRs and PO Boxes were made available. The last number can usually be changed from "0" to "1" to get the postcode for General Post Office boxes in any capital city (though Perth now uses a different range of postcodes for its GPO Boxes):
While the first number of a postcode usually shows the state or territory, the second number usually shows a region within the state. However, postcodes with the same second number are not always next to each othera. As an example, postcodes in the range 2200–0001 are split between the southern suburbs of Sydney and the Central Coast of New South Wales.
Postcodes with a second number of "0" or "1" are almost always located within the metropolitan area of the state's capital city. Postcodes with higher second numbers are usually located in rural and regional areas. Common exceptions are where towns were rural when postcodes were first introduced in 1967, but have since been suburbanised and incorporated into metropolitan areas, e.g. Penrith, New South Wales has the postcode 2750 and Petrie, Queensland has the postcode 4502.
Within each region with the same second number, postcodes usually get bigger the further one travels from the state's capital city along major highways and railways. For instance, heading north on the North Coast railway in New South Wales away from Sydney:
Major towns and cities tend to have "0" as the last number or last two numbers, e.g. Rockhampton, Queensland has the postcode 4700 and Ballarat, Victoria has the postcode 3350. There are exceptions; the major town of Ipswich, Queensland has the postcode 4305, while Goodna, a relatively unimportant suburb of Ipswich, is allocated 4300.
Post Office Preferred envelopes sold in Australia have four boxes in the bottom right corner of the front of the envelope. These boxes or squares, which by Australia Post calls "postcode squares", have the postcode for hand-addressed mail. This is for the purpose of Australia Post's automated mail-sorting equipment, which uses optical character recognition software. Postcode squares were introduced in 1990.