Scheduling patient appointments via multilevel template: a case study in chemotherapy

OpenAIRE

Condotta, A; Shakhlevich, NV

2014-01-01

This paper studies a multi-criteria optimization problem which appears in the context of booking chemotherapy appointments. The main feature of the model under study is the requirement to book for each patient multiple appointments which should follow a pre-specified multi-day pattern. Each appointment involves several nurse activities which should also follow a pre-specified intra-day pattern. The main objectives are to minimize patients’ waiting times and peaks of nurses’ workload for an ou...

Lead Time to Appointment and No-Show Rates for New and Follow-up Patients in an Ambulatory Clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Drewek, Rupali; Mirea, Lucia; Adelson, P David

High rates of no-shows in outpatient clinics are problematic for revenue and for quality of patient care. Longer lead time to appointment has variably been implicated as a risk factor for no-shows, but the evidence within pediatric clinics is inconclusive. The goal of this study was to estimate no-show rates and test for association between appointment lead time and no-show rates for new and follow-up patients. Analyses included 534 new and 1920 follow-up patients from pulmonology and gastroenterology clinics at a freestanding children's hospital. The overall rate of no-shows was lower for visits scheduled within 0 to 30 days compared with 30 days or more (23% compared with 47%, P < .0001). Patient type significantly modified the association of appointment lead time; the rate of no-shows was higher (30%) among new patients compared with (21%) follow-up patients with appointments scheduled within 30 days (P = .004). For appointments scheduled 30 or more days' lead time, no-show rates were statistically similar for new patients (46%) and follow-up patients (0.48%). Time to appointment is a risk factor associated with no-shows, and further study is needed to identify and implement effective approaches to reduce appointment lead time, especially for new patients in pediatric subspecialties.

Qualitative Study of Foster Caregivers’ Views on Adherence to Pediatric Appointments

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Schneiderman, Janet U.; Kennedy, Andrea K.; Sayegh, Caitlin S.

2016-01-01

The current study is a qualitative investigation of how foster caregivers, primarily Latinos, view adherence to pediatric appointments with the purpose of identifying how the child welfare system, pediatric clinics, and pediatric health providers serving foster children might promote appointment attendance. Participants in the study had a return appointment at an outpatient pediatric clinic that only served children in the child welfare system. Twenty-eight caregivers (13 related and 15 unrelated) participated in telephone interviews after the date of their scheduled pediatric appointment (32% missed their return appointment). Semistructured interview guides included general questions about what promotes attending the pediatric appointment, what makes it difficult to attend the pediatric appointment, and how pediatric care affects the foster child. Analysis of qualitative data using content analysis identified three themes: (a) multiple methods to attend appointments, which included caregivers’ organizational and problem-solving skills; (b) positive health care experiences, which consisted of caregivers’ personal relationships with providers and staff members and clinic organization; and (c) necessity of pediatric care, which included recognition of the need for health care, especially timely immunizations. All caregivers also reported that appointments reminders would be helpful. Unrelated caregivers more often said that appointment attendance was facilitated by clinic organization compared to related caregivers. Nonadherent caregivers mentioned their need to solve problems to attend appointments or reschedule appointments more than attenders. In summary, caregivers said they valued regular pediatric health care to treat their child’s chronic conditions and prevent illnesses, but they acknowledged that their home lives were hectic and attending scheduled appointments was sometimes difficult. Foster caregivers in this study identified the ideal pediatric

Appointment Template Redesign in a Women's Health Clinic Using Clinical Constraints to Improve Service Quality and Efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Y; Verduzco, S

2015-01-01

Patient wait time is a critical element of access to care that has long been recognized as a major problem in modern outpatient health care delivery systems. It impacts patient and medical staff productivity, stress, quality and efficiency of medical care, as well as health-care cost and availability. This study was conducted in a Women's Health Clinic. The objective was to improve clinic service quality by redesigning patient appointment template using the clinical constraints. The proposed scheduling template consisted of two key elements: the redesign of appointment types and the determination of the length of time slots using defined constraints. The re-classification technique was used for the redesign of appointment visit types to capture service variation for scheduling purposes. Then, the appointment length was determined by incorporating clinic constraints or goals, such as patient wait time, physician idle time, overtime, finish time, lunch hours, when the last appointment was scheduled, and the desired number of appointment slots, to converge the optimal length of appointment slots for each visit type. The redesigned template was implemented and the results indicated a 73% reduction in average patient waiting from the reported 40 to 11 minutes. The patient no-show rate was reduced by 4% from 24% to 20%. The morning section on average finished about 11:50 am. The clinic day was finished around 4:45 pm. Provider average idle time was estimated to be about 5 minutes, which can be used for charting/documenting patients. This study provided an alternative method of redesigning appointment scheduling templates using only the clinical constraints rather than the traditional way that required an objective function. This paper also documented the employed methods step by step in a real clinic setting. The implementation results concluded a significant improvement on patient wait time and no-show rate.

Impact of Delayed Time to Advanced Imaging on Missed Appointments Across Different Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Daye, Dania; Carrodeguas, Emmanuel; Glover, McKinley; Guerrier, Claude Emmanuel; Harvey, H Benjamin; Flores, Efrén J

2018-05-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of wait days (WDs) on missed outpatient MRI appointments across different demographic and socioeconomic factors. An institutional review board-approved retrospective study was conducted among adult patients scheduled for outpatient MRI during a 12-month period. Scheduling data and demographic information were obtained. Imaging missed appointments were defined as missed scheduled imaging encounters. WDs were defined as the number of days from study order to appointment. Multivariate logistic regression was applied to assess the contribution of race and socioeconomic factors to missed appointments. Linear regression was performed to assess the relationship between missed appointment rates and WDs stratified by race, income, and patient insurance groups with analysis of covariance statistics. A total of 42,727 patients met the inclusion criteria. Mean WDs were 7.95 days. Multivariate regression showed increased odds ratio for missed appointments for patients with increased WDs (7-21 days: odds ratio [OR], 1.39; >21 days: OR, 1.77), African American patients (OR, 1.71), Hispanic patients (OR, 1.30), patients with noncommercial insurance (OR, 2.00-2.55), and those with imaging performed at the main hospital campus (OR, 1.51). Missed appointment rate linearly increased with WDs, with analysis of covariance revealing underrepresented minorities and Medicaid insurance as significant effect modifiers. Increased WDs for advanced imaging significantly increases the likelihood of missed appointments. This effect is most pronounced among underrepresented minorities and patients with lower socioeconomic status. Efforts to reduce WDs may improve equity in access to and utilization of advanced diagnostic imaging for all patients. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Price Transparency in Primary Care: Can Patients Learn About Costs When Scheduling an Appointment?

Science.gov (United States)

Saloner, Brendan; Cope, Lisa Clemans; Hempstead, Katherine; Rhodes, Karin V; Polsky, Daniel; Kenney, Genevieve M

2017-07-01

Cost-sharing in health insurance plans creates incentives for patients to shop for lower prices, but it is unknown what price information patients can obtain when scheduling office visits. To determine whether new patients can obtain price information for a primary care visit and identify variation across insurance types, offices, and geographic areas. Simulated patient methodology in which trained interviewers posed as non-elderly adults seeking new patient primary care appointments. Caller insurance type (employer-sponsored insurance [ESI], Marketplace, or uninsured) and plan were experimentally manipulated. Callers who were offered a visit asked for price information. Unadjusted means and regression-adjusted differences by insurance, office types, and geography were calculated. Calls to a representative sample of primary care offices in ten states in 2014: Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Texas (N = 7865). Callers recorded whether they were able to obtain a price. If not, they recorded whether they were referred to other sources for price information. Overall, 61.8% of callers with ESI were able to obtain a price, versus 89.2% of uninsured and 47.3% of Marketplace callers (P information was also more readily available in small offices and in counties with high uninsured rates. Among callers not receiving a price, 72.1% of callers with ESI were referred to other sources (billing office or insurance company), versus 25.8% of uninsured and 50.9% of Marketplace callers (P information is often unavailable for privately insured patients seeking primary care visits at the time a visit is scheduled.

Predictors of missed appointments in patients referred for congenital or pediatric cardiac magnetic resonance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lu, Jimmy C.; Dorfman, Adam L. [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Health System, University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan Health System, Section of Pediatric Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Lowery, Ray; Yu, Sunkyung [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, University of Michigan Health System, University of Michigan Congenital Heart Center, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Ghadimi Mahani, Maryam [C.S. Mott Children' s Hospital, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan Health System, Section of Pediatric Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Agarwal, Prachi P. [University of Michigan Health System, Department of Radiology, Division of Cardiothoracic Radiology, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)

2017-07-15

Congenital cardiac magnetic resonance is a limited resource because of scanner and physician availability. Missed appointments decrease scheduling efficiency, have financial implications and represent missed care opportunities. To characterize the rate of missed appointments and identify modifiable predictors. This single-center retrospective study included all patients with outpatient congenital or pediatric cardiac MR appointments from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 31, 2015. We identified missed appointments (no-shows or same-day cancellations) from the electronic medical record. We obtained demographic and clinical factors from the medical record and assessed socioeconomic factors by U.S. Census block data by patient ZIP code. Statistically significant variables (P<0.05) were included into a multivariable analysis. Of 795 outpatients (median age 18.5 years, interquartile range 13.4-27.1 years) referred for congenital cardiac MR, a total of 91 patients (11.4%) missed appointments; 28 (3.5%) missed multiple appointments. Reason for missed appointment could be identified in only 38 patients (42%), but of these, 28 (74%) were preventable or could have been identified prior to the appointment. In multivariable analysis, independent predictors of missed appointments were referral by a non-cardiologist (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 5.8, P=0.0002), referral for research (AOR 3.6, P=0.01), having public insurance (AOR 2.1, P=0.004), and having scheduled cardiac MR from November to April (AOR 1.8, P=0.01). Demographic factors can identify patients at higher risk for missing appointments. These data may inform initiatives to limit missed appointments, such as targeted education of referring providers and patients. Further data are needed to evaluate the efficacy of potential interventions. (orig.)

Appointment length, psychiatrists' communication behaviors, and medication management appointment adherence.

Science.gov (United States)

Cruz, Mario; Roter, Debra L; Cruz, Robyn F; Wieland, Melissa; Larson, Susan; Cooper, Lisa A; Pincus, Harold Alan

2013-09-01

The authors explored the relationship between critical elements of medication management appointments (appointment length, patient-centered talk, and positive nonverbal affect among providers) and patient appointment adherence. The authors used an exploratory, cross-sectional design employing quantitative analysis of 83 unique audio recordings of split treatment medication management appointments for 46 African-American and 37 white patients with 24 psychiatrists at four ambulatory mental health clinics. All patients had a diagnosis of depression. Data collected included demographic information; Patient Health Questionnaire-9 scores for depression severity; psychiatrist verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors during medication management appointments, identified by the Roter Interaction Analysis System during analysis of audio recordings; and appointment adherence. Bivariate analyses were employed to identify covariates that might influence appointment adherence. Generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were employed to assess the relationship between appointment length, psychiatrist patient-centered talk, and positive voice tone ratings and patient appointment adherence, while adjusting for covariates and the clustering of observations within psychiatrists. Wald chi square analyses were used to test whether all or some variables significantly influenced appointment adherence. GEE revealed a significant relationship between positive voice tone ratings and appointment adherence (p=.03). Chi square analyses confirmed the hypothesis of a positive and significant relationship between appointment adherence and positive voice tone ratings (p=.03) but not longer visit length and more patient-centered communication. The nonverbal conveyance of positive affect was associated with greater adherence to medication management appointments by depressed patients. These findings potentially have important implications for communication skills training and adherence research.

Non-English speakers attend gastroenterology clinic appointments at higher rates than English speakers in a vulnerable patient population

Science.gov (United States)

Sewell, Justin L.; Kushel, Margot B.; Inadomi, John M.; Yee, Hal F.

2009-01-01

Goals We sought to identify factors associated with gastroenterology clinic attendance in an urban safety net healthcare system. Background Missed clinic appointments reduce the efficiency and availability of healthcare, but subspecialty clinic attendance among patients with established healthcare access has not been studied. Study We performed an observational study using secondary data from administrative sources to study patients referred to, and scheduled for an appointment in, the adult gastroenterology clinic serving the safety net healthcare system of San Francisco, California. Our dependent variable was whether subjects attended or missed a scheduled appointment. Analysis included multivariable logistic regression and classification tree analysis. 1,833 patients were referred and scheduled for an appointment between 05/2005 and 08/2006. Prisoners were excluded. All patients had a primary care provider. Results 683 patients (37.3%) missed their appointment; 1,150 (62.7%) attended. Language was highly associated with attendance in the logistic regression; non-English speakers were less likely than English speakers to miss an appointment (adjusted odds ratio 0.42 [0.28,0.63] for Spanish, 0.56 [0.38,0.82] for Asian language, p gastroenterology clinic appointment, not speaking English was most strongly associated with higher attendance rates. Patient related factors associated with not speaking English likely influence subspecialty clinic attendance rates, and these factors may differ from those affecting general healthcare access. PMID:19169147

Significant Factors Related to Failed Pediatric Dental General Anesthesia Appointments at a Hospital-based Residency Program.

Science.gov (United States)

Emhardt, John R; Yepes, Juan F; Vinson, LaQuia A; Jones, James E; Emhardt, John D; Kozlowski, Diana C; Eckert, George J; Maupome, Gerardo

2017-05-15

The purposes of this study were to: (1) evaluate the relationship between appointment failure and the factors of age, gender, race, insurance type, day of week, scheduled time of surgery, distance traveled, and weather; (2) investigate reasons for failure; and (3) explore the relationships between the factors and reasons for failure. Electronic medical records were accessed to obtain data for patients scheduled for dental care under general anesthesia from May 2012 to May 2015. Factors were analyzed for relation to appointment failure. Data from 3,513 appointments for 2,874 children were analyzed. Bivariate associations showed statistically significant (Pgeneral anesthesia face specific barriers to care.

Effectiveness of mobile-phone short message service (SMS reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments: Observational study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Car Josip

2008-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Non-attendance for hospital outpatient appointments is a significant problem in many countries. It causes suboptimal use of clinical and administrative staff and financial losses, as well as longer waiting times. The use of Short Message Service (SMS appointment reminders potentially offers a cost-effective and time-efficient strategy to decrease non-attendance and so improve the efficiency of outpatient healthcare delivery. Methods An SMS text message was sent to patients with scheduled appointments between April and September 2006 in a hospital ophthalmology department in London, reminding them of their appointments. This group acted as the intervention group. Controls were patients with scheduled ophthalmology appointments who did not receive an SMS or any alternative reminder. Results During the period of the study, 11.2% (50/447 of patients who received an SMS appointment reminder were non-attenders, compared to 18.1% (1720/9512 who did not receive an SMS reminder. Non-attendance rates were 38% lower in patients who received an SMS reminder than in patients who did not receive a reminder (RR of non-attendance = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.48 – 0.80. Conclusion The use of SMS reminders for ophthalmology outpatient appointments was associated with a reduction of 38% in the likelihood of patients not attending their appointments, compared to no appointment reminder. The use of SMS reminders may also be more cost-effective than traditional appointment reminders and require less labour. These findings should be confirmed with a more rigorous study design before a wider roll-out.

Executive Schedule C System (ESCS)

Data.gov (United States)

Office of Personnel Management — Used to store information on Federal employees in the Senior Executive Service (SES) and appointed employees in the Schedule C System. Every four years, just after...

Modeling Patient No-Show History and Predicting Future Outpatient Appointment Behavior in the Veterans Health Administration.

Science.gov (United States)

Goffman, Rachel M; Harris, Shannon L; May, Jerrold H; Milicevic, Aleksandra S; Monte, Robert J; Myaskovsky, Larissa; Rodriguez, Keri L; Tjader, Youxu C; Vargas, Dominic L

2017-05-01

Missed appointments reduce the efficiency of the health care system and negatively impact access to care for all patients. Identifying patients at risk for missing an appointment could help health care systems and providers better target interventions to reduce patient no-shows. Our aim was to develop and test a predictive model that identifies patients that have a high probability of missing their outpatient appointments. Demographic information, appointment characteristics, and attendance history were drawn from the existing data sets from four Veterans Affairs health care facilities within six separate service areas. Past attendance behavior was modeled using an empirical Markov model based on up to 10 previous appointments. Using logistic regression, we developed 24 unique predictive models. We implemented the models and tested an intervention strategy using live reminder calls placed 24, 48, and 72 hours ahead of time. The pilot study targeted 1,754 high-risk patients, whose probability of missing an appointment was predicted to be at least 0.2. Our results indicate that three variables were consistently related to a patient's no-show probability in all 24 models: past attendance behavior, the age of the appointment, and having multiple appointments scheduled on that day. After the intervention was implemented, the no-show rate in the pilot group was reduced from the expected value of 35% to 12.16% (p value < 0.0001). The predictive model accurately identified patients who were more likely to miss their appointments. Applying the model in practice enables clinics to apply more intensive intervention measures to high-risk patients. Reprint & Copyright © 2017 Association of Military Surgeons of the U.S.

Discordance between 'actual' and 'scheduled' check-in times at a heart failure clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Gorodeski, Eiran Z; Joyce, Emer; Gandesbery, Benjamin T; Blackstone, Eugene H; Taylor, David O; Tang, W H Wilson; Starling, Randall C; Hachamovitch, Rory

2017-01-01

A 2015 Institute Of Medicine statement "Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access: Getting to Now", has increased concerns regarding patient wait times. Although waiting times have been widely studied, little attention has been paid to the role of patient arrival times as a component of this phenomenon. To this end, we investigated patterns of patient arrival at scheduled ambulatory heart failure (HF) clinic appointments and studied its predictors. We hypothesized that patients are more likely to arrive later than scheduled, with progressively later arrivals later in the day. Using a business intelligence database we identified 6,194 unique patients that visited the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus HF clinic between January, 2015 and January, 2017. This clinic served both as a tertiary referral center and a community HF clinic. Transplant and left ventricular assist device (LVAD) visits were excluded. Punctuality was defined as the difference between 'actual' and 'scheduled' check-in times, whereby negative values (i.e., early punctuality) were patients who checked-in early. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that patients checked-in late only a minority of the time (38% of visits). Additionally, examining punctuality by appointment hour slot we found that patients scheduled after 8AM had progressively earlier check-in times as the day progressed (P < .001 for trend). In both a Random Forest-Regression framework and linear regression models the most important risk-adjusted predictors of early punctuality were: later in the day appointment hour slot, patient having previously been to the hospital, age in the early 70s, and white race. Patients attending a mixed population ambulatory HF clinic check-in earlier than scheduled times, with progressive discrepant intervals throughout the day. This finding may have significant implications for provider utilization and resource planning in order to maximize clinic efficiency. The impact of elective early arrival on

Appointment breaking: causes and solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bean, A G; Talaga, J

1992-12-01

From a review of research on health care appointment breaking, the authors find that patient demographic characteristics, psychosocial problems, previous appointment keeping, health beliefs, and situational factors predict no-show behavior. Suggestions are offered for designing the marketing mix to increase patient appointment keeping. Methods for mitigating the negative effects of no-shows on health care providers are described.

Terminal Appointment System Design by Non-stationary M(t)/Ek/c(t) Queueing Model and Genetic Algorithm

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Chen, Gang; Govindan, Kannan; Yang, Zhong-Zhen

2013-01-01

Long truck queue is a common problem at big marine container terminals, where the resources and equipment are usually scheduled to serve ships prior to trucks. To reduce truck queues, some container terminals adopt terminal appointment system (TAS) to manage truck arrivals. This paper addresses two...

Distributed scheduling to support a call center: A cooperative multiagent approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brazier, F.M.T.; Jonker, C.M.; Jüngen, F.J.; Treur, J.

1999-01-01

This article describes a multiagent system architecture to increase the value of 24-hour-a day call center service. This system supports call centers in making appointments with clients on the basis ofknowledge ofemployees and their schedules. Relevant activities are scheduled for employees in

Impact of health portal enrollment with email reminders on adherence to clinic appointments: a pilot study.

Science.gov (United States)

Horvath, Monica; Levy, Janet; L'Engle, Pete; Carlson, Boyd; Ahmad, Asif; Ferranti, Jeffrey

2011-05-26

Internet portal technologies that provide access to portions of electronic health records have the potential to revolutionize patients' involvement in their care. However, relatively few descriptions of the demographic characteristics of portal enrollees or of the effects of portal technology on quality outcomes exist. This study examined data from patients who attended one of seven Duke Medicine clinics and who were offered the option of enrolling in and using the Duke Medicine HealthView portal (HVP). The HVP allows patients to manage details of their appointment scheduling and provides automated email appointment reminders in addition to the telephone and mail reminders that all patients receive. Our objective was to test whether portal enrollment with an email reminder functionality is significantly related to decreases in rates of appointment "no-shows," which are known to impair clinic operational efficiency. Appointment activity during a 1-year period was examined for all patients attending one of seven Duke Medicine clinics. Patients were categorized as portal enrollees or as nonusers either by their status at time of appointment or at the end of the 1-year period. Demographic characteristics and no-show rates among these groups were compared. A binomial logistic regression model was constructed to measure the adjusted impact of HVP enrollment on no-show rates, given confounding factors. To demonstrate the effect of HVP use over time, monthly no-show rates were calculated for patient appointment keeping and contrasted between preportal and postportal deployment periods. Across seven clinics, 58,942 patients, 15.7% (9239/58,942) of whom were portal enrollees, scheduled 198,199 appointments with an overall no-show rate of 9.9% (19,668/198,199). We found that HVP enrollees were significantly more likely to be female, white, and privately insured compared with nonusers. Bivariate no-show rate differences between portal enrollment groups varied widely according

Adaptive resource allocation for efficient patient scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vermeulen, Ivan B.; Bohte, Sander M.; Elkhuizen, Sylvia G.; Lameris, Han; Bakker, Piet J. M.; La Poutré, Han

2009-01-01

Efficient scheduling of patient appointments on expensive resources is a complex and dynamic task. A resource is typically used by several patient groups. To service these groups, resource capacity is often allocated per group, explicitly or implicitly. Importantly, due to fluctuations in demand,

Enhanced Leads and Appointment System

Data.gov (United States)

Social Security Administration — The data asset contains information on current or upcoming appointments, individuals who will be attending the appointment, potential intent to file a claim (lead),...

38 CFR 13.55 - Veterans Service Center Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or legal entity to receive....55 Veterans Service Center Manager to select and appoint or recommend for appointment the person or.... The Veterans Service Center Manager is authorized to select and appoint (or in the case of a court...

Discordance between 'actual' and 'scheduled' check-in times at a heart failure clinic.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eiran Z Gorodeski

Full Text Available A 2015 Institute Of Medicine statement "Transforming Health Care Scheduling and Access: Getting to Now", has increased concerns regarding patient wait times. Although waiting times have been widely studied, little attention has been paid to the role of patient arrival times as a component of this phenomenon. To this end, we investigated patterns of patient arrival at scheduled ambulatory heart failure (HF clinic appointments and studied its predictors. We hypothesized that patients are more likely to arrive later than scheduled, with progressively later arrivals later in the day.Using a business intelligence database we identified 6,194 unique patients that visited the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus HF clinic between January, 2015 and January, 2017. This clinic served both as a tertiary referral center and a community HF clinic. Transplant and left ventricular assist device (LVAD visits were excluded. Punctuality was defined as the difference between 'actual' and 'scheduled' check-in times, whereby negative values (i.e., early punctuality were patients who checked-in early. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that patients checked-in late only a minority of the time (38% of visits. Additionally, examining punctuality by appointment hour slot we found that patients scheduled after 8AM had progressively earlier check-in times as the day progressed (P < .001 for trend. In both a Random Forest-Regression framework and linear regression models the most important risk-adjusted predictors of early punctuality were: later in the day appointment hour slot, patient having previously been to the hospital, age in the early 70s, and white race.Patients attending a mixed population ambulatory HF clinic check-in earlier than scheduled times, with progressive discrepant intervals throughout the day. This finding may have significant implications for provider utilization and resource planning in order to maximize clinic efficiency. The impact of elective early

Distributed Scheduling to Support a Call Centre: a Co-operative Multi-Agent Approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brazier, F.M.; Jonker, C.M.; Jungen, F.J.; Treur, J.; Nwana, H.S.

1998-01-01

This paper describes a multi-agent system architecture to increase the value of 24 hour a day call centre service. This system supports call centres in making appointments with clients on the basis of knowledge of employees and their schedules. Relevant activities of employees are scheduled for

Schedule-Aware Workflow Management Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Mans, Ronny S.; Russell, Nick C.; van der Aalst, Wil M. P.; Moleman, Arnold J.; Bakker, Piet J. M.

Contemporary workflow management systems offer work-items to users through specific work-lists. Users select the work-items they will perform without having a specific schedule in mind. However, in many environments work needs to be scheduled and performed at particular times. For example, in hospitals many work-items are linked to appointments, e.g., a doctor cannot perform surgery without reserving an operating theater and making sure that the patient is present. One of the problems when applying workflow technology in such domains is the lack of calendar-based scheduling support. In this paper, we present an approach that supports the seamless integration of unscheduled (flow) and scheduled (schedule) tasks. Using CPN Tools we have developed a specification and simulation model for schedule-aware workflow management systems. Based on this a system has been realized that uses YAWL, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Outlook, and a dedicated scheduling service. The approach is illustrated using a real-life case study at the AMC hospital in the Netherlands. In addition, we elaborate on the experiences obtained when developing and implementing a system of this scale using formal techniques.

A customizable, scalable scheduling and reporting system.

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Jody L; Whitman, Beverly J; Mackley, Lisa A; Armstrong, Robert; Shotto, Robert T

2014-06-01

Scheduling is essential for running a facility smoothly and for summarizing activities in use reports. The Penn State Hershey Clinical Simulation Center has developed a scheduling interface that uses off-the-shelf components, with customizations that adapt to each institution's data collection and reporting needs. The system is designed using programs within the Microsoft Office 2010 suite. Outlook provides the scheduling component, while the reporting is performed using Access or Excel. An account with a calendar is created for the main schedule, with separate resource accounts created for each room within the center. The Outlook appointment form's 2 default tabs are used, in addition to a customized third tab. The data are then copied from the calendar into either a database table or a spreadsheet, where the reports are generated.Incorporating this system into an institution-wide structure allows integration of personnel lists and potentially enables all users to check the schedule from their desktop. Outlook also has a Web-based application for viewing the basic schedule from outside the institution, although customized data cannot be accessed. The scheduling and reporting functions have been used for a year at the Penn State Hershey Clinical Simulation Center. The schedule has increased workflow efficiency, improved the quality of recorded information, and provided more accurate reporting. The Penn State Hershey Clinical Simulation Center's scheduling and reporting system can be adapted easily to most simulation centers and can expand and change to meet future growth with little or no expense to the center.

Just-in-time patient scheduling in an eye care clinic

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Blake, J.; Campbell, Matthew; Vanberkel, Peter T.

2007-01-01

The IWK’s division of Ophthalmology currently provides clinical service to over 8000 patients per year. Eye Care Centre patients were experiencing long waits between registration and their ophthalmologist appointment. This paper details the development of a patient scheduling methodology that

Appointment keeping for medical review among patients with selected chronic diseases in an urban area of Uganda.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalyango, Joan Nakayaga; Hall, Maurice; Karamagi, Charles

2014-01-01

Proper management of chronic diseases is important for prevention of disease complications and yet some patients miss appointments for medical review thereby missing the opportunity for proper monitoring of their disease conditions. There is limited information on missed appointments among chronic disease patients in resource limited settings. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of missed appointments for medical review and associated factors among chronic disease patients in an urban area of Uganda. Patients or caregivers of children with chronic diseases were identified as they bought medicines from a community pharmacy. They were visited at home to access their medical documents and those whose chronic disease status was ascertained were enrolled. The data was collected using: questionnaires, review of medical documents, and in-depth interviews with chronic disease patients. The prevalence of missed appointments was 42% (95%CI = 35-49%). The factors associated with missed appointments were: monthly income ≤30US Dollars (OR = 2.56, CI = 1.25-5.26), affording less than half of prescribed drugs (OR = 3.92, CI = 1.64-9.40), not experiencing adverse events (OR = 2.66, CI = 1.26-5.61), not sure if treatment helps (OR = 2.84, CI = 1.047.77), not having a medicines administration schedule (OR = 6.77, CI = 2.11-21.68), and increasing number of drugs (OR = 0.72, CI = 0.53-0.98). Patients missed appointments mainly due to: financial and health system barriers, conflicting commitments with appointments, and perceptions of the disease condition. Patients should be supported with accessible and affordable health services.

Appointment, qualifications and responsibilities of ventilation officers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

The Code provides for the appointment of a ventilation officer when required by the appropriate authority. This guideline offers comment on the appointment, qualifications, training and responsibilities of that person

Factors related to missing and rescheduling pharmaceutical care appointments by aged outpatients in a Brazilian public health setting

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Thiago Vinícius Nadaleto Didone

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Objectives: To uncover reasons why patients missed pharmaceutical care (PC appointments, identify predictive factors to miss at least one appointment and to reschedule after a miss, and compare the rescheduling behavior of patients receiving different types of PC. Methods: All elderly patients who had at least one scheduled appointment in the PC service of a health setting of São Paulo city, Brazil, from January to December/2011 were included. Chi-square analysis compared categorical data between groups; multivariate logistic regression models predicted attendance and rescheduling behavior. Results: We identified 421 patients, being 221 (52.5% non-attenders. Forgetting the appointment was the most common patient-related reason (56.3%. Illiteracy was a risk factor to be a non-attender [OR(95%CI=2.27(1.17:4.40, p=0.015]. Patients having previous knowledge of the pharmacist presented more chance to rescheduled an appointment after the first miss compared to those who had not [OR(95%CI=3.57(1.90:6.71, p<0.001]. Further, non-attenders who had knowledge of the pharmacist and received Medication Review with Follow-up rescheduled more than the ones receiving other types of PC (p=0.035. Conclusion: Illiteracy predicted non-attendance in PC to aged outpatients and forgetfulness was the main reason for that. The previous acquaintance of the pharmacist and the provision of pharmaceotherapeutic follow-up explained the rescheduling behavior, which indicates the establishment of a patient-centered patient-pharmacist relationship plays a pivotal role in the continuity of the PC.

48 CFR 245.7001 - Selection, appointment, and termination.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... REGULATIONS SYSTEM, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE CONTRACT MANAGEMENT GOVERNMENT PROPERTY Appointment of Property... officers, the appointment authority shall consider experience, training, education, business acumen, judgment, character, and ethics. ...

25 CFR 11.706 - Appointment and duties of appraiser.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment and duties of appraiser. 11.706 Section 11... OFFENSES AND LAW AND ORDER CODE Probate Proceedings § 11.706 Appointment and duties of appraiser. (a) Upon ordering an estate to be probated, the court shall appoint a disinterested and competent person as an...

Investor Response to Appointment of Female CEOs and CFOs

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Scholtens, Lambertus; Brinkhuis, Eline

2018-01-01

We study the impact of appointing women to top executive positions from an investor perspective. We analyze whether shareholders value announcement of appointment of women to top positions differently than they do appointment of men. This study uses an international sample of 100 announcements of

5 CFR 316.402 - Procedures for making temporary appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... appointments. Such appointments are not VRA appointments and do not lead to conversion to career-conditional appointment; (3) Career-conditional appointment under § 315.601, 315.604, 315.605, 315.606, 315.607, 315.608... the General Accounting Office; (6) Appointment under 28 U.S.C. 602 for current and former employees of...

EXTENSION EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM: Getting the most out of your extension appointment and still having a life.

Science.gov (United States)

Powers, W; Cockett, N; Lardy, G

2017-04-01

Managing the demands of an academic appointment in extension can be a challenging task. Demands from constituent groups, expectations of supervisors, and rigors of promotion and tenure processes can create pressures that young faculty did not expect. Throw in spousal and family duties and you have created a situation that many will find hard to navigate. However, there are ways to cope and, even better news, there are ways to excel in meeting the demands of an academic appointment and enjoying life. Because many new extension faculty members do not have prior experience in extension, best practices in documenting programs and extension scholarship over the pretenure period are provided in this paper. Appointments that include both research and extension are quite common at many land grant universities. The advantages of joint appointments are numerous and include the fact that more and more grant agencies are seeking integrated research, teaching, and/or extension projects. However, the time demands of joint appointments can be challenging. Joint appointments can be designed to help faculty members conduct important translational research and have it be applied in a production setting. By seeking commonalities in research and extension efforts, joint appointments can be very synergistic. Development of highly successful programs requires planning on the front end with an emphasis on an in-depth needs assessment to determine stakeholder needs for both research and extension. Impact assessment should be part of this planning effort. Performing as a successful extension faculty member while maintaining relationships outside of work is challenging and requires deliberate effort on the part of employees and supervisors to realize there is more to life than work. Some authors have referred to this as work-life balance, but it may be more helpful to think of it as work-life effectiveness. To do this, one needs to 1) define what success looks like, 2) set boundaries and

39 CFR 5.1 - Establishment and appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 39 Postal Service 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Establishment and appointment. 5.1 Section 5.1 Postal Service UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE COMMITTEES (ARTICLE V) § 5.1 Establishment and appointment. From time to time the Board may establish by resolution...

Getting patients in the door: medical appointment reminder preferences.

Science.gov (United States)

Crutchfield, Trisha M; Kistler, Christine E

2017-01-01

Between 23% and 34% of outpatient appointments are missed annually. Patients who frequently miss medical appointments have poorer health outcomes and are less likely to use preventive health care services. Missed appointments result in unnecessary costs and organizational inefficiencies. Appointment reminders may help reduce missed appointments; particular types may be more effective than other types. We used a survey with a discrete choice experiment (DCE) to learn why individuals miss appointments and to assess appointment reminder preferences. We enrolled a national sample of adults from an online survey panel to complete demographic and appointment habit questions as well as a 16-task DCE designed in Sawtooth Software's Discover tool. We assessed preferences for four reminder attributes - initial reminder type, arrival of initial reminder, reminder content, and number of reminders. We derived utilities and importance scores. We surveyed 251 adults nationally, with a mean age of 43 (range 18-83) years: 51% female, 84% White, and 8% African American. Twenty-three percent of individuals missed one or more appointments in the past 12 months. Two primary reasons given for missing an appointment include transportation problems (28%) and forgetfulness (26%). Participants indicated the initial reminder type (21%) was the most important attribute, followed by the number of reminders (10%). Overall, individuals indicated a preference for a single reminder, arriving via email, phone call, or text message, delivered less than 2 weeks prior to an appointment. Preferences for reminder content were less clear. The number of missed appointments and reasons for missing appointments are consistent with prior research. Patient-centered appointment reminders may improve appointment attendance by addressing some of the reasons individuals report missing appointments and by meeting patients' needs. Future research is necessary to determine if preferred reminders used in practice

"Nudge" and the epidemic of missed appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Aggarwal, Ajay; Davies, Joanna; Sullivan, Richard

2016-06-20

Purpose - Missed appointments constitute a significant problem in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and this remains an area where improvements could yield substantial efficiency savings. The purpose of this paper is to suggest that nudge policies based on behavioural theories may help target interventions to improve patient motivation to attend appointments. Design/methodology/approach - The authors propose two policies to reduce missed appointments. The first attempts to empower patients through making the appointment system more individualised to them and utilising their intrinsic feelings of social responsibility. The second policy utilises a financial commitment given by the patient at the time of booking. The different mechanisms of influencing patient behaviour are based on two different views of what motivates individuals' actions. The first policy is based on individuals being "knights". They are altruistic and have well-intentioned values. The second policy option is constructed on the premise that an individual is governed by self-interest, and they are in fact "knaves". Findings - A policy, which avoids the use of financial penalties is likely to be more culturally acceptable within the NHS. It could also prevent the phenomenon of "crowding out" whereby the desire to act dutifully gets displaced by the motivation to avoid incurring a monetary fine. Originality/value - Testing both strategies would provide insight into patient attitudes towards health care and society. This would help optimise behavioural strategies which may influence not only appointment attendances but also have wider implications for encouraging rational health care consumption.

Developing an efficient scheduling template of a chemotherapy treatment unit: A case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmed, Z; Elmekkawy, Ty; Bates, S

2011-01-01

time of a emergency room.3 A 20---day field observation revealed that the availability of the staff physician and interaction affects the patient wait time. Jyväskylä et al.4 used simulation to test different process scenarios, allocate resources and perform activity---based cost analysis in the Emergency Department (ED) at the Central Hospital. The simulation also supported the study of a new operational method, named "triage-team" method without interrupting the main system. The proposed triage team method categorises the entire patient according to the urgency to see the doctor and allows the patient to complete the necessary test before being seen by the doctor for the first time. The simulation study showed that it will decrease the throughput time of the patient and reduce the utilisation of the specialist and enable the ordering all the tests the patient needs right after arrival, thus quickening the referral to treatment. Santibáñez et al.5 developed a discrete event simulation model of British Columbia Cancer Agency"s ambulatory care unit which was used to study the impact of scenarios considering different operational factors (delay in starting clinic), appointment schedule (appointment order, appointment adjustment, add---ons to the schedule) and resource allocation. It was found that the best outcomes were obtained when not one but multiple changes were implemented simultaneously. Sepúlveda et al.6 studied the M. D. Anderson Cancer Centre Orlando, which is a cancer treatment facility and built a simulation model to analyse and improve flow process and increase capacity in the main facility. Different scenarios were considered like, transferring laboratory and pharmacy areas, adding an extra blood draw room and applying different scheduling techniques of patients. The study shows that by increasing the number of short---term (four hours or less) patients in the morning could increase chair utilisation. Discrete event simulation also helps improve a

Patients’ Perspective on the Value of Medication Management Appointments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mario Cruz

2015-05-01

Full Text Available Objectives: There is ongoing concern that psychiatric medication management appointments add little value to care. The present study attempted to address this concern by capturing depressed patients’ views and opinions about the value of psychiatric medication management appointments. Methods: Seventy-eight semi-structured interviews were performed with white and African American depressed patients post medication management appointments. These interviews tapped patients’ views and opinions about the value of attending medication management appointments. Analysis: An iterative thematic analysis was performed. Findings: Patients reported greater appointment value when appointments included obtaining medications, discussing the need for medication changes or dose adjustments, and discussing the impact of medications on their illness. Additionally, greater appointment value was perceived by patients when there were non-medical conversations about life issues, immediate outcomes from the appointment such as motivation to continue in care, and specific qualities of providers that were appealing to patients. Conclusions: Patients’ perceived value of psychiatric medication management appointments is complex. Though important patient outcomes are obtaining medicine and perceiving improvement in their mental health, there are other valued appointment and provider factors. Some of these other valued factors embedded within medication management appointments could have therapeutic properties. These findings have implications for future clinical research and service delivery.

One-appointment endodontic therapy: biological considerations.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Louis M; Lin, Jarshen; Rosenberg, Paul A

2007-11-01

The authors conducted a literature review to present the best available biological evidence concerning one-appointment endodontic therapy for asymptomatic teeth with apical periodontitis. Because of recent advances in technology, such as rotary engines and nickel-titanium instruments, some practitioners are performing one-appointment endodontic therapy for asymptomatic teeth with apical periodontitis. The authors reviewed the literature, which revealed only a small number of randomized, controlled clinical trials that have been conducted on one-appointment versus multiple-appointment endodontic therapy. As the apical canal preparation is enlarged, a greater percentage of bacteria is eradicated from infected root canals. In addition, sufficiently large apical root canal enlargement facilitates the delivery of antimicrobial irrigant to the apical portion of the canal. However, an association between positive or negative preobturation root canal culture results and the outcome of endodontic treatment has not been well-established. The best available evidence, based on a systematic literature review, indicates that one-appointment endodontic therapy may be feasible in selected cases of apical periodontitis in asymptomatic teeth. However, additional randomized, controlled clinical trials are required.

25 CFR 11.610 - Appointment of guardians.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment of guardians. 11.610 Section 11.610 Indians... ORDER CODE Domestic Relations § 11.610 Appointment of guardians. The court shall have the jurisdiction to appoint or remove legal guardians for minors and for persons who are incapable of managing their...

Predicting appointment misses in hospitals using data analytics

Science.gov (United States)

Karpagam, Sylvia; Ma, Nang Laik

2017-01-01

Background There is growing attention over the last few years about non-attendance in hospitals and its clinical and economic consequences. There have been several studies documenting the various aspects of non-attendance in hospitals. Project Predicting Appoint Misses (PAM) was started with the intention of being able to predict the type of patients that would not come for appointments after making bookings. Methods Historic hospital appointment data merged with “distance from hospital” variable was used to run Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine and Recursive Partitioning to decide the contributing variables to missed appointments. Results Variables that are “class”, “time”, “demographics” related have an effect on the target variable, however, prediction models may not perform effectively due to very subtle influence on the target variable. Previously assumed major contributors like “age”, “distance” did not have a major effect on the target variable. Conclusions With the given data it will be very difficult to make any moderate/strong prediction of the Appointment misses. That being said with the help of the cut off we are able to capture all of the “appointment misses” in addition to also capturing the actualized appointments. PMID:28567409

A missed primary care appointment correlates with a subsequent emergency department visit among children with asthma.

Science.gov (United States)

McGovern, Colleen Marie; Redmond, Margaret; Arcoleo, Kimberly; Stukus, David R

2017-11-01

Since the Affordable Care Act's implementation, emergency department (ED) visits have increased. Poor asthma control increases the risk of acute exacerbations and preventable ED visits. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services support the reduction of preventable ED visits to reduce healthcare spending. Implementation of interventions to avoid preventable ED visits has become a priority for many healthcare systems yet little data exist examining children's missed asthma management primary care (PC) appointments and subsequent ED visits. Longitudinal, retrospective review at a children's hospital was conducted for children with diagnosed asthma (ICD-9 493.xx), ages 2-18 years, scheduled for a PC visit between January 1, 2010, and June 30, 2012 (N = 3895). Records were cross-referenced with all asthma-related ED visits from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012. Logistic regression with maximum likelihood estimation was conducted. None of the children who completed a PC appointment experienced an ED visit in the subsequent 6 months whereas 2.7% of those with missed PC appointments had an ED visit (χ 2 = 64.28, p asthma as one mechanism for preventing ED visits was demonstrated. Interventions targeting missed visits could decrease asthma-related morbidity, preventable ED visits, and healthcare costs.

Factors influencing non-attendance of clinic appointments in ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

without an appointment, with an average of eight patients per day missing their appointment. The low rate of compliance with clinic appointments was of concern for the physicians at both the diabetes clinics. Prior to the current study, the reasons for non-attendance had not been examined. Materials and methods. A sample ...

25 CFR 11.704 - Appointment and duties of executor or administrator.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Appointment and duties of executor or administrator. 11... executor or administrator. (a) Upon ordering the estate to be probated, the court shall appoint an... be the executor of the estate shall be so appointed, provided such person is willing to serve in such...

48 CFR 1401.603-3 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Responsibilities 1401.603-3 Appointment. Purchase card holders may be appointed in writing or in accordance with the bureau/office procedures within the constraints of DOI Integrated Charge Card Program Policy Manual located at http://www.doi.gov/pam/chargecard. Additional guidance is available in the GSA Smart...

Behavioral changes during dental appointments in children having tooth extractions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mariana Gonzalez Cademartori

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Background: Tooth extractions are associated with anxiety-related situations that can cause behavioral problems in pediatric dental clinics. Aim: We aimed to describe the behavior of children during tooth extraction appointments, compare it to their behavior in preceding and subsequent dental appointments, and assess the behavioral differences according to gender, age, type of dentition, and reason for extraction. Settings and Design: This was a retrospective study based on information obtained from records of children between 6 and 13 years of age who were cared for at the Dentistry School in Pelotas, Brazil. Materials and Methods: Child behavior was assessed during the dental appointment that preceded the tooth extraction, during the tooth extraction appointment, and in the subsequent dental appointment using the Venham Behavior Rating Scale. Statistical Analysis: Results were analyzed using the Pearson Chi-square and McNemar tests. Results: Eighty-nine children were included. Cooperative behavior prevailed in all the dental appointments. The prevalence of “mild/intense protest” was higher in the tooth extraction appointments than in the previous or subsequent dental appointments (P < 0.001. No significant differences in behavior were detected between the type of dentition (primary or permanent teeth, reason for extraction or gender. Conclusion: In this sample of children treated at a dental school, the occurrence of uncooperative behavior was higher during the tooth extraction appointments than in the preceding and subsequent dental appointments.

Health Beliefs and Co-morbidities Associated with Appointment-Keeping Behavior Among HCV and HIV/HCV Patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Pundhir, Pooja; North, Carol S; Fatunde, Oluwatomilade; Jain, Mamta K

2016-02-01

Appointment-keeping behavior is an important requisite for HCV linkage and treatment initiation. In this study we examine what impact hepatitis C (HCV) knowledge and attitudes has on appointment-keeping behavior among a cohort of HCV and HCV/HIV patients. Knowledge scores and attitude scales, obtained from a cross-sectional survey, were correlated with proportion of appointments kept 1 year prior to taking the survey. Independent risk factors for missing appointments were examined by multiple regression analysis. 292 HCV patients completed the survey, and 149 (51%) were co-infected with HIV. HCV patients kept 67.5 ± 17.4% of their total appointments and a similar proportion (67 ± 38.2) of Liver Clinic appointments, but they attended a higher proportion (73 ± 24.4) of Primary Care Clinic appointments. However, certain health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection were independently associated with lower levels of appointment-keeping behavior. HCV knowledge was not associated with appointment-keeping behavior. Health beliefs, psychiatric illness, and HIV co-infection are associated with missing appointments, but no link between knowledge and appointment keeping behavior is apparent. In order to increase engagement into HCV care, HCV care coordination programs need to focus on addressing health beliefs and providing resources to those at highest risk for missing appointments.

Audiologist-patient communication profiles in hearing rehabilitation appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Carly; Barr, Caitlin; Khan, Asaduzzaman; Hickson, Louise

2017-08-01

To profile the communication between audiologists and patients in initial appointments on a biomedical-psychosocial continuum; and explore the associations between these profiles and 1) characteristics of the appointment and 2) patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids. Sixty-three initial hearing assessment appointments were filmed and audiologist-patient communication was coded using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. A hierarchical cluster analysis was conducted to profile audiologist-patient communication, after which regression modelling and Chi-squared analyses were conducted. Two distinct audiologist-patient communication profiles were identified during both the history taking phase (46=biopsychosocial profile, 15=psychosocial profile) and diagnosis and management planning phase (45=expanded biomedical profile, 11=narrowly biomedical profile). Longer appointments were significantly more likely to be associated with an expanded biomedical interaction during the diagnosis and management planning phase. No significant associations were found between audiologist-patient communication profile and patients' decisions to pursue hearing aids. Initial audiology consultations appear to remain clinician-centred. Three quarters of appointments began with a biopsychosocial interaction; however, 80% ended with an expanded biomedical interaction. Findings suggest that audiologists could consider modifying their communication in initial appointments to more holistically address the needs of patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Missed or Delayed Medical Care Appointments by Older Users of Nonemergency Medical Transportation

Science.gov (United States)

MacLeod, Kara E.; Ragland, David R.; Prohaska, Thomas R.; Smith, Matthew Lee; Irmiter, Cheryl; Satariano, William A.

2015-01-01

Purpose of the Study: This study identified factors associated with canceling nonemergency medical transportation appointments among older adult Medicaid patients. Design and Methods: Data from 125,913 trips for 2,913 Delaware clients were examined. Mediation analyses, as well as, multivariate logistic regressions were conducted. Results: Over half of canceled trips were attributed to client reasons (e.g., no show, refusal). Client characteristics (e.g., race, sex, functional status) were associated with cancelations; however, these differed based on the cancelation reason. Regularly scheduled trips were less likely to be canceled. Implications: The evolving American health care system may increase service availability. Additional policies can improve service accessibility and overcome utilization barriers. PMID:24558264

Modified open-access scheduling for new patient evaluations at an academic chronic pain clinic increased patient access to care, but did not materially reduce their mean cancellation rate: A retrospective, observational study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sivanesan, Eellan; Lubarsky, David A; Ranasinghe, Chaturani T; Sarantopoulos, Constantine D; Epstein, Richard H

2017-09-01

To determine if open-access scheduling would reduce the cancellation rate for new patient evaluations in a chronic pain clinic by at least 50%. Retrospective, observational study using electronic health records. Chronic pain clinic of an academic anesthesia department. All patients scheduled for evaluation or follow-up appointments in the chronic pain clinic between April 1, 2014, and December 31, 2015. Open-access scheduling was instituted in April 2015 with appointments offered on a date of the patient's choosing ≥1 business day after calling, with no limit on the daily number of new patients. Mean cancellation rates for new patients were compared between the 12-month baseline period prior to and for 7months after the change, following an intervening 2-month washout period. The method of batch means (by month) and the 2-sided Student t-test were used; Pnew patient mean cancellation rate decreased from a baseline of 35.7% by 4.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.4% to 6.9%; P=0.005); however, this failed to reach the 50% reduction target of 17.8%. Appointment lag time decreased by 4.7days (95% CI 2.3 to 7.0days, Pnew patient group. More new patients were seen within 1week compared to baseline (50.6% versus 19.1%; Pnew patient visits per month increased from 158.5 to 225.0 (P=0.0004). The cancellation rate and appointment lag times did not decrease for established patient visits, as expected because open-access scheduling was not implemented for this group. Access to care for new chronic pain patients improved with modified open-access scheduling. However, their mean cancellation rate only decreased from 35.7% to 31.5%, making this a marginally effective strategy to reduce cancellations. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving the patient booking service to reduce the number of missed appointments at East London NHS Foundation Trust Community Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy Service.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Elizabeth; Shah, Amar; De Souza, Warren; Harrison, Mark; Chettur, Chris; Onathukattil, Maimoona; Smart, Michelle; Mata, Marlon; Chitewe, Auzewell; Binley, Emma

2017-01-01

The East London National Health Service Foundation Trust (ELFT) Community Musculoskeletal (MSK) Physiotherapy Service had reported a high rate of non-attendance at scheduled appointments. This was leading to delayed access to treatment for patients and a reduced capacity for service users, as well as a waste of clinical resources. The aim of this quality improvement project was therefore to reduce the percentage of missed appointments within this department. This study was undertaken by the ELFT community MSK service, with support from the ELFT Quality Improvement team. To begin with, patient complaints were explored; these indicated that the main reason for missing appointments was due to issues with the patient booking service. Baseline data were initially collected for both new referrals and follow-up patients. The proposed changes were then introduced, which included text message reminders, first via a manual platform and then via an automated system. Ongoing data were recorded to note the effectiveness of these changes. Following the intervention, non-attendance of newly referred patients reduced by 43.35% (23.76%-13.46%) after both cycles. Non-attendance of follow-up patients reduced by 44.14% (23.74%-13.26%) after the second cycle alone. By listening to the opinions of service users, it was possible to improve the patient booking system and the flexibility of appointments. This resulted in a reduction in the percentage of appointments missed. These changes will continue to be monitored within this department to ensure sustainability but there is also now potential for similar interventions to be trialled in other health service departments.

Managing patient demand: a qualitative study of appointment making in general practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Gallagher, M; Pearson, P; Drinkwater, C; Guy, J

2001-04-01

Managing patients' requests for appointments is an important general practice activity. No previous research has systematically observed how patients and receptionists negotiate appointments. To observe appointment making and investigate patients' and professionals' experiences of appointment negotiations. A qualitative study using participant observation. Three general practices on Tyneside; a single-handed practice, a practice comprising three doctors, and a seven-doctor practice. Participant observation sessions, consisting of 35 activity recordings and 34 periods of observation and 38 patient and 15 professional interviews, were set up. Seven groups of patients were selected for interview. These included patients attending an 'open access' surgery, patients who complained about making an appointment, and patients who complimented the receptionists. Appointment making is a complex social process. Outcomes are dependent on the process of negotiation and factors, such as patients' expectations and appointment availability. Receptionists felt that patients in employment, patients allocated to the practice by the Health Authority, and patients who did not comply with practice appointment rules were most demanding. Appointment requests are legitimised by receptionists enforcing practice rules and requesting clinical information. Patients volunteer information to provide evidence that their complaint is appropriate and employ strategies, such as persistence, assertiveness, and threats, to try and persuade receptionists to grant appointments. Appointment making is a complex social process where outcomes are negotiated. Receptionists have an important role in managing patient demand. Practices should be explicit about how appointments are allocated, including publishing practice criteria.

Missed medical appointment among hypertensive and diabetic ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Keywords: Missed medical appointments, Hypertensive, Diabetic outpatients, Medication adherence, ... 12 weeks, at 95 % confidence level and 5 % error margin, 300 hypertensive ... monthly income and health insurance status of respondents ...

The Interaction of Publications and Appointments: New Evidence on Academic Economists in Germany

Science.gov (United States)

Beckmann, Klaus; Schneider, Andrea

2013-01-01

Using a new panel data set comprising publication and appointment data for 889 German academic economists over a quarter of a century, we confirm the familiar hypothesis that publications are important for professorial appointments, but find only a small negative effect of appointments on subsequent research productivity, in particular if one…

Obtaining a follow-up appointment before discharge protects against readmission for patients with acute coronary syndrome and heart failure: A quality improvement project.

Science.gov (United States)

Baky, Vidagay; Moran, Dane; Warwick, Tessa; George, Alice; Williams, Tammy; McWilliams, Eric; Marine, Joseph E

2018-04-15

Cardiac patients have a high risk of readmission following hospital discharge. The aim of our project was to examine the factors associated with increased readmission rate, with a view to eventually decrease the rate of readmission for patients admitted to the hospital due to acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or heart failure. Patients admitted to the cardiac step-down unit at a single private hospital from 2015 to 2016 were included in our study. Interventions that were employed included: (1) improved pre-discharge follow-up appointment scheduling, (2) medication education by a pharmacist, and (3) timely discharge planning. Our primary outcome of interest was all-cause rate of hospital readmission within 30days. We conducted a multivariate analysis to determine the factors that were predictive of readmission rate. 578 patients were included in the study and 402 were diagnosed with ACS (69.9%). The rate of readmission was 14.2% for patients with heart failure, compared to 7.5% for patients with ACS. Following the bundle of interventions, patients were significantly more likely to receive an appointment (45.6% vs. 75.4%, pReadmission rate was comparable following the intervention (8.6% vs. 9.7%), but patients that received an appointment had 0.374 times lower odds of being readmitted (p=0.004). While our package of interventions did not lead to a significant decline in our readmission rate, patients who received a follow-up appointment prior to discharge were strongly protected against readmission. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Appointment attendance at a remote rural dental training facility in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Lalloo, Ratilal; McDonald, Jenny M

2013-08-02

Non-attended appointments have impacts on the operations of dental clinics. These impacts vary from lost productivity, loss of income and loss of clinical teaching hours. Appointment data were analysed to assess the percentage of completed, failed to attend (FTA) and cancelled appointments at an Australian remote rural student dental clinic training facility. The demographic and time characteristics of FTA and cancelled appointments were analysed using simple and multivariate multinomial regression analysis, to inform interventions that may be necessary. Over the 2-year study period a total of 3,042 appointments were made. The percentage of FTA was 21.3% (N = 648) and cancelled appointments 13.7% (N = 418). The odds of an FTA were in excess of 4 times higher in patients aged 19-25 years (OR = 4.1; 95% CI = 2.3-7.3) and 26-35 years (OR = 4.4; 95% CI = 2.5-7.9) compared to patients 65 years and older. The odds of an FTA was 2.3 (95% CI = 1.8-3.1) times higher in public patients compared to private patients. The odds of a cancellation was 1.7 (95% CI = 1.1-2.6) times higher on a Friday compared to a Monday and 1.8 (95% CI = 1.1-2.9) times higher on the last appointment of the day compared to the first appointment. For cancelled appointments, 71.3% were cancelled on the day of the appointment and 16.6% on the day before. Non-attended appointments (FTA or cancelled) were common at this remote rural dental clinic training facility. Efforts to reduce these need to be implemented; including telephonic reminders, educating the community on the importance of attending their appointments, block booking school children and double booking or arranging alternative activities for the students at times when non-attendance is common.

On appointment of Courts presidents - some open questions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mijo Galiot

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In their paper, the authors analyse the legal position of the judiciary within the framework of the separation of powers in the Republic of Croatia, as well as the procedure of the election of the members and president, and the scope and manner of operation of the State Judiciary Council on a principal level. The authors especially deal with and analyse the 2010 constitutional changes and the State Judiciary Council Act from 2010 (SJCA, which introduced significant novelties in the appointment of presidents of courts in the normative and institutional sense as well as in practical applications. Separately, an integral historical overview is given of the appointment of presidents of courts from the gaining of Croatian independency until the SJCA became effective, as well as a comparative overview of the manner of appointment of presidents of courts in elected, related European legal systems. Moreover, the authors break down and analyse the procedures of the appointment of presidents of courts with a special reference to each phase. Here, special emphasis is given to the candidate valuation manner and criteria and the legal protection of candidates after the decision on appointment, both in the normative sense and in practice, all this accompanied by authors’ suggestions de lege ferenda.

Hans Blix appointed Director General

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-01-01

On 1 December 1981, Dr Hans Blix took office as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency in succession to Dr Sigvard Eklund who has headed the IAEA since 1961. The Agency's Board of Governors nominated Dr Blix by acclamation on 26 September. His appointment was unanimously approved by the final session of the 25th regular session of the General Conference of the IAEA the same day. The President of the Conference, Ambassador Manaspas Xuto, administered the oath of office to Dr Blix at the final plenary meeting that day. Hans Blix was born in 1928 in Uppsala He studied at the University of Uppsala, at Columbia University, where he was also a research graduate and at Cambridge, where he received his Ph D In 1959 he became Doctor of Laws at the Stockholm University and in 1960 was appointed associate professor in international law. From 1963 to 1976 Dr Blix was Head of Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and served as Legal Adviser on International Law. In 1976 he became Undersecretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in charge of international development co-operation He was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs in October 1978 In September 1979 he was again appointed Undersecretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in charge of international development co-operation. Since 1961 he has been a member of Sweden's delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, and from 1962 to 1978 a member of the Swedish delegation to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He has written several books on subjects associated with international and constitutional law and was leader of the Liberal Campaign Committee in favour of retention of the Swedish nuclear energy program in the referendum in 1980

38 CFR 17.100 - Refusal of treatment by unnecessarily breaking appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... and satisfactory reasons are advanced for breaking the appointment and circumstances were such that... unnecessarily breaking appointments. 17.100 Section 17.100 Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS MEDICAL Breaking Appointments § 17.100 Refusal of treatment by unnecessarily breaking...

26 CFR 25.2514-1 - Transfers under power of appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... power of appointment. (a) Introductory. (1) Section 2514 treats the exercise of a general power of... section also treats as a transfer of property the exercise or complete release of a general power of... power of appointment is not treated as a general power of appointment merely by reason of the fact that...

25 CFR 140.1 - Sole power to appoint.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Sole power to appoint. 140.1 Section 140.1 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES LICENSED INDIAN TRADERS § 140.1 Sole power to appoint. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs shall have the sole power and authority to...

Equal Opportunity? Gender Gaps in CEO Appointments and Executive Pay

OpenAIRE

Keloharju, Matti; Knüpfer, Samuli; Tåg, Joacim

2016-01-01

This paper uses exceptionally rich data on Swedish corporate executives and their personal characteristics to study gender gaps in CEO appointments and pay. Both gaps are sizeable: 18% for CEO appointments and 27% for pay. At most one-eight of the gaps can be attributed to observable gender differences in executives' and their firms' characteristics. Further tests suggest that unobservable gender differences in characteristics are unlikely to account for the remaining gaps. Instead, our resul...

Automated detection of follow-up appointments using text mining of discharge records.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruud, Kari L; Johnson, Matthew G; Liesinger, Juliette T; Grafft, Carrie A; Naessens, James M

2010-06-01

To determine whether text mining can accurately detect specific follow-up appointment criteria in free-text hospital discharge records. Cross-sectional study. Mayo Clinic Rochester hospitals. Inpatients discharged from general medicine services in 2006 (n = 6481). Textual hospital dismissal summaries were manually reviewed to determine whether the records contained specific follow-up appointment arrangement elements: date, time and either physician or location for an appointment. The data set was evaluated for the same criteria using SAS Text Miner software. The two assessments were compared to determine the accuracy of text mining for detecting records containing follow-up appointment arrangements. Agreement of text-mined appointment findings with gold standard (manual abstraction) including sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV). About 55.2% (3576) of discharge records contained all criteria for follow-up appointment arrangements according to the manual review, 3.2% (113) of which were missed through text mining. Text mining incorrectly identified 3.7% (107) follow-up appointments that were not considered valid through manual review. Therefore, the text mining analysis concurred with the manual review in 96.6% of the appointment findings. Overall sensitivity and specificity were 96.8 and 96.3%, respectively; and PPV and NPV were 97.0 and 96.1%, respectively. of individual appointment criteria resulted in accuracy rates of 93.5% for date, 97.4% for time, 97.5% for physician and 82.9% for location. Text mining of unstructured hospital dismissal summaries can accurately detect documentation of follow-up appointment arrangement elements, thus saving considerable resources for performance assessment and quality-related research.

45 CFR 211.5 - Action under State law; appointment of guardian.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Action under State law; appointment of guardian... Action under State law; appointment of guardian. Whenever an eligible person is incapable of giving his... appointment of a legal guardian, to ensure the proper planning for and provision of such care and treatment. ...

Variable demand and productivity in diagnostic medicine: the customer experience with the scheduling of examinations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Leandro Ortigoza Martins

2016-04-01

Full Text Available From the perspective of marketing, diagnostic medicine services are perishable and demand is variable — characteristics that difficult the maximization of results. Service providers offer the exams through time scheduling system without, however, overcome the inefficiency caused by the no show customers. The objective of this research was to investigate the level of satisfaction of consumers of diagnostic medicine with the schedule, the acceptance of a new model without an appointment time and analyze three secondary dimensions common to the two models (no show, seasonality and timeout in customer satisfaction. This is a quantitative research with exploratory-descriptive design performed with 2,545 clients from a privately held diagnostic medicine in 2013. The results of the secondary dimensions indicated that customers tend to frequent establishments as the current seasonal and are sensitive to wait. As for the main dimensions (scheduling and demand free, there are different levels of acceptance, indicating that the two systems are complementary and not exclusive and therefore, the feasibility of adopting a hybrid model of operation, with the use of two templates.

5 CFR 317.501 - Recruitment and selection for initial SES career appointment be achieved from the brightest and...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

.... OPM may review proposed career appointments to ensure that they comply with all merit staffing... career appointment be achieved from the brightest and most diverse pool possible. 317.501 Section 317.501... EXECUTIVE SERVICE Career Appointments § 317.501 Recruitment and selection for initial SES career appointment...

[Analysis of the patients who missed their appointments at the neurology clinic of the Marina Alta].

Science.gov (United States)

Morera-Guitart, J; Mas-Server, M A; Más-Sesé, G

To analyze the frequency, reasons and characteristics of patients who missed their appointments (NP) at the Neurology Clinic (CEN). To compare the characteristics of the NP with the patients who did not miss their appointment. Suggest measures to reduce avoidable causes of NP. During the period 1/10/99 to 30/4/2000 the cases of NP were prospectively recorded and compared with a sample of patients who attended the CEN during the same period. We analyze the data on age, sex, distance of home from CEN, diagnosis, type of consultation and date of last consultation. The NP were contacted by phone and asked why they had not gone for their appointments. The reasons given were then classified as avoidable or unavoidable. Of the 1,842 consultations scheduled, 19% were NP. When the NP and the patients who did attend were compared we found statistically significant differences regarding the distance home/CEN. According to the diagnosis, the NP had more 'symptoms/signs' and other MIA, whilst those who attended the clinic had more 'neuropathies' and 'awaiting diagnosis'. The commonest avoidable reasons (55.8%) for NP were forgetting, administrative error and communication failure, and for unavoidable reasons (44.2%) physical disability, other priorities and improvement. There is a large proportion of NP in the CEN of the Marina Alta. The distance from home to CEN (over 25 km) was the main factor affecting the rate of NP. Since 56% of the NP were due to avoidable causes, strategies could be designed to reduce this percentage. In the NP group, the main causes were forgetting, administrative errors and communication failure.

New appointment at the IAEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2000-01-01

The document gives short information on the biography of Professor Dr. Werner Burkart from Germany who was appointed (as of July 2000) as Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications, IAEA

Court Appointed Volunteers for Abused and Neglected Children.

Science.gov (United States)

Justin, Renate G.

2002-02-01

A court appointed special advocate (CASA) volunteer is a trained citizen who is appointed by a judge to represent the best interests of an abused and neglected child in court. An independent voice, the volunteer gathers information and reports to the court. The CASA volunteer works in close cooperation with other professionals, physicians, lawyers, social workers, and teachers to find the most suitable permanent placement for a victimized child, whether it be a foster home, parental home, or adoptive home. Another function for CASA volunteers is to be supportive to the child during a time of uncertainty in his or her life and to help the youngster adjust to new and changing situations; the CASA volunteer may be the only consistent adult presence during this difficult period of transition.

A Pilot Study of Reasons and Risk Factors for "No-Shows" in a Pediatric Neurology Clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Guzek, Lindsay M; Fadel, William F; Golomb, Meredith R

2015-09-01

Missed clinic appointments lead to decreased patient access, worse patient outcomes, and increased healthcare costs. The goal of this pilot study was to identify reasons for and risk factors associated with missed pediatric neurology outpatient appointments ("no-shows"). This was a prospective cohort study of patients scheduled for 1 week of clinic. Data on patient clinical and demographic information were collected by record review; data on reasons for missed appointments were collected by phone interviews. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted using chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression to assess risk factors for missed appointments. Fifty-nine (25%) of 236 scheduled patients were no-shows. Scheduling conflicts (25.9%) and forgetting (20.4%) were the most common reasons for missed appointments. When controlling for confounding factors in the logistic regression, Medicaid (odds ratio 2.36), distance from clinic, and time since appointment was scheduled were associated with missed appointments. Further work in this area is needed. © The Author(s) 2014.

7 CFR 1260.145 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS AND ORDERS; MISCELLANEOUS COMMODITIES), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BEEF PROMOTION AND RESEARCH Beef Promotion and Research Order Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board § 1260.145 Appointment. (a) From...

Prevalence and Correlates of Missed First Appointments among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

In Nigeria, where mental health services are poorly organized, missed appointments and its resultant consequences may be burdensome. Aim: This ... However, having received previous treatment for a psychiatric illness (P = 0.02) and having ...

7 CFR 1221.103 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION ORDER Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Order Sorghum Promotion, Research, and Information Board § 1221.103 Appointment. From the nominations made pursuant to § 1221.101, the Secretary...

5 CFR 330.1106 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND PLACEMENT (GENERAL) Federal Employment Priority Consideration Program for Displaced Employees of the... under Public Law 105-274. For employees appointed before October 21, 1998, the conversion will be...

7 CFR 1280.204 - Appointment.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 7 Agriculture 10 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Appointment. 1280.204 Section 1280.204 Agriculture Regulations of the Department of Agriculture (Continued) AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE (MARKETING AGREEMENTS... INFORMATION ORDER Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information Order Lamb Promotion, Research, and Information...

Prevalence and Correlates of Missed First Appointments among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

quality of care, results in poor treatment outcomes and drains financial resources. In Nigeria, where mental .... and physical aggression. Each subscale has four .... missed first appointments observed in this study falls within the range of 17 and ...

Reasons for and consequences of missed appointments in general practice in the UK: questionnaire survey and prospective review of medical records

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lawlor Debbie A

2005-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Missed appointments are a common occurrence in primary care in the UK, yet little is known about the reasons for them, or the consequences of missing an appointment. This paper aims to determine the reasons for missed appointments and whether patients who miss an appointment subsequently consult their general practitioner (GP. Secondary aims are to compare psychological morbidity, and the previous appointments with GPs between subjects and a comparison group. Methods Postal questionnaire survey and prospective medical notes review of adult patients missing an appointment and the comparison group who attended appointments over a three week period in seven general practices in West Yorkshire. Results Of the 386 who missed appointments 122 (32% responded. Of the 386 in the comparison group 223 (58% responded, resulting in 23 case-control matched pairs with complete data collection. Over 40% of individuals who missed an appointment and participated said that they forgot the appointment and a quarter said that they tried very hard to cancel the appointment or that it was at an inconvenient time. A fifth reported family commitments or being too ill to attend. Over 90% of the patients who missed an appointment subsequently consulted within three months and of these nearly 60% consulted for the stated problem that was going to be presented in the missed consultation. The odds of missing an appointment decreased with increasing age and were greater among those who had missed at least one appointment in the previous 12 months. However, estimates for comparisons between those who missed appointments and the comparison group were imprecise due to the low response rate. Conclusion Patients who miss appointments tend to cite practice factors and their own forgetfulness as the main reasons for doing so, and most attend within three months of a missed appointment. This study highlights a number of implications for future research. More work

76 FR 78225 - Notice of Appointment of Members to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-12-16

... (Appointment--3 years); Category H. ``National Food Science Organization, Dr. Mark R. McLellan, Member... specific category related to agriculture. The Board was first appointed in September 1996 and at the time... member is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to a specific category on the Board, including...

Directors General appointed

CERN Multimedia

1975-01-01

At a special session on 21 March, presided over by P. Levaux, the Council of the European Organization for Nuclear Research appointed J . B. Adams and L . Van Hove as Directors General of the Organization for a period of five years beginning 1 January 1976. Dr. Adams will be responsible for the administration of CERN, for the operation of the equipment and services and for the construction of buildings and major equipment. Professor Van Hove will be responsible for the research activities of the Organization.

10 CFR 1045.33 - Appointment of restricted data management official.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 10 Energy 4 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Appointment of restricted data management official. 1045... DECLASSIFICATION Generation and Review of Documents Containing Restricted Data and Formerly Restricted Data § 1045.33 Appointment of restricted data management official. (a) Each agency with access to RD or FRD shall...

An Effective Outpatient Appointment System for General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital

Science.gov (United States)

1990-07-13

collection, donated many hours. She asked patients about the appointment system and personally observed clinic personnel. Additionally, as a consumer ...appointment system which must satisfy both the demands 0of external ( patients ) and internal (physicians) customers . At the o0 C 0 same time, the...its health care environment. A variable that can effect patient flow is centralization or decentralization of the registration and appointment system

Pengaruh Appointment Registration System terhadap Waktu Tunggu dan Kepuasan Pasien

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuli Susanti

2015-02-01

Full Text Available Abstrak Peningkatan derajat kesehatan dapat dicapai melalui kemudahan akses terhadap fasilitas kesehatan. Peningkatan peserta pada program Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN mengakibatkan antrian panjang di sarana pelayanan kesehatan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh metode appointment registration system (ARS terhadap waktu tunggu dan kepuasan pasien. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah survei dengan sampel 380 orang dan observasi pada bulan Desember 2014 di RS Al-Islam Bandung. Analisis menggunakan structural equation modeling (SEM dan production operation management-quantitative methods (POMQM. Hasil penelitian diperoleh kondisi pelaksanaan ARS (60,7%, waktu tunggu (59,1%, dan kepuasan pasien (67,3% termasuk dalam kategori cukup. Terdapat pengaruh positif dan signifikan ARS terhadap waktu tunggu (51,84%, pengaruh positif dan signifikan waktu tunggu terhadap kepuasan pasien (25%, dan total pengaruh ARS terhadap kepuasan pasien (16,79%. ARS dapat menurunkan waktu tunggu secara efektif tetapi tidak semua metode ARS dapat menurunkan waktu tunggu. Simpulan, pasien RS Al-Islam Bandung merasa cukup puas terhadap pendaftaran appointment dan waktu tunggu. Kata kunci: Appointment registration system, kepuasan pasien, waktu tunggu   The Influence of Outpatient Appointment Registration System to Waiting Time and Patient Satisfications Abstract Health improvement can be achieved through accessibility to health services. An increased participants in the Health Insurance Program (HIP resulted in a long queue in the hospital. This research aim was to analize influence of appointment registration system (ARS to waiting time and patient satisfaction. Research method using patient satisfaction survey in 380 subjects and observation on December 2014 at Al-Islam Bandung Hospital. The result was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM and production operation management-quantitative methods (POMQM. The results showed that the

Methods of appointment and qualifications of club doctors and physiotherapists in English professional football: some problems and issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Waddington, I; Roderick, M; Naik, R

2001-02-01

To examine the methods of appointment, experience, and qualifications of club doctors and physiotherapists in professional football. Semistructured tape recorded interviews with 12 club doctors, 10 club physiotherapists, and 27 current and former players. A questionnaire was also sent to 90 club doctors; 58 were returned. In almost all clubs, methods of appointment of doctors are informal and reflect poor employment practice: posts are rarely advertised and many doctors are appointed on the basis of personal contacts and without interview. Few club doctors had prior experience or qualifications in sports medicine and very few have a written job description. The club doctor is often not consulted about the appointment of the physiotherapist; physiotherapists are usually appointed informally, often without interview, and often by the manager without involving anyone who is qualified in medicine or physiotherapy. Half of all clubs do not have a qualified (chartered) physiotherapist; such unqualified physiotherapists are in a weak position to resist threats to their clinical autonomy, particularly those arising from managers' attempts to influence clinical decisions. Almost all aspects of the appointment of club doctors and physiotherapists need careful re-examination.

[Requests for emergency appointments with dermatologists in private practice in France: the ETude Urgences en DErmatologie libérale (ET.U.DE) study].

Science.gov (United States)

Penso-Assathiany, D; Bourdon-Lanoy, E; Derancourt, C; Roujeau, J-C; Bastuji-Garin, S

2007-01-01

Requests for emergency appointments are fairly common in private dermatologic practice in France. To our knowledge the frequency and reasons for such requests have not yet been evaluated. The primary objective of our study was to provide a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of such requests and to assess the underlying reasons. The secondary aim was to investigate for an association between emergency requests where response was justified within 48 hours and the symptoms reported by patients in order to establish a predictive score for the validity of requests. The study took place during one week in April 2004. Forty French dermatologists took part on a voluntary basis. They deliberately reduced their ongoing schedule to accommodate patients seeking an urgent appointment. We collected data regarding the normal professional activity of each dermatologist, reasons for appointments, symptoms, diagnosis and evaluation of the degree of emergency by the attending dermatologist. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed and a score was attributed based on the results for the variables used in the logistic regression model. The mean number of patients seen at emergency appointments during the study week doubled in comparison with a normal period. During the week, 613 patients phoned and all questionnaires were completed for 538 (88%) patients. The most common reasons for requesting an appointment were: rash, eczema, pruritus, tumour modification, localized lesion and allergy. The most frequent diagnoses were: eczema, bacterial and viral infection, atopic dermatitis, mycosis and naevus. The dermatologists considered that the consultations were justified within 48 hours for one third of patients. In the multivariate analysis, factors significantly associated with a justified request were of a general medical rather than a dermatological nature: enlarged cysts, blisters, insomnia, impaired activity, onset or aggravation within the previous 7 days, inability to

Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Gurol-Urganci, Ipek; de Jongh, Thyra; Vodopivec-Jamsek, Vlasta; Atun, Rifat; Car, Josip

2013-12-05

This review is an update of the original Cochrane review published in July 2012. Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery with substantial monetary costs for the health system, leading to delays in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Patients' forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments. Patient reminders may help reduce missed appointments. Modes of communicating reminders for appointments to patients include face-to-face communication, postal messages, calls to landlines or mobile phones, and mobile phone messaging. Mobile phone messaging applications, such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS), could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments. To update our review assessing the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Secondary objectives include assessment of costs; health outcomes; patients' and healthcare providers' evaluation of the intervention and perceptions of safety; and possible harms and adverse effects associated with the intervention. Original searches were run in June 2009. For this update, we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL,The Cochrane Library 2012, Issue 8), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012), EMBASE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (January 1993 to August 2012) and CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (January 1993 to August 2012). We also reviewed grey literature (including trial registers) and reference lists of articles. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) assessing mobile phone messaging as reminders for healthcare appointments. We only included studies in which it was possible to assess effects of mobile phone messaging independent of other technologies or interventions.   Two review authors independently assessed all studies against the inclusion criteria, with any disagreements resolved by a third

Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Car, Josip; Gurol-Urganci, Ipek; de Jongh, Thyra; Vodopivec-Jamsek, Vlasta; Atun, Rifat

2012-07-11

Missed appointments are a major cause of inefficiency in healthcare delivery, with substantial monetary costs for the health system, leading to delays in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Patients' forgetfulness is one of the main reasons for missed appointments, and reminders may help alleviate this problem. Modes of communicating reminders for appointments to patients include face-to-face communication, postal messages, calls to landlines or mobile phones, and mobile phone messaging. Mobile phone messaging applications such as Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) could provide an important, inexpensive delivery medium for reminders for healthcare appointments. To assess the effects of mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments. Secondary objectives include assessment of patients' and healthcare providers' evaluation of the intervention; costs; and possible risks and harms associated with the intervention. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL,The Cochrane Library 2009, Issue 2), MEDLINE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), EMBASE (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), PsycINFO (OvidSP) (January 1993 to June 2009), CINAHL (EbscoHOST) (January 1993 to June 2009), LILACS (January 1993 to June 2009) and African Health Anthology (January 1993 to June 2009). We also reviewed grey literature (including trial registers) and reference lists of articles. We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-randomised controlled trials (QRCTs), controlled before-after (CBA) studies, or interrupted time series (ITS) studies with at least three time points before and after the intervention. We included studies assessing mobile phone messaging as reminders for healthcare appointments. We only included studies in which it was possible to assess effects of mobile phone messaging independent of other technologies or interventions.   Two review authors independently assessed all

26 CFR 20.2041-1 - Powers of appointment; in general.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... Powers of appointment; in general. (a) Introduction. A decedent's gross estate includes under section... beneficiary of a trust to assent to a periodic accounting, thereby relieving the trustee from further... 26 Internal Revenue 14 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Powers of appointment; in general. 20.2041-1...

5 CFR 9901.511 - Appointing authorities.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 9901.511 Administrative Personnel DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND LABOR RELATIONS SYSTEMS (DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE-OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT) DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE NATIONAL SECURITY... these authorities will be given career, career conditional, term or temporary appointments in the...

76 FR 38348 - Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st...

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-30

... Service Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st.... ACTION: Notice of Appointment of Committee Members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st... the appointment of members to the Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture...

CNPC Appoints Chief Experts for Important Technological Projects

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhao Jianzhong

2006-01-01

@@ On June 27th, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) held a public recruitment to appoint chief experts in Beijing for its important technological projects, which is the first time for CNPC to appoint chief managers by the means of competitive recruitment. This recruitment covers four projects, such as drilling, logging, geophysical survey and ground engineering with 15 projects. Of those,there are 8 drilling projects, which make up 50 percent of all the important technological projects for public recruitment. CNPC expects to further boost the chief expert responsibility system and promote the research and development (R&D) of technological project on the basis of the public recruitment. The company completes the recruitment following the procedure of making announcement, conducting competitive recruitment and giving publicity. On July 25th, the appointment ceremony was held by CNPC and 15 experts were awarded the certificates. CNPC is entering a new stage for the implementation of the technology and talent strategy for the 11th Five-Year Plan. What's more, a new management mode is taking shape for the technological project and for the construction of technological personnel pool.

New appointments at the IAEA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1999-01-01

The document shortly presents the following new appointments: the Deputy Director General, Head of the Department of Safeguards (effective as of 1 May 1999), the Director of the Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology in the Department of Nuclear Energy, and the Director of the Division of Conference and Document Services in the Department of Administration (effective as of 1 April 1999)

22 CFR 11.30 - Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate and limited non-career appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate... PERSONNEL APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICERS § 11.30 Senior Foreign Service officer career candidate and limited non-career appointments. (a) General considerations. (1) Career officers at the Senior...

Reduction of missed appointments at an urban primary care clinic: a randomised controlled study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Calmy Alexandra

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Missed appointments are known to interfere with appropriate care and to misspend medical and administrative resources. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of a sequential intervention reminding patients of their upcoming appointment and to identify the profile of patients missing their appointments. Methods We conducted a randomised controlled study in an urban primary care clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals serving a majority of vulnerable patients. All patients booked in a primary care or HIV clinic at the Geneva University Hospitals were sent a reminder 48 hrs prior to their appointment according to the following sequential intervention: 1. Phone call (fixed or mobile reminder; 2. If no phone response: a Short Message Service (SMS reminder; 3. If no available mobile phone number: a postal reminder. The rate of missed appointment, the cost of the intervention, and the profile of patients missing their appointment were recorded. Results 2123 patients were included: 1052 in the intervention group, 1071 in the control group. Only 61.7% patients had a mobile phone recorded at the clinic. The sequential intervention significantly reduced the rate of missed appointments: 11.4% (n = 122 in the control group and 7.8% (n = 82 in the intervention group (p 1year (OR 2.2; CI: 1.15-4.2, substance abuse (2.09, CI 1.21-3.61, and being an asylum seeker (OR 2.73: CI 1.22-6.09. Conclusion A practical reminder system can significantly increase patient attendance at medical outpatient clinics. An intervention focused on specific patient characteristics could further increase the effectiveness of appointment reminders.

[Principles of nutrition in patients with newly appointed stoma].

Science.gov (United States)

Pachocka, Lucyna Małgorzata; Urbanik, Anna

2016-01-01

The treatment of intestinal stoma is often a difficult experience for patients and results in numerous problems in the physical, psychological and social aspects. Therefore, post-operative care of the patient with the newly appointed stoma should be taken by therapeutic team consisting of doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians, psychologists and social workers. Appropriate nutritional education of patients aims to improve their quality of life and to prevent from unpleasant ailments formed after the operation. The specific type of stoma may decide about certain dietary recommendations. The presented work provides a practical dietary recommendations for patients with newly appointed stoma.

Appointment reminder systems are effective but not optimal: results of a systematic review and evidence synthesis employing realist principles.

Science.gov (United States)

McLean, Sionnadh Mairi; Booth, Andrew; Gee, Melanie; Salway, Sarah; Cobb, Mark; Bhanbhro, Sadiq; Nancarrow, Susan A

2016-01-01

Missed appointments are an avoidable cost and resource inefficiency which impact upon the health of the patient and treatment outcomes. Health care services are increasingly utilizing reminder systems to manage these negative effects. This study explores the effectiveness of reminder systems for promoting attendance, cancellations, and rescheduling of appointments across all health care settings and for particular patient groups and the contextual factors which indicate that reminders are being employed sub-optimally. We used three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Firstly, using pre-existing models and theories, we developed a conceptual framework to inform our understanding of the contexts and mechanisms which influence reminder effectiveness. Secondly, we performed a review following Centre for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines to investigate the effectiveness of different methods of reminding patients to attend health service appointments. Finally, to supplement the effectiveness information, we completed a review informed by realist principles to identify factors likely to influence non-attendance behaviors and the effectiveness of reminders. We found consistent evidence that all types of reminder systems are effective at improving appointment attendance across a range of health care settings and patient populations. Reminder systems may also increase cancellation and rescheduling of unwanted appointments. "Reminder plus", which provides additional information beyond the reminder function may be more effective than simple reminders (ie, date, time, place) at reducing non-attendance at appointments in particular circumstances. We identified six areas of inefficiency which indicate that reminder systems are being used sub-optimally. Unless otherwise indicated, all patients should receive a reminder to facilitate attendance at their health care appointment. The choice of reminder system should be tailored to the individual service

Scheduling the scheduling task : a time management perspective on scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Larco Martinelli, J.A.; Wiers, V.C.S.; Fransoo, J.C.

2013-01-01

Time is the most critical resource at the disposal of schedulers. Hence, an adequate management of time from the schedulers may impact positively on the scheduler’s productivity and responsiveness to uncertain scheduling environments. This paper presents a field study of how schedulers make use of

Joint Optimization of Preventive Maintenance and Spare Parts Inventory with Appointment Policy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jing Cai

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Under the background of the wide application of condition-based maintenance (CBM in maintenance practice, the joint optimization of maintenance and spare parts inventory is becoming a hot research to take full advantage of CBM and reduce the operational cost. In order to avoid both the high inventory level and the shortage of spare parts, an appointment policy of spare parts is first proposed based on the prediction of remaining useful lifetime, and then a corresponding joint optimization model of preventive maintenance and spare parts inventory is established. Due to the complexity of the model, the combination method of genetic algorithm and Monte Carlo is presented to get the optimal maximum inventory level, safety inventory level, potential failure threshold, and appointment threshold to minimize the cost rate. Finally, the proposed model is studied through a case study and compared with both the separate optimization and the joint optimization without appointment policy, and the results show that the proposed model is more effective. In addition, the sensitivity analysis shows that the proposed model is consistent with the actual situation of maintenance practices and inventory management.

77 FR 62490 - Performance Review Board Appointments

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-15

... Board Appointments AGENCY: Office of Human Resource Management, Departmental Management. ACTION: Notice..., Director, Office of Human Resources Management, telephone: (202) 690-2994, email: [email protected] has a total of seven PRBs: The Secretary's PRB; Career Agency Head's PRB; Departmental Management and...

78 FR 14071 - Notice of Appointment of Members to the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-04

...,'' Charles Boyer, Dean, Jordan College of Agriculture and Technology, California State University-Fresno... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Office of the Secretary Notice of Appointment of Members to the National... Act, 5 U.S.C. App 2, the United States Department of Agriculture announces the appointments made by...

Mentorship for newly appointed physicians: a strategy for enhancing patient safety?

Science.gov (United States)

Harrison, Reema; McClean, Serwaa; Lawton, Rebecca; Wright, John; Kay, Clive

2014-09-01

Mentorship is an increasingly popular innovation from business and industry that is being applied in health-care contexts. This paper explores the concept of mentorship for newly appointed physicians in their first substantive senior post, and specifically its utilization to enhance patient safety. Semi-structured face to face and telephone interviews with Medical Directors (n = 5), Deputy Medical Directors (n = 4), and Clinical Directors (n = 6) from 9 acute NHS Trusts in the Yorkshire and Humber region in the north of England. A focused thematic analysis was used. A number of beneficial outcomes were associated with mentorship for newly appointed physicians including greater personal and professional support, organizational commitment, and general well-being. Providing newly appointed senior physicians with support through mentorship was considered to enhance the safety of patient care. Mentorship may prevent or reduce active failures, be used to identify threats in the local working environment, and in the longer term, address latent threats to safety within the organization by encouraging a healthier safety culture. Offering mentorship to all newly appointed physicians in their first substantive post in health care may be a useful strategy to support the development of their clinical, professional, and personal skills in this transitional period that may also enhance the safety of patient care.

The Impact of Health Care Appointment Non-Adherence on Graft Outcomes in Kidney Transplantation.

Science.gov (United States)

Taber, David J; Fleming, James N; Fominaya, Cory E; Gebregziabher, Mulugeta; Hunt, Kelly J; Srinivas, Titte R; Baliga, Prabhakar K; McGillicuddy, John W; Egede, Leonard E

2017-01-01

Non-adherence to medication is a well-studied and known cause of late allograft loss, but it is difficult to measure and prospectively monitor. The aim of this study was to assess if appointment non-adherence was correlated with medication non-adherence and a predictor of graft outcomes. This was a longitudinal cohort study that used the National United States Renal Data System and veterans affairs health records data with time-to-event analyses conducted to assess the impact on graft and patient survival. The number of transplants that were included in the analysis was 4,646 (3,656 with complete records); 14.6% of patients had an appointment no show rate of ≥12% (non-adherence). Appointment and medication non-adherence were highly correlated and both were significant independent predictors of outcomes. Those with appointment non-adherence had 1.5 times the risk of acute rejection (22.0 vs. 14.7%, p adherence; those with appointment and medication non-adherence were at very high risk of graft loss (aHR 4.18, 95% CI 3.39-5.15, p adherence (aHR 1.39, 95% CI 0.97-2.01, p = 0.0766) or only medication non-adherence (aHR 2.44, 95% CI 2.11-2.81, p adherence to health care appointments is a significant and independent risk factor for graft loss. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Men's Educational Group Appointments in Rural Nicaragua.

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Bruce B; Gonzalez, Hugo; Campbell, McKenzie; Campbell, Kent

2017-03-01

Men's preventive health and wellness is largely neglected in rural Nicaragua, where a machismo culture prevents men from seeking health care. To address this issue, a men's educational group appointment model was initiated at a rural health post to increase awareness about hypertension, and to train community health leaders to measure blood pressure. Men's hypertension workshops were conducted with patient knowledge pretesting, didactic teaching, and posttesting. Pretesting and posttesting performances were recorded, blood pressures were screened, and community leaders were trained to perform sphygmomanometry. An increase in hypertension-related knowledge was observed after every workshop and community health leaders demonstrated proficiency in sphygmomanometry. In addition, several at-risk patients were identified and follow-up care arranged. Men's educational group appointments, shown to be effective in the United States in increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction, appear to function similarly in a resource-constrained environment and may be an effective mechanism for reaching underserved men in Nicaragua.

The effect of fines on nonattendance in public hospital outpatient clinics: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Blæhr, Emely; Kristensen, Thomas; Væggemose, Ulla

2016-01-01

Background Nonattendance at scheduled appointments in public hospitals presents a challenge for efficient resource use and may ultimately affect health outcomes due to longer waiting times. Seven percent of all scheduled outpatient appointments in the United Kingdom are estimated to be nonattended....... Appointments for users who are scheduled for diagnostics, treatment, surgery, or follow-ups were included from May 2015 to November 2015. Appointments assigned to the intervention arm include an attachment of the appointment letter explaining that a fine will be issued in the case of nonattendance without...... prior notice. Appointments assigned to the control arm follow usual practice (same system but no letter attachment). The primary outcome is the proportion of nonattendance. Secondary outcomes are proportions of cancellations, sociodemographics, and health-problem characteristics. Furthermore...

Maintenance Appointments in Railway Rolling Stock Rescheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

J.C. Wagenaar (Joris); L.G. Kroon (Leo); M.E. Schmidt (Marie)

2016-01-01

textabstractThis paper addresses the Rolling Stock Rescheduling Problem (RSRP), while taking maintenance appointments into account. After a disruption, the rolling stock of the disrupted passenger trains has to be rescheduled in order to restore a feasible rolling stock circulation. Usually, a

Tom Brown appointed Dean of Students

OpenAIRE

Williams, Meghan

2007-01-01

James Thomas "Tom" Brown, former senior associate dean of the Dean of Students office, has been appointed as the Dean of Students. The Dean of Students office is responsible for the coordination of student advocacy, new student orientation and parent programs, and responding to student emergencies in collaboration with Judicial Affairs, Residence Life, Cook Counseling Center, Schiffert Health Center, and other departments and agencies.

Approaches taken by South African advertisers to select and appoint ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Pitch and industry guidelines play an important role in awarding advertising agency contracts, but agencies must take into account that not all advertisers will adhere to these guidelines. The exploratory research study on which this article reports provides insight into the appointment process and selection criteria applied ...

A web-based appointment system to reduce waiting for outpatients: a retrospective study.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Wenjun; Wan, Yi; Tu, Haibo; Shang, Fujun; Liu, Danhong; Tan, Zhijun; Sun, Caihong; Ye, Qing; Xu, Yongyong

2011-11-22

Long waiting times for registration to see a doctor is problematic in China, especially in tertiary hospitals. To address this issue, a web-based appointment system was developed for the Xijing hospital. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of the web-based appointment system in the registration service for outpatients. Data from the web-based appointment system in Xijing hospital from January to December 2010 were collected using a stratified random sampling method, from which participants were randomly selected for a telephone interview asking for detailed information on using the system. Patients who registered through registration windows were randomly selected as a comparison group, and completed a questionnaire on-site. A total of 5641 patients using the online booking service were available for data analysis. Of them, 500 were randomly selected, and 369 (73.8%) completed a telephone interview. Of the 500 patients using the usual queuing method who were randomly selected for inclusion in the study, responses were obtained from 463, a response rate of 92.6%. Between the two registration methods, there were significant differences in age, degree of satisfaction, and total waiting time (P0.05). Being ignorant of online registration, not trusting the internet, and a lack of ability to use a computer were three main reasons given for not using the web-based appointment system. The overall proportion of non-attendance was 14.4% for those using the web-based appointment system, and the non-attendance rate was significantly different among different hospital departments, day of the week, and time of the day (Pweb-based appointment system could significantly increase patient's satisfaction with registration and reduce total waiting time effectively. However, further improvements are needed for broad use of the system.

A TIMELY APPOINTMENT – SAMA'S NEW CEO

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nicky

Her middle name might mean 'the one who came before her time', but Dr. Aquina Motlakapele Thulare, 42, the new CEO of the South African Medical. Association, is determined to see doctors better paid and properly valued during her tenure. Ratified by the full board last month, her historic appointment follows the.

Stochastic integer programming for multi-disciplinary outpatient clinic planning

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Leeftink, A. G.; Vliegen, I. M.H.; Hans, E. W.

2017-01-01

Scheduling appointments in a multi-disciplinary clinic is complex, since coordination between disciplines is required. The design of a blueprint schedule for a multi-disciplinary clinic with open access requirements requires an integrated optimization approach, in which all appointment schedules are

Papike appointed Director of IOM

Science.gov (United States)

James Papike was appointed director of the Institute of Meteoritics in the Department of Geology and Presidential Professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, on July 1, 1990. Papike succeeded Klaus Keil, who moved to the University of Hawaii to direct the Planetary Geoscience Division at the Hawaii Institute of Geosciences.The newly constituted IOM will emphasize planetary volcanic processes through the study of achondritic meteorites, the Moon, and Earth, and the origin of primitive solar system materials and planetary formation through the study of chondritic meteorites.

Analysis of Issues for Project Scheduling by Multiple, Dispersed Schedulers (distributed Scheduling) and Requirements for Manual Protocols and Computer-based Support

Science.gov (United States)

Richards, Stephen F.

1991-01-01

Although computerized operations have significant gains realized in many areas, one area, scheduling, has enjoyed few benefits from automation. The traditional methods of industrial engineering and operations research have not proven robust enough to handle the complexities associated with the scheduling of realistic problems. To address this need, NASA has developed the computer-aided scheduling system (COMPASS), a sophisticated, interactive scheduling tool that is in wide-spread use within NASA and the contractor community. Therefore, COMPASS provides no explicit support for the large class of problems in which several people, perhaps at various locations, build separate schedules that share a common pool of resources. This research examines the issue of distributing scheduling, as applied to application domains characterized by the partial ordering of tasks, limited resources, and time restrictions. The focus of this research is on identifying issues related to distributed scheduling, locating applicable problem domains within NASA, and suggesting areas for ongoing research. The issues that this research identifies are goals, rescheduling requirements, database support, the need for communication and coordination among individual schedulers, the potential for expert system support for scheduling, and the possibility of integrating artificially intelligent schedulers into a network of human schedulers.

78 FR 75948 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2013-12-13

... Resources Center--Sydney T. Rose Executive Secretary--Director, Executive Resources--Kim L.H. Green... H. Moore, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Analysis--appointment expires on 09/30/16..., New York--appointment expires on 09/30/16 OLMS Stephen J. Willertz, Director, Office of Enforcement...

Shared medical appointments: improving access, outcomes, and satisfaction for patients with chronic cardiac diseases.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartley, Kelly Bauer; Haney, Rebecca

2010-01-01

Improving access to care, health outcomes, and patient satisfaction are primary objectives for healthcare practices. This article outlines benefits, concerns, and possible challenges of shared medical appointments (SMAs) for patients and providers. The SMA model was designed to support providers' demanding schedules by allowing patients with the same chronic condition to be seen in a group setting. By concentrating on patient education and disease management, interactive meetings provide an opportunity for patients to share both successes and struggles with others experiencing similar challenges. Studies demonstrated that SMAs improved patient access, enhanced outcomes, and promoted patient satisfaction. This article describes the potential benefits of SMAs for patients with chronic heart disease, which consumes a large number of healthcare dollars related to hospital admissions, acute exacerbations, and symptom management. Education for self-management of chronic disease can become repetitive and time consuming. The SMA model introduces a fresh and unique style of healthcare visits, allowing providers to devote more time and attention to patients and improve productivity. The SMA model provides an outstanding method for nurse practitioners to demonstrate their role as a primary care provider, by leading patients in group discussions and evaluating their current health status. Patient selection, preparation, and facilitation of an SMA are discussed to demonstrate the complementary nature of an SMA approach in a healthcare practice.

Instructions, multiple schedules, and extinction: Distinguishing rule-governed from schedule-controlled behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Hayes, S C; Brownstein, A J; Haas, J R; Greenway, D E

1986-09-01

Schedule sensitivity has usually been examined either through a multiple schedule or through changes in schedules after steady-state responding has been established. This study compared the effects of these two procedures when various instructions were given. Fifty-five college students responded in two 32-min sessions under a multiple fixed-ratio 18/differential-reinforcement-of-low-rate 6-s schedule, followed by one session of extinction. Some subjects received no instructions regarding the appropriate rates of responding, whereas others received instructions to respond slowly, rapidly, or both. Relative to the schedule in operation, the instructions were minimal, partially inaccurate, or accurate. When there was little schedule sensitivity in the multiple schedule, there was little in extinction. When apparently schedule-sensitive responding occurred in the multiple schedule, however, sensitivity in extinction occurred only if differential responding in the multiple schedule could not be due to rules supplied by the experimenter. This evidence shows that rule-governed behavior that occurs in the form of schedule-sensitive behavior may not in fact become schedule-sensitive even though it makes contact with the scheduled reinforcers.

Disruption management for truck appointment system at a container terminal

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Li, N.; Chen, Gang; Jin, Z.

2016-01-01

-appointed arrivals at a container terminal that is running an appointment system. Second, we propose some response strategies to cope with different levels of disruptions, and evaluate their resilience ability with two Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): total waiting time of on-time trucks and total idling emissions...... of all trucks, in order to balance the service quality to punctual arrivals and green performance of the whole system. Third, we conduct a sensitivity analysis using a discrete event simulation to understand the performance of the proposed strategies. Considering both KPIs, the best strategy in most......-crane moving distance, especially when the first KPI is given lower weight than the second one....

Servant as leader: Critical requirements for the appointment and training of retirement fund trustees

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

L.M. Magda Hewitt

2017-09-01

Full Text Available Orientation: The South African retirement fund industry ranks among the 15 largest retirement fund industries internationally, with some 8 million members and assets under management of close to R2 trillion. However, to be successful, retirement funds need good governance. Research purpose: To explore the most critical servant leadership qualities required that can serve as profile in the selection, appointment and training of retirement fund trustees (RFTs to serve on boards of trustees of retirement funds in the South African context. Motivation for the study: The South African National Treasury’s retirement reform proposal clearly articulates government’s concern for the poor governance of retirement fund assets by appointed boards of trustees and the broader implications on social and economic security in retirement. It promotes the regulation of standards relating to the minimum qualifications and expertise needed to be appointed to serve on a board of trustees (BoTs. Although the measures proposed by government to improve fund governance and the role of the RFTs are sound in principle, it does not inform the character, leadership qualities or leadership competence desired for RFTs, thus leaving the management of funds in the hands of people who must make investment decisions when they themselves are not fully committed. Research design, approach and method: The research question was addressed through an extensive literature review and a qualitative methodology using a semi-structured interview; fieldwork that included personal observations; and notes with six active, high-profile, respected, purposefully selected RFTs. An interpretive approach was adopted to provide elaborative interpretations of phenomena without having to rely on numerical measurement. Main findings: A strong similitude exists between servant leader qualities, as found in the literature, and those qualities identified and required to be appointed as a RFT. Literature

Project management with dynamic scheduling baseline scheduling, risk analysis and project control

CERN Document Server

Vanhoucke, Mario

2013-01-01

The topic of this book is known as dynamic scheduling, and is used to refer to three dimensions of project management and scheduling: the construction of a baseline schedule and the analysis of a project schedule's risk as preparation of the project control phase during project progress. This dynamic scheduling point of view implicitly assumes that the usability of a project's baseline schedule is rather limited and only acts as a point of reference in the project life cycle.

41 CFR 102-3.130 - What policies apply to the appointment, and compensation or reimbursement of advisory committee...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... committee staff person who is not a current Federal employee serving under an assignment must be appointed... the appointment, and compensation or reimbursement of advisory committee members, staff, and experts... compensation or reimbursement of advisory committee members, staff, and experts and consultants? In developing...

Improving outpatient access and patient experiences in academic ambulatory care.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Sarah; Calderon, Sherry; Casella, Joanne; Wood, Elizabeth; Carvelli-Sheehan, Jayne; Zeidel, Mark L

2012-02-01

Effective scheduling of and ready access to doctor appointments affect ambulatory patient care quality, but these are often sacrificed by patients seeking care from physicians at academic medical centers. At one center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the authors developed interventions to improve the scheduling of appointments and to reduce the access time between telephone call and first offered appointment. Improvements to scheduling included no redirection to voicemail, prompt telephone pickup, courteous service, complete registration, and effective scheduling. Reduced access time meant being offered an appointment with a physician in the appropriate specialty within three working days of the telephone call. Scheduling and access were assessed using monthly "mystery shopper" calls. Mystery shoppers collected data using standardized forms, rated the quality of service, and transcribed their interactions with schedulers. Monthly results were tabulated and discussed with clinical leaders; leaders and frontline staff then developed solutions to detected problems. Eighteen months after the beginning of the intervention (in June 2007), which is ongoing, schedulers had gone from using 60% of their registration skills to over 90%, customer service scores had risen from 2.6 to 4.9 (on a 5-point scale), and average access time had fallen from 12 days to 6 days. The program costs $50,000 per year and has been associated with a 35% increase in ambulatory volume across three years. The authors conclude that academic medical centers can markedly improve the scheduling process and access to care and that these improvements may result in increased ambulatory care volume.

Men’s Educational Group Appointments in Rural Nicaragua

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, Bruce B.; Gonzalez, Hugo; Campbell, McKenzie; Campbell, Kent

2016-01-01

Men’s preventive health and wellness is largely neglected in rural Nicaragua, where a machismo culture prevents men from seeking health care. To address this issue, a men’s educational group appointment model was initiated at a rural health post to increase awareness about hypertension, and to train community health leaders to measure blood pressure. Men’s hypertension workshops were conducted with patient knowledge pretesting, didactic teaching, and posttesting. Pretesting and posttesting performances were recorded, blood pressures were screened, and community leaders were trained to perform sphygmomanometry. An increase in hypertension-related knowledge was observed after every workshop and community health leaders demonstrated proficiency in sphygmomanometry. In addition, several at-risk patients were identified and follow-up care arranged. Men’s educational group appointments, shown to be effective in the United States in increasing patient knowledge and satisfaction, appear to function similarly in a resource-constrained environment and may be an effective mechanism for reaching underserved men in Nicaragua. PMID:27885146

An investigation into why patients do not attend for out-patient radiology appointments

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lyon, Rebecca; Reeves, Pauline J.

2006-01-01

Introduction: Patients who do not attend (DNA) for out-patient hospital appointments cause delays in the diagnosis and subsequent treatment of their own, and other patient's, illnesses, with potentially hazardous consequences. This also impacts upon waiting lists. Failure to attend is viewed as a specific type of non-compliance and social cognition theories have been applied to previous studies in an attempt to uncover the reasons why patients choose not to keep their appointments. Methods: A case-control study was conducted throughout the X-ray departments of a District General type of NHS Trust, using telephone interview questionnaires based on the Health Belief Model, in an attempt to identify any significant differences between attenders and non-attenders, so that likely non-attenders could be targeted. Results: Principal reasons for non-attendance were that the patient forgot or that they did not receive their appointment. The results differed from previous research, in that specific health beliefs were not the primary reasons for non-attendance. Departments that gave patients the opportunity to arrange their appointments for a mutually convenient time had exceptionally low DNA rates, as did those which had rigorous confirmation systems in place

Appointment reminder systems are effective but not optimal: results of a systematic review and evidence synthesis employing realist principles

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

McLean SM

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Sionnadh Mairi McLean,1 Andrew Booth,2 Melanie Gee,3 Sarah Salway,2 Mark Cobb,4 Sadiq Bhanbhro,3 Susan A Nancarrow5 1Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK; 2School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; 3Centre for Health and Social Care Research, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK; 4Therapeutics & Palliative Care, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield, UK; 5School of Health and Human Science, Southern Cross University, East Lismore, NSW, Australia Abstract: Missed appointments are an avoidable cost and resource inefficiency which impact upon the health of the patient and treatment outcomes. Health care services are increasingly utilizing reminder systems to manage these negative effects. This study explores the effectiveness of reminder systems for promoting attendance, cancellations, and rescheduling of appointments across all health care settings and for particular patient groups and the contextual factors which indicate that reminders are being employed sub-optimally. We used three inter-related reviews of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Firstly, using pre-existing models and theories, we developed a conceptual framework to inform our understanding of the contexts and mechanisms which influence reminder effectiveness. Secondly, we performed a review following Centre for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines to investigate the effectiveness of different methods of reminding patients to attend health service appointments. Finally, to supplement the effectiveness information, we completed a review informed by realist principles to identify factors likely to influence non-attendance behaviors and the effectiveness of reminders. We found consistent evidence that all types of reminder systems are effective at improving appointment attendance across a range of health care settings and patient populations. Reminder systems may also increase cancellation and

Supreme Court Appointment Process: Roles of the President, Judiciary Committee, and Senate

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Rutkus, Denis S

2007-01-01

.... Under the Constitution, Justices on the Supreme Court receive lifetime appointments. Such job security in the government has been conferred solely on judges and, by constitutional design, helps insure the Court's independence from the President...

Council appoints CERN’s next Director General

CERN Multimedia

Maximilien Brice

2007-01-01

On 14 December 2007, CERN Council appointed Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer to succeed Dr Robert Aymar as CERN Director General. Professor Heuer will serve a five-year term, taking office on 1 January 2009. From Left to right: Dr Robert Aymar, current CERN Director General, Professor Torsten Åkesson, President of CERN Council, and Professor Rolf-Dieter Heuer, CERN's next Director General.

78 FR 24749 - Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-26

... GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Health Information Technology Policy Committee Appointment AGENCY... Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) established the Health Information Technology Policy Committee to make recommendations on the implementation of a nationwide health information technology...

Treatment dropout and missed appointments among adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: associations with patient- and disorder-related factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Soendergaard, Helle M; Thomsen, Per H; Pedersen, Pernille; Pedersen, Erik; Poulsen, Agnethe E; Nielsen, Jette M; Winther, Lars; Henriksen, Anne; Rungoe, Berit; Soegaard, Hans J

2016-02-01

Knowledge of factors associated with treatment dropout and missed appointments in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is very limited. On the basis of proposed hypotheses that past behavior patterns are more predictive of current behaviors of treatment dropout and missed appointments than are sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, we examined the associations of sociodemographic variables, clinical variables, risk-taking behavior, educational and occupational instability, and behaviors during mandatory schooling with the primary outcome measures of treatment dropout and missed appointments. In a naturalistic cohort study of 151 adult outpatients with ADHD initiating assessment in a Danish ADHD unit from September 1, 2010, to September 1, 2011, the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale v1.1 symptom checklist (ASRS) and a thorough clinical interview were used to assess ADHD according to DSM-IV-TR criteria. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was used to estimate reported associations. A total of 27% of patients dropped out of treatment and a total of 42% had ≥ 3 missed appointments during treatment. Mood and anxiety disorders significantly lowered the odds of treatment dropout (odds ratio [OR] = 0.18; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.05-0.65), whereas having started but not completed 2 or more educational programs apart from mandatory schooling significantly increased the odds of dropout (OR = 3.01; 95% CI, 1.32-6.89). Variables significantly associated with most missed appointments were low educational level (OR = 2.19; 95% CI, 1.12-4.31), 3 or more employments of less than 3 months' duration (OR = 2.86; 95% CI, 1.30-6.28), and having skipped class often/very often during mandatory schooling (OR = 2.65; 95% CI, 1.29-5.43). Additionally, the predominantly inattentive ADHD (ADHD-I) subtype lowered the odds of missed appointments (OR = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.05-0.62). Our results suggest that past behavior in terms of highest dropout rates in the

The effectiveness of SMS Reminders and the impact of patient characteristics on missed appointments in a public dental outpatient clinic

OpenAIRE

Emilia Bellucci; Lasitha Dharmasena; Lemai Nguyen; Hanny Calache

2017-01-01

This paper reports on the Failure To Attend (FTA) rate of appointments as well as patients following the implementation of SMS reminders in a public dental outpatient service.  Given the ineffectiveness of the intervention and a highly representative patient’s profile, this paper identifies the demographic characteristics of patients who miss all of their appointments.  Data on appointment attendance, patient demographics and dental service type was collected over a time period of 46 consecut...

A National Model for Diabetes Prevention and Treatment Program in Civilian and Military Beneficiary Populations (FY07)

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-24

examination was performed by one of the investigators (medical doctors) or certified nurse practitioners. Prior to initiating the intervention...3 days before their scheduled appointment. If a patient did not show or cancelled their appointment without rescheduling , the study team...additionally tried to reach them by phone to identify the reason for missing an appointment and to attempt to reschedule another appointment. It was

[Judicial and medical/legal aspects of the responsibility of workers appointed to carry out first aid].

Science.gov (United States)

Caprioli, L C; Ciavarella, M; Sacco, A

2005-01-01

One of the innovations introduced by law 626/94 [the Italian law on occupational health and safety of workers] is the obligation of the employer to designate workers responsible for first aid. To identify and discuss the duties, the role and the medical and legal responsibility of workers appointed to carry out first aid measures. Analysis of legislation and current practice concerning medical and legal responsibility in first aid procedures. The worker appointed to carry out first aid measures is, by virtue of his appointment, obliged to take action. Therefore, he could commit an illegitimate act both by "acting" and by "omitting" to carry out a duty that is his responsibility. In the first case the worker could be accused of committing an unpremeditated criminal offence when his actions involve negligence, imprudence, inexperience or violation of regulations concerning his duties. A "serious criminal offence" is committed when the most elementary rules of diligence, prudence and skill are violated; the offence is "slight" when negligence, imprudence or inexperience are involved in particularly complex situations. The reference parameter for inexperience is not a first aid volunteer, nor a member of the public, but a worker designated to carry out first aid possessing "average" attitudes, training and ability. Briefly, a guilty error by the appointed worker consists of the following: i) the professional conduct of the operator was clearly wrong, serious and unjustifiable; ii) the operator clearly omitted doing his/her duty; iii) the consequence of the error is physical personal damage. The observations made clearly illustrate the delicacy of the tasks of the worker appointed to carry out first aid measures. Essential elements for minimizing wrong and/or negligent conduct are appropriate choice of the designated workers and their adequate training.

mHealth Clinic Appointment PC Tablet: Implementation, Challenges and Solutions

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Carol E.; Spaulding, Ryan; Piamjariyakul, Ubolrat; Werkowitch, Marilyn; Yadrich, Donna Macan; Hooper, Dedrick; Moore, Tyson; Gilroy, Richard

2015-01-01

Background Patients requiring daily intravenous (IV) home parenteral nutrition (HPN) would benefit from in-home professional observation to improve self-care, to assess, detect and prevent serious complications. Aims The study aims are to assess the viability and utility of conducting mobile healthcare (mHealth) videoconference assessments with patients managing lifelong daily 12-hour IV nutrition infusions in their homes. The challenges and solutions to implementing mobile personal computer (PC) tablet based clinic appointments are described. Methods A wireless Apple iPad Mini™ mobile touch-screen tablet computer with 5 mega-pixel camera was loaned to patients. Each tablet had Polycom RealPresence software and a fourth generation (4G) mobile telecommunications data plan. These supported audio-visual mobile videoconferencing encrypted connections between health professionals in their offices and HPN patients and their family members in their homes. Patients’ and professionals’ evaluations of their mHealth clinic experiences are collected. Results Patients (mean age = 41.9, SD = 2.8 years) had been prescribed 12-hour home parenteral nutrition (HPN) infusions daily due short bowel disorders. Patients had been on HPN from 1 to 10 years (M=4, SD=3.6). Evaluation of clinic appointments revealed that 100% of the patients (n=45) and the professionals (n=6) indicated that they can clearly hear and easily see one another. The mHealth audio-visual interactions were highly rated by patients and family members. Professionals highly rated their ability to obtain a medical history and visual inspection of patients. Several challenges were identified and recommendations for resolutions are described. Discussion All patients and professionals highly rated the iPad mHealth clinic appointments for convenience and ease of communicating between homes and offices. An important challenge for all mHealth visits is the clinical professional’s ability to make clinically accurate

The Development Needs of Newly Appointed Senior School Leaders in the Western Cape South Africa: A Case Study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nelius Jansen van Vuuren

2017-12-01

Full Text Available The essential role that senior school leaders play in school leadership teams to ensure effective strategic leadership in schools has been the subject of intense discussion for many years. Crucial to this debate is the establishment of professional learning and leadership approaches for newly appointed senior school leaders. Recommendations for policy and practice highlight the importance of appropriate, multifaceted, developmental support initiatives for newly appointed school leaders. In many countries, including South Africa, a teaching qualification and, in most cases, extensive teaching experience is the only requirement for being appointed as a senior school leader in a school. This tends to suggest that no further professional development is required for newly appointed school leaders, the problem addressed in this paper. This paper reports on the main findings of the perceived development needs of newly appointed senior school leaders in the Western Cape, South Africa, and suggests that school leaders occupy a unique and specialist role in education, which requires relevant and specific preparation to support effective leadership. The respondents of this study report a lack of contextualised training and support before and after their appointment in their new roles creating unique development needs. This paper, therefore, employs a mixed-method approach to gather data to understand the perceived needs of twenty newly appointed senior school leaders in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Schedule Matters: Understanding the Relationship between Schedule Delays and Costs on Overruns

Science.gov (United States)

Majerowicz, Walt; Shinn, Stephen A.

2016-01-01

This paper examines the relationship between schedule delays and cost overruns on complex projects. It is generally accepted by many project practitioners that cost overruns are directly related to schedule delays. But what does "directly related to" actually mean? Some reasons or root causes for schedule delays and associated cost overruns are obvious, if only in hindsight. For example, unrealistic estimates, supply chain difficulties, insufficient schedule margin, technical problems, scope changes, or the occurrence of risk events can negatively impact schedule performance. Other factors driving schedule delays and cost overruns may be less obvious and more difficult to quantify. Examples of these less obvious factors include project complexity, flawed estimating assumptions, over-optimism, political factors, "black swan" events, or even poor leadership and communication. Indeed, is it even possible the schedule itself could be a source of delay and subsequent cost overrun? Through literature review, surveys of project practitioners, and the authors' own experience on NASA programs and projects, the authors will categorize and examine the various factors affecting the relationship between project schedule delays and cost growth. The authors will also propose some ideas for organizations to consider to help create an awareness of the factors which could cause or influence schedule delays and associated cost growth on complex projects.

Constraint-based job shop scheduling with ILOG SCHEDULER

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nuijten, W.P.M.; Le Pape, C.

1998-01-01

We introduce constraint-based scheduling and discuss its main principles. An approximation algorithm based on tree search is developed for the job shop scheduling problem using ILOG SCHEDULER. A new way of calculating lower bounds on the makespan of the job shop scheduling problem is presented and

77 FR 21109 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-09

... DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Office of the Secretary Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board Title 5 U.S.C. 4314(c)(4) provides that Notice of the Appointment of an individual to serve as a member of the Performance Review Board of the Senior Executive Service shall be...

Extension Education Symposium: Getting the Most Out of Your Extension Appointment and Still Having a Life

OpenAIRE

Powers, W.; Cockett, Noelle E.; Lardy, Gregory P.

2017-01-01

Managing the demands of an academic appointment in extension can be a challenging task. Demands from constituent groups, expectations of supervisors, and rigors of promotion and tenure processes can create pressures that young faculty did not expect. Throw in spousal and family duties and you have created a situation that many will find hard to navigate. However, there are ways to cope and, even better news, there are ways to excel in meeting the demands of an academic appointment and enjoyin...

The unilateral appointment of co-arbitrators

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tufte-Kristensen, Johan

2016-01-01

on some important aspects of the procedure but leaves certain aspects and arguments unconsidered. The article approaches the appointment procedure from a neutral position. It identifies and considers the relevant rules, practices, and arguments in order to discuss the procedure’s implications...... of experienced arbitration practitioners have advocated against the procedure for some of the reasons above, whereas other experienced arbitration practitioners have defended the procedure because of its practical advantages and underlying rationales. Each of the previous contributions to the debate sheds light...

Use of Six Sigma Methodology to Reduce Appointment Lead-Time in Obstetrics Outpatient Department.

Science.gov (United States)

Ortiz Barrios, Miguel A; Felizzola Jiménez, Heriberto

2016-10-01

This paper focuses on the issue of longer appointment lead-time in the obstetrics outpatient department of a maternal-child hospital in Colombia. Because of extended appointment lead-time, women with high-risk pregnancy could develop severe complications in their health status and put their babies at risk. This problem was detected through a project selection process explained in this article and to solve it, Six Sigma methodology has been used. First, the process was defined through a SIPOC diagram to identify its input and output variables. Second, six sigma performance indicators were calculated to establish the process baseline. Then, a fishbone diagram was used to determine the possible causes of the problem. These causes were validated with the aid of correlation analysis and other statistical tools. Later, improvement strategies were designed to reduce appointment lead-time in this department. Project results evidenced that average appointment lead-time reduced from 6,89 days to 4,08 days and the deviation standard dropped from 1,57 days to 1,24 days. In this way, the hospital will serve pregnant women faster, which represents a risk reduction of perinatal and maternal mortality.

Location based mobile app for doctor's appointment inSaudi Arabia ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences ... Reducing waiting times and surgeon idle time improves the quality of service and efficiency ... to develop an appointment management application for mobile devices using the Android platform.

Philip II’s Quest. The Appointment of Governors-General during the Dutch Revolt (1559-1598

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. Soen

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Philip II’s Quest: The Appointment of Governors-General during the Dutch Revolt (1559-1598Recent historiographical studies have presented the Habsburg appointment of governors-general during the Dutch Revolt as the outcome of factional infighting at the Spanish Court. While this so-called ‘faction model’ has yielded new insights, it also raises a number of problems. Firstly, in the new model, the role of the dynasty is unduly relegated to the background – even though Philip II’s appointment decisions were mainly driven by dynastic considerations. Secondly, the power struggle at the Spanish Court was not only a conflict between court factions, but also between noble houses vying for prestige and trying to secure positions for their offspring. Thirdly, there is an excessive focus on the Spanish Court, while the feuds between noble houses in the Low Countries also played a role in the interim appointments made during the Revolt. Finally, Philip II always looked for the most suitable candidate in terms of administration and warfare during the Dutch Revolt, in accordance with the constraints of the composite Spanish monarchy. Only the combination of these four (frequently contradictory motives reveals how Philip II’s appointment of governors can be seen as a quest for the right man or woman in the right place.

Refinery scheduling

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Magalhaes, Marcus V.; Fraga, Eder T. [PETROBRAS, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil); Shah, Nilay [Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)

2004-07-01

This work addresses the refinery scheduling problem using mathematical programming techniques. The solution adopted was to decompose the entire refinery model into a crude oil scheduling and a product scheduling problem. The envelope for the crude oil scheduling problem is composed of a terminal, a pipeline and the crude area of a refinery, including the crude distillation units. The solution method adopted includes a decomposition technique based on the topology of the system. The envelope for the product scheduling comprises all tanks, process units and products found in a refinery. Once crude scheduling decisions are Also available the product scheduling is solved using a rolling horizon algorithm. All models were tested with real data from PETROBRAS' REFAP refinery, located in Canoas, Southern Brazil. (author)

Design and evaluation of a theory-based, culturally relevant outreach model for breast and cervical cancer screening for Latina immigrants.

Science.gov (United States)

White, Kari; Garces, Isabel C; Bandura, Lisa; McGuire, Allison A; Scarinci, Isabel C

2012-01-01

Breast and cervical cancer are common among Latinas, but screening rates among foreign-born Latinas are relatively low. In this article we describe the design and implementation of a theory-based (PEN-3) outreach program to promote breast and cervical cancer screening to Latina immigrants, and evaluate the program's effectiveness. We used data from self-administered questionnaires completed at six annual outreach events to examine the sociodemographic characteristics of attendees and evaluate whether the program reached the priority population - foreign-born Latina immigrants with limited access to health care and screening services. To evaluate the program's effectiveness in connecting women to screening, we examined the proportion and characteristics of women who scheduled and attended Pap smear and mammography appointments. Among the 782 Latinas who attended the outreach program, 60% and 83% had not had a Pap smear or mammogram, respectively, in at least a year. Overall, 80% scheduled a Pap smear and 78% scheduled a mammogram. Women without insurance, who did not know where to get screening and had not been screened in the last year were more likely to schedule appointments (P < .05). Among women who scheduled appointments, 65% attended their Pap smear and 79% attended the mammogram. We did not identify significant differences in sociodemographic characteristics associated with appointment attendance. Using a theoretical approach to outreach design and implementation, it is possible to reach a substantial number of Latina immigrants and connect them to cancer screening services.

Outage scheduling and implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Allison, J.E.; Segall, P.; Smith, R.R.

1986-01-01

Successful preparation and implementation of an outage schedule and completion of scheduled and emergent work within an identified critical path time frame is a result of careful coordination by Operations, Work Control, Maintenance, Engineering, Planning and Administration and others. At the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) careful planning has been responsible for meeting all scheduled outage critical paths

Endodontic inter-appointment flare-ups: An example of chaos?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Poorya Jalali

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Pain and/or swelling after instrumentation of a root canal constitute a significant complication during endodontic treatment. Despite a large number of articles discussing the causative factors behind endodontic flare-ups, the exact mechanism is still not understood. The Hypothesis: The seemingly irrational behavior of endodontic inter-appointment flare-ups may be due to sensitive dependence on initial conditions. A model based on Lorenz′ chaos theory is presented as a possible explanation for the sudden emergence and unpredictability of flare-ups. Evaluation of the Hypothesis: All studies agree on some common traits regarding inter-appointment flare-ups: Careful instrumentation can still cause flare-up; the host inflammatory response behaves as a complex nonlinear network; and also the poly-etiologic nature of this phenomenon all illustrate the sensitive dependence on initial conditions of the system. Integrating more variables (e.g., different species of bacteria into this already complex system will make it increasingly chaotic reflecting its unpredictable behavior.

19 CFR 141.14 - Deceased or insolvent consignees and court-appointed administrators.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Deceased or insolvent consignees and court-appointed administrators. 141.14 Section 141.14 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION... administrators. The executor or administrator of the estate of a deceased consignee, the receiver or other legal...

25 CFR 291.10 - What is the role of the mediator appointed by the Secretary?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the role of the mediator appointed by the... ENTERPRISES CLASS III GAMING PROCEDURES § 291.10 What is the role of the mediator appointed by the Secretary? (a) The mediator must ask the Indian tribe and the State to submit their last best proposal for Class...

Council Appointed Mayors in Spain: Effects on Local Democracy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

María Jesús García García

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper deals with the influence of having council appointed mayors on local governments. Five elements of local government systems are considered: the electoral system and its influence on the political composition of the local government; the local government structure and the distribution of functions and powers between mayor and council; the role of political parties; scrutiny of the executive and accountability; and citizen participation. This analysis highlights the effect that a council appointed mayor system has in terms of accountability and legitimacy, transparency and efficiency. KEYWORDS Local government systems, directly elected mayors, local governance, council appointed mayors, Local Government Structure; Political Parties; Citizen Participation; Accountability. El presente artículo toma en consideración los efectos que el sistema de elección del Alcalde tiene sobre la democracia local, basándose en la consideración cinco aspectos: el sistema electoral y su influencia en la composición política de las administraciones locales; la estructura de la administración local y la distribución de funciones entre los alcaldes y el pleno municipal; el papel de los partidos políticos; los mecanismos de control del ejecutivo local y la participación ciudadana. El estudio subraya especialmente la incidencia que el sistema de elección del alcalde por los concejales tiene en relación con los principios de responsabilidad, legitimidad, transparencia y eficiencia de la gestión local. PALABRAS CLAVE Gobierno local, elección directa de los alcaldes, elección indirecta de los alcaldes, estructura del gobierno local, partidos políticos, participación ciudadana, responsabilidad política.

Improving access to health care in a rural regional hospital in South Africa: Why do patients miss their appointments?

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Lucy; Jenkins, Louis S; Emmink, Benjamin

2017-03-30

Access to health services is one of the Batho Pele ('people first') values and principles of the South African government since 1997. This necessitated some changes around public service systems, procedures, attitudes and behaviour. The challenges of providing health care to rural geographically spread populations include variations in socio-economic status, transport opportunities, access to appointment information and patient perceptions of costs and benefits of seeking health care. George hospital, situated in a rural area, serves 5000 outpatient visits monthly, with non-attendance rates of up to 40%. The aim of this research was to gain a greater understanding of the reasons behind non-attendance of outpatient department clinics to allow locally driven, targeted interventions. This was a descriptive study. We attempted to phone all patients who missed appointments over a 1-month period (n = 574). Only 20% were contactable with one person declining consent. Twenty-nine percent had no telephone number on hospital systems, 7% had incorrect numbers, 2% had died and 42% did not respond to three attempts. The main reasons for non-attendance included unaware of appointment date (16%), out of area (11%), confusion over date (11%), sick or admitted to hospital (10%), family member sick or died (7%), appointment should have been cancelled by clerical staff (6%) and transport (6%). Only 9% chose to miss their appointment. The other 24% had various reasons. Improved patient awareness of appointments, adjustments in referral systems and enabling appointment cancellation if indicated would directly improve over two-thirds of reasons for non-attendance. Understanding the underlying causes will help appointment planning, reduce wasted costs and have a significant impact on patient care.

Why Patients Miss Follow-Up Appointments: A Prospective Control ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Reasons include: transport (19 responses), ill-health (6) and financial constraints (5). State transport was unavailable to almost twothirds of the responders who cited transport as a problem. Conclusions: The 17% missed appointment rate is largely due to transport constraints. The commonest time for patients to miss ...

Exploring Audiologists' Language and Hearing Aid Uptake in Initial Rehabilitation Appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Sciacca, Anna; Meyer, Carly; Ekberg, Katie; Barr, Caitlin; Hickson, Louise

2017-06-13

The study aimed (a) to profile audiologists' language during the diagnosis and management planning phase of hearing assessment appointments and (b) to explore associations between audiologists' language and patients' decisions to obtain hearing aids. Sixty-two audiologist-patient dyads participated. Patient participants were aged 55 years or older. Hearing assessment appointments were audiovisually recorded and transcribed for analysis. Audiologists' language was profiled using two measures: general language complexity and use of jargon. A binomial, multivariate logistic regression analysis was conducted to investigate the associations between these language measures and hearing aid uptake. The logistic regression model revealed that the Flesch-Kincaid reading grade level of audiologists' language was significantly associated with hearing aid uptake. Patients were less likely to obtain hearing aids when audiologists' language was at a higher reading grade level. No associations were found between audiologists' use of jargon and hearing aid uptake. Audiologists' use of complex language may present a barrier for patients to understand hearing rehabilitation recommendations. Reduced understanding may limit patient participation in the decision-making process and result in patients being less willing to trial hearing aids. Clear, concise language is recommended to facilitate shared decision making.

Scheduling theory, algorithms, and systems

CERN Document Server

Pinedo, Michael L

2016-01-01

This new edition of the well-established text Scheduling: Theory, Algorithms, and Systems provides an up-to-date coverage of important theoretical models in the scheduling literature as well as important scheduling problems that appear in the real world. The accompanying website includes supplementary material in the form of slide-shows from industry as well as movies that show actual implementations of scheduling systems. The main structure of the book, as per previous editions, consists of three parts. The first part focuses on deterministic scheduling and the related combinatorial problems. The second part covers probabilistic scheduling models; in this part it is assumed that processing times and other problem data are random and not known in advance. The third part deals with scheduling in practice; it covers heuristics that are popular with practitioners and discusses system design and implementation issues. All three parts of this new edition have been revamped, streamlined, and extended. The reference...

5 CFR 315.603 - Appointment based on former incumbency of a position brought into the competitive service.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... OFFICE OF PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT CIVIL SERVICE REGULATIONS CAREER AND CAREER-CONDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT Career or Career-Conditional Appointment Under Special Authorities § 315.603 Appointment based on former... type of case from this requirement. (b) Review of disapproved recommendations. Agencies shall establish...

What Are Women Told When Requesting Family Planning Services at Clinics Associated with Catholic Hospitals? A Mystery Caller Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Guiahi, Maryam; Teal, Stephanie B; Swartz, Maryke; Huynh, Sandy; Schiller, Georgia; Sheeder, Jeanelle

2017-12-01

Catholic Church directives restrict family planning service provision at Catholic health care institutions. It is unclear whether obstetrics and gynecology clinics that are owned by or have business affiliations with Catholic hospitals offer family planning appointments. Mystery callers phoned 144 clinics nationwide that were found on Catholic hospital websites between December 2014 and February 2016, and requested appointments for birth control generally, copper IUD services specifically, tubal ligation and abortion. Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests assessed potential correlates of appointment availability, and multivariable logistic regressions were computed if bivariate testing suggested multiple correlates. Although 95% of clinics would schedule birth control appointments, smaller proportions would schedule appointments for copper IUDs (68%) or tubal ligation (58%); only 2% would schedule an abortion. Smaller proportions of Catholic-owned than of Catholic-affiliated clinics would schedule appointments for birth control (84% vs. 100%), copper IUDs (4% vs. 97%) and tubal ligation (29% vs. 72%); for birth control and copper IUD services, no other clinic characteristics were related to appointment availability. Multivariable analysis confirmed that tubal ligation appointments were less likely to be offered at Catholic-owned than at Catholic-affiliated clinics (odds ratio. 0.1); location and association with one of the top 10 Catholic health care systems also were significant. Adherence to church directives is inconsistent at Catholic-associated clinics. Women visiting such clinics who want highly effective methods may need to rely on less effective methods or delay method uptake while seeking services elsewhere. Copyright © 2017 by the Guttmacher Institute.

Second-order schedules of token reinforcement with pigeons: effects of fixed- and variable-ratio exchange schedules.

Science.gov (United States)

Foster, T A; Hackenberg, T D; Vaidya, M

2001-09-01

Pigeons' key pecks produced food under second-order schedules of token reinforcement, with light-emitting diodes serving as token reinforcers. In Experiment 1, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and were exchanged for food according to either fixed-ratio or variable-ratio exchange schedules, with schedule type varied across conditions. In Experiment 2, schedule type was varied within sessions using a multiple schedule. In one component, tokens were earned according to a fixed-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a variable-ratio schedule. In the other component, tokens were earned according to a variable-ratio 50 schedule and exchanged according to a fixed-ratio schedule. In both experiments, the number of responses per exchange was varied parametrically across conditions, ranging from 50 to 400 responses. Response rates decreased systematically with increases in the fixed-ratio exchange schedules, but were much less affected by changes in the variable-ratio exchange schedules. Response rates were consistently higher under variable-ratio exchange schedules than tinder comparable fixed-ratio exchange schedules, especially at higher exchange ratios. These response-rate differences were due both to greater pre-ratio pausing and to lower local rates tinder the fixed-ratio exchange schedules. Local response rates increased with proximity to food under the higher fixed-ratio exchange schedules, indicative of discriminative control by the tokens.

Stock Market Reaction to CEO Appointment – Preliminary Results

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Katarzyna Byrka-Kita

2017-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine shareholders’ reaction to the decision of the supervisory board to appoint a CEO in companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Methodology: An event study and the mean-adjusted model were applied. The abnormal returns were measured as the CAAR in the entire (-60, + 60 window and selected sub-windows. Findings: The obtained values of abnormal returns indicate the shareholder’s negative reaction. Throughout the observation window, they oscillate slightly below zero, and in the window (0, +20 they are negative at -1.566%. Irrespective of the observation window, negative abnormal returns were obtained for over half of the observation (52–57%. Therefore, preliminary results indicate the predominance of the information effect over the real one. The decrease in market value as a result of the event may result from an increase in investors’ uncertainty as to the effects of changes in strategy and skills of the new CEO. Originality: The research is a unique one. To date, no one has carried out research into shareholders’ reaction to a CEO appointment in either the Polish or Central and Eastern European capital markets. They primarily bring the value of cognition of shareholders’ behaviour in the analysed event, which is reflected in share prices. They extend the literature on the signalization instruments, i.e. the activities that boards can undertake due to the new information transmitted to the capital market participants and stakeholders. The market reaction to a CEO appointment will without a doubt interest investors; the institutions responsible for supervision (which in the case of Poland is the Financial Oversight Commission and the legislator in charge of regulations that prevent insider trading while promoting corporate disclosure transparency.

Predictors of full-time faculty appointment among MD–PhD program graduates: a national cohort study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dorothy A. Andriole

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The authors sought to identify variables associated with MD–PhD program graduates’ academic medicine careers. Methods: We analyzed data for a national cohort of MD–PhD program graduates from 2000 to 2005, using multivariable logistic regression to identify independent predictors of full-time academic medicine faculty appointment through 2013. Results: Of 1,860 MD–PhD program graduates in 2000–2005, we included 1,846 (99.2% who had completed residency training before 2014. Of these 1,846 graduates, 968 (52.4% held full-time faculty appointments. Graduates who attended schools with Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP funding (vs. no MSTP funding; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.14–1.74 and participated in ≥1 year of research during residency (vs. no documented research year; aOR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.50–2.28 were more likely to have held full-time faculty appointments. Asian/Pacific Islander (aOR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.60–0.93 and under-represented minority (URM; aOR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.48–0.98 graduates (each vs. white graduates, graduates who reported total debt of ≥$100,000 (vs. no debt at graduation (aOR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.39–0.88, and graduates in surgical practice (aOR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.48–0.84 and other practice (aOR, 0.66, 95% CI, 0.54–0.81 specialties (each vs. ‘medicine, pediatrics, pathology, or neurology’ were less likely to have held full-time faculty appointments. Gender was not independently associated with likelihood of full-time faculty appointment. Conclusions: Over half of all MD–PhD program graduates in our study had full-time faculty appointments. Our findings regarding variables independently associated with full-time faculty appointments can inform the design of strategies to promote academic medicine career choice among MD–PhD program graduates. Further research is warranted to identify other factors amenable to intervention, in addition to those included in

22 CFR 11.20 - Foreign Service specialist career candidate appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

..., background investigation, and final review process required of career candidates, but normally they will not... 22 Foreign Relations 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Foreign Service specialist career candidate... SERVICE OFFICERS § 11.20 Foreign Service specialist career candidate appointments. (a) General...

Integrating Preventive Maintenance Scheduling As Probability Machine Failure And Batch Production Scheduling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zahedi Zahedi

2016-06-01

Full Text Available This paper discusses integrated model of batch production scheduling and machine maintenance scheduling. Batch production scheduling uses minimize total actual flow time criteria and machine maintenance scheduling uses the probability of machine failure based on Weibull distribution. The model assumed no nonconforming parts in a planning horizon. The model shows an increase in the number of the batch (length of production run up to a certain limit will minimize the total actual flow time. Meanwhile, an increase in the length of production run will implicate an increase in the number of PM. An example was given to show how the model and algorithm work.

SPANR planning and scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Freund, Richard F.; Braun, Tracy D.; Kussow, Matthew; Godfrey, Michael; Koyama, Terry

2001-07-01

SPANR (Schedule, Plan, Assess Networked Resources) is (i) a pre-run, off-line planning and (ii) a runtime, just-in-time scheduling mechanism. It is designed to support primarily commercial applications in that it optimizes throughput rather than individual jobs (unless they have highest priority). Thus it is a tool for a commercial production manager to maximize total work. First the SPANR Planner is presented showing the ability to do predictive 'what-if' planning. It can answer such questions as, (i) what is the overall effect of acquiring new hardware or (ii) what would be the effect of a different scheduler. The ability of the SPANR Planner to formulate in advance tree-trimming strategies is useful in several commercial applications, such as electronic design or pharmaceutical simulations. The SPANR Planner is demonstrated using a variety of benchmarks. The SPANR Runtime Scheduler (RS) is briefly presented. The SPANR RS can provide benefit for several commercial applications, such as airframe design and financial applications. Finally a design is shown whereby SPANR can provide scheduling advice to most resource management systems.

Hardships of end-of-life care with court-appointed guardians.

Science.gov (United States)

Hastings, Kylie B

2014-02-01

In the United States, the court-appointed guardians do not have the ability to make decisions regarding end-of-life (EOL) care for their clients. Additionally, the process of initiating EOL care measures can be slow and cumbersome, despite an existing process of getting approval for such care. This process has the potential to prolong suffering and delay imperative decisions. This article reviews the hardships that patients, court-appointed guardians, and health care staff endure while moving through the oppressive process of obtaining EOL care orders through the court. This article also proposes ways of tuning up the laws, regulations, and communications to make it easier and faster to obtain orders regarding EOL care to preserve the dignity of our patients and loved ones. "A guardianship is a legal relationship created when a person or institution named in a will or assigned by the court to take care of minor children or incompetent adults."

Predictors of Missed Research Appointments in a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stéphanie J.E. Becker

2014-09-01

 Younger patients with no college education, who believe their health can be controlled, are more likely to miss a research appointment when enrolled in a randomized placebo injection-controlled trial. 

Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of 4-Fluoroisobutyryl Fentanyl into Schedule I. Temporary scheduling order.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-05-03

The Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is issuing this temporary scheduling order to schedule the synthetic opioid, N-(4-fluorophenyl)-N-(1-phenethylpiperidin-4-yl)isobutyramide (4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl or para-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl), and its isomers, esters, ethers, salts and salts of isomers, esters, and ethers, into schedule I pursuant to the temporary scheduling provisions of the Controlled Substances Act. This action is based on a finding by the Administrator that the placement of 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl into schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety. As a result of this order, the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to schedule I controlled substances will be imposed on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis, or possess), or propose to handle, 4-fluoroisobutyryl fentanyl.

76 FR 43219 - Public Housing: Physical Needs Assessment

Science.gov (United States)

2011-07-20

... appointment to review the public comments must be scheduled by calling the Regulations Division at 202-402... capital expenditures that might be lost in the subsequent comprehensive modernization or obsolescence of a... building, an advance appointment to review the docket file must be scheduled by calling the Regulations...

Scheduling techniques in the Request Oriented Scheduling Engine (ROSE)

Science.gov (United States)

Zoch, David R.

1991-01-01

Scheduling techniques in the ROSE are presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: agenda; ROSE summary and history; NCC-ROSE task goals; accomplishments; ROSE timeline manager; scheduling concerns; current and ROSE approaches; initial scheduling; BFSSE overview and example; and summary.

The effectiveness of SMS Reminders and the impact of patient characteristics on missed appointments in a public dental outpatient clinic

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Emilia Bellucci

2017-03-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on the Failure To Attend (FTA rate of appointments as well as patients following the implementation of SMS reminders in a public dental outpatient service.  Given the ineffectiveness of the intervention and a highly representative patient’s profile, this paper identifies the demographic characteristics of patients who miss all of their appointments.  Data on appointment attendance, patient demographics and dental service type was collected over a time period of 46 consecutive months.  Using descriptive and inferential statistics (chi-square, two sample tests and Marascuilo procedure we found the SMS intervention was ineffective in reducing the FTA rates. Further, patients associated with high rates of non-attendance exhibited one or more of the following characteristics: male; age 26 – 44; non-concession card holders; a person of Indigenous, local, Asian or African descent, and of refugee status, persons living in low socio-economic areas; and appointments in General Care and Student Clinics. Whilst the literature overwhelmingly attributes SMS reminders to improving the attendance rate of patients in outpatient clinics, our contradictory findings suggest a more targeted approach in settings whose patients exhibit strong characteristics associated with non-attendance.

Quantifying Appointments, Treatment Time, Impressions, and Diagnostic Data of Cases Staffed by General Dentists and Prosthodontists in a Dental School Clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Imbery, Terence A; Greenfield, Kristy; Diaz, Nicholas; Janus, Charles; Best, Al M

2016-10-01

The aim of this retrospective study was to quantify differences between general dentists and prosthodontists regarding appointments, treatment time, impressions, and preoperative diagnostic data in teaching predoctoral clinical fixed prosthodontics. Electronic dental records (n=356) of patients treated at one dental school in academic year 2012 were randomly selected for review to obtain the following data: faculty and student demographics, number of appointments and treatment time from preparation to cementation, number of impressions made, completion of oral disease control treatment (ODCT), and presence of preoperative periapical radiographs and diagnostic casts. The results showed that ODCT was completed in 78%, preoperative radiographs were present in 76%, and diagnostic casts made in 53% of the cases reviewed. There was no statistically significant difference in number of appointments, treatment time, or number of final impressions when students were staffed by general dentists or prosthodontists. When students were supervised by multiple faculty members, there was generally an increase in treatment time and number of appointments and final impressions. Although this study found no statistically significant differences between general dentists and prosthodontists regarding the criteria evaluated, the results suggest that faculty development and calibration are needed to ensure ODCT is completed and preoperative radiographs are present prior to initiating fixed prosthodontic procedures.

31 CFR 370.5 - How can I appoint a financial institution to receive payments on my behalf?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Entries § 370.5 How can I appoint a financial institution to receive payments on my behalf? You must name a financial institution to receive payments through credit entries using the ACH method. You also... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How can I appoint a financial...

76 FR 10945 - San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis Obispo, CA; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2011-02-28

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis Obispo, CA; Notice of Appointment of Receiver Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the authority... appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for San Luis Trust Bank, FSB, San Luis...

Effect of second timed appointments for non-attenders of breast cancer screening in England: a randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Allgood, Prue C; Maroni, Roberta; Hudson, Sue; Offman, Judith; Turnbull, Anne E; Peacock, Lesley; Steel, Jim; Kirby, Geraldine; Ingram, Christine E; Somers, Julie; Fuller, Clare; Threlfall, Anthony G; Gabe, Rhian; Maxwell, Anthony J; Patnick, Julietta; Duffy, Stephen W

2017-07-01

In England, participation in breast cancer screening has been decreasing in the past 10 years, approaching the national minimum standard of 70%. Interventions aimed at improving participation need to be investigated and put into practice to stop this downward trend. We assessed the effect on participation of sending invitations for breast screening with a timed appointment to women who did not attend their first offered appointment within the NHS Breast Screening Programme (NHSBSP). In this open, randomised controlled trial, women in six centres in the NHSBSP in England who were invited for routine breast cancer screening were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive an invitation to a second appointment with fixed date and time (intervention) or an invitation letter with a telephone number to call to book their new screening appointment (control) in the event of non-attendance at the first offered appointment. Randomisation was by SX number, a sequential unique identifier of each woman within the NHSBSP, and at the beginning of the study a coin toss decided whether women with odd or even SX numbers would be allocated to the intervention group. Women aged 50-70 years who did not attend their first offered appointment were eligible for the analysis. The primary endpoint was participation (ie, attendance at breast cancer screening) within 90 days of the date of the first offered appointment; we used Poisson regression to compare the proportion of women who participated in screening in the study groups. All analyses were by intention to treat. This trial is registered with Barts Health, number 009304QM. We obtained 33 146 records of women invited for breast cancer screening at the six centres between June 2, 2014, and Sept 30, 2015, who did not attend their first offered appointment. 26 054 women were eligible for this analysis (12 807 in the intervention group and 13 247 in the control group). Participation within 90 days of the first offered appointment was

Future aircraft networks and schedules

Science.gov (United States)

Shu, Yan

2011-07-01

Because of the importance of air transportation scheduling, the emergence of small aircraft and the vision of future fuel-efficient aircraft, this thesis has focused on the study of aircraft scheduling and network design involving multiple types of aircraft and flight services. It develops models and solution algorithms for the schedule design problem and analyzes the computational results. First, based on the current development of small aircraft and on-demand flight services, this thesis expands a business model for integrating on-demand flight services with the traditional scheduled flight services. This thesis proposes a three-step approach to the design of aircraft schedules and networks from scratch under the model. In the first step, both a frequency assignment model for scheduled flights that incorporates a passenger path choice model and a frequency assignment model for on-demand flights that incorporates a passenger mode choice model are created. In the second step, a rough fleet assignment model that determines a set of flight legs, each of which is assigned an aircraft type and a rough departure time is constructed. In the third step, a timetable model that determines an exact departure time for each flight leg is developed. Based on the models proposed in the three steps, this thesis creates schedule design instances that involve almost all the major airports and markets in the United States. The instances of the frequency assignment model created in this thesis are large-scale non-convex mixed-integer programming problems, and this dissertation develops an overall network structure and proposes iterative algorithms for solving these instances. The instances of both the rough fleet assignment model and the timetable model created in this thesis are large-scale mixed-integer programming problems, and this dissertation develops subproblem schemes for solving these instances. Based on these solution algorithms, this dissertation also presents

Michel Spiro is appointed director of the IN2P3 and the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the CNRS

CERN Multimedia

2003-01-01

"Michel Spiro was appointed director of the IN2P3, by order of the Minister of Youth, National Education and Research and the Minister of Research and New Technologies on February 17, 2003. He was also appointed director of the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the CNRS by decision of the CNRS Director General on February 21, 2003" (1/2 page).

26 CFR 25.2523(e)-1 - Marital deduction; life estate with power of appointment in donee spouse.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... satisfied and S is treated as having a general power to appoint 100/250 of the entire interest in the 250... 26 Internal Revenue 14 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Marital deduction; life estate with power of... Deductions § 25.2523(e)-1 Marital deduction; life estate with power of appointment in donee spouse. (a) In...

76 FR 73521 - Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under Selective Service Law

Science.gov (United States)

2011-11-29

... 3206-AM06 Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under Selective Service Law... statutory bar on employment in an Executive agency of an individual who was required to register with the... as follows: Subpart G--Statutory Bar to Appointment of Persons Who Fail To Register Under the...

2007 Wholesale Power Rate Schedules : 2007 General Rate Schedule Provisions.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

United States. Bonneville Power Administration.

2006-11-01

This schedule is available for the contract purchase of Firm Power to be used within the Pacific Northwest (PNW). Priority Firm (PF) Power may be purchased by public bodies, cooperatives, and Federal agencies for resale to ultimate consumers, for direct consumption, and for Construction, Test and Start-Up, and Station Service. Rates in this schedule are in effect beginning October 1, 2006, and apply to purchases under requirements Firm Power sales contracts for a three-year period. The Slice Product is only available for public bodies and cooperatives who have signed Slice contracts for the FY 2002-2011 period. Utilities participating in the Residential Exchange Program (REP) under Section 5(c) of the Northwest Power Act may purchase Priority Firm Power pursuant to the Residential Exchange Program. Rates under contracts that contain charges that escalate based on BPA's Priority Firm Power rates shall be based on the three-year rates listed in this rate schedule in addition to applicable transmission charges. This rate schedule supersedes the PF-02 rate schedule, which went into effect October 1, 2001. Sales under the PF-07 rate schedule are subject to BPA's 2007 General Rate Schedule Provisions (2007 GRSPs). Products available under this rate schedule are defined in the 2007 GRSPs. For sales under this rate schedule, bills shall be rendered and payments due pursuant to BPA's 2007 GRSPs and billing process.

NASA scheduling technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Adair, Jerry R.

1994-01-01

This paper is a consolidated report on ten major planning and scheduling systems that have been developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A description of each system, its components, and how it could be potentially used in private industry is provided in this paper. The planning and scheduling technology represented by the systems ranges from activity based scheduling employing artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to constraint based, iterative repair scheduling. The space related application domains in which the systems have been deployed vary from Space Shuttle monitoring during launch countdown to long term Hubble Space Telescope (HST) scheduling. This paper also describes any correlation that may exist between the work done on different planning and scheduling systems. Finally, this paper documents the lessons learned from the work and research performed in planning and scheduling technology and describes the areas where future work will be conducted.

Immunization Schedules for Infants and Children

Science.gov (United States)

... ACIP Vaccination Recommendations Why Immunize? Vaccines: The Basics Immunization Schedule for Infants and Children (Birth through 6 ... any questions please talk to your doctor. 2018 Immunization Schedule Recommended Vaccinations for Infants and Children Schedule ...

No-show at a forensic psychiatric outpatient clinic : risk factors and reasons

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feitsma, W. Nathalie; Popping, Roel; Jansen, Danielle E. M. C.

Nonattendance for and late cancellations of scheduled appointments, that is no-show, is a well-known phenomenon in psychiatric outpatient clinics. Research on the topic of no-show for initial and consecutive appointments in the field of forensic psychiatry is scarce. This study therefore aims to

75 FR 42831 - Proposed Collection; Comment Request for Form 1065, Schedule C, Schedule D, Schedule K-1...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-22

.../or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law... Income, Credits, Deductions and Other Items), Schedule L (Balance Sheets per Books), Schedule M-1 (Reconciliation of Income (Loss) per Books With Income (Loss) per Return)), Schedule M-2 (Analysis of Partners...

20 CFR 422.515 - Forms used for withdrawal, reconsideration and other appeals, and appointment of representative.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 20 Employees' Benefits 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Forms used for withdrawal, reconsideration... SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION ORGANIZATION AND PROCEDURES Applications and Related Forms § 422.515 Forms used for withdrawal, reconsideration and other appeals, and appointment of representative. The...

Improving patient access to an interventional US clinic.

Science.gov (United States)

Steele, Joseph R; Clarke, Ryan K; Terrell, John A; Brightmon, Tonya R

2014-01-01

A continuous quality improvement project was conducted to increase patient access to a neurointerventional ultrasonography (US) clinic. The clinic was experiencing major scheduling delays because of an increasing patient volume. A multidisciplinary team was formed that included schedulers, medical assistants, nurses, technologists, and physicians. The team created an Ishikawa diagram of the possible causes of the long wait time to the next available appointment and developed a flowchart of the steps involved in scheduling and completing a diagnostic US examination and biopsy. The team then implemented a staged intervention that included adjustments to staffing and room use (stage 1); new procedures for scheduling same-day add-on appointments (stage 2); and a lead technician rotation to optimize patient flow, staffing, and workflow (stage 3). Six months after initiation of the intervention, the mean time to the next available appointment had decreased from 25 days at baseline to 1 day, and the number of available daily appointments had increased from 38 to 55. These improvements resulted from a coordinated provider effort and had a net present value of more than $275,000. This project demonstrates that structural changes in staffing, workflow, and room use can substantially reduce scheduling delays for critical imaging procedures. © RSNA, 2014.

Robust and Flexible Scheduling with Evolutionary Computation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Mikkel T.

Over the last ten years, there have been numerous applications of evolutionary algorithms to a variety of scheduling problems. Like most other research on heuristic scheduling, the primary aim of the research has been on deterministic formulations of the problems. This is in contrast to real world...... scheduling problems which are usually not deterministic. Usually at the time the schedule is made some information about the problem and processing environment is available, but this information is uncertain and likely to change during schedule execution. Changes frequently encountered in scheduling...... environments include machine breakdowns, uncertain processing times, workers getting sick, materials being delayed and the appearance of new jobs. These possible environmental changes mean that a schedule which was optimal for the information available at the time of scheduling can end up being highly...

Administrative circular No. 2 (Rev. 5) – Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members

CERN Document Server

HR Department

2011-01-01

Administrative Circular No. 2 (Rev. 5) entitled "Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members", approved by the Director-General following discussion in the Standing Concertation Committee meeting on 1 September 2011, is available on the intranet site of the Human Resources Department: https://cern.ch/hr-docs/admincirc/admincirc.asp It cancels and replaces Administrative Circular No. 2 (Rev. 4) entitled "Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members" of September 2009. Department Head Office

It Is Not Just about the Schedule: Key Factors in Effective Reference Desk Scheduling and Management

Science.gov (United States)

Sciammarella, Susan; Fernandes, Maria Isabel; McKay, Devin

2008-01-01

Reference desk scheduling is one of the most challenging tasks in the organizational structure of an academic library. The ability to turn this challenge into a workable and effective function lies with the scheduler and indirectly the cooperation of all librarians scheduled for reference desk service. It is the scheduler's sensitivity to such…

Training experience and views of recently appointed consultants in geriatric medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Sandler, M

1992-01-01

A postal survey of 71 recently appointed consultant geriatricians was undertaken in spring 1991. Several respondents were concerned about the adequacy of training in domiciliary visiting and continuing care, and about the time allocated for research and study. A high proportion felt they had been poorly prepared for the administrative and organisational components of their consultant post, and 75% of respondents advocated training in managerial skills for senior registrars. These findings are relevant to the planning of future training for senior registrars in geriatric medicine.

12 CFR 509.101 - Appointment of Office of Financial Institution Adjudication.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 12 Banks and Banking 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Appointment of Office of Financial Institution... Office of Financial Institution Adjudication. Unless otherwise directed by the Office, all hearings under... direction of the Office of Financial Institution Adjudication, 1700 G Street NW., Washington, DC 20552. ...

Nonattendance to medical specialists’ appointments and its relation to regional environmental and socioeconomic indicators in the Chilean public health system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elizabeth Angélica Salinas Rebolledo

2014-10-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Medical care provided by medical specialists is one of the scarcest resources in the public system. It is costly and difficult to access for the general population. Availability and accessibility of specialized care is related to economic, social and cultural aspects that vary among geographical areas. An aggravating factor for this situation is patients’ failure to appear on the date of their appointment, which is defined as the nonattendance of patients to medical specialist appointments without notice. OBJECTIVES To measure and analyze the phenomenon of nonattendance of patients to medical appointments with specialists in the public healthcare system of Chile and its relationship with environmental and socioeconomic regional indicators. METHODS Ecological design study, using medical care records in the public system and environmental and socioeconomic regional indicators potentially related to the absence of patients, between the years 2005-2010. Poisson regression models with random components were used for assessing associations. RESULTS There is 16.5% of nonattendance of patients, with a range between regions from 8.8 to 20.2%. Nonattendance is higher in the specialties of dermatology, geriatrics and nutrition (20.0%, in children (3.1% more than in adults, in areas with highest indigenous population (RR=1.3, in areas with low diversity of specialties (RR=1.1 and in the months of February, July, November and December (RR>1.1. CONCLUSIONS In Chile, socioeconomic factors and the management of healthcare resources have greater influence on the nonattendance of patients to medical specialists’ appointments than environmental factors; therefore, this phenomenon may be avoidable.

Planning and scheduling - A schedule's performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Whitman, N.M.

1993-01-01

Planning and scheduling is a process whose time has come to PSI Energy. With an awareness of the challenges ahead, individuals must look for ways to enhance the corporate competitiveness. Working toward this goal means that each individual has to dedicate themselves to this more competitive corporate environment. Being competitive may be defined as the ability of each employee to add value to the corporation's economic well being. The timely and successful implementation of projects greatly enhances competitiveness. Those projects that do not do well often suffer from lack of proper execution - not for lack of talent or strategic vision. Projects are consumers of resources such as cash and people. They produce a return when completed and will generate a better return when properly completed utilizing proven project management techniques. Completing projects on time, within budget and meeting customer expectations is the way a corporation builds it's future. This paper offers suggestions on implementing planning and scheduling and provides a review of results in the form of management reports

The reason for appointing more women to top positions

OpenAIRE

Hansson, Martina; Kalantari, Leila

2015-01-01

Objective: Our main objective is to identify why the executive management positions of most companies in Europe are not moderately genders diverse. Within this objective we study the pattern of gender representation and diversity in a specific company (named Company A) and investigate theoretically why more women should be appointed to the top positions. Research and practical implications: This thesis contributes to a better understanding of the reason behind not having moderately gender div...

Planning and Scheduling of Airline Operations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

İlkay ORHAN

2010-02-01

Full Text Available The Turkish Civil Aviation sector has grown at a rate of 53 % between the years 2002-2008 owing to countrywide economical developments and some removed restrictions in the aviation field. Successful international companies in the sector use advanced computer-supported solution methods for their planning and scheduling problems. These methods have been providing significant competitive advantages to those companies. There are four major scheduling and planning problems in the airline sector: flight scheduling, aircraft scheduling, crew scheduling and disruptions management. These aforementioned scheduling and planning problems faced by all airline companies in the airline sector were examined in detail. Studies reveal that companies using the advanced methods might gain significant cost reductions. However, even then, the time required for solving large scale problems may not satisfy the decision quality desired by decision makers. In such cases, using modern decision methods integrated with advanced technologies offer companies an opportunity for significant cost-advantages.

78 FR 18363 - Proposed Appointment to the National Indian Gaming Commission

Science.gov (United States)

2013-03-26

... Gaming Commission AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Interior. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: Before appointing a member to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the Secretary must provide public notice and allow a... member of the National Indian Gaming Commission for a term of 3 years. DATES: Comments must be received...

Some remarks regarding the procedure of the appointment of the secretary general of the United Nations

OpenAIRE

Novaković Marko

2016-01-01

Appointing Secretary-General is a process that has always been enshrined in secrecy. In 2016, due to reforms in the appointment process instigated by the president of the Security Council Mogens Lykketoft, more inclusion and transparency have been achieved, with the non-state actors being much more involved in the process. In the procedure itself, first five straw polls suggested that Antonio Guterres will be the new Secretary-General and this proved to be truth. Will this more transparent sy...

New Editors Appointed for Water Resources Research

Science.gov (United States)

2009-03-01

Praveen Kumar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), the newly appointed editor in chief of Water Resources Research (WRR), heads the new team of editors for the journal. The other editors are Tom Torgersen (University of Connecticut, Groton), who continues his editorship; Tissa Illangasekare (Colorado School of Mines, Golden); Graham Sander (Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK); and John Selker (Oregon State University, Corvallis). Hoshin Gupta (University of Arizona, Tucson) will join WRR at the end of 2009. The new editors will begin receiving submissions immediately. The incoming editorial board thanks outgoing editors Marc Parlange, Brian Berkowitz, Amilcare Porporato, and Scott Tyler, all of whom will assist during the transition.

Parents' Family Time and Work Schedules: The Split-Shift Schedule in Spain

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gracia, P.; Kalmijn, M.

2016-01-01

This study used data on couples from the 2003 Spanish Time Use Survey (N = 1,416) to analyze how work schedules are associated with family, couple, parent–child, and non-family leisure activities. Spain is clearly an interesting case for the institutionalized split-shift schedule, a long lunch break

TPMG Northern California appointments and advice call center.

Science.gov (United States)

Conolly, Patricia; Levine, Leslie; Amaral, Debra J; Fireman, Bruce H; Driscoll, Tom

2005-08-01

Kaiser Permanente (KP) has been developing its use of call centers as a way to provide an expansive set of healthcare services to KP members efficiently and cost effectively. Since 1995, when The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) began to consolidate primary care phone services into three physical call centers, the TPMG Appointments and Advice Call Center (AACC) has become the "front office" for primary care services across approximately 89% of Northern California. The AACC provides primary care phone service for approximately 3 million Kaiser Foundation Health Plan members in Northern California and responds to approximately 1 million calls per month across the three AACC sites. A database records each caller's identity as well as the day, time, and duration of each call; reason for calling; services provided to callers as a result of calls; and clinical outcomes of calls. We here summarize this information for the period 2000 through 2003.

Application of the transtheoretical model of behaviour change for identifying older clients' readiness for hearing rehabilitation during history-taking in audiology appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Ekberg, Katie; Grenness, Caitlin; Hickson, Louise

2016-07-01

The transtheoretical model (TTM) of behaviour change focuses on clients' readiness for adopting new health behaviours. This study explores how clients' readiness for change can be identified through their interactions with audiologists during history-taking in initial appointments; and whether clients' readiness has consequences for the rehabilitation decisions they make within the initial appointment. Conversation analysis (CA) was used to examine video-recorded initial audiology appointments with older adults with hearing impairment. The data corpus involved 62 recorded appointments with 26 audiologists and their older adult clients (aged 55+ years). Companions were present in 17 appointments. Clients' readiness for change could be observed through their interaction with the audiologist. Analysis demonstrated that the way clients described their hearing in the history-taking phase had systematic consequences for how they responded to rehabilitation recommendations (in particular, hearing aids) in the management phase of the appointment. In particular, clients identified as being in a pre-contemplation stage-of-change were more likely to display resistance to a recommendation of hearing aids (80% declined). The transtheoretical model of behaviour change can be useful for helping audiologists individualize management planning to be congruent with individual clients' needs, attitudes, desires, and psychological readiness for action in order to optimize clients' hearing outcomes.

Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of ortho-Fluorofentanyl, Tetrahydrofuranyl Fentanyl, and Methoxyacetyl Fentanyl Into Schedule I. Temporary amendment; temporary scheduling order.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-10-26

The Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is issuing this temporary scheduling order to schedule the synthetic opioids, N-(2-fluorophenyl)-N-(1-phenethylpiperidin-4-yl)propionamide (ortho-fluorofentanyl or 2-fluorofentanyl), N-(1-phenethylpiperidin-4-yl)-N-phenyltetrahydrofuran-2-carboxamide (tetrahydrofuranyl fentanyl), and 2-methoxy-N-(1-phenethylpiperidin-4-yl)-N-phenylacetamide (methoxyacetyl fentanyl), into Schedule I. This action is based on a finding by the Administrator that the placement of ortho-fluorofentanyl, tetrahydrofuranyl fentanyl, and methoxyacetyl fentanyl into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act is necessary to avoid an imminent hazard to the public safety. As a result of this order, the regulatory controls and administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions applicable to Schedule I controlled substances will be imposed on persons who handle (manufacture, distribute, reverse distribute, import, export, engage in research, conduct instructional activities or chemical analysis, or possess), or propose to handle, ortho-fluorofentanyl, tetrahydrofuranyl fentanyl, and methoxyacetyl fentanyl.

Improving Health Care Accessibility: Strategies and Recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

Almorsy, Lamia; Khalifa, Mohamed

2016-01-01

Access time refers to the interval between requesting and actual outpatient appointment. It reflects healthcare accessibility and has a great influence on patient treatment and satisfaction. King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia studied the accessibility to outpatient services in order to develop useful strategies and recommendations for improvement. Utilized, unutilized and no-show appointments were analyzed. It is crucial to manage no-shows and short notice appointment cancellations by preparing a waiting list for those patients who can be called in to an appointment on the same day using an open access policy. An overlapping appointment scheduling model can be useful to minimize patient waiting time and doctor idle time in addition to the sensible use of appointment overbooking that can significantly improve productivity.

Web Publishing Schedule

Science.gov (United States)

Section 207(f)(2) of the E-Gov Act requires federal agencies to develop an inventory and establish a schedule of information to be published on their Web sites, make those schedules available for public comment. To post the schedules on the web site.

Technology for planning and scheduling under complex constraints

Science.gov (United States)

Alguire, Karen M.; Pedro Gomes, Carla O.

1997-02-01

Within the context of law enforcement, several problems fall into the category of planning and scheduling under constraints. Examples include resource and personnel scheduling, and court scheduling. In the case of court scheduling, a schedule must be generated considering available resources, e.g., court rooms and personnel. Additionally, there are constraints on individual court cases, e.g., temporal and spatial, and between different cases, e.g., precedence. Finally, there are overall objectives that the schedule should satisfy such as timely processing of cases and optimal use of court facilities. Manually generating a schedule that satisfies all of the constraints is a very time consuming task. As the number of court cases and constraints increases, this becomes increasingly harder to handle without the assistance of automatic scheduling techniques. This paper describes artificial intelligence (AI) technology that has been used to develop several high performance scheduling applications including a military transportation scheduler, a military in-theater airlift scheduler, and a nuclear power plant outage scheduler. We discuss possible law enforcement applications where we feel the same technology could provide long-term benefits to law enforcement agencies and their operations personnel.

Effect of calcium hydroxide and triple antibiotic paste as intracanal medicaments on the incidence of inter-appointment flare-up in diabetic patients: An in vivo study

Science.gov (United States)

Pai, Swathi; Vivekananda Pai, A. R.; Thomas, Manuel S.; Bhat, Vishal

2014-01-01

Aim: To evaluate and compare the effect of antibacterial intracanal medicaments on inter-appointment flare-up in diabetic patients. Materials and Methods: Fifty diabetic patients requiring root canal treatment were assigned into groups I, II, and III. In group I, no intracanal medicament was placed. In groups II and III, calcium hydroxide and triple antibiotic pastes were placed as intracanal medicaments, respectively. Patients were instructed to record their pain on days 1, 2, 3, 7, and 14. Inter-appointment flare-up was evaluated using verbal rating scale (VRS). Results: Overall incidence of inter-appointment flare-up among diabetic patients was found to be 16%. In group I, 50% of the patients and in group II, 15% of the patients developed inter-appointment flare-up. However, no patients in group III developed inter-appointment flare-up. The comparison of these results was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.002; χ2 = 12.426). However, with respect to intergroup comparison, only the difference between groups I and III was found to be statistically significant (P = 0.002; χ2 = 12.00). Conclusions: Calcium hydroxide and triple antibiotic paste are effective for managing inter-appointment flare-ups in diabetic patients. Triple antibiotic paste is more effective than calcium hydroxide in preventing the occurrence of flare-up in diabetic patients. PMID:24944440

Shared and individual medical appointments for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes: differences in topics discussed?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Rijswijk, C.; Zantinge, E.; Seesing, F.; Raats, I.; Dulmen, S. van

2010-01-01

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the type of topics discussed during shared medical appointments (SMAs) and traditional individual outpatient visits for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. In addition, differences between the conversational contributions

Sports Direct to appoint full-time nurse after inquiry into employment practices.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-09-14

Retailer Sports Direct is to appoint a full-time nurse at its vast warehouse in response to concerns about health and safety. The firm was the subject of a House of Commons business, innovation and skills select committee inquiry into its employment practices.

75 FR 8731 - Proposed Appointment to the National Indian Gaming Commission

Science.gov (United States)

2010-02-25

... National Indian Gaming Commission ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act provides for a three-person National Indian Gaming Commission. One member, the chairman, is appointed by the President... as an associate member of the National Indian Gaming Commission for a term of 3 years. DATES...

Accelerating exact schedulability analysis for fixed-priority pre-emptive scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hang, Y.; Jiale, Z.; Keskin, U.; Bril, R.J.

2010-01-01

The schedulability analysis for fixed-priority preemptive scheduling (FPPS) plays a significant role in the real-time systems domain. The so-called Hyperplanes Exact Test (HET) [1] is an example of an exact schedulability test for FPPS. In this paper, we aim at improving the efficiency of HET by

Impact of Checklist Use on Wellness and Post-Elective Surgery Appointments in a Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruch-Gallie, Rebecca; Weir, Heather; Kogan, Lori R

Cognitive functioning is often compromised with increasing levels of stress and fatigue, both of which are often experienced by veterinarians. Many high-stress fields have implemented checklists to reduce human error. The use of these checklists has been shown to improve the quality of medical care, including adherence to evidence-based best practices and improvement of patient safety. Although it has been recognized that veterinary medicine would likely demonstrate similar benefits, there have been no published studies to date evaluating the use of checklists for improving quality of care in veterinary medicine. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the impact of checklists during wellness and post-elective surgery appointments conducted by fourth-year veterinary students within their Community Practice rotation at a US veterinary teaching hospital. Students were randomly assigned to one of two groups: those who were specifically asked to use the provided checklists during appointments, and those who were not asked to use the checklists but had them available. Two individuals blinded to the study reviewed the tapes of all appointments in each study group to determine the amount and type of medical information offered by veterinary students. Students who were specifically asked to use the checklists provided significantly more information to owners, with the exception of keeping the incision clean. Results indicate the use of checklists helps students provide more complete information to their clients, thereby potentially enhancing animal care.

ATLAS construction schedule

CERN Multimedia

Kotamaki, M

The goal during the last few months has been to freeze and baseline as much as possible the schedules of various ATLAS systems and activities. The main motivations for the re-baselining of the schedules have been the new LHC schedule aiming at first collisions in early 2006 and the encountered delays in civil engineering as well as in the production of some of the detectors. The process was started by first preparing a new installation schedule that takes into account all the new external constraints and the new ATLAS staging scenario. The installation schedule version 3 was approved in the March EB and it provides the Ready For Installation (RFI) milestones for each system, i.e. the date when the system should be available for the start of the installation. TCn is now interacting with the systems aiming at a more realistic and resource loaded version 4 before the end of the year. Using the new RFI milestones as driving dates a new summary schedule has been prepared, or is under preparation, for each system....

Automated scheduling and planning from theory to practice

CERN Document Server

Ozcan, Ender; Urquhart, Neil

2013-01-01

  Solving scheduling problems has long presented a challenge for computer scientists and operations researchers. The field continues to expand as researchers and practitioners examine ever more challenging problems and develop automated methods capable of solving them. This book provides 11 case studies in automated scheduling, submitted by leading researchers from across the world. Each case study examines a challenging real-world problem by analysing the problem in detail before investigating how the problem may be solved using state of the art techniques.The areas covered include aircraft scheduling, microprocessor instruction scheduling, sports fixture scheduling, exam scheduling, personnel scheduling and production scheduling.  Problem solving methodologies covered include exact as well as (meta)heuristic approaches, such as local search techniques, linear programming, genetic algorithms and ant colony optimisation.The field of automated scheduling has the potential to impact many aspects of our lives...

77 FR 63872 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2012-10-17

... Resources--Kim L.H. Green. Rotating Membership ASP Kathleen E. Franks, Director, Office of Regulatory and... OLMS Stephen J. Willertz, Director, Office of Enforcement and International Union Audits--appointment...

Integrated Job Scheduling and Network Routing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gamst, Mette; Pisinger, David

2013-01-01

We consider an integrated job scheduling and network routing problem which appears in Grid Computing and production planning. The problem is to schedule a number of jobs at a finite set of machines, such that the overall profit of the executed jobs is maximized. Each job demands a number of resou...... indicate that the algorithm can be used as an actual scheduling algorithm in the Grid or as a tool for analyzing Grid performance when adding extra machines or jobs. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.......We consider an integrated job scheduling and network routing problem which appears in Grid Computing and production planning. The problem is to schedule a number of jobs at a finite set of machines, such that the overall profit of the executed jobs is maximized. Each job demands a number...... of resources which must be sent to the executing machine through a network with limited capacity. A job cannot start before all of its resources have arrived at the machine. The scheduling problem is formulated as a Mixed Integer Program (MIP) and proved to be NP-hard. An exact solution approach using Dantzig...

20 CFR 408.1101 - Can you appoint someone to represent you?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... WORLD WAR II VETERANS Representation of Parties § 408.1101 Can you appoint someone to represent you? (a... clause in paragraph (b), the second sentences in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2), and paragraph (c)(2) do... this part, the rules on representation of parties in §§ 416.1500-416.1505, 416.1507-416.1515 and 416...

29 CFR 825.203 - Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule for planned medical treatment, then the employee... 29 Labor 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Scheduling of intermittent or reduced schedule leave. 825... OF LABOR OTHER LAWS THE FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT OF 1993 Employee Leave Entitlements Under the...

The first antenatal appointment: An exploratory study of the experiences of women with a diagnosis of mental illness.

Science.gov (United States)

Phillips, Louise; Thomas, Dona

2015-08-01

to explore and gain insight into the expectations and experiences of women with a pre-existing diagnosis of mental illness, of their first booking appointment; to make recommendations for practice development and collaborative partnership working between healthcare professionals. a qualitative design using semi structured interviews and thematic analysis of the data. QSR NVivo 10 software is used to organise the data into themes. the interviews took place either at the women׳s homes, or within the antenatal service with the consent of the woman and relevant practitioners. twelve participants were selected from one antenatal clinic and one perinatal mental health service. the themes identified within the data included the lack of information prior to the initial midwife booking appointment; the perception of too much information at the initial booking appointment and women not being clear about their mental health needs at this time; a general positivity about disclosing mental illness diagnoses; overall positive thoughts about midwives although some midwives appeared less knowledgeable about bipolar disorder, and perceptions about a lack of joined up working between antenatal and perinatal mental health services. it is recommended that GPs receive adequate training in order to equip them with the skills needed to discuss sensitive issues around perinatal mental illness and the impact on pregnancy and childbirth. Women require more information about their booking appointment, and it would be beneficial for their emotional and physical health needs to be assessed at each follow-up antenatal appointment. Midwives need to be facilitated to receive up-to-date knowledge of antenatal and postnatal mental illness and treatments, and the referral process to perinatal mental health services. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of KMRR schedule and progress control system (KSPCS) for the master schedule of KMRR project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi, Chang Woong; Lee, Tae Joon; Kim, Joon Yun; Cho, Yun Ho; Hah, Jong Hyun

1993-07-01

This report was to development the computerized schedule and progress control system for the master schedule of KMRR project with ARTEMIS 7000/386 CM (Ver. 7.4.2.) based on project management theory (PERT/CPM, PDM, and S-curve). This system has been efficiently used for KMRR master schedule and will be utilized for the detail scheduling of KMRR project. (Author) 23 refs., 26 figs., 52 tabs

The development of KMRR schedule and progress control system (KSPCS) for the master schedule of KMRR project

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choi, Chang Woong; Lee, Tae Joon; Kim, Joon Yun; Cho, Yun Ho; Hah, Jong Hyun [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Taejon (Korea, Republic of)

1993-07-01

This report was to development the computerized schedule and progress control system for the master schedule of KMRR project with ARTEMIS 7000/386 CM (Ver. 7.4.2.) based on project management theory (PERT/CPM, PDM, and S-curve). This system has been efficiently used for KMRR master schedule and will be utilized for the detail scheduling of KMRR project. (Author) 23 refs., 26 figs., 52 tabs.

Primary care patients' expectations regarding medical appointments and their experiences during a visit: does age matter?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaworski M

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Mariusz Jaworski,1 Marta Rzadkiewicz,1 Miroslawa Adamus,1 Joanna Chylinska,1 Magdalena Lazarewicz,1 Gørill Haugan,2 Monica Lillefjell,3 Geir Arild Espnes,2 Dorota Wlodarczyk1 1Department of Medical Psychology, Second Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 2Department of Public Health and Nursing, 3Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science, NTNU Center for Health Promotion Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway Introduction: There is evidence that meeting patients’ expectations toward health care correlates with involvement in the treatment they receive. The most important patient expectations concern certain types of information: explanation of disease and treatment, health promotion, and improvement in quality of life. Other demands include proper rapport and emotional support. The aim of this paper was to examine different patient groups over the age of 50 years and their expectations toward medical visits, evaluated before a visit and after the visit.Patients and methods: The study group consisted of 4,921 primary health-care patients. The patients received self-administered questionnaires that they filled in before and after the appointment with the doctor. Interviews with patients were conducted individually by specially trained interviewers. The PRACTA Patient Expectations Scale was used to measure the appointment-related expectations of the patients.Results: We observed differences related to age in patients’ expectations before medical visits regarding the following factors: disease explanation, treatment explanation, quality of life, rapport, and emotional support. The same differences were not observed on health promotion. Evaluation of patients’ appointment-related experiences after the visit showed that there were significant differences between the age-groups regarding all types of expectations included in the study. Differences between previsit and

Schedule and staffing of a nuclear power project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Polliart, A.J.; Csik, B.

1977-01-01

Establishment of construction schedule: a) preliminary construction schedule; b) PERT (Program Evaluation Review Techniques) analytical method; c) identify key milestone target dates; d) inter-action by participants and contribution to support revised construction schedule. - Construction schedule control: a) ability to update and modify construction schedule; b) alternate plans to circumvent restraints (problems); c) critical path activity-controls; d) continuous review and report system. - Updating construction site reports to include: 1) progress, 2) accomplishments, 3) potential problems and alternate plans; b) progress reports on related support services; c) total assessment of participating groups on schedule; d) information required by management for decisions. - Typical causes for delays in project schedule. (orig.) [de

Scientific profile and professional responsibility of Court-appointed Medical Technical Consultants in Italy: time for a specific educational curriculum?

Science.gov (United States)

Conti, Andrea Alberto

2014-08-20

Court-appointed Technical Consultants (CTCs) are fundamental figures in the Italian judicial system. CTCs are experts appointed by judges in order to supplement their activities by ascertaining, collecting and analyzing facts concerning the specific subject of a lawsuit. These experts formulate opinions, gather motivations and perform checks to provide clear, objective and irrefutable answers to the questions posed by judges. With direct reference to the medical field, while police doctors (specialists in forensic medicine) follow an academic, dedicated, well-structured educational curriculum, the University specialty school in Forensic Medicine, other medical CTCs, though not infrequently luminaries with one or many medical specialties and professional acknowledgments, may have no specific legal-medicine and juridical expertise, precisely because a similar expertise is not formally required of them. In the light of these considerations, in Italy some professionals of the legal world, and of the health context too, have proposed for medical CTCs targeted educational pathways, which would provide these experts with formal specific qualifications. In synthesis and in conclusion, a full knowledge and a rigorous respect of the rules of legal proceedings emerge as increasingly important characteristics for current and future Court-appointed Technical Consultants, together with a specific educational curriculum.

75 FR 74748 - Senior Executive Service; Appointment of Members to the Performance Review Board

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-01

... Commissioner, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics--appointment expires on 09/30/2013 EBSA Sharon S... 9/30/12 OLMS Stephen J. Willertz, Director, Office of Enforcement and International Union Audits...

Scheduling for decommissioning projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Podmajersky, O.E.

1987-01-01

This paper describes the Project Scheduling system being employed by the Decommissioning Operations Contractor at the Shippingport Station Decommissioning Project (SSDP). Results from the planning system show that the project continues to achieve its cost and schedule goals. An integrated cost and schedule control system (C/SCS) which uses the concept of earned value for measurement of performance was instituted in accordance with DOE orders. The schedule and cost variances generated by the C/SCS system are used to confirm management's assessment of project status. This paper describes the types of schedules and tools used on the SSDP project to plan and monitor the work, and identifies factors that are unique to a decommissioning project that make scheduling critical to the achievement of the project's goals. 1 fig

Constraint-based scheduling applying constraint programming to scheduling problems

CERN Document Server

Baptiste, Philippe; Nuijten, Wim

2001-01-01

Constraint Programming is a problem-solving paradigm that establishes a clear distinction between two pivotal aspects of a problem: (1) a precise definition of the constraints that define the problem to be solved and (2) the algorithms and heuristics enabling the selection of decisions to solve the problem. It is because of these capabilities that Constraint Programming is increasingly being employed as a problem-solving tool to solve scheduling problems. Hence the development of Constraint-Based Scheduling as a field of study. The aim of this book is to provide an overview of the most widely used Constraint-Based Scheduling techniques. Following the principles of Constraint Programming, the book consists of three distinct parts: The first chapter introduces the basic principles of Constraint Programming and provides a model of the constraints that are the most often encountered in scheduling problems. Chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 are focused on the propagation of resource constraints, which usually are responsibl...

Program reference schedule baseline

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1986-07-01

This Program Reference Schedule Baseline (PRSB) provides the baseline Program-level milestones and associated schedules for the Civilian Radioactive Waste Management Program. It integrates all Program-level schedule-related activities. This schedule baseline will be used by the Director, Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM), and his staff to monitor compliance with Program objectives. Chapter 1 includes brief discussions concerning the relationship of the PRSB to the Program Reference Cost Baseline (PRCB), the Mission Plan, the Project Decision Schedule, the Total System Life Cycle Cost report, the Program Management Information System report, the Program Milestone Review, annual budget preparation, and system element plans. Chapter 2 includes the identification of all Level 0, or Program-level, milestones, while Chapter 3 presents and discusses the critical path schedules that correspond to those Level 0 milestones

Improving feedback from outpatient medical appointments attended by escorted psychiatric patients in the North London Forensic Service.

Science.gov (United States)

McCurdy, Kathleen; Croxford, Anna

2015-01-01

It is well established that patients with mental illness are known to have a high level of morbidity and mortality compared to the general population. This is particularly prominent in long-stay psychiatric patients, such as those in secure settings. The Royal College of Psychiatrists recommends that psychiatrists should promote the physical health of their patients and liaise with other specialties. However, there is evidence that communication between psychiatry and other specialties is poor. A survey was carried out at the North London Forensic Service in June 2014. This looked at the views of clinical staff about the frequency and quality of feedback obtained when inpatients attend outpatient hospital appointments at local general hospitals. This survey highlighted the general perception among staff that feedback is poor, with 68.43% of respondents saying that they were "very unsatisfied" or "unsatisfied" with the level and quality of feedback. Clinical staff felt that many patients who attended hospital outpatient appointments, even when escorted by staff, returned with little or no feedback. This was confirmed by a baseline audit across 3 wards showing that details of the appointment (date, time, hospital, and specialty) were only documented in 54.5% of cases and the content of the appointment documented in even fewer cases. A form was designed by junior doctors that provided a simple framework of 6 questions to be answered at the outpatient clinic about the problem, diagnosis, and further actions needed. This was introduced and its impact assessed with a 3-month and 6-month audit of electronic notes, as well as a follow-up survey after 6 months. The audit showed significant improvement in the quality of feedback about the appointment at both the 3-month and 6-month point. The follow-up survey showed that 70% of respondents were aware of the form and 100% of those who were aware of the form had used it at least once and found it helpful. The general

Constraint-based scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Zweben, Monte

1993-01-01

The GERRY scheduling system developed by NASA Ames with assistance from the Lockheed Space Operations Company, and the Lockheed Artificial Intelligence Center, uses a method called constraint-based iterative repair. Using this technique, one encodes both hard rules and preference criteria into data structures called constraints. GERRY repeatedly attempts to improve schedules by seeking repairs for violated constraints. The system provides a general scheduling framework which is being tested on two NASA applications. The larger of the two is the Space Shuttle Ground Processing problem which entails the scheduling of all the inspection, repair, and maintenance tasks required to prepare the orbiter for flight. The other application involves power allocation for the NASA Ames wind tunnels. Here the system will be used to schedule wind tunnel tests with the goal of minimizing power costs. In this paper, we describe the GERRY system and its application to the Space Shuttle problem. We also speculate as to how the system would be used for manufacturing, transportation, and military problems.

5 CFR 315.705 - Employees serving under transitional or veterans recruitment appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Employees serving under transitional or veterans recruitment appointments. 315.705 Section 315.705 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF PERSONNEL...-Conditional Employment From Other Types of Employment § 315.705 Employees serving under transitional or...

Mathematical programming and financial objectives for scheduling projects

CERN Document Server

Kimms, Alf

2001-01-01

Mathematical Programming and Financial Objectives for Scheduling Projects focuses on decision problems where the performance is measured in terms of money. As the title suggests, special attention is paid to financial objectives and the relationship of financial objectives to project schedules and scheduling. In addition, how schedules relate to other decisions is treated in detail. The book demonstrates that scheduling must be combined with project selection and financing, and that scheduling helps to give an answer to the planning issue of the amount of resources required for a project. The author makes clear the relevance of scheduling to cutting budget costs. The book is divided into six parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to project management. Part two examines scheduling projects in order to maximize their net present value. Part three considers capital rationing. Many decisions on selecting or rejecting a project cannot be made in isolation and multiple projects must be taken fully into a...

Perceptions of randomized security schedules.

Science.gov (United States)

Scurich, Nicholas; John, Richard S

2014-04-01

Security of infrastructure is a major concern. Traditional security schedules are unable to provide omnipresent coverage; consequently, adversaries can exploit predictable vulnerabilities to their advantage. Randomized security schedules, which randomly deploy security measures, overcome these limitations, but public perceptions of such schedules have not been examined. In this experiment, participants were asked to make a choice between attending a venue that employed a traditional (i.e., search everyone) or a random (i.e., a probability of being searched) security schedule. The absolute probability of detecting contraband was manipulated (i.e., 1/10, 1/4, 1/2) but equivalent between the two schedule types. In general, participants were indifferent to either security schedule, regardless of the probability of detection. The randomized schedule was deemed more convenient, but the traditional schedule was considered fairer and safer. There were no differences between traditional and random schedule in terms of perceived effectiveness or deterrence. Policy implications for the implementation and utilization of randomized schedules are discussed. © 2013 Society for Risk Analysis.

75 FR 44853 - Woodlands Bank, Bluffton, SC; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-29

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Woodlands Bank, Bluffton, SC; Notice of... the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Woodlands Bank, Bluffton, South Carolina (OTS No. 08464), as of...

75 FR 45012 - Turnberry Bank, Aventura, FL; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-30

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Turnberry Bank, Aventura, FL; Notice of... the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Turnberry Bank, Aventura, Florida (OTS No. 08087), on July 16...

Are pregnant women receiving support for smoking dependence when attending routine antenatal appointments?

LENUS (Irish Health Repository)

Cully, G

2010-09-01

Early and consistent intervention with pregnant smokers can reduce the incidence of adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with smoking during pregnancy. A survey of 470 pregnant women was conducted to establish the care they received in relation to smoking whilst attending routine public antenatal appointments. The overall prevalence of smoking was 23.5%. Age, level of education and nationality were associated with smoking status with younger, less educated Irish women being most likely to smoke. Women attending for their first visit were much more likely to be asked about their smoking status 71 (85.5) versus 68 (17.8) and advised to quit if they were smokers 11 (73.3) versus 11 (15.7). None of the women were offered specific assistance to help them stop smoking or had a follow-up appointment arranged specifically to do with smoking. 167 women (35.6) were exposed to passive smoking in their own homes.

Treatment Availability Influences Physicians' Portrayal of Robotic Surgery During Clinical Appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Scherr, Karen A; Fagerlin, Angela; Wei, John T; Williamson, Lillie D; Ubel, Peter A

2017-01-01

In order to empower patients as decision makers, physicians must educate them about their treatment options in a factual, nonbiased manner. We propose that site-specific availability of treatment options may be a novel source of bias, whereby physicians describe treatments more positively when they are available. We performed a content analysis of physicians' descriptions of robotic prostatectomy within 252 appointments at four Veterans Affairs medical centers where robotic surgery was either available or unavailable. We coded how physicians portrayed robotic versus open prostatectomy across specific clinical categories and in the appointment overall. We found that physicians were more likely to describe robotic prostatectomy as superior when it was available [F(1, 42) = 8.65, p = .005]. We also provide initial qualitative evidence that physicians may be shaping their descriptions of robotic prostatectomy in an effort to manage patients' emotions and demand for the robotic technology. To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide empirical evidence that treatment availability influences how physicians describe the advantages and disadvantages of treatment alternatives to patients during clinical encounters, which has important practical implications for patient empowerment and patient satisfaction.

How should periods without social interaction be scheduled? Children's preference for practical schedules of positive reinforcement.

Science.gov (United States)

Luczynski, Kevin C; Hanley, Gregory P

2014-01-01

Several studies have shown that children prefer contingent reinforcement (CR) rather than yoked noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) when continuous reinforcement is programmed in the CR schedule. Preference has not, however, been evaluated for practical schedules that involve CR. In Study 1, we assessed 5 children's preference for obtaining social interaction via a multiple schedule (periods of fixed-ratio 1 reinforcement alternating with periods of extinction), a briefly signaled delayed reinforcement schedule, and an NCR schedule. The multiple schedule promoted the most efficient level of responding. In general, children chose to experience the multiple schedule and avoided the delay and NCR schedules, indicating that they preferred multiple schedules as the means to arrange practical schedules of social interaction. In Study 2, we evaluated potential controlling variables that influenced 1 child's preference for the multiple schedule and found that the strong positive contingency was the primary variable. © Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Analysis and Optimisation of Hierarchically Scheduled Multiprocessor Embedded Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pop, Traian; Pop, Paul; Eles, Petru

2008-01-01

We present an approach to the analysis and optimisation of heterogeneous multiprocessor embedded systems. The systems are heterogeneous not only in terms of hardware components, but also in terms of communication protocols and scheduling policies. When several scheduling policies share a resource......, they are organised in a hierarchy. In this paper, we first develop a holistic scheduling and schedulability analysis that determines the timing properties of a hierarchically scheduled system. Second, we address design problems that are characteristic to such hierarchically scheduled systems: assignment...... of scheduling policies to tasks, mapping of tasks to hardware components, and the scheduling of the activities. We also present several algorithms for solving these problems. Our heuristics are able to find schedulable implementations under limited resources, achieving an efficient utilisation of the system...

The comparison of predictive scheduling algorithms for different sizes of job shop scheduling problems

Science.gov (United States)

Paprocka, I.; Kempa, W. M.; Grabowik, C.; Kalinowski, K.; Krenczyk, D.

2016-08-01

In the paper a survey of predictive and reactive scheduling methods is done in order to evaluate how the ability of prediction of reliability characteristics influences over robustness criteria. The most important reliability characteristics are: Mean Time to Failure, Mean Time of Repair. Survey analysis is done for a job shop scheduling problem. The paper answers the question: what method generates robust schedules in the case of a bottleneck failure occurrence before, at the beginning of planned maintenance actions or after planned maintenance actions? Efficiency of predictive schedules is evaluated using criteria: makespan, total tardiness, flow time, idle time. Efficiency of reactive schedules is evaluated using: solution robustness criterion and quality robustness criterion. This paper is the continuation of the research conducted in the paper [1], where the survey of predictive and reactive scheduling methods is done only for small size scheduling problems.

Attendance at Mental Health Appointments by Women Who Were Referred During Pregnancy or the Postpartum Period.

Science.gov (United States)

Albaugh, Avril S; Friedman, Susan Hatters; Yang, Sarah Nagle; Rosenthal, Miriam

2018-01-01

To describe characteristics of women referred to mental health care during pregnancy or the year after giving birth and to identify characteristics associated with attendance at mental health intake visits. Retrospective record review of referral documentation. Women's health practices and perinatal mental health clinics in urban areas. The sample included 647 women during pregnancy or the year after giving birth who were referred for mental health treatment. We reviewed the referral data sent from women's health care providers to perinatal mental health clinics to determine if mental health visits occurred. Fifty percent of the 647 women who accepted perinatal mental health referrals had intake appointments. Women were more likely to participate in an intake appointment if in-home services were offered (p women who accepted referrals to mental health services, only half attended intake appointments. For this group of pregnant women and those in the first year after birth, in-home mental health visits were most likely to result in care engagement, which has important implications for service delivery. Copyright © 2018 AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Scheduling with Time Lags

NARCIS (Netherlands)

X. Zhang (Xiandong)

2010-01-01

textabstractScheduling is essential when activities need to be allocated to scarce resources over time. Motivated by the problem of scheduling barges along container terminals in the Port of Rotterdam, this thesis designs and analyzes algorithms for various on-line and off-line scheduling problems

17 CFR 249.250 - Form F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers registering securities on...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Form F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers registering securities on Form F-8, F-9, F-10 or F-80 (§ 239.38... F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers registering securities on Form F-8...

Automated Scheduling Via Artificial Intelligence

Science.gov (United States)

Biefeld, Eric W.; Cooper, Lynne P.

1991-01-01

Artificial-intelligence software that automates scheduling developed in Operations Mission Planner (OMP) research project. Software used in both generation of new schedules and modification of existing schedules in view of changes in tasks and/or available resources. Approach based on iterative refinement. Although project focused upon scheduling of operations of scientific instruments and other equipment aboard spacecraft, also applicable to such terrestrial problems as scheduling production in factory.

Parental work schedules and child overweight and obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Champion, S L; Rumbold, A R; Steele, E J; Giles, L C; Davies, M J; Moore, V M

2012-04-01

Studies in school-age children have consistently shown a positive association between maternal paid work hours and child obesity. However, there is conflicting evidence about the impact of maternal work hours scheduled at nonstandard times (for example, evenings, nights or weekends), and no previous examination of paternal work schedules and child weight. We examined the associations between maternal, paternal and combined parental paid work schedules and overweight/obesity in children at age 9 years. Data were analysed from the most recent follow-up of 9-year-old children (n=434) in an Australian birth cohort study. Children were measured and classified as overweight/obese using the International Obesity Taskforce body mass index cutoff points. Current working conditions of parents were obtained from a structured interview with the primary caregiver. Logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the effect of parental work schedules on child overweight/obesity with adjustment for a range of sociodemographic and household factors associated with parental employment and child weight. At 9 years of age, 99 children (22.8%) were overweight or obese. When parental work schedules were examined separately, child overweight/obesity was significantly associated with paternal nonstandard work schedules (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 1.97, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.08-3.61). There was no association with any type of maternal work schedule. We also found an association between child overweight/obesity and circumstances in which both parents worked nonstandard schedules; however, this was of borderline statistical significance in the adjusted models (adjusted OR 2.26, 95% CI 0.99-5.16). Work hours scheduled at nonstandard times, when worked by the father or both parents, were associated with child overweight and obesity. These findings indicate the potential importance of fathers' paid work arrangements for child overweight/obesity, which until recently has largely

Schedule Analytics

Science.gov (United States)

2016-04-30

Warfare, Naval Sea Systems Command Acquisition Cycle Time : Defining the Problem David Tate, Institute for Defense Analyses Schedule Analytics Jennifer...research was comprised of the following high- level steps :  Identify and review primary data sources 1...research. However, detailed reviews of the OMB IT Dashboard data revealed that schedule data is highly aggregated. Program start date and program end date

Prevalence of α(+)-Thalassemia in the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Populations of Damoh District in Madhya Pradesh, Central India.

Science.gov (United States)

Singh, Mendi P S S; Gupta, Rasik B; Yadav, Rajiv; Sharma, Ravendra K; Shanmugam, Rajasubramaniam

2016-08-01

This study was carried out to ascertain the allelic frequency of α(+)-thalassemia (α(+)-thal) in Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe populations of the Damoh district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Random blood samples of Scheduled tribe (267) and Scheduled caste (168), considering the family as a sampling unit, were analyzed for the presence of the -α(3.7) (rightward) (NG_000006.1: g.34164_37967del3804) and -α(4.2) (leftward) (AF221717) deletions. α(+)-Thal was significantly higher in the Scheduled tribals (77.9%) as compared to the scheduled caste population (9.0%). About 58.0% scheduled tribals carried at least one chromosome with the -α(3.7) deletion and 20.0% scheduled tribals carried the -α(4.2) deletion. Frequency for the -α(3.7) allele was 0.487 in the scheduled tribal populations in comparison to 0.021 in scheduled castes. Allelic frequency for -α(4.2) was 0.103 and 0.024, respectively, in the above communities. No Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for α-thal gene (p population, indicating the presence of selection pressures in favor of α-thal mutation and adaptation.

Vehicle and driver scheduling for public transit.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-08-01

The problem of driver scheduling involves the construction of a legal set of shifts, including allowance : of overtime, which cover the blocks in a particular vehicle schedule. A shift is the work scheduled to be performed by : a driver in one day, w...

Staffing, overtime, and shift scheduling project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lewis, P.M.

1989-01-01

Recent events at the Peach Bottom nuclear power plant have demonstrated the need to establish a quantifiable basis for assessing the safety significance of long work hours on nuclear power plant operators. The incidents at TMI-2, Chernobyl, and Bhopal, which all occurred during the late evening/night shift, further highlight the importance of the relationship between shift scheduling and performance. The objective of this project is to estimate, using statistical analysis on data from the nuclear industry, the effects on safety of staffing levels, overtime, and shift scheduling for operators and maintenance personnel. Regarding staffing levels, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) currently has no explicit regulation concerning the minimum acceptable levels of staffing in a plant that has an operating license. The NRC has no systematic method for collecting data on the number of licensed operators on the operating crews. In 1982 the NRC recommended that plants write into their technical specifications a model policy on overtime. Currently, 77 nuclear power plant units have the model policy or a modification of it written into their technical specifications; 33 units have no policy on overtime. The model policy sets limits on overtime for safety related personnel, although these limits can be exceeded with plant manger approval. The US nuclear power industry has three types of shift schedules: (1) forward-rotating 8-hour/day shift schedules, (2) backward-rotating 8-hour/day schedules, and (3) 12-hour/day schedules

Cloud Service Scheduling Algorithm Research and Optimization

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongyan Cui

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We propose a cloud service scheduling model that is referred to as the Task Scheduling System (TSS. In the user module, the process time of each task is in accordance with a general distribution. In the task scheduling module, we take a weighted sum of makespan and flowtime as the objective function and use an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO and a Genetic Algorithm (GA to solve the problem of cloud task scheduling. Simulation results show that the convergence speed and output performance of our Genetic Algorithm-Chaos Ant Colony Optimization (GA-CACO are optimal.

41 CFR 302-2.4 - What is my effective transfer or appointment date?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What is my effective transfer or appointment date? 302-2.4 Section 302-2.4 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System RELOCATION ALLOWANCES INTRODUCTION 2-EMPLOYEES ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS General...

Preemptive scheduling with rejection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoogeveen, H.; Skutella, M.; Woeginger, Gerhard

2003-01-01

We consider the problem of preemptively scheduling a set of n jobs on m (identical, uniformly related, or unrelated) parallel machines. The scheduler may reject a subset of the jobs and thereby incur job-dependent penalties for each rejected job, and he must construct a schedule for the remaining

Preemptive scheduling with rejection

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hoogeveen, J.A.; Skutella, M.; Woeginger, G.J.; Paterson, M.

2000-01-01

We consider the problem of preemptively scheduling a set of n jobs on m (identical, uniformly related, or unrelated) parallel machines. The scheduler may reject a subset of the jobs and thereby incur job-dependent penalties for each rejected job, and he must construct a schedule for the remaining

GSA eLibrary Schedules and Contracts

Data.gov (United States)

General Services Administration — GSA eLibrary (formerly Schedules e-Library) is the online source for the latest contract award information for: GSA Schedules; Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)...

NRC comprehensive records disposition schedule

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-03-01

Title 44 United States Code, ''Public Printing and Documents,'' regulations cited in the General Services Administration's (GSA) ''Federal Information Resources Management Regulations'' (FIRMR), Part 201-9, ''Creation, Maintenance, and Use of Records,'' and regulation issued by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in 36 CFR Chapter XII, Subchapter B, ''Records Management,'' require each agency to prepare and issue a comprehensive records disposition schedule that contains the NARA approved records disposition schedules for records unique to the agency and contains the NARA's General Records Schedules for records common to several or all agencies. The approved records disposition schedules specify the appropriate duration of retention and the final disposition for records created or maintained by the NRC. NUREG-0910, Rev. 2, contains ''NRC's Comprehensive Records Disposition Schedule,'' and the original authorized approved citation numbers issued by NARA. Rev. 2 totally reorganizes the records schedules from a functional arrangement to an arrangement by the host office. A subject index and a conversion table have also been developed for the NRC schedules to allow staff to identify the new schedule numbers easily and to improve their ability to locate applicable schedules

Mission Operations Planning and Scheduling System (MOPSS)

Science.gov (United States)

Wood, Terri; Hempel, Paul

2011-01-01

MOPSS is a generic framework that can be configured on the fly to support a wide range of planning and scheduling applications. It is currently used to support seven missions at Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in roles that include science planning, mission planning, and real-time control. Prior to MOPSS, each spacecraft project built its own planning and scheduling capability to plan satellite activities and communications and to create the commands to be uplinked to the spacecraft. This approach required creating a data repository for storing planning and scheduling information, building user interfaces to display data, generating needed scheduling algorithms, and implementing customized external interfaces. Complex scheduling problems that involved reacting to multiple variable situations were analyzed manually. Operators then used the results to add commands to the schedule. Each architecture was unique to specific satellite requirements. MOPSS is an expert system that automates mission operations and frees the flight operations team to concentrate on critical activities. It is easily reconfigured by the flight operations team as the mission evolves. The heart of the system is a custom object-oriented data layer mapped onto an Oracle relational database. The combination of these two technologies allows a user or system engineer to capture any type of scheduling or planning data in the system's generic data storage via a GUI.

Experiences and reflections of patients with motor neuron disease on breaking the news in a two-tiered appointment: a qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Seeber, Antje A; Pols, A Jeannette; Hijdra, Albert; Grupstra, Hepke F; Willems, Dick L; de Visser, Marianne

2016-02-02

Breaking bad news should be fine-tuned to the individual patient, contain intelligible information, include emotional support and offer a tailor-made treatment plan. To achieve this goal in motor neuron disease (MND), neurologists of the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) centre Amsterdam deliver the message on 2 separate visits within 14 days. To evaluate how patients with MND react to and view disclosure of the diagnosis, in this 2-tiered approach. Non-participating observations and in-depth interviews with patients were conducted in 1 tertiary ALS referral centre. Qualitative analysis consisted of inductive analysis of observation reports and verbatim typed out interviews. 10 2-tiered appointments were observed and 21 Dutch patients with MND interviewed. They experienced the straightforward message to be suffering from a fatal disease as devastating, yet unavoidable. The prospect of a short-term second appointment offered structure for the period immediately following the diagnosis. The time between appointments provided the opportunity for a first reorientation on their changed perspective on their life. The second appointment allowed for detailed discussions about various aspects of MND and a tailor-made treatment plan. The 2-tiered approach fits well with the way in which Dutch patients with MND process the disclosure of their diagnosis, gather information and handle the changed perspective on their life. It may serve as a model for other life-limiting diseases. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

78 FR 12219 - Excepted Service-Appointment of Persons With Intellectual Disabilities, Severe Physical...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-02-22

...;Prices of new books are listed in the first FEDERAL REGISTER issue of each #0;week. #0; #0; #0; #0;#0... appointment of people with mental retardation, severe physical disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities. As... a particular work environment. Persons with disabilities today, however, often have work...

Peer Assessment and Compliance Review (PACR) Innovative Strategies Report. California Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Programs

Science.gov (United States)

Macro, Bronwen; Huang, Lee Ann

2005-01-01

This report focuses on the innovative strategies study component of the Peer Assessment and Compliance Review (PACR) project. California (Court Appointed Special Advocates) CASA programs have developed many innovative strategies to serve children in their communities. At each of the programs visited during the PACR project, the team identified at…

48 CFR 1815.207-71 - Appointing non-Government evaluators as special Government employees.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

...; (2) Unsolicited proposals; and (3) SBIR and STTR proposals. [63 FR 9954, Feb. 27, 1998, as amended at... BY NEGOTIATION Solicitation and Receipt of Proposals and Information 1815.207-71 Appointing non... employee shall be made by: (1) The NASA Headquarters personnel office when the release of proposal...

17 CFR 269.5 - Form F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers registering securities on...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... 17 Commodity and Securities Exchanges 3 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Form F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers registering securities on Form F-8, F-9, F-10 or F-80 (§§ 239... INDENTURE ACT OF 1939 § 269.5 Form F-X, for appointment of agent for service of process by issuers...

NASA Schedule Management Handbook

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

The purpose of schedule management is to provide the framework for time-phasing, resource planning, coordination, and communicating the necessary tasks within a work effort. The intent is to improve schedule management by providing recommended concepts, processes, and techniques used within the Agency and private industry. The intended function of this handbook is two-fold: first, to provide guidance for meeting the scheduling requirements contained in NPR 7120.5, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements, NPR 7120.7, NASA Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure Program and Project Requirements, NPR 7120.8, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements, and NPD 1000.5, Policy for NASA Acquisition. The second function is to describe the schedule management approach and the recommended best practices for carrying out this project control function. With regards to the above project management requirements documents, it should be noted that those space flight projects previously established and approved under the guidance of prior versions of NPR 7120.5 will continue to comply with those requirements until project completion has been achieved. This handbook will be updated as needed, to enhance efficient and effective schedule management across the Agency. It is acknowledged that most, if not all, external organizations participating in NASA programs/projects will have their own internal schedule management documents. Issues that arise from conflicting schedule guidance will be resolved on a case by case basis as contracts and partnering relationships are established. It is also acknowledged and understood that all projects are not the same and may require different levels of schedule visibility, scrutiny and control. Project type, value, and complexity are factors that typically dictate which schedule management practices should be employed.

A model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.

Science.gov (United States)

Seekoe, Eunice

2014-04-24

South Africa transformed higher education through the enactment of the Higher Education Act (No. 101 of 1997). The researcher identified the need to develop a model for the mentoring of newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.  To develop and describe the model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.  A qualitative and theory-generating design was used (following empirical findings regarding needs analysis) in order to develop the model. The conceptualisation of the framework focused on the context, content, process and the theoretical domains that influenced the model. Ideas from different theories were borrowed from and integrated with the literature and deductive and inductive strategies were applied.  The structure of the model is multidimensional and complex in nature (macro, mesoand micro) based on the philosophy of reflective practice, competency-based practice andcritical learning theories. The assumptions are in relation to stakeholders, context, mentoring, outcome, process and dynamic. The stakeholders are the mentor and mentee within an interactive participatory relationship. The mentoring takes place within the process with a sequence of activities such as relationship building, development, engagement, reflective process and assessment. Capacity building and empowerment are outcomes of mentoring driven by motivation.  The implication for nurse managers is that the model can be used to develop mentoring programmes for newly-appointed nurse educators.

PROMSYS, Plant Equipment Maintenance and Inspection Scheduling

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morgan, D.L.; Srite, B.E.

1986-01-01

1 - Description of problem or function: PROMSYS is a computer system designed to automate the scheduling of routine maintenance and inspection of plant equipment. This 'programmed maintenance' provides the detailed planning and accomplishment of lubrication, inspection, and similar repetitive maintenance activities which can be scheduled at specified predetermined intervals throughout the year. The equipment items included are the typical pumps, blowers, motors, compressors, automotive equipment, refrigeration units, filtering systems, machine shop equipment, cranes, elevators, motor-generator sets, and electrical switchgear found throughout industry, as well as cell ventilation, shielding, containment, and material handling equipment unique to nuclear research and development facilities. Four related programs are used to produce sorted schedule lists, delinquent work lists, and optional master lists. Five additional programs are used to create and maintain records of all scheduled and unscheduled maintenance history. 2 - Method of solution: Service specifications and frequency are established and stored. The computer program reviews schedules weekly and prints, on schedule cards, instructions for service that is due the following week. The basic output from the computer program comes in two forms: programmed-maintenance schedule cards and programmed-maintenance data sheets. The data sheets can be issued in numerical building, route, and location number sequence as equipment lists, grouped for work assigned to a particular foreman as the foreman's equipment list, or grouped by work charged to a particular work order as the work-order list. Data sheets grouped by equipment classification are called the equipment classification list

Diversity begets diversity? The effects of board composition on the appointment and success of women CEOs.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Alison; Glass, Christy

2015-09-01

Previous research on the effects of leadership diversity on firm outcomes has produced inconsistent and inconclusive findings. While some scholars argue that diversity increases organizational equity and enhances performance, others argue that diversity increases conflict, reduces cooperation and harms performance. This study tests the impact of a variety of compositional factors on firm outcomes. Specifically, we analyze whether and how board composition affects the advancement and mobility of women CEOs and firm performance. Our analysis relies on a unique data set of all Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Board of Directors (BODs) in Fortune 500 companies over a ten-year period. We find a marginally significant positive relationship between board diversity and the likelihood of a woman being appointed CEO. We further find that board diversity significantly and positively influences the post-promotion success of women CEOs. Our findings suggest that board composition is critical for the appointment and success of women CEOs, and increasing board diversity should be central to any organizational diversity efforts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

76 FR 28130 - Coastal Bank, Cocoa Beach, Florida; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2011-05-13

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Coastal Bank, Cocoa Beach, Florida; Notice of Appointment of Receiver Notice is hereby given that, pursuant to the authority contained in... Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Coastal Bank, Cocoa Beach, Florida, (OTS No...

76 FR 35086 - Atlantic Bank & Trust, Charleston, SC; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-15

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Atlantic Bank & Trust, Charleston, SC... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Atlantic Bank & Trust, Charleston, South...

Departure Queue Prediction for Strategic and Tactical Surface Scheduler Integration

Science.gov (United States)

Zelinski, Shannon; Windhorst, Robert

2016-01-01

A departure metering concept to be demonstrated at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) will integrate strategic and tactical surface scheduling components to enable the respective collaborative decision making and improved efficiency benefits these two methods of scheduling provide. This study analyzes the effect of tactical scheduling on strategic scheduler predictability. Strategic queue predictions and target gate pushback times to achieve a desired queue length are compared between fast time simulations of CLT surface operations with and without tactical scheduling. The use of variable departure rates as a strategic scheduler input was shown to substantially improve queue predictions over static departure rates. With target queue length calibration, the strategic scheduler can be tuned to produce average delays within one minute of the tactical scheduler. However, root mean square differences between strategic and tactical delays were between 12 and 15 minutes due to the different methods the strategic and tactical schedulers use to predict takeoff times and generate gate pushback clearances. This demonstrates how difficult it is for the strategic scheduler to predict tactical scheduler assigned gate delays on an individual flight basis as the tactical scheduler adjusts departure sequence to accommodate arrival interactions. Strategic/tactical scheduler compatibility may be improved by providing more arrival information to the strategic scheduler and stabilizing tactical scheduler changes to runway sequence in response to arrivals.

New Editors Appointed for Sections of Journal of Geophysical Research

Science.gov (United States)

2009-04-01

New editors have been appointed for the Atmospheres, Biogeosciences, and Oceans sections of the Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). Joost de Gouw (NOAA, Boulder, Colo.) and Renyi Zhang (Texas A&M, College Station) are filling the vacancies of retiring Atmospheres section editors John Austin and Jose Fuentes. De Gouw and Zhang join the continuing editors Steven Ghan and Yinon Rudich. Sara Pryor (Indiana University, Bloomington) is joining the Atmospheres section editorial board as an associate editor now; she will transition to editor in January 2010.

A CRISE DO MEIO AMBIENTE ENTRE AS VÁRIAS AGENDAS CONTEMPORÂNEAS / THE CRISIS OF ENVIROMENT BETWEEN DIFERENT APPOINTMENTS CONTEMPORARY

OpenAIRE

Boaz Antonio de Vasconcelos Lopes

2009-01-01

In this paper are showing the main appointments for the management of natural resources while uncovering the internal contradictions of the whole process of socio-environmental. was chosen an approach which identifies the following categories of analysis: vision, procedure, instrument, key players and space. then, with the referrals are characterized as follows appointments of environmental management: theory of pigou, coase's thesis, thesis of the integrated management of natural resources a...

22 CFR 11.5 - Certification for appointment to class 7 or 8.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... abroad (to a maximum of 2 years of such civilian service), or Peace Corps volunteer service, will be... examination in a foreign language, but the appointment will be subject to the condition that the newly..., adequate proficiency in a foreign language is achieved. (22 U.S.C. 1221 et seq.) [37 FR 19356, Sept. 20...

An improved sheep flock heredity algorithm for job shop scheduling and flow shop scheduling problems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chandramouli Anandaraman

2011-10-01

Full Text Available Job Shop Scheduling Problem (JSSP and Flow Shop Scheduling Problem (FSSP are strong NP-complete combinatorial optimization problems among class of typical production scheduling problems. An improved Sheep Flock Heredity Algorithm (ISFHA is proposed in this paper to find a schedule of operations that can minimize makespan. In ISFHA, the pairwise mutation operation is replaced by a single point mutation process with a probabilistic property which guarantees the feasibility of the solutions in the local search domain. A Robust-Replace (R-R heuristic is introduced in place of chromosomal crossover to enhance the global search and to improve the convergence. The R-R heuristic is found to enhance the exploring potential of the algorithm and enrich the diversity of neighborhoods. Experimental results reveal the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, whose optimization performance is markedly superior to that of genetic algorithms and is comparable to the best results reported in the literature.

77 FR 40341 - Proposed Information Collection; Comment Request; Application for Appointment in the NOAA...

Science.gov (United States)

2012-07-09

... Collection; Comment Request; Application for Appointment in the NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps AGENCY: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce. ACTION: Notice. SUMMARY: The Department... and instructions should be directed to Eric Johnson, (301) 713-7727 or [email protected]noaa.gov...

Project Schedule Simulation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Mizouni, Rabeb; Lazarova-Molnar, Sanja

2015-01-01

overrun both their budget and time. To improve the quality of initial project plans, we show in this paper the importance of (1) reflecting features’ priorities/risk in task schedules and (2) considering uncertainties related to human factors in plan schedules. To make simulation tasks reflect features......’ priority as well as multimodal team allocation, enhanced project schedules (EPS), where remedial actions scenarios (RAS) are added, were introduced. They reflect potential schedule modifications in case of uncertainties and promote a dynamic sequencing of involved tasks rather than the static conventional...... this document as an instruction set. The electronic file of your paper will be formatted further at Journal of Software. Define all symbols used in the abstract. Do not cite references in the abstract. Do not delete the blank line immediately above the abstract; it sets the footnote at the bottom of this column....

Optimal investment and scheduling of distributed energy resources with uncertainty in electric vehicles driving schedules

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cardoso, Goncalo [Technical Univ. of Lisbon (Portugal); Stadler, Michael [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Center for Energy and Innovation Technologies (Austria); Bozchalui, Mohammed C. [NEC Laboratories American Inc., Irving, TX (United States); Sharma, Ratnesh [NEC Laboratories American Inc., Irving, TX (United States); Marnay, Chris [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Barbosa-Povoa, Ana [Technical Univ. of Lisbon (Portugal); Ferrao, Paulo [Technical Univ. of Lisbon (Portugal)

2013-12-06

The large scale penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) will introduce technical challenges to the distribution grid, but also carries the potential for vehicle-to-grid services. Namely, if available in large enough numbers, EVs can be used as a distributed energy resource (DER) and their presence can influence optimal DER investment and scheduling decisions in microgrids. In this work, a novel EV fleet aggregator model is introduced in a stochastic formulation of DER-CAM [1], an optimization tool used to address DER investment and scheduling problems. This is used to assess the impact of EV interconnections on optimal DER solutions considering uncertainty in EV driving schedules. Optimization results indicate that EVs can have a significant impact on DER investments, particularly if considering short payback periods. Furthermore, results suggest that uncertainty in driving schedules carries little significance to total energy costs, which is corroborated by results obtained using the stochastic formulation of the problem.

Integrated multi-resource planning and scheduling in engineering project

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Samer Ben Issa

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Planning and scheduling processes in project management are carried out sequentially in prac-tice, i.e. planning project activities first without visibility of resource limitation, and then schedul-ing the project according to these pre-planned activities. This is a need to integrate these two pro-cesses. In this paper, we use Branch and Bound approach for generating all the feasible and non-feasible project schedules with/without activity splitting, and with a new criterion called “the Minimum Moments of Resources Required around X-Y axes (MMORR”, we select the best feasible project schedule to integrate plan processing and schedule processing for engineering projects. The results illustrate that this integrated approach can effectively select the best feasible project schedule among alternatives, improves the resource utilization, and shortens the project lead time.

76 FR 5432 - United Western Bank Denver, Colorado; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-31

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision United Western Bank Denver, Colorado... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for United Western Bank, Denver, Colorado, (OTS No...

NRC comprehensive records disposition schedule

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1982-07-01

Effective January 1, 1982, NRC will institute records retention and disposal practices in accordance with the approved Comprehensive Records Disposition Schedule (CRDS). CRDS is comprised of NRC Schedules (NRCS) 1 to 4 which apply to the agency's program or substantive records and General Records Schedules (GRS) 1 to 22 which apply to housekeeping or facilitative records. The schedules are assembled functionally/organizationally to facilitate their use. Preceding the records descriptions and disposition instructions for both NRCS and GRS, there are brief statements on the organizational units which accumulate the records in each functional area, and other information regarding the schedules' applicability

DME Prosthetics Orthotics, and Supplies Fee Schedule

Data.gov (United States)

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics-Orthotics, and Supplies Fee Schedule. The list contains the fee schedule amounts, floors, and ceilings for all procedure codes...

Planning and Scheduling for Environmental Sensor Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Frank, J. D.

2005-12-01

Environmental Sensor Networks are a new way of monitoring the environment. They comprise autonomous sensor nodes in the environment that record real-time data, which is retrieved, analyzed, integrated with other data sets (e.g. satellite images, GIS, process models) and ultimately lead to scientific discoveries. Sensor networks must operate within time and resource constraints. Sensors have limited onboard memory, energy, computational power, communications windows and communications bandwidth. The value of data will depend on when, where and how it was collected, how detailed the data is, how long it takes to integrate the data, and how important the data was to the original scientific question. Planning and scheduling of sensor networks is necessary for effective, safe operations in the face of these constraints. For example, power bus limitations may preclude sensors from simultaneously collecting data and communicating without damaging the sensor; planners and schedulers can ensure these operations are ordered so that they do not happen simultaneously. Planning and scheduling can also ensure best use of the sensor network to maximize the value of collected science data. For example, if data is best recorded using a particular camera angle but it is costly in time and energy to achieve this, planners and schedulers can search for times when time and energy are available to achieve the optimal camera angle. Planning and scheduling can handle uncertainty in the problem specification; planners can be re-run when new information is made available, or can generate plans that include contingencies. For example, if bad weather may prevent the collection of data, a contingent plan can check lighting conditions and turn off data collection to save resources if lighting is not ideal. Both mobile and immobile sensors can benefit from planning and scheduling. For example, data collection on otherwise passive sensors can be halted to preserve limited power and memory

Administrative Circular No. 30 (Rev. 3) - “Financial benefits on taking up appointment and on termination of contract”

CERN Multimedia

2013-01-01

Administrative Circular No. 30 (Rev. 3) entitled “Financial benefits on taking up appointment and on termination of contract”, approved by the Director-General following discussion at the Standing Concertation Committee meeting of 27 June 2013 and entering into force on 1 August 2013, is available on the intranet site of the Human Resources Department (see here).   Administrative Circular No. 30 (Rev. 3) is applicable to all members of the personnel. It cancels and replaces Administrative Circular No. 30 (Rev. 2/Corr.) entitled "Financial benefits on taking up appointment and on termination of contract” of September 2009. This circular was revised in order to implement the modifications introduced into the Staff Rules and Regulations in January 2013 relating to the introduction of the status of Associate Member States and new categories of associated members of the personnel. In particular, the notion of “Member State” in Annexe II (&a...

75 FR 33389 - TierOne Bank Lincoln, Nebraska; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2010-06-11

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision TierOne Bank Lincoln, Nebraska; Notice of... the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for TierOne Bank, Lincoln, Nebraska, (OTS No. 03309), on June 4, 2010...

A model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eunice Seekoe

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Background: South Africa transformed higher education through the enactment of the Higher Education Act (No. 101 of 1997. The researcher identified the need to develop a model for the mentoring of newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa. Objectives: To develop and describe the model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa. Method: A qualitative and theory-generating design was used (following empirical findings regarding needs analysis in order to develop the model. The conceptualisation of the framework focused on the context, content, process and the theoretical domains that influenced the model. Ideas from different theories were borrowed from and integrated with the literature and deductive and inductive strategies were applied. Results: The structure of the model is multidimensional and complex in nature (macro, mesoand micro based on the philosophy of reflective practice, competency-based practice andcritical learning theories. The assumptions are in relation to stakeholders, context, mentoring, outcome, process and dynamic. The stakeholders are the mentor and mentee within an interactive participatory relationship. The mentoring takes place within the process with a sequence of activities such as relationship building, development, engagement, reflective process and assessment. Capacity building and empowerment are outcomes of mentoring driven by motivation. Conclusion: The implication for nurse managers is that the model can be used to develop mentoring programmes for newly-appointed nurse educators.

Project schedule and cost estimate report

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1988-03-01

All cost tables represent obligation dollars, at both a constant FY 1987 level and an estimated escalation level, and are based on the FY 1989 DOE Congressional Budget submittal of December 1987. The cost tables display the total UMTRA Project estimated costs, which include both Federal and state funding. The Total Estimated Cost (TEC) for the UMTRA Project is approximately $992.5 million (in 1987 escalated dollars). Project schedules have been developed that provide for Project completion by September 1994, subject to Congressional approval extending DOE's authorization under Public Law 95-604. The report contains site-specific demographic data, conceptual design assumptions, preliminary cost estimates, and site schedules. A general project overview is also presented, which includes a discussion of the basis for the schedule and cost estimates, contingency assumptions, work breakdown structure, and potential project risks. The schedules and cost estimates will be revised as necessary to reflect appropriate decisions relating to relocation of certain tailings piles, or other special design considerations or circumstances (such as revised EPA groundwater standards), and changes in the Project mission. 27 figs', 97 tabs

Administrative Circular No. 2 (Rev. 7) - Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members

CERN Multimedia

2015-01-01

Administrative Circular No. 2 (Rev. 7), entitled "Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members", approved by the Director-General following discussion at the Standing Concertation Committee meeting held on 17 February 2015 is available via the following link: AC No. 2 (Rev.7).   This revised circular cancels and replaces Administrative Circular No. 2 (Rev. 6), entitled "Recruitment, appointment and possible developments regarding the contractual position of staff members" and dated January 2015. The circular was revised in order to implement the amendment to Article R II 1.17 of the Staff Regulations, which introduces the possibility of extending limited-duration (LD) contracts up to a maximum total duration of eight years from the previous duration of five years. The award of indefinite contracts will continue to be subject to the outcome of a competitive process. Department Head Of...

12 CFR 1777.28 - Appointment of conservator for a significantly undercapitalized or critically undercapitalized...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... appointment of a conservator would have serious adverse effects on economic conditions of national financial markets or on the financial stability of the housing finance market; and (ii) The public interest would be... FEDERAL HOUSING ENTERPRISE OVERSIGHT, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT SAFETY AND SOUNDNESS...

Genetic algorithm to solve the problems of lectures and practicums scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Syahputra, M. F.; Apriani, R.; Sawaluddin; Abdullah, D.; Albra, W.; Heikal, M.; Abdurrahman, A.; Khaddafi, M.

2018-02-01

Generally, the scheduling process is done manually. However, this method has a low accuracy level, along with possibilities that a scheduled process collides with another scheduled process. When doing theory class and practicum timetable scheduling process, there are numerous problems, such as lecturer teaching schedule collision, schedule collision with another schedule, practicum lesson schedules that collides with theory class, and the number of classrooms available. In this research, genetic algorithm is implemented to perform theory class and practicum timetable scheduling process. The algorithm will be used to process the data containing lists of lecturers, courses, and class rooms, obtained from information technology department at University of Sumatera Utara. The result of scheduling process using genetic algorithm is the most optimal timetable that conforms to available time slots, class rooms, courses, and lecturer schedules.

Endogenous scheduling preferences and congestion

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Fosgerau, Mogens; Small, Kenneth

2010-01-01

and leisure, but agglomeration economies at home and at work lead to scheduling preferences forming endogenously. Using bottleneck congestion technology, we obtain an equilibrium queuing pattern consistent with a general version of the Vickrey bottleneck model. However, the policy implications are different....... Compared to the predictions of an analyst observing untolled equilibrium and taking scheduling preferences as exogenous, we find that both the optimal capacity and the marginal external cost of congestion have changed. The benefits of tolling are greater, and the optimal time varying toll is different....

Gain scheduling using the Youla parameterization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Niemann, Hans Henrik; Stoustrup, Jakob

1999-01-01

Gain scheduling controllers are considered in this paper. The gain scheduling problem where the scheduling parameter vector cannot be measured directly, but needs to be estimated is considered. An estimation of the scheduling vector has been derived by using the Youla parameterization. The use...... in connection with H_inf gain scheduling controllers....

Self-scheduling with Microsoft Excel.

Science.gov (United States)

Irvin, S A; Brown, H N

1999-01-01

Excessive time was being spent by the emergency department (ED) staff, head nurse, and unit secretary on a complex 6-week manual self-scheduling system. This issue, plus inevitable errors and staff dissatisfaction, resulted in a manager-lead initiative to automate elements of the scheduling process using Microsoft Excel. The implementation of this initiative included: common coding of all 8-hour and 12-hour shifts, with each 4-hour period represented by a cell; the creation of a 6-week master schedule using the "count-if" function of Excel based on current staffing guidelines; staff time-off requests then entered by the department secretary; the head nurse, with staff input, then fine-tuned the schedule to provide even unit coverage. Outcomes of these changes included an increase in staff satisfaction, time saved by the head nurse, and staff work time saved because there was less arguing about the schedule. Ultimately, the automated self-scheduling method was expanded to the entire 700-bed hospital.

Shared Medical Appointments marginally enhance interaction between patients: an observational study on children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Noordman, J.; Dulmen, S. van

2013-01-01

Objective: To examine informational and emotional patient–provider and patient–patient communication sequences (i.e. cues and subsequent responses) during Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) for children and adolescents with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) and their parents. Methods: 57

Multiple-Machine Scheduling with Learning Effects and Cooperative Games

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yiyuan Zhou

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Multiple-machine scheduling problems with position-based learning effects are studied in this paper. There is an initial schedule in this scheduling problem. The optimal schedule minimizes the sum of the weighted completion times; the difference between the initial total weighted completion time and the minimal total weighted completion time is the cost savings. A multiple-machine sequencing game is introduced to allocate the cost savings. The game is balanced if the normal processing times of jobs that are on the same machine are equal and an equal number of jobs are scheduled on each machine initially.

Horace Lamb and the circumstances of his appointment at Owens College

Science.gov (United States)

Launder, Brian

2013-01-01

This paper examines a succession of incidents at a critical juncture in the life of Professor Horace Lamb FRS, a highly regarded classical fluid mechanicist, who, over a period of some 35 years at Manchester, made notable contributions in research, in education and in wise administration at both national and university levels. Drawing on archived documents from the universities of Manchester and Adelaide, the article presents the unusual sequence of events that led to his removing from Adelaide, South Australia, where he had served for nine years as the Elder Professor of Mathematics, to Manchester. In 1885 he was initially appointed to the vacant Chair of Pure Mathematics at Owens College and then, in 1888, as an outcome of his proposal for rearranging professorial responsibilities, to the Beyer Professorship of Pure and Applied Mathematics.

A master surgical scheduling approach for cyclic scheduling in operating room departments

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Oostrum, Jeroen M.; van Houdenhoven, M.; Hurink, Johann L.; Hans, Elias W.; Wullink, Gerhard; Kazemier, G.

This paper addresses the problem of operating room (OR) scheduling at the tactical level of hospital planning and control. Hospitals repetitively construct operating room schedules, which is a time-consuming, tedious, and complex task. The stochasticity of the durations of surgical procedures

Nontraditional work schedules for pharmacists.

Science.gov (United States)

Mahaney, Lynnae; Sanborn, Michael; Alexander, Emily

2008-11-15

Nontraditional work schedules for pharmacists at three institutions are described. The demand for pharmacists and health care in general continues to increase, yet significant material changes are occurring in the pharmacy work force. These changing demographics, coupled with historical vacancy rates and turnover trends for pharmacy staff, require an increased emphasis on workplace changes that can improve staff recruitment and retention. At William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Affairs Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, creative pharmacist work schedules and roles are now mainstays to the recruitment and retention of staff. The major challenge that such scheduling presents is the 8 hours needed to prepare a six-week schedule. Baylor Medical Center at Grapevine in Dallas, Texas, has a total of 45 pharmacy employees, and slightly less than half of the 24.5 full-time-equivalent staff work full-time, with most preferring to work one, two, or three days per week. As long as the coverage needs of the facility are met, Envision Telepharmacy in Alpine, Texas, allows almost any scheduling arrangement preferred by individual pharmacists or the pharmacist group covering the facility. Staffing involves a great variety of shift lengths and intervals, with shifts ranging from 2 to 10 hours. Pharmacy leaders must be increasingly aware of opportunities to provide staff with unique scheduling and operational enhancements that can provide for a better work-life balance. Compressed workweeks, job-sharing, and team scheduling were the most common types of alternative work schedules implemented at three different institutions.

Integrated network design and scheduling problems :

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nurre, Sarah G.; Carlson, Jeffrey J.

2014-01-01

We consider the class of integrated network design and scheduling problems. These problems focus on selecting and scheduling operations that will change the characteristics of a network, while being speci cally concerned with the performance of the network over time. Motivating applications of INDS problems include infrastructure restoration after extreme events and building humanitarian distribution supply chains. While similar models have been proposed, no one has performed an extensive review of INDS problems from their complexity, network and scheduling characteristics, information, and solution methods. We examine INDS problems under a parallel identical machine scheduling environment where the performance of the network is evaluated by solving classic network optimization problems. We classify that all considered INDS problems as NP-Hard and propose a novel heuristic dispatching rule algorithm that selects and schedules sets of arcs based on their interactions in the network. We present computational analysis based on realistic data sets representing the infrastructures of coastal New Hanover County, North Carolina, lower Manhattan, New York, and a realistic arti cial community CLARC County. These tests demonstrate the importance of a dispatching rule to arrive at near-optimal solutions during real-time decision making activities. We extend INDS problems to incorporate release dates which represent the earliest an operation can be performed and exible release dates through the introduction of specialized machine(s) that can perform work to move the release date earlier in time. An online optimization setting is explored where the release date of a component is not known.

Immunization Schedules for Adults

Science.gov (United States)

... ACIP Vaccination Recommendations Why Immunize? Vaccines: The Basics Immunization Schedule for Adults (19 Years of Age and ... diseases that can be prevented by vaccines . 2018 Immunization Schedule Recommended Vaccinations for Adults by Age and ...

A CRISE DO MEIO AMBIENTE ENTRE AS VÁRIAS AGENDAS CONTEMPORÂNEAS / THE CRISIS OF ENVIROMENT BETWEEN DIFERENT APPOINTMENTS CONTEMPORARY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boaz Antonio de Vasconcelos Lopes

2009-12-01

Full Text Available In this paper are showing the main appointments for the management of natural resources while uncovering the internal contradictions of the whole process of socio-environmental. was chosen an approach which identifies the following categories of analysis: vision, procedure, instrument, key players and space. then, with the referrals are characterized as follows appointments of environmental management: theory of pigou, coase's thesis, thesis of the integrated management of natural resources and the radical critique of the model of production and current consumption.

Optimal investment and scheduling of distributed energy resources with uncertainty in electric vehicle driving schedules

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cardoso, G.; Stadler, M.; Bozchalui, M.C.; Sharma, R.; Marnay, C.; Barbosa-Póvoa, A.; Ferrão, P.

2014-01-01

The large scale penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) will introduce technical challenges to the distribution grid, but also carries the potential for vehicle-to-grid services. Namely, if available in large enough numbers, EVs can be used as a distributed energy resource (DER) and their presence can influence optimal DER investment and scheduling decisions in microgrids. In this work, a novel EV fleet aggregator model is introduced in a stochastic formulation of DER-CAM [1], an optimization tool used to address DER investment and scheduling problems. This is used to assess the impact of EV interconnections on optimal DER solutions considering uncertainty in EV driving schedules. Optimization results indicate that EVs can have a significant impact on DER investments, particularly if considering short payback periods. Furthermore, results suggest that uncertainty in driving schedules carries little significance to total energy costs, which is corroborated by results obtained using the stochastic formulation of the problem. - Highlights: • This paper introduces a new EV aggregator model in the DER-CAM model and expands it with a stochastic formulation. • The model is used to analyze the impact of EVs in DER investment decisions in a large office building. • The uncertainty in EV driving patterns is considered through scenarios based on data from a daily commute driving survey. • Results indicate that EVs have a significant impact in optimal DER decisions, particularly when looking at short payback periods. • Furthermore, results indicate that uncertainty in EV driving schedules has little impact on DER investment decisions

75 FR 45011 - Olde Cypress Community Bank, Clewiston, FL; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

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2010-07-30

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Olde Cypress Community Bank, Clewiston, FL... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Olde Cypress Community Bank, Clewiston, Florida...

75 FR 65404 - Security Savings Bank, FSB; Olathe, KS; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

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2010-10-22

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Security Savings Bank, FSB; Olathe, KS... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Security Savings Bank, FSB, Olathe...

75 FR 41927 - Ideal Federal Savings Bank, Baltimore, Maryland; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

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2010-07-19

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Ideal Federal Savings Bank, Baltimore... contained in section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Ideal Federal Savings Bank...

Bridging the Gap Between Planning and Scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, David E.; Frank, Jeremy; Jonsson, Ari K.; Norvig, Peter (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Planning research in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has often focused on problems where there are cascading levels of action choice and complex interactions between actions. In contrast. Scheduling research has focused on much larger problems where there is little action choice, but the resulting ordering problem is hard. In this paper, we give an overview of M planning and scheduling techniques, focusing on their similarities, differences, and limitations. We also argue that many difficult practical problems lie somewhere between planning and scheduling, and that neither area has the right set of tools for solving these vexing problems.

Multiresource allocation and scheduling for periodic soft real-time applications

Science.gov (United States)

Gopalan, Kartik; Chiueh, Tzi-cker

2001-12-01

Real-time applications that utilize multiple system resources, such as CPU, disks, and network links, require coordinated scheduling of these resources in order to meet their end-to-end performance requirements. Most state-of-the-art operating systems support independent resource allocation and deadline-driven scheduling but lack coordination among multiple heterogeneous resources. This paper describes the design and implementation of an Integrated Real-time Resource Scheduler (IRS) that performs coordinated allocation and scheduling of multiple heterogeneous resources on the same machine for periodic soft real-time application. The principal feature of IRS is a heuristic multi-resource allocation algorithm that reserves multiple resources for real-time applications in a manner that can maximize the number of applications admitted into the system in the long run. At run-time, a global scheduler dispatches the tasks of the soft real-time application to individual resource schedulers according to the precedence constraints between tasks. The individual resource schedulers, which could be any deadline based schedulers, can make scheduling decisions locally and yet collectively satisfy a real-time application's performance requirements. The tightness of overall timing guarantees is ultimately determined by the properties of individual resource schedulers. However, IRS maximizes overall system resource utilization efficiency by coordinating deadline assignment across multiple tasks in a soft real-time application.

BIM-BASED SCHEDULING OF CONSTRUCTION

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersson, Niclas; Büchmann-Slorup, Rolf

2010-01-01

The potential of BIM is generally recognized in the construction industry, but the practical application of BIM for management purposes is, however, still limited among contractors. The objective of this study is to review the current scheduling process of construction in light of BIM...... and communicate. Scheduling on the detailed level, on the other hand, follows a stipulated approach to scheduling, i.e. the Last Planner System (LPS), which is characterized by involvement of all actors in the construction phase. Thus, the major challenge when implementing BIM-based scheduling is to improve...

Approximating Preemptive Stochastic Scheduling

OpenAIRE

Megow Nicole; Vredeveld Tjark

2009-01-01

We present constant approximative policies for preemptive stochastic scheduling. We derive policies with a guaranteed performance ratio of 2 for scheduling jobs with release dates on identical parallel machines subject to minimizing the sum of weighted completion times. Our policies as well as their analysis apply also to the recently introduced more general model of stochastic online scheduling. The performance guarantee we give matches the best result known for the corresponding determinist...

Network scheduling at Belene NPP construction site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matveev, A.

2010-01-01

Four types of schedules differing in the level of their detail are singled out to enhance the efficiency of Belene NPP Project implementation planning and monitoring: Level 1 Schedule–Summary Integrated Overall Time Schedule (SIOTS) is an appendix to EPC Contract. The main purpose of SIOTS is the large scale presentation of the current information on the Project implementation. Level 2 Schedule–Integrated Overall Time Schedule (IOTS)is the contract schedule for the Contractor (ASE JSC) and their subcontractors.The principal purpose of IOTS is the work progress planning and monitoring, the analysis of the effect of activities implementation upon the progress of the Project as a whole. IOTS is the reporting schedule at the Employer –Contractor level. Level 3 Schedules, Detail Time Schedules(DTS) are developed by those who actually perform the work and are agreed upon with Atomstroyexport JSC.The main purpose of DTS is the detail planning of Atomstroyexport subcontractor's activities. DTSare the reporting schedules at the level of Contractor-Subcontractor. Level 4 Schedules are the High Detail Time Schedules (HDTS), which are the day-to-day plans of work implementation and are developed, as a rule, for a week's time period.Each lower level time schedule details the activities of the higher level time schedule

Analyzing scheduling in the food-processing industry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Akkerman, Renzo; van Donk, Dirk Pieter

2009-01-01

Production scheduling has been widely studied in several research areas, resulting in a large number of methods, prescriptions, and approaches. However, the impact on scheduling practice seems relatively low. This is also the case in the food-processing industry, where industry......-specific characteristics induce specific and complex scheduling problems. Based on ideas about decomposition of the scheduling task and the production process, we develop an analysis methodology for scheduling problems in food processing. This combines an analysis of structural (technological) elements of the production...... process with an analysis of the tasks of the scheduler. This helps to understand, describe, and structure scheduling problems in food processing, and forms a basis for improving scheduling and applying methods developed in literature. It also helps in evaluating the organisational structures...

Some extensions of the discrete lotsizing and scheduling problem

NARCIS (Netherlands)

M. Salomon (Marc); L.G. Kroon (Leo); R. Kuik (Roelof); L.N. van Wassenhove (Luk)

1991-01-01

textabstractIn this paper the Discrete Lotsizing and Scheduling Problem (DLSP) is considered. DLSP relates to capacitated lotsizing as well as to job scheduling problems and is concerned with determining a feasible production schedule with minimal total costs in a single-stage manufacturing process.

5 CFR 330.504 - Special restrictions after appointment under Part-time Direct Hire Program.

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2010-01-01

... under Part-time Direct Hire Program. 330.504 Section 330.504 Administrative Personnel OFFICE OF... To Protect Competitive Principles § 330.504 Special restrictions after appointment under Part-time Direct Hire Program. (a) A person hired under the Part-time Direct Hire Program may not be changed to...

5 CFR 532.513 - Flexible and compressed work schedules.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... 5 Administrative Personnel 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Flexible and compressed work schedules... REGULATIONS PREVAILING RATE SYSTEMS Premium Pay and Differentials § 532.513 Flexible and compressed work schedules. Federal Wage System employees who are authorized to work flexible and compressed work schedules...

Project control integrating cost and schedule in construction

CERN Document Server

Del Pico, Wayne J

2013-01-01

The key to successful project control is the fusing of cost to schedule whereby the management of one helps to manage the other. Project Control: Integrating Cost and Schedule in Construction explores the reasons behind and the methodologies for proper planning, monitoring, and controlling both project costs and schedule. Filling a current void the topic of project control applied to the construction industry, it is essential reading for students and professionals alike.

Improved Scheduling Mechanisms for Synchronous Information and Energy Transmission.

Science.gov (United States)

Qin, Danyang; Yang, Songxiang; Zhang, Yan; Ma, Jingya; Ding, Qun

2017-06-09

Wireless energy collecting technology can effectively reduce the network time overhead and prolong the wireless sensor network (WSN) lifetime. However, the traditional energy collecting technology cannot achieve the balance between ergodic channel capacity and average collected energy. In order to solve the problem of the network transmission efficiency and the limited energy of wireless devices, three improved scheduling mechanisms are proposed: improved signal noise ratio (SNR) scheduling mechanism (IS2M), improved N-SNR scheduling mechanism (INS2M) and an improved Equal Throughput scheduling mechanism (IETSM) for different channel conditions to improve the whole network performance. Meanwhile, the average collected energy of single users and the ergodic channel capacity of three scheduling mechanisms can be obtained through the order statistical theory in Rayleig, Ricean, Nakagami- m and Weibull fading channels. It is concluded that the proposed scheduling mechanisms can achieve better balance between energy collection and data transmission, so as to provide a new solution to realize synchronous information and energy transmission for WSNs.

Conception of Self-Construction Production Scheduling System

Science.gov (United States)

Xue, Hai; Zhang, Xuerui; Shimizu, Yasuhiro; Fujimura, Shigeru

With the high speed innovation of information technology, many production scheduling systems have been developed. However, a lot of customization according to individual production environment is required, and then a large investment for development and maintenance is indispensable. Therefore now the direction to construct scheduling systems should be changed. The final objective of this research aims at developing a system which is built by it extracting the scheduling technique automatically through the daily production scheduling work, so that an investment will be reduced. This extraction mechanism should be applied for various production processes for the interoperability. Using the master information extracted by the system, production scheduling operators can be supported to accelerate the production scheduling work easily and accurately without any restriction of scheduling operations. By installing this extraction mechanism, it is easy to introduce scheduling system without a lot of expense for customization. In this paper, at first a model for expressing a scheduling problem is proposed. Then the guideline to extract the scheduling information and use the extracted information is shown and some applied functions are also proposed based on it.

Revisiting Symbiotic Job Scheduling

OpenAIRE

Eyerman , Stijn; Michaud , Pierre; Rogiest , Wouter

2015-01-01

International audience; —Symbiotic job scheduling exploits the fact that in a system with shared resources, the performance of jobs is impacted by the behavior of other co-running jobs. By coscheduling combinations of jobs that have low interference, the performance of a system can be increased. In this paper, we investigate the impact of using symbiotic job scheduling for increasing throughput. We find that even for a theoretically optimal scheduler, this impact is very low, despite the subs...

Scheduled meals and scheduled palatable snacks synchronize circadian rhythms: consequences for ingestive behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Escobar, Carolina; Salgado, Roberto; Rodriguez, Katia; Blancas Vázquez, Aurea Susana; Angeles-Castellanos, Manuel; Buijs, Ruud M

2011-09-26

Food is a potent time signal for the circadian system and has shown to entrain and override temporal signals transmitted by the biological clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which adjusts mainly to the daily light/dark (LD) alternation. Organisms mostly ingest food in their active period and this permits a correct coordination between the LD and the food elicited time signals with the circadian system. Under conditions when feeding opportunities are shifted to the usual resting/sleep phase, the potent entraining force of food, shifts circadian fluctuations in several tissues, organs, and brain structures toward meal time, resulting a desynchrony within the body and between the organism and the external LD cycle. The daily scheduled access to a palatable snack exerts similar changes specifically to brain areas involved in motivation and reward responses. This review describes the phenomenology of food entrainment and entrainment by a palatable snack. It suggests how scheduled feeding can lead to food addiction and how shifted feeding schedules toward the sleep phase can result in altered ingestive behavior, obesity and disturbed metabolic responses. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of shared medical appointments on quality of life and cost-effectiveness for patients with a chronic neuromuscular disease. Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

van der Wilt Gert-Jan

2011-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Shared medical appointments are a series of one-to-one doctor-patient contacts, in presence of a group of 6-10 fellow patients. This group visits substitute the annual control visits of patients with the neurologist. The same items attended to in a one-to- one appointment are addressed. The possible advantages of a shared medical appointment could be an added value to the present management of neuromuscular patients. The currently problem-focused one-to-one out-patient visits often leave little time for the patient's psychosocial needs, patient education, and patient empowerment. Methods/design A randomized, prospective controlled study (RCT with a follow up of 6 months will be conducted to evaluate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of shared medical appointments compared to usual care for 300 neuromuscular patients and their partners at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center. Every included patient will be randomly allocated to one of the two study arms. This study has been reviewed and approved by the medical ethics committee of the region Arnhem-Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The primary outcome measure is quality of life as measured by the EQ-5D, SF-36 and the Individualized neuromuscular Quality of Life Questionnaire. The primary analysis will be an intention-to-treat analysis on the area under the curve of the quality of life scores. A linear mixed model will be used with random factor group and fixed factors treatment, baseline score and type of neuromuscular disease. For the economic evaluation an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis will be conducted from a societal perspective, relating differences in costs to difference in health outcome. Results are expected in 2012. Discussion This study will be the first randomized controlled trial which evaluates the effect of shared medical appointments versus usual care for neuromuscular patients. This will enable to determine if there is additional value of shared

Manufacturing Scheduling Using Colored Petri Nets and Reinforcement Learning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria Drakaki

2017-02-01

Full Text Available Agent-based intelligent manufacturing control systems are capable to efficiently respond and adapt to environmental changes. Manufacturing system adaptation and evolution can be addressed with learning mechanisms that increase the intelligence of agents. In this paper a manufacturing scheduling method is presented based on Timed Colored Petri Nets (CTPNs and reinforcement learning (RL. CTPNs model the manufacturing system and implement the scheduling. In the search for an optimal solution a scheduling agent uses RL and in particular the Q-learning algorithm. A warehouse order-picking scheduling is presented as a case study to illustrate the method. The proposed scheduling method is compared to existing methods. Simulation and state space results are used to evaluate performance and identify system properties.

Range Scheduling Aid (RSA)

Science.gov (United States)

Logan, J. R.; Pulvermacher, M. K.

1991-01-01

Range Scheduling Aid (RSA) is presented in the form of the viewgraphs. The following subject areas are covered: satellite control network; current and new approaches to range scheduling; MITRE tasking; RSA features; RSA display; constraint based analytic capability; RSA architecture; and RSA benefits.

Courts, Scheduled Damages, and Medical Malpractice Insurance

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bertoli, Paola; Grembi, Veronica

We assess the impact of the introduction of schedules of non-economic damages (i.e. tiered caps systems) on the behavior of insurers operating in the medical liability market for hospitals while controlling the performance of the judicial system, measured as court backlog. Using a difference......-in-differences strategy on Italian data, we find that the introduction of schedules increases the presence of insurers (i.e. medical liability market attractiveness) only in inefficient judicial districts. In the same way, court inefficiency is attractive to insurers for average values of schedules penetration...... of the market, with an increasing positive impact of inefficiency as the territorial coverage of schedules increases. Finally, no significant impact is registered on paid premiums. Our analysis sheds light on a complex set of elements affecting the decisions of insurers in malpractice markets. The analysis...

Comparing Book- and Tablet-Based Picture Activity Schedules: Acquisition and Preference.

Science.gov (United States)

Giles, Aimee; Markham, Victoria

2017-09-01

Picture activity schedules consist of a sequence of images representing the order of tasks for a person to complete. Although, picture activity schedules have traditionally been presented in a book format, recently picture activity schedules have been evaluated on technological devices such as an iPod™ touch. The present study compared the efficiency of picture activity schedule acquisition on book- and tablet-based modalities. In addition, participant preference for each modality was assessed. Three boys aged below 5 years with a diagnosis of autism participated. Participants were taught to follow the schedules using both modalities. Following mastery of each modality of picture activity schedule, a concurrent-chains preference assessment was conducted to evaluate participant preference for each modality. Differences in acquisition rates across the two modalities were marginal. Preference for book- or tablet-based schedules was idiosyncratic across participants.

A Decade beyond the Doctorate: The Influence of a US Postdoctoral Appointment on Faculty Career, Productivity, and Salary

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Lijing; Webber, Karen L.

2015-01-01

The number of postdoctoral researchers has increased dramatically in the past decade. Because of the limited number of academic staff openings and the general levels of salary, the role and value of the postdoctoral appointment are changing. Using a sample of respondents with continuous data in the 1999 through 2008 "Survey of Doctoral…

Maternal Nonstandard Work Schedules and Breastfeeding Behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Zilanawala, Afshin

2017-06-01

Objectives Although maternal employment rates have increased in the last decade in the UK, there is very little research investigating the linkages between maternal nonstandard work schedules (i.e., work schedules outside of the Monday through Friday, 9-5 schedule) and breastfeeding initiation and duration, especially given the wide literature citing the health advantages of breastfeeding for mothers and children. Methods This paper uses a population-based, UK cohort study, the Millennium Cohort Study (n = 17,397), to investigate the association between types of maternal nonstandard work (evening, night, away from home overnight, and weekends) and breastfeeding behaviors. Results In unadjusted models, exposure to evening shifts was associated with greater odds of breastfeeding initiation (OR 1.71, CI 1.50-1.94) and greater odds of short (OR 1.55, CI 1.32-1.81), intermediate (OR 2.01, CI 1.64-2.47), prolonged partial duration (OR 2.20, CI 1.78-2.72), and prolonged exclusive duration (OR 1.53, CI 1.29-1.82), compared with mothers who were unemployed and those who work other types of nonstandard shifts. Socioeconomic advantage of mothers working evening schedules largely explained the higher odds of breastfeeding initiation and duration. Conclusions Socioeconomic characteristics explain more breastfeeding behaviors among mothers working evening shifts. Policy interventions to increase breastfeeding initiation and duration should consider the timing of maternal work schedules.

Optimal Algorithms and a PTAS for Cost-Aware Scheduling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

L. Chen; N. Megow; R. Rischke; L. Stougie (Leen); J. Verschae

2015-01-01

htmlabstractWe consider a natural generalization of classical scheduling problems in which using a time unit for processing a job causes some time-dependent cost which must be paid in addition to the standard scheduling cost. We study the scheduling objectives of minimizing the makespan and the

75 FR 17463 - Key West Bank, Key West, Florida; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

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2010-04-06

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Key West Bank, Key West, Florida; Notice... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Key West Bank, Key West, Florida, (OTS No...

75 FR 4909 - Charter Bank: Santa Fe, New Mexico; Notice of Appointment of Receiver

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2010-01-29

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Charter Bank: Santa Fe, New Mexico; Notice... section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Charter Bank, Santa Fe, New Mexico, (OTS No...

78 FR 21818 - Schedules of Controlled Substances: Placement of Methylone Into Schedule I

Science.gov (United States)

2013-04-12

..., methamphetamine, and MDMA, Schedule I and II substances. These effects included elevated body temperature... of reuptake of monoamines, and in vivo studies (microdialysis, locomotor activity, body temperature.... Yet another commenter claimed that Schedule I placement would ``cripple efforts at learning,'' make it...

Instant Childhood Immunization Schedule

Science.gov (United States)

... Recommendations Why Immunize? Vaccines: The Basics Instant Childhood Immunization Schedule Recommend on Facebook Tweet Share Compartir Get ... date. See Disclaimer for additional details. Based on Immunization Schedule for Children 0 through 6 Years of ...

A Formal Product-Line Engineering Approach for Schedulers

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Orhan, Güner; Aksit, Mehmet; Rensink, Arend; Jololian, Leon; Robbins, David E.; Fernandes, Steven L.

2017-01-01

Scheduling techniques have been applied to a large category of software systems, such as, processor scheduling in operating systems, car scheduling in elevator systems, facility scheduling at airports, antenna scheduling in radar systems, scheduling of events, control signals and data in

The integrity of persons elected, appointed or exercising public functions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agathi Nano

2017-07-01

On 17 December 2015, Members of the Albanian Parliament adopt by consensus the constitutional amendments and legislative framework which are necessary to introduce in our country a clear mechanism for the exclusion of criminal offenders from public offices. In this paper we examine regulatory issues relating to the legal framework necessary to guarantee the integrity of public officials, the verification and ascertainment of the prohibition of exercising public functions and the implementation of the prohibitive measures provided for by law no. 138/2015 “On guaranteeing the integrity of the persons elected and/or appointed to, or exercising public functions”, the so called “decriminalisation” law.

NASA Instrument Cost/Schedule Model

Science.gov (United States)

Habib-Agahi, Hamid; Mrozinski, Joe; Fox, George

2011-01-01

NASA's Office of Independent Program and Cost Evaluation (IPCE) has established a number of initiatives to improve its cost and schedule estimating capabilities. 12One of these initiatives has resulted in the JPL developed NASA Instrument Cost Model. NICM is a cost and schedule estimator that contains: A system level cost estimation tool; a subsystem level cost estimation tool; a database of cost and technical parameters of over 140 previously flown remote sensing and in-situ instruments; a schedule estimator; a set of rules to estimate cost and schedule by life cycle phases (B/C/D); and a novel tool for developing joint probability distributions for cost and schedule risk (Joint Confidence Level (JCL)). This paper describes the development and use of NICM, including the data normalization processes, data mining methods (cluster analysis, principal components analysis, regression analysis and bootstrap cross validation), the estimating equations themselves and a demonstration of the NICM tool suite.

Decentralized Ground Staff Scheduling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, M. D.; Clausen, Jens

2002-01-01

scheduling is investigated. The airport terminal is divided into zones, where each zone consists of a set of stands geographically next to each other. Staff is assigned to work in only one zone and the staff scheduling is planned decentralized for each zone. The advantage of this approach is that the staff...... work in a smaller area of the terminal and thus spends less time walking between stands. When planning decentralized the allocation of stands to flights influences the staff scheduling since the workload in a zone depends on which flights are allocated to stands in the zone. Hence solving the problem...... depends on the actual stand allocation but also on the number of zones and the layout of these. A mathematical model of the problem is proposed, which integrates the stand allocation and the staff scheduling. A heuristic solution method is developed and applied on a real case from British Airways, London...

Schedule control in Ling Ao nuclear power project

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xie Ahai

2007-01-01

Ling Ao Nuclear Power Station (LANP) is first one built up by self-reliance in China with power capacity 990x2 MWe. The results of quality control, schedule control and cost control are satisfactory. The commercial operation days of Unit 1 and Unit 2 were 28th May 2002 and 8th Jan. 2003 respectively, which were 48 days and 66 days in advance of the project schedule. This paper presents the practices of self-reliance schedule control system in LANP. The paper includes 10 sections: schedule control system; targets of schedule control; schedule control at early stage of project; construction schedule; scheduling practice; Point curves; schedule control of design and procurement; a good practice of construction schedule control on site; commissioning and startup schedule; schedule control culture. Three figures are attached. The main contents of the self-reliance schedule control system are as follows: to draw up reasonable schedules and targets; to setup management mechanism and procedures; to organize powerful project management team; to establish close monitoring system; to provide timely progress reports and statistics information. Five kinds of schedule control targets are introduced, i.e. bar-chart schedule; milesones; Point curves; interface management; hydraulic test schedule of auxiliary piping loops; EMR/EMC/EESR issuance schedules. Six levels of bar-chart schedules were adopted in LANP, but the bar-chart schedules were not satisfactory for complicated erection condition on site, even using six levels of schedules. So a kind of Point curves was developed and their advantages are explained. Scheduling method of three elements: activity, duration, logic, which was adopted in LANP, is introduced. The duration of each piping activities in LANP level 2 project schedule was calculated based on the relevant working Point quantities. The analysis and adjustment of Point curves are illustrated, i.e. balance of monthly quantities; possible production in the peakload

31 CFR 363.27 - What do I need to know about accounts for minors who have not had a legal guardian appointed by a...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false What do I need to know about accounts for minors who have not had a legal guardian appointed by a court? 363.27 Section 363.27 Money and... minors who have not had a legal guardian appointed by a court? (a) We do not permit a minor to purchase...

Parametric Cost and Schedule Modeling for Early Technology Development

Science.gov (United States)

2018-04-02

Research NoteNational Security Rep rt PARAMETRIC MODELING FOR EARLY TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT COST AND SCHEDULE Chuck...Alexander NSR_11x17_Cover_CostModeling_v8.indd 1 11/20/17 3:15 PM PARAMETRIC COST AND SCHEDULE MODELING FOR EARLY  TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT Chuck...COST AND SCHEDULE MODELING FOR EARLY  TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT iii Contents Figures

Multiuser switched diversity scheduling schemes

KAUST Repository

Shaqfeh, Mohammad; Alnuweiri, Hussein M.; Alouini, Mohamed-Slim

2012-01-01

Multiuser switched-diversity scheduling schemes were recently proposed in order to overcome the heavy feedback requirements of conventional opportunistic scheduling schemes by applying a threshold-based, distributed, and ordered scheduling mechanism. The main idea behind these schemes is that slight reduction in the prospected multiuser diversity gains is an acceptable trade-off for great savings in terms of required channel-state-information feedback messages. In this work, we characterize the achievable rate region of multiuser switched diversity systems and compare it with the rate region of full feedback multiuser diversity systems. We propose also a novel proportional fair multiuser switched-based scheduling scheme and we demonstrate that it can be optimized using a practical and distributed method to obtain the feedback thresholds. We finally demonstrate by numerical examples that switched-diversity scheduling schemes operate within 0.3 bits/sec/Hz from the ultimate network capacity of full feedback systems in Rayleigh fading conditions. © 2012 IEEE.

Multiuser switched diversity scheduling schemes

KAUST Repository

Shaqfeh, Mohammad

2012-09-01

Multiuser switched-diversity scheduling schemes were recently proposed in order to overcome the heavy feedback requirements of conventional opportunistic scheduling schemes by applying a threshold-based, distributed, and ordered scheduling mechanism. The main idea behind these schemes is that slight reduction in the prospected multiuser diversity gains is an acceptable trade-off for great savings in terms of required channel-state-information feedback messages. In this work, we characterize the achievable rate region of multiuser switched diversity systems and compare it with the rate region of full feedback multiuser diversity systems. We propose also a novel proportional fair multiuser switched-based scheduling scheme and we demonstrate that it can be optimized using a practical and distributed method to obtain the feedback thresholds. We finally demonstrate by numerical examples that switched-diversity scheduling schemes operate within 0.3 bits/sec/Hz from the ultimate network capacity of full feedback systems in Rayleigh fading conditions. © 2012 IEEE.

75 FR 82146 - Appalachian Community Bank, FSB, McCaysville, GA, Notice of Appointment of Receiver

Science.gov (United States)

2010-12-29

... DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY Office of Thrift Supervision Appalachian Community Bank, FSB... contained in section 5(d)(2) of the Home Owners' Loan Act, the Office of Thrift Supervision has duly appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as sole Receiver for Appalachian Community Bank, FSB...

Alternative Work Schedules in Office and Nonoffice Work Settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Kirk, Raymond J.; Barton, H. David

A rapidly growing change in the workplace is the replacement of a fixed work schedule with a variety of alternative work schedules (AWS), including both flexible and compressed schedules. Experimenting organizations (N=901) evaluated one of four major categories of AWS in office and nonoffice settings, i.e., a flexible 8-hour day;…

Supporting Real-Time Operations and Execution through Timeline and Scheduling Aids

Science.gov (United States)

Marquez, Jessica J.; Pyrzak, Guy; Hashemi, Sam; Ahmed, Samia; McMillin, Kevin Edward; Medwid, Joseph Daniel; Chen, Diana; Hurtle, Esten

2013-01-01

Since 2003, the NASA Ames Research Center has been actively involved in researching and advancing the state-of-the-art of planning and scheduling tools for NASA mission operations. Our planning toolkit SPIFe (Scheduling and Planning Interface for Exploration) has supported a variety of missions and field tests, scheduling activities for Mars rovers as well as crew on-board International Space Station and NASA earth analogs. The scheduled plan is the integration of all the activities for the day/s. In turn, the agents (rovers, landers, spaceships, crew) execute from this schedule while the mission support team members (e.g., flight controllers) follow the schedule during execution. Over the last couple of years, our team has begun to research and validate methods that will better support users during realtime operations and execution of scheduled activities. Our team utilizes human-computer interaction principles to research user needs, identify workflow processes, prototype software aids, and user test these. This paper discusses three specific prototypes developed and user tested to support real-time operations: Score Mobile, Playbook, and Mobile Assistant for Task Execution (MATE).

A System for Automatically Generating Scheduling Heuristics

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Robert

1996-01-01

The goal of this research is to improve the performance of automated schedulers by designing and implementing an algorithm by automatically generating heuristics by selecting a schedule. The particular application selected by applying this method solves the problem of scheduling telescope observations, and is called the Associate Principal Astronomer. The input to the APA scheduler is a set of observation requests submitted by one or more astronomers. Each observation request specifies an observation program as well as scheduling constraints and preferences associated with the program. The scheduler employs greedy heuristic search to synthesize a schedule that satisfies all hard constraints of the domain and achieves a good score with respect to soft constraints expressed as an objective function established by an astronomer-user.

Applying dynamic priority scheduling scheme to static systems of pinwheel task model in power-aware scheduling.

Science.gov (United States)

Seol, Ye-In; Kim, Young-Kuk

2014-01-01

Power-aware scheduling reduces CPU energy consumption in hard real-time systems through dynamic voltage scaling (DVS). In this paper, we deal with pinwheel task model which is known as static and predictable task model and could be applied to various embedded or ubiquitous systems. In pinwheel task model, each task's priority is static and its execution sequence could be predetermined. There have been many static approaches to power-aware scheduling in pinwheel task model. But, in this paper, we will show that the dynamic priority scheduling results in power-aware scheduling could be applied to pinwheel task model. This method is more effective than adopting the previous static priority scheduling methods in saving energy consumption and, for the system being still static, it is more tractable and applicable to small sized embedded or ubiquitous computing. Also, we introduce a novel power-aware scheduling algorithm which exploits all slacks under preemptive earliest-deadline first scheduling which is optimal in uniprocessor system. The dynamic priority method presented in this paper could be applied directly to static systems of pinwheel task model. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm with the algorithmic complexity of O(n) reduces the energy consumption by 10-80% over the existing algorithms.

Healthcare Scheduling by Data Mining: Literature Review and Future Directions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Maria M. Rinder

2012-01-01

Full Text Available This article presents a systematic literature review of the application of industrial engineering methods in healthcare scheduling, with a focus on the role of patient behavior in scheduling. Nine articles that used mathematical programming, data mining, genetic algorithms, and local searches for optimum schedules were obtained from an extensive search of literature. These methods are new approaches to solve the problems in healthcare scheduling. Some are adapted from areas such as manufacturing and transportation. Key findings from these studies include reduced time for scheduling, capability of solving more complex problems, and incorporation of more variables and constraints simultaneously than traditional scheduling methods. However, none of these methods modeled no-show and walk-ins patient behavior. Future research should include more variables related to patient and/or environment.

Optimizing the Steel Plate Storage Yard Crane Scheduling Problem Using a Two Stage Planning/Scheduling Approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Anders Dohn; Clausen, Jens

This paper presents the Steel Plate Storage Yard Crane Scheduling Problem. The task is to generate a schedule for two gantry cranes sharing tracks. The schedule must comply with a number of constraints and at the same time be cost efficient. We propose some ideas for a two stage planning...

Flow-shop scheduling problem under uncertainties: Review and trends

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eliana María González-Neira

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Among the different tasks in production logistics, job scheduling is one of the most important at the operational decision-making level to enable organizations to achieve competiveness. Scheduling consists in the allocation of limited resources to activities over time in order to achieve one or more optimization objectives. Flow-shop (FS scheduling problems encompass the sequencing processes in environments in which the activities or operations are performed in a serial flow. This type of configuration includes assembly lines and the chemical, electronic, food, and metallurgical industries, among others. Scheduling has been mostly investigated for the deterministic cases, in which all parameters are known in advance and do not vary over time. Nevertheless, in real-world situations, events are frequently subject to uncertainties that can affect the decision-making process. Thus, it is important to study scheduling and sequencing activities under uncertainties since they can cause infeasibilities and disturbances. The purpose of this paper is to provide a general overview of the FS scheduling problem under uncertainties and its role in production logistics and to draw up opportunities for further research. To this end, 100 papers about FS and flexible flow-shop scheduling problems published from 2001 to October 2016 were analyzed and classified. Trends in the reviewed literature are presented and finally some research opportunities in the field are proposed.

Artificial intelligence approaches to astronomical observation scheduling

Science.gov (United States)

Johnston, Mark D.; Miller, Glenn

1988-01-01

Automated scheduling will play an increasing role in future ground- and space-based observatory operations. Due to the complexity of the problem, artificial intelligence technology currently offers the greatest potential for the development of scheduling tools with sufficient power and flexibility to handle realistic scheduling situations. Summarized here are the main features of the observatory scheduling problem, how artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can be applied, and recent progress in AI scheduling for Hubble Space Telescope.

The Simultaneous Vehicle Scheduling and Passenger Service Problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Petersen, Hanne Løhmann; Larsen, Allan; Madsen, Oli B.G.

modifications of the timetable during the vehicle scheduling phase. This planning approach is referred to as the Simultaneous Vehicle Scheduling and Passenger Service Problem (SVSPSP). The SVSPSP is solved using a large neighbourhood search metaheuristic. The proposed framework is tested on data inspired......Passengers using public transport systems often experience waiting times when transferring between two scheduled services. We propose a planning approach which seeks to obtain a favorable trade-off between the conflicting objectives passenger service and operating cost, by allowing some moderate...

Development of Watch Schedule Using Rules Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Jurkevicius, Darius; Vasilecas, Olegas

The software for schedule creation and optimization solves a difficult, important and practical problem. The proposed solution is an online employee portal where administrator users can create and manage watch schedules and employee requests. Each employee can login with his/her own account and see his/her assignments, manage requests, etc. Employees set as administrators can perform the employee scheduling online, manage requests, etc. This scheduling software allows users not only to see the initial and optimized watch schedule in a simple and understandable form, but also to create special rules and criteria and input their business. The system using rules automatically will generate watch schedule.

Generating variable and random schedules of reinforcement using Microsoft Excel macros.

Science.gov (United States)

Bancroft, Stacie L; Bourret, Jason C

2008-01-01

Variable reinforcement schedules are used to arrange the availability of reinforcement following varying response ratios or intervals of time. Random reinforcement schedules are subtypes of variable reinforcement schedules that can be used to arrange the availability of reinforcement at a constant probability across number of responses or time. Generating schedule values for variable and random reinforcement schedules can be difficult. The present article describes the steps necessary to write macros in Microsoft Excel that will generate variable-ratio, variable-interval, variable-time, random-ratio, random-interval, and random-time reinforcement schedule values.

On program restructuring, scheduling, and communication for parallel processor systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Polychronopoulos, Constantine D. [Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)

1986-08-01

This dissertation discusses several software and hardware aspects of program execution on large-scale, high-performance parallel processor systems. The issues covered are program restructuring, partitioning, scheduling and interprocessor communication, synchronization, and hardware design issues of specialized units. All this work was performed focusing on a single goal: to maximize program speedup, or equivalently, to minimize parallel execution time. Parafrase, a Fortran restructuring compiler was used to transform programs in a parallel form and conduct experiments. Two new program restructuring techniques are presented, loop coalescing and subscript blocking. Compile-time and run-time scheduling schemes are covered extensively. Depending on the program construct, these algorithms generate optimal or near-optimal schedules. For the case of arbitrarily nested hybrid loops, two optimal scheduling algorithms for dynamic and static scheduling are presented. Simulation results are given for a new dynamic scheduling algorithm. The performance of this algorithm is compared to that of self-scheduling. Techniques for program partitioning and minimization of interprocessor communication for idealized program models and for real Fortran programs are also discussed. The close relationship between scheduling, interprocessor communication, and synchronization becomes apparent at several points in this work. Finally, the impact of various types of overhead on program speedup and experimental results are presented.

Text messages to increase attendance to follow-up cervical cancer screening appointments among HPV-positive Tanzanian women (Connected2Care)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Linde, Ditte S; Andersen, Marianne S; Mwaiselage, Julius D

2017-01-01

group (standard care). In a period of 10 months, the intervention group will receive 15 one-directional health educative text messages and SMS reminders for their appointment. The total sample size will be 700 with 350 women in each study arm. Primary outcome is attendance rate for follow-up. Secondary...... on how such interventions may perform in relation to cervical cancer screening in low-income settings. This study aims to assess the degree to which a Short Message Service (SMS) intervention can increase attendance at appointments among women who have tested positive for high-risk (HR) Human...

Understanding the costs and schedule of hydroelectric projects

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Merrow, E.W.; Schroeder, B.R.

1991-01-01

This paper is based on a study conducted for the World Bank which evaluated the feasibility of developing an empirically based ex ante project analysis system for hydroelectric projects. The system would be used to assess: the reasonableness of engineering-based cost and schedule estimates used for project appraisal and preliminary estimates used to select projects for appraisal; and the potential for cost growth and schedule slip. The system would help identify projects early in the project appraisal process that harbor significantly higher than normal risks of overrunning cost and schedule estimates

Developing a case mix classification for child and adolescent mental health services: the influence of presenting problems, complexity factors and service providers on number of appointments.

Science.gov (United States)

Martin, Peter; Davies, Roger; Macdougall, Amy; Ritchie, Benjamin; Vostanis, Panos; Whale, Andy; Wolpert, Miranda

2017-09-01

Case-mix classification is a focus of international attention in considering how best to manage and fund services, by providing a basis for fairer comparison of resource utilization. Yet there is little evidence of the best ways to establish case mix for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). To develop a case mix classification for CAMHS that is clinically meaningful and predictive of number of appointments attended and to investigate the influence of presenting problems, context and complexity factors and provider variation. We analysed 4573 completed episodes of outpatient care from 11 English CAMHS. Cluster analysis, regression trees and a conceptual classification based on clinical best practice guidelines were compared regarding their ability to predict number of appointments, using mixed effects negative binomial regression. The conceptual classification is clinically meaningful and did as well as data-driven classifications in accounting for number of appointments. There was little evidence for effects of complexity or context factors, with the possible exception of school attendance problems. Substantial variation in resource provision between providers was not explained well by case mix. The conceptually-derived classification merits further testing and development in the context of collaborative decision making.

Off-Line and Dynamic Production Scheduling – A Comparative Case Study

OpenAIRE

Bożek Andrzej; Wysocki Marian

2016-01-01

A comprehensive case study of manufacturing scheduling solutions development is given. It includes highly generalized scheduling problem as well as a few scheduling modes, methods and problem models. The considered problem combines flexible job shop structure, lot streaming with variable sublots, transport times, setup times, and machine calendars. Tabu search metaheuristic and constraint programming methods have been used for the off-line scheduling. Two dynamic scheduling methods have also ...