Enabling Real-time Water Decision Support Services Using Model as a Service

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, T.; Minsker, B. S.; Lee, J. S.; Salas, F. R.; Maidment, D. R.; David, C. H.

2014-12-01

Through application of computational methods and an integrated information system, data and river modeling services can help researchers and decision makers more rapidly understand river conditions under alternative scenarios. To enable this capability, workflows (i.e., analysis and model steps) are created and published as Web services delivered through an internet browser, including model inputs, a published workflow service, and visualized outputs. The RAPID model, which is a river routing model developed at University of Texas Austin for parallel computation of river discharge, has been implemented as a workflow and published as a Web application. This allows non-technical users to remotely execute the model and visualize results as a service through a simple Web interface. The model service and Web application has been prototyped in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River Basin in Texas, with input from university and agency partners. In the future, optimization model workflows will be developed to link with the RAPID model workflow to provide real-time water allocation decision support services.

Guiding IEP Teams on Meeting the Least Restrictive Environment Mandate

Science.gov (United States)

Marx, Teri A.; Hart, Jennifer L.; Nelson, Leslie; Love, Jessica; Baxter, Christine M.; Gartin, Barbara; Schaefer Whitby, Peggy J.

2014-01-01

Two diametrically opposed beliefs are held concerning the meaning of the least restrictive environment (LRE) when determining the class placements of students with disabilities. One group adheres to the placement philosophy that the LRE is always the general education setting. The other group believes that the LRE is where the students' needs may…

Funding models for outreach ophthalmology services.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Angus W; Mulholland, Will; Taylor, Hugh R

2011-01-01

This paper aims to describe funding models used and compare the effects of funding models for remuneration on clinical activity and cost-effectiveness in outreach eye services in Australia. Cross-sectional case study based in remote outreach ophthalmology services in Australia. Key stake-holders from eye services in nine outreach regions participated in the study. Semistructured interviews were conducted to perform a qualitative assessment of outreach eye services' funding mechanisms. Records of clinical activity were used to statistically compare funding models. Workforce availability (supply of ophthalmologists), costs of services, clinical activity (surgery and clinic consultation rates) and waiting times. The supply of ophthalmologists (full-time equivalence) to all remote regions was below the national average (up to 19 times lower). Cataract surgery rates were also below national averages (up to 10 times lower). Fee-for-service funding significantly increased clinical activity. There were also trends to shorter waiting times and lower costs per attendance. For outreach ophthalmology services, the funding model used for clinician reimbursement may influence the efficiency and costs of the services. Fee-for-service funding models, safety-net funding options or differential funding/incentives need further exploration to ensure isolated disadvantaged areas prone to poor patient attendance are not neglected. In order for outreach eye health services to be sustainable, remuneration rates need to be comparable to those for urban practice. © 2011 The Authors. Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology © 2011 Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

Model-driven Service Engineering with SoaML

Science.gov (United States)

Elvesæter, Brian; Carrez, Cyril; Mohagheghi, Parastoo; Berre, Arne-Jørgen; Johnsen, Svein G.; Solberg, Arnor

This chapter presents a model-driven service engineering (MDSE) methodology that uses OMG MDA specifications such as BMM, BPMN and SoaML to identify and specify services within a service-oriented architecture. The methodology takes advantage of business modelling practices and provides a guide to service modelling with SoaML. The presentation is case-driven and illuminated using the telecommunication example. The chapter focuses in particular on the use of the SoaML modelling language as a means for expressing service specifications that are aligned with business models and can be realized in different platform technologies.

Service business model framework and the service innovation scope

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van der Aa, W.; van der Rhee, B.; Victorino, L.

2011-01-01

In this paper we present a framework for service business models. We build on three streams of research. The first stream is the service management and marketing literature that focuses on the specific challenges of managing a service business. The second stream consists of research on e-business

The social competence and behavioral problem substrate of new- and recent-onset childhood epilepsy.

Science.gov (United States)

Almane, Dace; Jones, Jana E; Jackson, Daren C; Seidenberg, Michael; Hermann, Bruce P

2014-02-01

This study examined patterns of syndrome-specific problems in behavior and competence in children with new- or recent-onset epilepsy compared with healthy controls. Research participants consisted of 205 children aged 8-18, including youth with recent-onset epilepsy (n=125, 64 localization-related epilepsy [LRE] and 61 idiopathic generalized epilepsy [IGE]) and healthy first-degree cousin controls (n=80). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist for children aged 6-18 (CBCL/6-18) from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). Dependent variables included Total Competence, Total Problems, Total Internalizing, Total Externalizing, and Other Problems scales. Comparisons of children with LRE and IGE with healthy controls were examined followed by comparisons of healthy controls with those having specific epilepsy syndromes of LRE (BECTS, Frontal/Temporal Lobe, and Focal NOS) and IGE (Absence, Juvenile Myoclonic, and IGE NOS). Children with LRE and/or IGE differed significantly (pcompetence (Total Competence including School and Social). Similarly, children with specific syndromes of LRE and IGE differed significantly (pcompetence (Total Competence including School). Only on the Thought Problems scale were there syndrome differences. In conclusion, children with recent-onset epilepsy present with significant behavioral problems and lower competence compared with controls, with little syndrome specificity whether defined broadly (LRE and IGE) or narrowly (specific syndromes of LRE and IGE). Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Care Models of eHealth Services: A Case Study on the Design of a Business Model for an Online Precare Service.

Science.gov (United States)

van Meeuwen, Dorine Pd; van Walt Meijer, Quirine J; Simonse, Lianne Wl

2015-03-24

With a growing population of health care clients in the future, the organization of high-quality and cost-effective service providing becomes an increasing challenge. New online eHealth services are proposed as innovative options for the future. Yet, a major barrier to these services appears to be the lack of new business model designs. Although design efforts generally result in visual models, no such artifacts have been found in the literature on business model design. This paper investigates business model design in eHealth service practices from a design perspective. It adopts a research by design approach and seeks to unravel what characteristics of business models determine an online service and what are important value exchanges between health professionals and clients. The objective of the study was to analyze the construction of care models in-depth, framing the essential elements of a business model, and design a new care model that structures these elements for the particular context of an online pre-care service in practice. This research employs a qualitative method of an in-depth case study in which different perspectives on constructing a care model are investigated. Data are collected by using the visual business modeling toolkit, designed to cocreate and visualize the business model. The cocreated models are transcribed and analyzed per actor perspective, transactions, and value attributes. We revealed eight new actors in the business model for providing the service. Essential actors are: the intermediary network coordinator connecting companies, the service dedicated information technology specialists, and the service dedicated health specialist. In the transactions for every service providing we found a certain type of contract, such as a license contract and service contracts for precare services and software products. In addition to the efficiency, quality, and convenience, important value attributes appeared to be: timelines, privacy and

Client/consultant model services agreement

CERN Document Server

International Federation of Consulting Engineers

2006-01-01

The terms of the Client Consultant Model Services agreement (The White Book) have been prepared by the Fédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseils (FIDIC) and are recommended for general use for the purposes of pre-investment and feasibility studies, designs and administration of construction and project management, where proposals for such services are invited on an international basis. They are equally adaptable for domestic agreements. - See more at: http://fidic.org/books/clientconsultant-model-services-agreement-4th-ed-2006-white-book#sthash.3Uxy5qT3.dpuf

Formal Modeling of Service Session Management

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Le, V.M.; van Beijnum, Bernhard J.F.; de Goede, Leo; Almeroth, Kevin C.; Hasan, Masum

2002-01-01

This paper proposes a concept to apply modeling tools to Multi-Provider Telematics Service Management. The service architecture is based on the framework called “Open Service Components” which serves as building blocks to compose end-to-end telematics services in terms of service components offered

A service-oriented data access control model

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Wei; Li, Fengmin; Pan, Juchen; Song, Song; Bian, Jiali

2017-01-01

The development of mobile computing, cloud computing and distributed computing meets the growing individual service needs. Facing with complex application system, it's an urgent problem to ensure real-time, dynamic, and fine-grained data access control. By analyzing common data access control models, on the basis of mandatory access control model, the paper proposes a service-oriented access control model. By regarding system services as subject and data of databases as object, the model defines access levels and access identification of subject and object, and ensures system services securely to access databases.

Structure and modeling of turbulence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Novikov, E.A.

1995-01-01

The open-quotes vortex stringsclose quotes scale l s ∼ LRe -3/10 (L-external scale, Re - Reynolds number) is suggested as a grid scale for the large-eddy simulation. Various aspects of the structure of turbulence and subgrid modeling are described in terms of conditional averaging, Markov processes with dependent increments and infinitely divisible distributions. The major request from the energy, naval, aerospace and environmental engineering communities to the theory of turbulence is to reduce the enormous number of degrees of freedom in turbulent flows to a level manageable by computer simulations. The vast majority of these degrees of freedom is in the small-scale motion. The study of the structure of turbulence provides a basis for subgrid-scale (SGS) models, which are necessary for the large-eddy simulations (LES)

Care Models of eHealth Services: A Case Study on the Design of a Business Model for an Online Precare Service

Science.gov (United States)

2015-01-01

Background With a growing population of health care clients in the future, the organization of high-quality and cost-effective service providing becomes an increasing challenge. New online eHealth services are proposed as innovative options for the future. Yet, a major barrier to these services appears to be the lack of new business model designs. Although design efforts generally result in visual models, no such artifacts have been found in the literature on business model design. This paper investigates business model design in eHealth service practices from a design perspective. It adopts a research by design approach and seeks to unravel what characteristics of business models determine an online service and what are important value exchanges between health professionals and clients. Objective The objective of the study was to analyze the construction of care models in-depth, framing the essential elements of a business model, and design a new care model that structures these elements for the particular context of an online pre-care service in practice. Methods This research employs a qualitative method of an in-depth case study in which different perspectives on constructing a care model are investigated. Data are collected by using the visual business modeling toolkit, designed to cocreate and visualize the business model. The cocreated models are transcribed and analyzed per actor perspective, transactions, and value attributes. Results We revealed eight new actors in the business model for providing the service. Essential actors are: the intermediary network coordinator connecting companies, the service dedicated information technology specialists, and the service dedicated health specialist. In the transactions for every service providing we found a certain type of contract, such as a license contract and service contracts for precare services and software products. In addition to the efficiency, quality, and convenience, important value attributes

A Diffusion Model for Two-sided Service Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Homma, Koichi; Yano, Koujin; Funabashi, Motohisa

A diffusion model is proposed for two-sided service systems. ‘Two-sided’ refers to the existence of an economic network effect between two different and interrelated groups, e.g., card holders and merchants in an electronic money service. The service benefit for a member of one side depends on the number and quality of the members on the other side. A mathematical model by J. H. Rohlfs explains the network (or bandwagon) effect of communications services. In Rohlfs' model, only the users' group exists and the model is one-sided. This paper extends Rohlfs' model to a two-sided model. We propose, first, a micro model that explains individual behavior in regard to service subscription of both sides and a computational method that drives the proposed model. Second, we develop macro models with two diffusion-rate variables by simplifying the micro model. As a case study, we apply the models to an electronic money service and discuss the simulation results and actual statistics.

Prototyping an online wetland ecosystem services model using open model sharing standards

Science.gov (United States)

Feng, M.; Liu, S.; Euliss, N.H.; Young, Caitlin; Mushet, D.M.

2011-01-01

Great interest currently exists for developing ecosystem models to forecast how ecosystem services may change under alternative land use and climate futures. Ecosystem services are diverse and include supporting services or functions (e.g., primary production, nutrient cycling), provisioning services (e.g., wildlife, groundwater), regulating services (e.g., water purification, floodwater retention), and even cultural services (e.g., ecotourism, cultural heritage). Hence, the knowledge base necessary to quantify ecosystem services is broad and derived from many diverse scientific disciplines. Building the required interdisciplinary models is especially challenging as modelers from different locations and times may develop the disciplinary models needed for ecosystem simulations, and these models must be identified and made accessible to the interdisciplinary simulation. Additional difficulties include inconsistent data structures, formats, and metadata required by geospatial models as well as limitations on computing, storage, and connectivity. Traditional standalone and closed network systems cannot fully support sharing and integrating interdisciplinary geospatial models from variant sources. To address this need, we developed an approach to openly share and access geospatial computational models using distributed Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques and open geospatial standards. We included a means to share computational models compliant with Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web Processing Services (WPS) standard to ensure modelers have an efficient and simplified means to publish new models. To demonstrate our approach, we developed five disciplinary models that can be integrated and shared to simulate a few of the ecosystem services (e.g., water storage, waterfowl breeding) that are provided by wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America.

Modelling and analysing interoperability in service compositions using COSMO

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; van Sinderen, Marten J.

2008-01-01

A service composition process typically involves multiple service models. These models may represent the composite and composed services from distinct perspectives, e.g. to model the role of some system that is involved in a service, and at distinct abstraction levels, e.g. to model the goal,

Service creation: a model-based approach

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; van Sinderen, Marten J.; Ferreira Pires, Luis

1999-01-01

This paper presents a model-based approach to support service creation. In this approach, services are assumed to be created from (available) software components. The creation process may involve multiple design steps in which the requested service is repeatedly decomposed into more detailed

Model-Driven Development of Context-Aware Services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Andrade Almeida, João; Iacob, Maria Eugenia; Jonkers, Henk; Quartel, Dick; Eliassen, Frank; Montresor, Alberto

2006-01-01

In this paper, we define a model-driven design trajectory for context-aware services consisting of three levels of models with different degrees of abstraction and platform independence. The models at the highest level of platform independence describe the behaviour of a context-aware service and

A conceptual model of nurses' goal orientation, service behavior, and service performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Chien, Chun-Cheng; Chou, Hsin-Kai; Hung, Shuo-Tsung

2008-01-01

Based on the conceptual framework known as the "service triangle," the authors constructed a model of nurses' goal orientation, service behavior, and service performance to investigate the antecedents and consequences of the medical service behavior provided by nurses. This cross-sectional study collected data from 127 nurses in six hospitals using a mail-in questionnaire. Analysis of the model revealed that the customer-oriented behavior of nurses had a positive influence on organizational citizenship behavior; and both of these behaviors had a significant positive influence on service performance. The results also indicate that a higher learning goal orientation among nurses was associated with the performance of both observable customer-oriented behavior and organizational-citizenship behavior.

A web service for service composition to aid geospatial modelers

Science.gov (United States)

Bigagli, L.; Santoro, M.; Roncella, R.; Mazzetti, P.

2012-04-01

The identification of appropriate mechanisms for process reuse, chaining and composition is considered a key enabler for the effective uptake of a global Earth Observation infrastructure, currently pursued by the international geospatial research community. In the Earth and Space Sciences, such a facility could primarily enable integrated and interoperable modeling, for what several approaches have been proposed and developed, over the last years. In fact, GEOSS is specifically tasked with the development of the so-called "Model Web". At increasing levels of abstraction and generalization, the initial stove-pipe software tools have evolved to community-wide modeling frameworks, to Component-Based Architecture solution, and, more recently, started to embrace Service-Oriented Architectures technologies, such as the OGC WPS specification and the WS-* stack of W3C standards for service composition. However, so far, the level of abstraction seems too low for implementing the Model Web vision, and far too complex technological aspects must still be addressed by both providers and users, resulting in limited usability and, eventually, difficult uptake. As by the recent ICT trend of resource virtualization, it has been suggested that users in need of a particular processing capability, required by a given modeling workflow, may benefit from outsourcing the composition activities into an external first-class service, according to the Composition as a Service (CaaS) approach. A CaaS system provides the necessary interoperability service framework for adaptation, reuse and complementation of existing processing resources (including models and geospatial services in general) in the form of executable workflows. This work introduces the architecture of a CaaS system, as a distributed information system for creating, validating, editing, storing, publishing, and executing geospatial workflows. This way, the users can be freed from the need of a composition infrastructure and

Perceived Service Quality models: Are They Still Relevant?

OpenAIRE

Polyakova, Olga; Mirza, Mohammed T.

2015-01-01

This paper reviews the concept of perceived service quality and provides an update to the body of service quality knowledge. It consolidates the pathway of perceived service quality concept, from its emergence to the research model’s development. It also critically reviews service characteristics as prerequisites of perceived service quality conceptualisation. The examination of six perceived service quality models is intended to identify a superior model that could be used by further researc...

Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer Web Service System

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S.; Pan, L.; Zhai, C.; Tang, B.; Kubar, T. L.; Li, J.; Zhang, J.; Wang, W.

2015-12-01

Both the National Research Council Decadal Survey and the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report stressed the need for the comprehensive and innovative evaluation of climate models with the synergistic use of global satellite observations in order to improve our weather and climate simulation and prediction capabilities. The abundance of satellite observations for fundamental climate parameters and the availability of coordinated model outputs from CMIP5 for the same parameters offer a great opportunity to understand and diagnose model biases in climate models. In addition, the Obs4MIPs efforts have created several key global observational datasets that are readily usable for model evaluations. However, a model diagnostic evaluation process requires physics-based multi-variable comparisons that typically involve large-volume and heterogeneous datasets, making them both computationally- and data-intensive. In response, we have developed a novel methodology to diagnose model biases in contemporary climate models and implementing the methodology as a web-service based, cloud-enabled, provenance-supported climate-model evaluation system. The evaluation system is named Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer (CMDA), which is the product of the research and technology development investments of several current and past NASA ROSES programs. The current technologies and infrastructure of CMDA are designed and selected to address several technical challenges that the Earth science modeling and model analysis community faces in evaluating and diagnosing climate models. In particular, we have three key technology components: (1) diagnostic analysis methodology; (2) web-service based, cloud-enabled technology; (3) provenance-supported technology. The diagnostic analysis methodology includes random forest feature importance ranking, conditional probability distribution function, conditional sampling, and time-lagged correlation map. We have implemented the

A model for ageing-home-care service process improvement

OpenAIRE

Yu, Shu-Yan; Shie, An-Jin

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated model to improve service processes in ageing-home-care. According to the literature, existing service processes have potential service failures that affect service quality and efficacy. However, most previous studies have only focused on conceptual model development using New Service Development (NSD) and fail to provide a systematic model to analyse potential service failures and facilitate managers developing solutions to improve the se...

Manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and service climate: test of a model.

Science.gov (United States)

Salvaggio, Amy Nicole; Schneider, Benjamin; Nishii, Lisa H; Mayer, David M; Ramesh, Anuradha; Lyon, Julie S

2007-11-01

This article conceptually and empirically explores the relationships among manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and climate for customer service. Data were collected from 1,486 employees and 145 managers in grocery store departments (N = 145) to test the authors' theoretical model. Largely consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that core self-evaluations were positively related to managers' service quality orientation, even after dimensions of the Big Five model of personality were controlled, and that service quality orientation fully mediated the relationship between personality and global service climate. Implications for personality and organizational climate research are discussed. (c) 2007 APA

JANNAF "Test and Evaluation Guidelines for Liquid Rocket Engines": Status and Application

Science.gov (United States)

Parkinson, Douglas; VanLerberghe, Wayne M.; Rahman, Shamim A.

2017-01-01

For many decades, the U.S. rocket propulsion industrial base has performed remarkably in developing complex liquid rocket engines that can propel critical payloads into service for the nation, as well as transport people and hardware for missions that open the frontiers of space exploration for humanity. This has been possible only at considerable expense given the lack of detailed guidance that captures the essence of successful practices and knowledge accumulated over five decades of liquid rocket engine development. In an effort to provide benchmarks and guidance for the next generation of rocket engineers, the Joint Army Navy NASA Air Force (JANNAF) Interagency Propulsion Committee published a liquid rocket engine (LRE) test and evaluation (T&E) guideline document in 2012 focusing on the development challenges and test verification considerations for liquid rocket engine systems. This document has been well received and applied by many current LRE developers as a benchmark and guidance tool, both for government-driven applications as well as for fully commercial ventures. The USAF Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) has taken an additional near-term step and is directing activity to adapt and augment the content from the JANNAF LRE T&E guideline into a standard for potential application to future USAF requests for proposals for LRE development initiatives and launch vehicles for national security missions. A draft of this standard was already sent out for review and comment, and is intended to be formally approved and released towards the end of 2017. The acceptance and use of the LRE T&E guideline is possible through broad government and industry participation in the JANNAF liquid propulsion committee and associated panels. The sponsoring JANNAF community is expanding upon this initial baseline version and delving into further critical development aspects of liquid rocket propulsion testing at the integrated stage level as well as engine component level, in

A Model-Driven, Science Data Product Registration Service

Science.gov (United States)

Hardman, S.; Ramirez, P.; Hughes, J. S.; Joyner, R.; Cayanan, M.; Lee, H.; Crichton, D. J.

2011-12-01

The Planetary Data System (PDS) has undertaken an effort to overhaul the PDS data architecture (including the data model, data structures, data dictionary, etc.) and to deploy an upgraded software system (including data services, distributed data catalog, etc.) that fully embraces the PDS federation as an integrated system while taking advantage of modern innovations in information technology (including networking capabilities, processing speeds, and software breakthroughs). A core component of this new system is the Registry Service that will provide functionality for tracking, auditing, locating, and maintaining artifacts within the system. These artifacts can range from data files and label files, schemas, dictionary definitions for objects and elements, documents, services, etc. This service offers a single reference implementation of the registry capabilities detailed in the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) Registry Reference Model White Book. The CCSDS Reference Model in turn relies heavily on the Electronic Business using eXtensible Markup Language (ebXML) standards for registry services and the registry information model, managed by the OASIS consortium. Registries are pervasive components in most information systems. For example, data dictionaries, service registries, LDAP directory services, and even databases provide registry-like services. These all include an account of informational items that are used in large-scale information systems ranging from data values such as names and codes, to vocabularies, services and software components. The problem is that many of these registry-like services were designed with their own data models associated with the specific type of artifact they track. Additionally these services each have their own specific interface for interacting with the service. This Registry Service implements the data model specified in the ebXML Registry Information Model (RIM) specification that supports the various

Revenue-Sharing Contract Models for Logistics Service Supply Chains with Mass Customization Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Weihua Liu

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The revenue-sharing contract is one of the most important supply chain coordination contracts; it has been applied in various supply chains. However, studies related to service supply chains with mass customization (MC are lacking. Considering the equity of benefit distribution between the members of service supply chains, in this paper, we designed two revenue-sharing contracts. The first contract for the maximum equity of a single logistics service integrator (LSI and single functional logistics service provider (FLSP in a two-echelon logistics service supply chain was designed by introducing the fair entropy function (“one to one” model. Furthermore, the method is extended to a more complex supply chain, which consists of a single LSI and multiple FLSPs. A new contract was designed not only for considering the equity of an LSI and each FLSP but also for the equity between each FLSP (“one to N” model. The “one to one” model in three-echelon LSSC is also provided. The result exemplifies that, whether in the “one to one” model or “one to N” model, there exists a best interval of customized level when the revenue-sharing coefficient reaches its maximum.

Increased resistance during jump exercise does not enhance cortical bone formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Boudreaux, Ramon D; Swift, Joshua M; Gasier, Heath G; Wiggs, Michael P; Hogan, Harry A; Fluckey, James D; Bloomfield, Susan A

2014-01-01

This study sought to elucidate the effects of a low- and high-load jump resistance exercise (RE) training protocol on cortical bone of the tibia and femur mid-diaphyses. Sprague-Dawley rats (male, 6 months old) were randomly assigned to high-load RE (HRE; n = 16), low-load RE (LRE; n = 15), or cage control (CC; n = 11) groups. Animals in the HRE and LRE groups performed 15 sessions of jump RE for 5 wk. Load in the HRE group was progressively increased from 80 g added to a weighted vest (50 repetitions) to 410 g (16 repetitions). The LRE rats completed the same protocol as the HRE group (same number of repetitions), with only a 30-g vest applied. Low- and high-load jump RE resulted in 6%-11% higher cortical bone mineral content and cortical bone area compared with controls, as determined by in vivo peripheral quantitative computed tomography measurements. In the femur, however, only LRE demonstrated improvements in cortical volumetric bone mineral density (+11%) and cross-sectional moment of inertia (+20%) versus the CC group. The three-point bending to failure revealed a marked increase in tibial maximum force (25%-29%), stiffness (19%-22%), and energy to maximum force (35%-55%) and a reduction in elastic modulus (-11% to 14%) in both LRE and HRE compared with controls. Dynamic histomorphometry assessed at the tibia mid-diaphysis determined that both LRE and HRE resulted in 20%-30% higher periosteal mineralizing surface versus the CC group. Mineral apposition rate and bone formation rate were significantly greater in animals in the LRE group (27%, 39%) than those in the HRE group. These data demonstrate that jump training with minimal loading is equally, and sometimes more, effective at augmenting cortical bone integrity compared with overload training in skeletally mature rats.

International Digital Elevation Model Service (IDEMS): A Revived IAG Service

Science.gov (United States)

Kelly, K. M.; Hirt, C., , Dr; Kuhn, M.; Barzaghi, R.

2017-12-01

A newly developed International Digital Elevation Model Service (IDEMS) is now available under the umbrella of the International Gravity Field Service of the International Association of Geodesy. Hosted and operated by Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri) (http://www.esri.com/), the new IDEMS website is available at: https://idems.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html. IDEMS provides a focus for distribution of data and information about various digital elevation models, including spherical-harmonic models of Earth's global topography and lunar and planetary DEM. Related datasets, such as representation of inland water within DEMs, and relevant software which are available in the public domain are also provided. Currently, IDEMS serves as repository of links to providers of global terrain and bathymetry, terrain related Earth models and datasets such as digital elevation data services managed and maintained by Esri (Terrain and TopoBathy), Bedmap2-Ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica and Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation ICESat/GLAS Data, as well as planetary terrain data provided by PDS Geosciences Node at Washington University, St. Louis. These services provide online access to a collection of multi-resolution and multi-source elevation and bathymetry data, including metadata and source information. In addition to IDEMS current holdings of terrestrial and planetary DEMs, some topography related products IDEMS may include in future are: dynamic ocean topography, 3D crustal density models, Earth's dynamic topography, etc. IDEMS may also consider terrain related products such as quality assessments, global terrain corrections, global height anomaly-to-geoid height corrections and other geodesy-relevant studies and products. IDEMS encourages contributions to the site from the geodetic community in any of the product types listed above. Please contact the authors if you would like to contribute or recommend content you think appropriate for

Three-Dimensional Service Value Creation Model Based on Multidisciplinary Framework: Service Value Transition in Flower Tourism and Robotized Music Appreciation Services

OpenAIRE

Nakamura, Kotaro; Imahori, Takahiro; Ikawa, Yasuo

2010-01-01

This paper is focused on the process of value creation in the service business and on the shift of service value created in actual service businesses. The analysis is used to demonstrate proposed models for explaining this shift. Service value is successfully created when customers enjoy the benefits of services proposed through a system of service businesses. The model visualizes the shift of service value, focusing on the three axes of width (of the place for service providing/usage in the ...

Peculiarities of designing Holistic Electronic Government Services Integration Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tadas Limba

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Purpos– the aim ok this paper is to develop a Holistic Electronic Government Services Integration Model which could ensure the efficient integration of electronic government services in the local self-government level.Methodolog– the following analyses have been carried out in thirkpaper: theoretical-systematic; normative and conceptual comparative analysis of the researcha A method of modeling has also been applied.Finding– the scientific work analyzes the improvement opportunities of the models of electronic government services and their application alternatives in Lithuanian municipalities. The newly developed model of electronic government services that has been designed basng on the principle of integrating online expert consultation is primarily targeted at improvement of inside processes’ changes of an organization. Practicing the application of that model in the local self-government level starting with improvement of inside processes of an organization should help adapt more accurately and efficiently to the changing needs of the society while providing electronic government services, thus establishing a higher public value.Practical implication– the practical novelty of work is reflected not only through the integration opportunities’ assessment of the principle of online expert consultation services into the theoretical models of electronic government services that have already been developed by the scientists, but also on the basis of this principle there has been created a “Holistic Electronic Government Services Integration Model” in accordance with “E-Diamond” model basis and its practical application realization with the design of “The project of implementing the principle of online expert consultation on the model of electronic government services” for the future investigations.Originalit– the systematic, comparative analysis of the models of electronic government services carried out in the scientific

COSMO: a conceptual framework for service modelling and refinement

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Quartel, Dick; Steen, Maarten W.A.; Pokraev, S.; van Sinderen, Marten J.

This paper presents a conceptual framework for service modelling and refinement, called the COSMO (COnceptual Service MOdelling) framework. This framework provides concepts to model and reason about services, and to support operations, such as composition and discovery, which are performed on them

Energy modeling issues in quick service restaurants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, V.A.; Johnson, K.F.

1997-03-01

The complexity of monitoring and modeling the energy performance of food-service facilities was discussed. Usually, less than one third of the energy consumed in a commercial food-service facility is used by equipment and systems typically modeled in building simulation software such as DOE-2. Algorithms have not yet been developed to handle independent makeup air units and the kitchen and dining room HVAC systems. The energy used by food process equipment and water heating is based on customer-volume and operation-hours. Monitoring projects have been undertaken to provide detailed energy use profiles of individual appliances and whole restaurants. Some technical issues that are unique to food-service modeling in current versions of DOE-2.1E software in the context of quick service restaurants, such as difficulties in modelling internal heat gains of hooded cooking appliances and walk-in refrigeration, and system and zone limitations on tracking energy consumption, were discussed. 1 fig.

Evaluation Model of Tea Industry Information Service Quality

OpenAIRE

Shi , Xiaohui; Chen , Tian’en

2015-01-01

International audience; According to characteristics of tea industry information service, this paper have built service quality evaluation index system for tea industry information service quality, R-cluster analysis and multiple regression have been comprehensively used to contribute evaluation model with a high practice and credibility. Proved by the experiment, the evaluation model of information service quality has a good precision, which has guidance significance to a certain extent to e...

Simulation of Field Dependence of Critical Current Densities of Bulk High Tc Superconducting Materials regarding Thermally Activated Flux Motion

Science.gov (United States)

Santosh, M.; Naik, S. Pavan Kumar; Koblischka, M. R.

2017-07-01

In the upcoming generation, bulk high temperature superconductors (HTS) will play a crucial and a promising role in numerous industrial applications ranging from Maglev trains to magnetic resonance imaging, etc. Especially, the bulk HTS as permanent magnets are suitable due to the fact that they can trap magnetic fields being several orders of magnitude higher than those of the best hard ferromagnets. The bulk HTS LREBa2Cu3O7-δ (LREBCO or LRE-123, LRE: Y, Gd, etc.,) materials could obtain very powerful compact superconducting super-magnets, which can be operated at the cheaper liquid nitrogen temperature or below due to higher critical temperatures (i.e., ∼90 K). As a result, the new advanced technology can be utilized in a more attractive manner for a variety of technological and medical applications which have the capacity to revolutionize the field. An understanding of the magnetic field dependence of the critical current density (J c(H)) is important to develop better adapted materials. To achieve this goal, a variety of Jc (H) behaviours of bulk LREBCO samples were modelled regarding thermally activated flux motion. In essence, the Jc (H) curves follows a certain criterion where an exponential model is applied. However, to fit the complete Jc (H) curve of the LRE-123 samples an unique model is necessary to explain the behavior at low and high fields. The modelling of the various superconducting materials could be understood in terms of the pinning mechanisms.

A Model-Driven Approach for Telecommunications Network Services Definition

Science.gov (United States)

Chiprianov, Vanea; Kermarrec, Yvon; Alff, Patrick D.

Present day Telecommunications market imposes a short concept-to-market time for service providers. To reduce it, we propose a computer-aided, model-driven, service-specific tool, with support for collaborative work and for checking properties on models. We started by defining a prototype of the Meta-model (MM) of the service domain. Using this prototype, we defined a simple graphical modeling language specific for service designers. We are currently enlarging the MM of the domain using model transformations from Network Abstractions Layers (NALs). In the future, we will investigate approaches to ensure the support for collaborative work and for checking properties on models.

Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

OpenAIRE

Navid Haghighat

2017-01-01

This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive crite...

Model-driven development of smart grid services using SoaML

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kosek, Anna Magdalena; Gehrke, Oliver

2014-01-01

This paper presents a model-driven software devel- opment process which can be applied to the design of smart grid services. The Service Oriented Architecture Modelling Language (SoaML) is used to describe the architecture as well as the roles and interactions between service participants....... The individual modelling steps and an example design of a SoaML model for a voltage control service are presented and explained. Finally, the paper discusses a proof-of-concept implementation of the modelled service in a smart grid testing laboratory....

SOA Modeling Patterns for Service Oriented Discovery and Analysis

CERN Document Server

Bell, Michael

2010-01-01

Learn the essential tools for developing a sound service-oriented architecture. SOA Modeling Patterns for Service-Oriented Discovery and Analysis introduces a universal, easy-to-use, and nimble SOA modeling language to facilitate the service identification and examination life cycle stage. This business and technological vocabulary will benefit your service development endeavors and foster organizational software asset reuse and consolidation, and reduction of expenditure. Whether you are a developer, business architect, technical architect, modeler, business analyst, team leader, or manager,

Operating cost model for local service airlines

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, J. L.; Andrastek, D. A.

1976-01-01

Several mathematical models now exist which determine the operating economics for a United States trunk airline. These models are valuable in assessing the impact of new aircraft into an airline's fleet. The use of a trunk airline cost model for the local service airline does not result in representative operating costs. A new model is presented which is representative of the operating conditions and resultant costs for the local service airline. The calculated annual direct and indirect operating costs for two multiequipment airlines are compared with their actual operating experience.

Towards operationalization of business models : Designing service compositions for service-dominant business models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Suratno, B.; Grefen, P.; Turetken, O.

2017-01-01

The new trend of service-dominant business which produces so-called value-in-use as a competitive advantage demands rapidly changing business models and collaboration of organizations in a cross-organizational business network. As information technology nowadays largely contributes to the way of

FAPE and LRE in Online Learning: Special Education Directors' Perspectives

Science.gov (United States)

Greer, Diana; Harvey, Danna; Burdette, Paula; Basham, James

2015-01-01

While the provision of a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) has contributed significantly to the educational experiences of students with disabilities, little is known about how services are actually provided in an online learning setting. Thus, telephone and face-to-face interviews were conducted with state directors of special…

Airline service quality evaluation: A review on concepts and models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Navid Haghighat

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This paper reviews different major service quality concept and models which led to great developments in evaluating service quality with focusing on improvement process of the models through discussing criticisms of each model. Criticisms against these models are discussed to clarify development steps of newer models which led to the improvement of airline service quality models. The precise and accurate evaluation of service quality needs utilizing a reliable concept with comprehensive criteria and effective measurement techniques as the fundamentals of a valuable framework. In this paper, service quality models improvement is described based on three major service quality concepts, the disconfirmation, performance and hierarchical concepts which are developed subsequently. Reviewing various criteria and different measurement techniques such a statistical analysis and multi-criteria decision making assist researchers to have a clear understanding of the development of the evaluation framework in the airline industry. This study aims at promoting reliable frameworks for evaluating airline service quality in different countries and societies due to economic, cultural and social aspects of each society.

Modeling Medical Services with Mobile Health Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhenfei Wang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The rapid development of mobile health technology (m-Health provides unprecedented opportunities for improving health services. As the bridge between doctors and patients, mobile health applications enable patients to communicate with doctors through their smartphones, which is becoming more and more popular among people. To evaluate the influence of m-Health applications on the medical service market, we propose a medical service equilibrium model. The model can balance the supply of doctors and demand of patients and reflect possible options for both doctors and patients with or without m-Health applications in the medical service market. In the meantime, we analyze the behavior of patients and the activities of doctors to minimize patients’ full costs of healthcare and doctors’ futility. Then, we provide a resolution algorithm through mathematical reasoning. Lastly, based on artificially generated dataset, experiments are conducted to evaluate the medical services of m-Health applications.

Modelling ecosystem service flows under uncertainty with stochiastic SPAN

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Gary W.; Snapp, Robert R.; Villa, Ferdinando; Bagstad, Kenneth J.

2012-01-01

Ecosystem service models are increasingly in demand for decision making. However, the data required to run these models are often patchy, missing, outdated, or untrustworthy. Further, communication of data and model uncertainty to decision makers is often either absent or unintuitive. In this work, we introduce a systematic approach to addressing both the data gap and the difficulty in communicating uncertainty through a stochastic adaptation of the Service Path Attribution Networks (SPAN) framework. The SPAN formalism assesses ecosystem services through a set of up to 16 maps, which characterize the services in a study area in terms of flow pathways between ecosystems and human beneficiaries. Although the SPAN algorithms were originally defined deterministically, we present them here in a stochastic framework which combines probabilistic input data with a stochastic transport model in order to generate probabilistic spatial outputs. This enables a novel feature among ecosystem service models: the ability to spatially visualize uncertainty in the model results. The stochastic SPAN model can analyze areas where data limitations are prohibitive for deterministic models. Greater uncertainty in the model inputs (including missing data) should lead to greater uncertainty expressed in the model’s output distributions. By using Bayesian belief networks to fill data gaps and expert-provided trust assignments to augment untrustworthy or outdated information, we can account for uncertainty in input data, producing a model that is still able to run and provide information where strictly deterministic models could not. Taken together, these attributes enable more robust and intuitive modelling of ecosystem services under uncertainty.

A formal model for classifying trusted Semantic Web Services

OpenAIRE

Galizia, Stefania; Gugliotta, Alessio; Pedrinaci, Carlos

2008-01-01

Semantic Web Services (SWS) aim to alleviate Web service limitations, by combining Web service technologies with the potential of Semantic Web. Several open issues have to be tackled yet, in order to enable a safe and efficient Web services selection. One of them is represented by trust. In this paper, we introduce a trust definition and formalize a model for managing trust in SWS. The model approaches the selection of trusted Web services as a classification problem, and it is realized by an...

Quebec mental health services networks: models and implementation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marie-Josée Fleury

2005-06-01

Full Text Available Purpose: In the transformation of health care systems, the introduction of integrated service networks is considered to be one of the main solutions for enhancing efficiency. In the last few years, a wealth of literature has emerged on the topic of services integration. However, the question of how integrated service networks should be modelled to suit different implementation contexts has barely been touched. To fill that gap, this article presents four models for the organization of mental health integrated networks. Data sources: The proposed models are drawn from three recently published studies on mental health integrated services in the province of Quebec (Canada with the author as principal investigator. Description: Following an explanation of the concept of integrated service network and a description of the Quebec context for mental health networks, the models, applicable in all settings: rural, urban or semi-urban, and metropolitan, and summarized in four figures, are presented. Discussion and conclusion: To apply the models successfully, the necessity of rallying all the actors of a system, from the strategic, tactical and operational levels, according to the type of integration involved: functional/administrative, clinical and physician-system is highlighted. The importance of formalizing activities among organizations and actors in a network and reinforcing the governing mechanisms at the local level is also underlined. Finally, a number of integration strategies and key conditions of success to operationalize integrated service networks are suggested.

Interventions for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders in Inclusive School Settings

Science.gov (United States)

Koegel, Lynn; Matos-Freden, Rosy; Lang, Russell; Koegel, Robert

2012-01-01

Students with ASD present unique challenges to school systems. Despite these challenges, federal laws require that schools implement research-based practices in the least restrictive environment (LRE). The LRE is often deemed to be the general education classroom and the primary intervention agent is often the classroom teacher. Ensuring students…

A resource oriented webs service for environmental modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Ferencik, Ioan

2013-04-01

Environmental modeling is a largely adopted practice in the study of natural phenomena. Environmental models can be difficult to build and use and thus sharing them within the community is an important aspect. The most common approach to share a model is to expose it as a web service. In practice the interaction with this web service is cumbersome due to lack of standardized contract and the complexity of the model being exposed. In this work we investigate the use of a resource oriented approach in exposing environmental models as web services. We view a model as a layered resource build atop the object concept from Object Oriented Programming, augmented with persistence capabilities provided by an embedded object database to keep track of its state and implementing the four basic principles of resource oriented architectures: addressability, statelessness, representation and uniform interface. For implementation we use exclusively open source software: Django framework, dyBase object oriented database and Python programming language. We developed a generic framework of resources structured into a hierarchy of types and consequently extended this typology with recurses specific to the domain of environmental modeling. To test our web service we used cURL, a robust command-line based web client.

Using UML to Model Web Services for Automatic Composition

OpenAIRE

Amal Elgammal; Mohamed El-Sharkawi

2010-01-01

There is a great interest paid to the web services paradigm nowadays. One of the most important problems related to the web service paradigm is the automatic composition of web services. Several frameworks have been proposed to achieve this novel goal. The most recent and richest framework (model) is the Colombo model. However, even for experienced developers, working with Colombo formalisms is low-level, very complex and timeconsuming. We propose to use UML (Unified Modeling Language) to mod...

Service Learning In Physics: The Consultant Model

Science.gov (United States)

Guerra, David

2005-04-01

Each year thousands of students across the country and across the academic disciplines participate in service learning. Unfortunately, with no clear model for integrating community service into the physics curriculum, there are very few physics students engaged in service learning. To overcome this shortfall, a consultant based service-learning program has been developed and successfully implemented at Saint Anselm College (SAC). As consultants, students in upper level physics courses apply their problem solving skills in the service of others. Most recently, SAC students provided technical and managerial support to a group from Girl's Inc., a national empowerment program for girls in high-risk, underserved areas, who were participating in the national FIRST Lego League Robotics competition. In their role as consultants the SAC students provided technical information through brainstorming sessions and helped the girls stay on task with project management techniques, like milestone charting. This consultant model of service-learning, provides technical support to groups that may not have a great deal of resources and gives physics students a way to improve their interpersonal skills, test their technical expertise, and better define the marketable skill set they are developing through the physics curriculum.

Model of service-oriented catering supply chain performance evaluation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Juanqiong Gou

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Purpose: The aim of this paper is constructing a performance evaluation model for service-oriented catering supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: With the research on the current situation of catering industry, this paper summarized the characters of the catering supply chain, and then presents the service-oriented catering supply chain model based on the platform of logistics and information. At last, the fuzzy AHP method is used to evaluate the performance of service-oriented catering supply chain. Findings: With the analysis of the characteristics of catering supply chain, we construct the performance evaluation model in order to guarantee the food safety, logistics efficiency, price stability and so on. Practical implications: In order to evolve an efficient and effective service supply chain, it can not only used to own enterprise improvement, but also can be used for selecting different customers, to choose a different model of development. Originality/value: This paper has a new definition of service-oriented catering supply chain. And it offers a model to evaluate the performance of this catering supply chain.

Remote information service access system based on a client-server-service model

Science.gov (United States)

Konrad, A.M.

1996-08-06

A local host computing system, a remote host computing system as connected by a network, and service functionalities: a human interface service functionality, a starter service functionality, and a desired utility service functionality, and a Client-Server-Service (CSS) model is imposed on each service functionality. In one embodiment, this results in nine logical components and three physical components (a local host, a remote host, and an intervening network), where two of the logical components are integrated into one Remote Object Client component, and that Remote Object Client component and the other seven logical components are deployed among the local host and remote host in a manner which eases compatibility and upgrade problems, and provides an illusion to a user that a desired utility service supported on a remote host resides locally on the user`s local host, thereby providing ease of use and minimal software maintenance for users of that remote service. 16 figs.

An innovative service process development based on a reference model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorenzo Sanfelice Frazzon

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This article examines the new service development (NSD process, focusing specifically in a case of a financial service, guided by the following research questions: what are the processes and practices used in the development and design of new financial services? How the results of the financial NSD proposal reflects on the NSD are as a whole? Therefore, the study aims to show and describe a financial service development, conducted at Helpinveste. The paper focuses on the Conceptual Design service (activities: definition of specifications and development of alternative solutions for the service and Service Process Design (Service Representation phases. The methodological procedures are based on the process approach, using a reference model for developing new services. In order to operationalize the model, several techniques for the various stages of the project were used, e.g. QFD and Service Blueprint. Lastly, conclusions report contributions from the reference model application, both theoretical and practical contributions, as well the limitations and further research recommendations.

Heavy-traffic limits for polling models with exhaustive service and non-FCFS service orders

NARCIS (Netherlands)

P. Vis (Petra); R. Bekker (Rene); R.D. van der Mei (Rob)

2015-01-01

htmlabstractWe study cyclic polling models with exhaustive service at each queue under a variety of non-FCFS (first-come-first-served) local service orders, namely last-come-first-served with and without preemption, random-order-of-service, processor sharing, the multi-class priority scheduling with

BPMN4SOA : A service oriented process modelling language

OpenAIRE

Bergstøl, Eivind

2010-01-01

Service oriented architectures have become very popular the last few years. The abstraction of computer systems into a service paradigm bring many new solutions, both for cross business processes to aid interoperability and the reuse of existing legacy systems in a new network centric world. In the wake of this, service modelling has become a part of OMGs Model Driven Architecture and new modelling languages that are based on past experience for the new paradigm are emerging. BPMN 2.0 and...

The cloud services innovation platform- enabling service-based environmental modelling using infrastructure-as-a-service cloud computing

Science.gov (United States)

Service oriented architectures allow modelling engines to be hosted over the Internet abstracting physical hardware configuration and software deployments from model users. Many existing environmental models are deployed as desktop applications running on user's personal computers (PCs). Migration ...

PRAGMATICS DRIVEN LAND COVER SERVICE COMPOSITION UTILIZING BEHAVIOR-INTENTION MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

H. Wu

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Web service composition is one of the key issues to develop a global land cover (GLC information service portal. Aiming at the defect that traditional syntax and semantic service compositionare difficult to take pragmatic information into account, the paper firstly analyses three tiers of web service language and their succession relations, discusses the conceptual model of pragmatic web service, and proposes the idea of pragmatics-oriented adaptive composition method based on the analysis of some examples. On this basis it puts forward the pragmatic web service model based on Behavior-Intention through presetting and expression of service usability, users' intention, and other pragmatic information, develops the on-demand assembly method based on the agent theory and matching and reconstruction method on heterogeneous message, solves the key technological issue of algorithm applicability and heterogeneous message transformation in the process of covering web service composition on the ground, applies these methods into service combination, puts forward the pragmatic driven service composition method based on behavior-intention model, and effectively settles the issue of coordination and interaction of composite service invocation.

Environmental Models as a Service: Enabling Interoperability ...

Science.gov (United States)

Achieving interoperability in environmental modeling has evolved as software technology has progressed. The recent rise of cloud computing and proliferation of web services initiated a new stage for creating interoperable systems. Scientific programmers increasingly take advantage of streamlined deployment processes and affordable cloud access to move algorithms and data to the web for discoverability and consumption. In these deployments, environmental models can become available to end users through RESTful web services and consistent application program interfaces (APIs) that consume, manipulate, and store modeling data. RESTful modeling APIs also promote discoverability and guide usability through self-documentation. Embracing the RESTful paradigm allows models to be accessible via a web standard, and the resulting endpoints are platform- and implementation-agnostic while simultaneously presenting significant computational capabilities for spatial and temporal scaling. RESTful APIs present data in a simple verb-noun web request interface: the verb dictates how a resource is consumed using HTTP methods (e.g., GET, POST, and PUT) and the noun represents the URL reference of the resource on which the verb will act. The RESTful API can self-document in both the HTTP response and an interactive web page using the Open API standard. This lets models function as an interoperable service that promotes sharing, documentation, and discoverability. Here, we discuss the

A Multilateral Negotiation Model for Cloud Service Market

Science.gov (United States)

Yoo, Dongjin; Sim, Kwang Mong

Trading cloud services between consumers and providers is a complicated issue of cloud computing. Since a consumer can negotiate with multiple providers to acquire the same service and each provider can receive many requests from multiple consumers, to facilitate the trading of cloud services among multiple consumers and providers, a multilateral negotiation model for cloud market is necessary. The contribution of this work is the proposal of a business model supporting a multilateral price negotiation for trading cloud services. The design of proposed systems for cloud service market includes considering a many-to-many negotiation protocol, and price determining factor from service level feature. Two negotiation strategies are implemented: 1) MDA (Market Driven Agent); and 2) adaptive concession making responding to changes of bargaining position are proposed for cloud service market. Empirical results shows that MDA achieved better performance in some cases that the adaptive concession making strategy, it is noted that unlike the MDA, the adaptive concession making strategy does not assume that an agent has information of the number of competitors (e.g., a consumer agent adopting the adaptive concession making strategy need not know the number of consumer agents competing for the same service).

Performance modeling of network data services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Haynes, R.A.; Pierson, L.G.

1997-01-01

Networks at major computational organizations are becoming increasingly complex. The introduction of large massively parallel computers and supercomputers with gigabyte memories are requiring greater and greater bandwidth for network data transfers to widely dispersed clients. For networks to provide adequate data transfer services to high performance computers and remote users connected to them, the networking components must be optimized from a combination of internal and external performance criteria. This paper describes research done at Sandia National Laboratories to model network data services and to visualize the flow of data from source to sink when using the data services.

Hypersonic - Model Analysis as a Service

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Acretoaie, Vlad; Störrle, Harald

2014-01-01

Hypersonic is a Cloud-based tool that proposes a new approach to the deployment of model analysis facilities. It is implemented as a RESTful Web service API o_ering analysis features such as model clone detection. This approach allows the migration of resource intensive analysis algorithms from...

A systematic composite service design modeling method using graph-based theory.

Science.gov (United States)

Elhag, Arafat Abdulgader Mohammed; Mohamad, Radziah; Aziz, Muhammad Waqar; Zeshan, Furkh

2015-01-01

The composite service design modeling is an essential process of the service-oriented software development life cycle, where the candidate services, composite services, operations and their dependencies are required to be identified and specified before their design. However, a systematic service-oriented design modeling method for composite services is still in its infancy as most of the existing approaches provide the modeling of atomic services only. For these reasons, a new method (ComSDM) is proposed in this work for modeling the concept of service-oriented design to increase the reusability and decrease the complexity of system while keeping the service composition considerations in mind. Furthermore, the ComSDM method provides the mathematical representation of the components of service-oriented design using the graph-based theoryto facilitate the design quality measurement. To demonstrate that the ComSDM method is also suitable for composite service design modeling of distributed embedded real-time systems along with enterprise software development, it is implemented in the case study of a smart home. The results of the case study not only check the applicability of ComSDM, but can also be used to validate the complexity and reusability of ComSDM. This also guides the future research towards the design quality measurement such as using the ComSDM method to measure the quality of composite service design in service-oriented software system.

A STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MODEL FOR SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

OpenAIRE

Andreea ZAMFIR

2013-01-01

This paper provides a knowledge-based strategic management of services model, with a view to emphasise an approach to gaining competitive advantage through knowledge, people and networking. The long-term evolution of the service organization is associated with the way in which the strategic management is practised.

Efficient Business Service Consumption by Customization with Variability Modelling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael Stollberg

2010-07-01

Full Text Available The establishment of service orientation in industry determines the need for efficient engineering technologies that properly support the whole life cycle of service provision and consumption. A central challenge is adequate support for the efficient employment of komplex services in their individual application context. This becomes particularly important for large-scale enterprise technologies where generic services are designed for reuse in several business scenarios. In this article we complement our work regarding Service Variability Modelling presented in a previous publication. There we presented an approach for the customization of services for individual application contexts by creating simplified variants, based on model-driven variability management. That work presents our revised service variability metamodel, new features of the variability tools and an applicability study, which reveals that substantial improvements on the efficiency of standard business service consumption under both usability and economic aspects can be achieved.

Web service availability-impact of error recovery and traffic model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martinello, Magnos; Kaa-hat niche, Mohamed; Kanoun, Karama

2005-01-01

Internet is often used for transaction based applications such as online banking, stock trading and shopping, where the service interruption or outages are unacceptable. Therefore, it is important for designers of such applications to analyze how hardware, software and performance related failures affect the quality of service delivered to the users. This paper presents analytical models for evaluating the service availability of web cluster architectures. A composite performance and availability modeling approach is defined considering various causes of service unavailability. In particular, web cluster systems are modeled taking into account: two error recovery strategies (client transparent and non-client-transparent) as well as two traffic models (Poisson and modulated Poisson). Sensitivity analysis results are presented to show their impact on the web service availability. The obtained results provide useful guidelines to web designers

Web Services and Model-Driven Enterprise Information Services. Proceedings of the Joint Workshop on Web Services and Model-Driven Enterprise Information Services, WSMDEIS 2005.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bevinakoppa, S.; Ferreira Pires, Luis; Hammoudi, S.

2005-01-01

Web services and Model-driven development are two emerging research fields and have been receiving a lot of attention in the recent years. New approaches on these two areas can bring many benefits to the development of information systems, distribution flexibility, interoperability, maintainability

Modeling Road Traffic Using Service Center

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HARAGOS, I.-M.

2012-05-01

Full Text Available Transport systems have an essential role in modern society because they facilitate access to natural resources and they stimulate trade. Current studies aimed at improving transport networks by developing new methods for optimization. Because of the increase in the global number of cars, one of the most common problems facing the transport network is congestion. By creating traffic models and simulate them, we can avoid this problem and find appropriate solutions. In this paper we propose a new method for modeling traffic. This method considers road intersections as being service centers. A service center represents a set consisting of a queue followed by one or multiple servers. This model was used to simulate real situations in an urban traffic area. Based on this simulation, we have successfully determined the optimal functioning and we have computed the performance measures.

Systemic Model for Optimal Regulation in Public Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucica Matei

2006-05-01

Full Text Available The current paper inscribes within those approaching the issue of public services from the interdisciplinary perspective. Public service development and imposing standards of efficiency and effectiveness, as well as for citizens’ satisfaction bring in front line the systemic modelling and establishing optimal policies for organisation and functioning of public services. The issue under discussion imposes an interface with powerful determinations of social nature. Consequently, the most adequate modelling might be that with a probabilistic and statistic nature. The fundamental idea of this paper, that obviously can be broadly developed, starts with assimilating the way of organisation and functioning of a public service with a waiting thread, to which some hypotheses are associated concerning the order of provision, performance measurement through costs or waiting time in the system etc. We emphasise the openness and dynamics of the public service system, as well as modelling by turning into account the statistic knowledge and researches, and we do not make detailed remarks on the cybernetic characteristics of this system. The optimal adjustment is achieved through analysis on the feedback and its comparison with the current standards or good practices.

Analysis of Point Based Image Registration Errors With Applications in Single Molecule Microscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, E A K; Ober, R J

2013-12-15

We present an asymptotic treatment of errors involved in point-based image registration where control point (CP) localization is subject to heteroscedastic noise; a suitable model for image registration in fluorescence microscopy. Assuming an affine transform, CPs are used to solve a multivariate regression problem. With measurement errors existing for both sets of CPs this is an errors-in-variable problem and linear least squares is inappropriate; the correct method being generalized least squares. To allow for point dependent errors the equivalence of a generalized maximum likelihood and heteroscedastic generalized least squares model is achieved allowing previously published asymptotic results to be extended to image registration. For a particularly useful model of heteroscedastic noise where covariance matrices are scalar multiples of a known matrix (including the case where covariance matrices are multiples of the identity) we provide closed form solutions to estimators and derive their distribution. We consider the target registration error (TRE) and define a new measure called the localization registration error (LRE) believed to be useful, especially in microscopy registration experiments. Assuming Gaussianity of the CP localization errors, it is shown that the asymptotic distribution for the TRE and LRE are themselves Gaussian and the parameterized distributions are derived. Results are successfully applied to registration in single molecule microscopy to derive the key dependence of the TRE and LRE variance on the number of CPs and their associated photon counts. Simulations show asymptotic results are robust for low CP numbers and non-Gaussianity. The method presented here is shown to outperform GLS on real imaging data.

Research on new information service model of the contemporary library

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xin Pingping; Lu Yan

2010-01-01

According to the development of the internet and multimedia technology, the information service models in the contemporary library become both of the traditional and digital information service. The libraries in each country do their best to make the voluminous information and the complex technology be High-integrated in the background management, and also make the front interface be more and more convenient to the users. The essential characteristics of the information service of the contemporary library are all-in-one and humanness. In this article, we will describe several new hot information service models of the contemporary library in detail, such as individualized service, reference service, reference service and strategic information service. (authors)

A model for effective planning of SME support services.

Science.gov (United States)

Rakićević, Zoran; Omerbegović-Bijelović, Jasmina; Lečić-Cvetković, Danica

2016-02-01

This paper presents a model for effective planning of support services for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The idea is to scrutinize and measure the suitability of support services in order to give recommendations for the improvement of a support planning process. We examined the applied support services and matched them with the problems and needs of SMEs, based on the survey conducted in 2013 on a sample of 336 SMEs in Serbia. We defined and analysed the five research questions that refer to support services, their consistency with the SMEs' problems and needs, and the relation between the given support and SMEs' success. The survey results have shown a statistically significant connection between them. Based on this result, we proposed an eight-phase model as a method for the improvement of support service planning for SMEs. This model helps SMEs to plan better their requirements in terms of support; government and administration bodies at all levels and organizations that provide support services to understand better SMEs' problems and needs for support. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

BioModels.net Web Services, a free and integrated toolkit for computational modelling software.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chen; Courtot, Mélanie; Le Novère, Nicolas; Laibe, Camille

2010-05-01

Exchanging and sharing scientific results are essential for researchers in the field of computational modelling. BioModels.net defines agreed-upon standards for model curation. A fundamental one, MIRIAM (Minimum Information Requested in the Annotation of Models), standardises the annotation and curation process of quantitative models in biology. To support this standard, MIRIAM Resources maintains a set of standard data types for annotating models, and provides services for manipulating these annotations. Furthermore, BioModels.net creates controlled vocabularies, such as SBO (Systems Biology Ontology) which strictly indexes, defines and links terms used in Systems Biology. Finally, BioModels Database provides a free, centralised, publicly accessible database for storing, searching and retrieving curated and annotated computational models. Each resource provides a web interface to submit, search, retrieve and display its data. In addition, the BioModels.net team provides a set of Web Services which allows the community to programmatically access the resources. A user is then able to perform remote queries, such as retrieving a model and resolving all its MIRIAM Annotations, as well as getting the details about the associated SBO terms. These web services use established standards. Communications rely on SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) messages and the available queries are described in a WSDL (Web Services Description Language) file. Several libraries are provided in order to simplify the development of client software. BioModels.net Web Services make one step further for the researchers to simulate and understand the entirety of a biological system, by allowing them to retrieve biological models in their own tool, combine queries in workflows and efficiently analyse models.

M-Health Service for Train Passengers Using Mobile GPS System: An ArchiMate Service Layer Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MUHAMMAD SAJID

2017-01-01

Full Text Available EA (Enterprise Architecture is an instrument that is employed to describe the organization?s structure, business layout and operations within the IT (Information Technology environment. Different types of organizations extensively employed EA for aligning their business and operations with IT resources. EA may also be employed in non-organizational setting such as service providing agencies; rescue, medical emergency and education services. This paper suggests an EAF (Enterprise Architecture Framework for non-organizational setting by critically analyzing the top four EAs. The paper also proposes a new m-Health service model based on the mobile GPS (Global Positioning System for train/rail passengers by employing the ArchiMate modeling language and compares the proposed model with existing service providers.

A reference model for space data system interconnection services

Science.gov (United States)

Pietras, John; Theis, Gerhard

1993-01-01

The widespread adoption of standard packet-based data communication protocols and services for spaceflight missions provides the foundation for other standard space data handling services. These space data handling services can be defined as increasingly sophisticated processing of data or information received from lower-level services, using a layering approach made famous in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Open System Interconnection Reference Model (OSI-RM). The Space Data System Interconnection Reference Model (SDSI-RM) incorporates the conventions of the OSIRM to provide a framework within which a complete set of space data handling services can be defined. The use of the SDSI-RM is illustrated through its application to data handling services and protocols that have been defined by, or are under consideration by, the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS).

Increasing research capacity and changing the culture of primary care towards reflective inquiring practice: the experience of the West London Research Network (WeLReN).

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, P; While, A

2001-05-01

A number of primary care research networks were set up throughout England in 1998 in order to (1) improve the quality of primary care research (2) increase the research capacity of primary care, and (3) change the culture of primary care towards reflective inquiring practice (NHSE, 2000b). It is not clear how best to operate a network to achieve these diverse aims. This paper describes the first 30 months of a network that adopted a whole system approach in the belief that this would offer the best chance of simultaneously achieving the three aims. A cycle of activity was designed to facilitate the formation of multidisciplinary coalitions of interest for research with complementary 'top down' and 'bottom up' programmes of work co-existing. At least 330 people participated in the generation of research questions of whom one third (33%) were general practitioners, 16% community nurses, 6% practice managers and other primary care practitioners. Over two fifths (43%) were 'key allies'--academics, health authority staff, community workers and project workers. One fifth (110) of all practices (500) in the WeLReN area have collaborated in at least one research project. The ratio of doctor:nurse participation in the 24 research project teams was markedly different in the supported coalitions (2:1) compared to projects devised and led by more experienced researchers (6:1). The evidence suggests that it is possible to operate a primary care research network in a way that develops coalitions of interest from different parts of the health care system as well as both 'top down' and 'bottom up' led projects. It is too early to tell if the approach will be able to achieve its aims in the long-term but the activity data are encouraging. There is a need for more research on the theoretical basis of network operation.

Engaging Students in Mathematical Modeling through Service-Learning

Science.gov (United States)

Carducci, Olivia M.

2014-01-01

I have included a service-learning project in my mathematical modeling course for the last 6 years. This article describes my experience with service-learning in this course. The article includes a description of the course and the service-learning projects. There is a discussion of how to connect with community partners and identify…

Model of service-oriented catering supply chain performance evaluation

OpenAIRE

Gou, Juanqiong; Shen, Guguan; Chai, Rui

2013-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is constructing a performance evaluation model for service-oriented catering supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: With the research on the current situation of catering industry, this paper summarized the characters of the catering supply chain, and then presents the service-oriented catering supply chain model based on the platform of logistics and information. At last, the fuzzy AHP method is used to evaluate the performance of service-oriented catering ...

Service Quality in Distance Education using the Gronroos Model

OpenAIRE

Hamid, Fazelina Sahul; Yip, Nick

2016-01-01

Demand for distance education programs have been increasing rapidly over the years. As a result, assessment of the quality of distance education programs has become a strategic issue that is very pertinent for program survival. This study uses Gronroos Model for assessing the service quality of the Malaysian distance education institutions. This model is chosen because it takes into account of the service delivery process and also service outcome. Our study confirms the multidimensional natur...

The Northern Marshall Islands radiological survey: A quality control program for radiochemical and gamma spectroscopy analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kehl, S.R.; Mount, M.E.; Robison, W.L.

1995-09-01

From 1979 to 1989, approximately 25,000 Post Northern Marshall Islands Radiological Survey (PNMIRS) samples were collected, and over 71,400 radiochemical and gamma spectroscopy analyses were performed to establish the concentration of 90 Sr, 137 Cs, 241 Am, and plutonium isotopes in soil, vegetation, fish, and animals in the Northern Marshall Islands. While the Low Level Gamma Counting Facility (B379) in the Health and Ecological Assessment (HEA) division accounted for over 80% of all gamma spectroscopy analyses, approximately 4889 radiochemical and 5437 gamma spectroscopy analyses were performed on 4784 samples of soil, vegetation, terrestrial animal, and marine organisms by outside laboratories. Four laboratories were used by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) to perform the radiochemical analyses: Thermo Analytical Norcal, Richmond, California (TMA); Nuclear Energy Services, North Carolina State University (NCSU); Laboratory of Radiation Ecology, University of Washington (LRE); and Health and Ecological Assessment (HEA) division, LLNL, Livermore, California. Additionally, LRE and NCSU were used to perform gamma spectroscopy analyses. The analytical precision and accuracy were monitored by including blind duplicates and natural matrix standards in each group of samples analyzed. On the basis of reported analytical values for duplicates and standards, 88% of the gamma and 87% of the radiochemical analyses in this survey were accepted. By laboratory, 93% of the radiochemical analyses by TMA; 88% of the gamma-ray spectrometry and 100% of the radiochemistry analyses by NCSU; 89% of the gamma spectroscopy and 87% of the radiochemistry analyses by LRE; and 90% of the radiochemistry analyses performed by HEA's radiochemistry department were accepted

Modelling OAIS Compliance for Disaggregated Preservation Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gareth Knight

2007-07-01

Full Text Available The reference model for the Open Archival Information System (OAIS is well established in the research community as a method of modelling the functions of a digital repository and as a basis in which to frame digital curation and preservation issues. In reference to the 5th anniversary review of the OAIS, it is timely to consider how it may be interpreted by an institutional repository. The paper examines methods of sharing essential functions and requirements of an OAIS between two or more institutions, outlining the practical considerations of outsourcing. It also details the approach taken by the SHERPA DP Project to introduce a disaggregated service model for institutional repositories that wish to implement preservation services.

Application of Service Quality Model in Education Environment

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ting Ding Hooi

2016-02-01

Full Text Available Most of the ideas on service quality stem from the West. The massive developments in research in the West are undeniable of their importance. This leads to the generation and development of new ideas. These ideas were subsequently channeled to developing countries. Ideas obtained were then formulated and used by these developing countries in order to obtain better approach in channeling service quality. There are ample to be learnt from the service quality model, SERVQUAL which attain high acceptance in the West. Service quality in the education system is important to guarantee the effectiveness and quality of education. Effective and quality education will be able to offer quality graduates, which will contribute to the development of the nation. This paper will discuss the application of the SERVQUAL model into the education environment.

An u-Service Model Based on a Smart Phone for Urban Computing Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Cho, Yongyun; Yoe, Hyun

In urban computing environments, all of services should be based on the interaction between humans and environments around them, which frequently and ordinarily in home and office. This paper propose an u-service model based on a smart phone for urban computing environments. The suggested service model includes a context-aware and personalized service scenario development environment that can instantly describe user's u-service demand or situation information with smart devices. To do this, the architecture of the suggested service model consists of a graphical service editing environment for smart devices, an u-service platform, and an infrastructure with sensors and WSN/USN. The graphic editor expresses contexts as execution conditions of a new service through a context model based on ontology. The service platform deals with the service scenario according to contexts. With the suggested service model, an user in urban computing environments can quickly and easily make u-service or new service using smart devices.

Validation of Service Blueprint models by means of formal simulation techniques

OpenAIRE

Estañol Lamarca, Montserrat; Marcos, Esperanza; Oriol Hilari, Xavier; Pérez, Francisco J.; Teniente López, Ernest; Vara, Juan M.

2017-01-01

As service design has gained interest in the last years, so has gained one of its primary tools: the Service Blueprint. In essence, a service blueprint is a graphical tool for the design of business models, specifically for the design of business service operations. Despite its level of adoption, tool support for service design tasks is still on its early days and available tools for service blueprint modeling are mainly focused on enhancing usability and enabling collaborative edition, disre...

Service Capacity Reserve under Uncertainty by Hospital’s ER Analogies: A Practical Model for Car Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miguel Ángel Pérez Salaverría

2014-01-01

Full Text Available We define a capacity reserve model to dimension passenger car service installations according to the demographic distribution of the area to be serviced by using hospital’s emergency room analogies. Usually, service facilities are designed applying empirical methods, but customers arrive under uncertain conditions not included in the original estimations, and there is a gap between customer’s real demand and the service’s capacity. Our research establishes a valid methodology and covers the absence of recent researches and the lack of statistical techniques implementation, integrating demand uncertainty in a unique model built in stages by implementing ARIMA forecasting, queuing theory, and Monte Carlo simulation to optimize the service capacity and occupancy, minimizing the implicit cost of the capacity that must be reserved to service unexpected customers. Our model has proved to be a useful tool for optimal decision making under uncertainty integrating the prediction of the cost implicit in the reserve capacity to serve unexpected demand and defining a set of new process indicators, such us capacity, occupancy, and cost of capacity reserve never studied before. The new indicators are intended to optimize the service operation. This set of new indicators could be implemented in the information systems used in the passenger car services.

Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer Web Service System

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S.; Pan, L.; Zhai, C.; Tang, B.; Jiang, J. H.

2014-12-01

We have developed a cloud-enabled web-service system that empowers physics-based, multi-variable model performance evaluations and diagnoses through the comprehensive and synergistic use of multiple observational data, reanalysis data, and model outputs. We have developed a methodology to transform an existing science application code into a web service using a Python wrapper interface and Python web service frameworks. The web-service system, called Climate Model Diagnostic Analyzer (CMDA), currently supports (1) all the observational datasets from Obs4MIPs and a few ocean datasets from NOAA and Argo, which can serve as observation-based reference data for model evaluation, (2) many of CMIP5 model outputs covering a broad range of atmosphere, ocean, and land variables from the CMIP5 specific historical runs and AMIP runs, and (3) ECMWF reanalysis outputs for several environmental variables in order to supplement observational datasets. Analysis capabilities currently supported by CMDA are (1) the calculation of annual and seasonal means of physical variables, (2) the calculation of time evolution of the means in any specified geographical region, (3) the calculation of correlation between two variables, (4) the calculation of difference between two variables, and (5) the conditional sampling of one physical variable with respect to another variable. A web user interface is chosen for CMDA because it not only lowers the learning curve and removes the adoption barrier of the tool but also enables instantaneous use, avoiding the hassle of local software installation and environment incompatibility. CMDA will be used as an educational tool for the summer school organized by JPL's Center for Climate Science in 2014. In order to support 30+ simultaneous users during the school, we have deployed CMDA to the Amazon cloud environment. The cloud-enabled CMDA will provide each student with a virtual machine while the user interaction with the system will remain the same

Models for Primary Eye Care Services in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vasundhra Misra

2015-01-01

In the current situation, an integrated health care system with primary eye care promoted by government of India is apparently the best answer. This model is both cost effective and practical for the prevention and control of blindness among the underprivileged population. Other models functioning with the newer technology of tele-ophthalmology or mobile clinics also add to the positive outcome in providing primary eye care services. This review highlights the strengths and weaknesses of various models presently functioning in the country with the idea of providing useful inputs for eye care providers and enabling them to identify and adopt an appropriate model for primary eye care services.

An agent-based model for energy service companies

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Robinson, Marguerite; Varga, Liz; Allen, Peter

2015-01-01

Highlights: • An agent-based model for household energy efficiency upgrades is considered. • Energy service companies provide an alternative to traditional utility providers. • Household self-financing is a limiting factor to widespread efficiency upgrading. • Longer term service contracts can lead to reduced household energy costs. • Future energy price increases enable service providers to retain their customer base. - Abstract: The residential housing sector is a major consumer of energy accounting for approximately one third of carbon emissions in the United Kingdom. Achieving a sustainable, low-carbon infrastructure necessitates a reduced and more efficient use of domestic energy supplies. Energy service companies offer an alternative to traditional providers, which supply a single utility product to satisfy the unconstrained demand of end users, and have been identified as a potentially important actor in sustainable future economies. An agent-based model is developed to examine the potential of energy service companies to contribute to the large scale upgrading of household energy efficiency, which would ultimately lead to a more sustainable and secure energy infrastructure. The migration of households towards energy service companies is described by an attractiveness array, through which potential customers can evaluate the future benefits, in terms of household energy costs, of changing provider. It is shown that self-financing is a limiting factor to the widespread upgrading of residential energy efficiency. Greater reductions in household energy costs could be achieved by committing to longer term contracts, allowing upgrade costs to be distributed over greater time intervals. A steadily increasing cost of future energy usage lends an element of stability to the market, with energy service companies displaying the ability to retain customers on contract expiration. The model highlights how a greater focus on the provision of energy services, as

Model construction of nursing service satisfaction in hospitalized tumor patients.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yongyi; Liu, Jingshi; Xiao, Shuiyuan; Liu, Xiangyu; Tang, Xinhui; Zhou, Yujuan

2014-01-01

This study aims to construct a satisfaction model on nursing service in hospitalized tumor patients. Using questionnaires, data about hospitalized tumor patients' expectation, quality perception and satisfaction of hospital nursing service were obtained. A satisfaction model of nursing service in hospitalized tumor patients was established through empirical study and by structural equation method. This model was suitable for tumor specialized hospital, with reliability and validity. Patient satisfaction was significantly affected by quality perception and patient expectation. Patient satisfaction and patient loyalty was also affected by disease pressure. Hospital brand was positively correlated with patient satisfaction and patient loyalty, negatively correlated with patient complaint. Patient satisfaction was positively correlated with patient loyalty, patient complaints, and quality perception, and negatively correlated with disease pressure and patient expectation. The satisfaction model on nursing service in hospitalized tumor patients fits well. By this model, the quality of hospital nursing care may be improved.

Affordability Funding Models for Early Childhood Services

Science.gov (United States)

Purcal, Christiane; Fisher, Karen

2006-01-01

This paper presents a model of the approaches open to government to ensure that early childhood services are affordable to families. We derived the model from a comparative literature review of affordability approaches taken by government, both in Australia and internationally. The model adds significantly to the literature by proposing a means to…

Supporting Collaborative Model and Data Service Development and Deployment with DevOps

Science.gov (United States)

David, O.

2016-12-01

Adopting DevOps practices for model service development and deployment enables a community to engage in service-oriented modeling and data management. The Cloud Services Integration Platform (CSIP) developed the last 5 years at Colorado State University provides for collaborative integration of environmental models into scalable model and data services as a micro-services platform with API and deployment infrastructure. Originally developed to support USDA natural resource applications, it proved suitable for a wider range of applications in the environmental modeling domain. While extending its scope and visibility it became apparent community integration and adequate work flow support through the full model development and application cycle drove successful outcomes.DevOps provide best practices, tools, and organizational structures to optimize the transition from model service development to deployment by minimizing the (i) operational burden and (ii) turnaround time for modelers. We have developed and implemented a methodology to fully automate a suite of applications for application lifecycle management, version control, continuous integration, container management, and container scaling to enable model and data service developers in various institutions to collaboratively build, run, deploy, test, and scale services within minutes.To date more than 160 model and data services are available for applications in hydrology (PRMS, Hydrotools, CFA, ESP), water and wind erosion prediction (WEPP, WEPS, RUSLE2), soil quality trends (SCI, STIR), water quality analysis (SWAT-CP, WQM, CFA, AgES-W), stream degradation assessment (SWAT-DEG), hydraulics (cross-section), and grazing management (GRAS). In addition, supporting data services include soil (SSURGO), ecological site (ESIS), climate (CLIGEN, WINDGEN), land management and crop rotations (LMOD), and pesticides (WQM), developed using this workflow automation and decentralized governance.

Exclusive queueing model including the choice of service windows

Science.gov (United States)

Tanaka, Masahiro; Yanagisawa, Daichi; Nishinari, Katsuhiro

2018-01-01

In a queueing system involving multiple service windows, choice behavior is a significant concern. This paper incorporates the choice of service windows into a queueing model with a floor represented by discrete cells. We contrived a logit-based choice algorithm for agents considering the numbers of agents and the distances to all service windows. Simulations were conducted with various parameters of agent choice preference for these two elements and for different floor configurations, including the floor length and the number of service windows. We investigated the model from the viewpoint of transit times and entrance block rates. The influences of the parameters on these factors were surveyed in detail and we determined that there are optimum floor lengths that minimize the transit times. In addition, we observed that the transit times were determined almost entirely by the entrance block rates. The results of the presented model are relevant to understanding queueing systems including the choice of service windows and can be employed to optimize facility design and floor management.

A review of international pharmacy-based minor ailment services and proposed service design model.

Science.gov (United States)

Aly, Mariyam; García-Cárdenas, Victoria; Williams, Kylie; Benrimoj, Shalom I

2018-01-05

The need to consider sustainable healthcare solutions is essential. An innovative strategy used to promote minor ailment care is the utilisation of community pharmacists to deliver minor ailment services (MASs). Promoting higher levels of self-care can potentially reduce the strain on existing resources. To explore the features of international MASs, including their similarities and differences, and consider the essential elements to design a MAS model. A grey literature search strategy was completed in June 2017 to comply with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses standard. This included (1) Google/Yahoo! search engines, (2) targeted websites, and (3) contact with commissioning organisations. Executive summaries, table of contents and title pages of documents were reviewed. Key characteristics of MASs were extracted and a MAS model was developed. A total of 147 publications were included in the review. Key service elements identified included eligibility, accessibility, staff involvement, reimbursement systems. Several factors need to be considered when designing a MAS model; including contextualisation of MAS to the market. Stakeholder engagement, service planning, governance, implementation and review have emerged as key aspects involved with a design model. MASs differ in their structural parameters. Consideration of these parameters is necessary when devising MAS aims and assessing outcomes to promote sustainability and success of the service. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services.

Science.gov (United States)

Hartono, Markus; Chuan, Tan Kay

2011-11-01

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation.

Development of a generic seed crystal for the fabrication of large grain (RE)-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shi, Y; Babu, N Hari; Cardwell, D A

2005-01-01

The critical current density, J c , irreversibility field, B irr , and magnetic field trapping ability of (LRE)-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductors, where LRE is a light rare earth element such as Nd, Sm, Eu and Gd, are generally superior to those of the more common melt-processed Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO). The lack of availability of a suitable seed crystal to grow large, single grain (LRE)-Ba-Cu-O superconductors with controlled orientation, however, has hindered severely the development of these materials for engineering applications over the past ten years. In this communication we report for the first time the development of a generic seed crystal that can be used to fabricate any rare earth (RE) based (RE)-Ba-Cu-O ((RE)BCO) superconductor in the form of a large single grain with controlled orientation. The new seed crystal will potentially enable large grain (LRE)-Ba-Cu-O bulk superconductors to be fabricated routinely, as is the case for YBCO. This will enable the field trapping and current-carrying characteristics of these materials to be explored in more detail than has been possible to date. (rapid communication)

A Review on Broker Based Cloud Service Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nagarajan Rajganesh

2016-09-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing emerged as a utility oriented computing that facilitates resource sharing under pay-as-you-go model. Nowadays, cloud offerings are not limited to range of services and anything can be shared as a service through the Internet. In this work, a detailed literature survey with respect to cloud service discovery and composition has been accounted. A proposed architecture with the inclusion of cloud broker is presented in our work. It focuses the importance of suitable service selection and its ranking towards fulfilling the customer’s service requirements. The proposed cloud broker advocates techniques such as reasoning and decision making capabilities for the improved cloud service selection and composition.

Improving traffic signal management and operations : a basic service model.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-12-01

This report provides a guide for achieving a basic service model for traffic signal management and : operations. The basic service model is based on simply stated and defensible operational objectives : that consider the staffing level, expertise and...

Comparing consumer-directed and agency models for providing supportive services at home.

Science.gov (United States)

Benjamin, A E; Matthias, R; Franke, T M

2000-04-01

To examine the service experiences and outcomes of low-income Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities under two different models for organizing home-based personal assistance services: agency-directed and consumer-directed. A survey of a random sample of 1,095 clients, age 18 and over, who receive services in California's In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) program funded primarily by Medicaid. Other data were obtained from the California Management and Payrolling System (CMIPS). The sample was stratified by service model (agency-directed or consumer-directed), client age (over or under age 65), and severity. Data were collected on client demographics, condition/functional status, and supportive service experience. Outcome measures were developed in three areas: safety, unmet need, and service satisfaction. Factor analysis was used to reduce multiple outcome measures to nine dimensions. Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the effect of service model on each outcome dimension, taking into account the client-provider relationship, client demographics, and case mix. Recipients of IHSS services as of mid-1996 were interviewed by telephone. The survey was conducted in late 1996 and early 1997. On various outcomes, recipients in the consumer-directed model report more positive outcomes than those in the agency model, or they report no difference. Statistically significant differences emerge on recipient safety, unmet needs, and service satisfaction. A family member present as a paid provider is also associated with more positive reported outcomes within the consumer-directed model, but model differences persist even when this is taken into account. Although both models have strengths and weaknesses, from a recipient perspective the consumer-directed model is associated with more positive outcomes. Although health professionals have expressed concerns about the capacity of consumer direction to assure quality, particularly with respect to safety, meeting unmet

Primary School Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers' Views on Mathematical Modeling

Science.gov (United States)

Karali, Diren; Durmus, Soner

2015-01-01

The current study aimed to identify the views of pre-service teachers, who attended a primary school mathematics teaching department but did not take mathematical modeling courses. The mathematical modeling activity used by the pre-service teachers was developed with regards to the modeling activities utilized by Lesh and Doerr (2003) in their…

Development of a Comprehensive Energy Service Business Model

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, S.K. [Korea Energy Economics Institute, Euiwang (Korea)

2001-11-01

Traditionally, energy industry has been regarded as supply- oriented and characterized by its vertically integrated structure and monopolized market. In particular, network industries such as electricity, natural gas, and district heating and cooling, because of their large initial capital investments, were inevitably state-owned. As their sizes have ever increased, government-owned corporations are confronted with internal crises such as financial limitations, increasing internal transaction costs, etc. In addition to these internal problems, fundamental changes in the external environment such as advances in communication and modular technologies, globalization, and market liberalization have forced energy industries to undergo a restructuring process. Restructuring in the energy industry is intended to introduce competition in the market by unbundling the energy service into production, transportation, and distribution. The energy service has been vertically as well as horizontally integrated by suppliers. Restructuring, which has been implemented in the United States and the European countries, is now being introduced in Korea. However, energy services have not yet been regulated as a separate industry even in those countries which are well advanced in their restructuring. WTO negotiation is under way to separate the service sector in 'General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT).' Areas that can be categorized as a service sector are 17 subdivided sub-sectors as dispersed in each sector. Energy service business models expected to be emerged in the restructuring process of energy industry include: transmission/trunk pipeline projects, distribution/local pipeline projects, trading, brokerage, metering service, local distribution of natural gas, to name a few, for electricity and natural gas sectors; rational use of energy such as CES business and ESCOs for district heating and cooling, and energy conservation sector. Rational use of energy, in

Modeling for Ecosystem Services: Challenges and Opportunities

Science.gov (United States)

Guswa, A. J.; Brauman, K. A.; Ghile, Y.

2012-12-01

Ecosystem services are those values provided to human society by the structure and processes of ecosystems and landscapes. Water-related services include the transformation of precipitation impulses into supplies of water for hydropower, irrigation, and industrial and municipal uses, the retention and removal of applied nutrients and pollutants, flood-damage mitigation, recreation, and the provision of cultural and aesthetic values. Incorporation of changes to the value of these services in land-use planning and decision making requires identification of the relevant services, engagement of stakeholders, knowledge of how land-use changes impact water quality, quantity, and timing, and mechanisms for putting value on the hydrologic and biogeochemical changes. We present three examples that highlight the characteristics, challenges, and opportunities associated with prototypical decisions that incorporate ecosystem services values: scenario analysis, payment for ecosystem services, and optimal spatial planning. Through these examples, we emphasize the challenges of data availability, model resolution and complexity, and attribution of value. We also provide some suggestions for ways forward.

Data Modeling for Mobile Services in the Real World

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jensen, Christian Søndergaard; Pedersen, Torben Bach; Speicys, L.

2003-01-01

Research contributions on data modeling, data structures, query processing, and indexing for mobile services may have an impact in the longer term, but each contribution typically offers an isolated solution to one small part of the practical problem of delivering mobile services in the real world....... In contrast, this paper describes holistic concepts and techniques for mobile data modeling that are readily applicable in practice. Focus is on services to be delivered to mobile users, such as route guidance, point-of-interest search, road pricing, parking payment, traffic monitoring, etc. While geo...

A comparison of tools for modeling freshwater ecosystem services.

Science.gov (United States)

Vigerstol, Kari L; Aukema, Juliann E

2011-10-01

Interest in ecosystem services has grown tremendously among a wide range of sectors, including government agencies, NGO's and the business community. Ecosystem services entailing freshwater (e.g. flood control, the provision of hydropower, and water supply), as well as carbon storage and sequestration, have received the greatest attention in both scientific and on-the-ground applications. Given the newness of the field and the variety of tools for predicting water-based services, it is difficult to know which tools to use for different questions. There are two types of freshwater-related tools--traditional hydrologic tools and newer ecosystem services tools. Here we review two of the most prominent tools of each type and their possible applications. In particular, we compare the data requirements, ease of use, questions addressed, and interpretability of results among the models. We discuss the strengths, challenges and most appropriate applications of the different models. Traditional hydrological tools provide more detail whereas ecosystem services tools tend to be more accessible to non-experts and can provide a good general picture of these ecosystem services. We also suggest gaps in the modeling toolbox that would provide the greatest advances by improving existing tools. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Study on Intelligent User-Centric Logistics Service Model Using Ontology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Saraswathi Sivamani

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Much research has been undergone in the smart logistics environment for the prompt delivery of the product in the right place at the right time. Most of the services were based on time management, routing technique, and location based services. The services in the recent logistics environment aim for situation based logistics service centered around the user by utilizing various information technologies such as mobile devices, computer systems, and GPS. This paper proposes a smart logistics service model for providing user-centric intelligent logistics service by utilizing smartphones in a smart environment. We also develop an OWL based ontology model for the smart logistics for the better understanding among the context information. In addition to basic delivery information, the proposed service model makes use of the location and situation information of the delivery vehicle and user, to draw the route information according to the user’s requirement. With the increase of internet usage, the real-time situations are received which helps to create a more reliable relationship, owing to the Internet of Things. Through this service model, it is possible to engage in the development of various IT and logistics convergence services based on situation information between the deliverer and user which occurs in real time.

A blueprint for mapping and modelling ecosystem services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Crossman, N.; Burkhard, B.; Nedkov, S.; Willemen, L.L.J.; Petz, K.; Palomo, I.; Drakou, E.G.; Martín-Lopez, B.; McPhearson, T.; Boyanova, K.; Alkemade, R.; Egoh, B.; Dunbar, M.D.; Maes, J.

2013-01-01

The inconsistency in methods to quantify and map ecosystem services challenges the development of robust values of ecosystem services in national accounts and broader policy and natural resource management decision-making. In this paper we develop and test a blueprint to give guidance on modelling

An integrated service excellence model for military test and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The purpose of this article is to introduce an Integrated Service Excellence Model (ISEM) for empowering the leadership core of the capital-intensive military test and evaluation facilities to provide strategic military test and evaluation services and to continuously improve service excellence by ensuring that all activities ...

Clinical Predictive Modeling Development and Deployment through FHIR Web Services.

Science.gov (United States)

Khalilia, Mohammed; Choi, Myung; Henderson, Amelia; Iyengar, Sneha; Braunstein, Mark; Sun, Jimeng

2015-01-01

Clinical predictive modeling involves two challenging tasks: model development and model deployment. In this paper we demonstrate a software architecture for developing and deploying clinical predictive models using web services via the Health Level 7 (HL7) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard. The services enable model development using electronic health records (EHRs) stored in OMOP CDM databases and model deployment for scoring individual patients through FHIR resources. The MIMIC2 ICU dataset and a synthetic outpatient dataset were transformed into OMOP CDM databases for predictive model development. The resulting predictive models are deployed as FHIR resources, which receive requests of patient information, perform prediction against the deployed predictive model and respond with prediction scores. To assess the practicality of this approach we evaluated the response and prediction time of the FHIR modeling web services. We found the system to be reasonably fast with one second total response time per patient prediction.

On the relation between cost and service models for general inventory systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Houtum, van G.J.J.A.N.; Zijm, W.H.M.

2000-01-01

In this paper, we present a systematic overview of possible relations between cost and service models for fairly general single- and multi-stage inventory systems. In particular, we relate various types of penalty costs in pure cost models to equivalent types of service measures in service models.

Ontology Driven Meta-Modeling of Service Oriented Architecture

African Journals Online (AJOL)

pc

2018-03-05

Mar 5, 2018 ... #Department of Computer Applications, National Institute of ... *5Department of Computer Science, Winona State University, MN, USA ..... Further, it has aided in service .... Software: A Research Roadmap”, Workshop on the Future of ... and A. Solberg, “Model-driven service engineering with SoaML”, in.

Business model driven service architecture design for enterprise application integration

OpenAIRE

Gacitua-Decar, Veronica; Pahl, Claus

2008-01-01

Increasingly, organisations are using a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) as an approach to Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), which is required for the automation of business processes. This paper presents an architecture development process which guides the transition from business models to a service-based software architecture. The process is supported by business reference models and patterns. Firstly, the business process models are enhanced with domain model elements, applicat...

Modeling of a 3DTV service in the software-defined networking architecture

Science.gov (United States)

Wilczewski, Grzegorz

2014-11-01

In this article a newly developed concept towards modeling of a multimedia service offering stereoscopic motion imagery is presented. Proposed model is based on the approach of utilization of Software-defined Networking or Software Defined Networks architecture (SDN). The definition of 3D television service spanning SDN concept is identified, exposing basic characteristic of a 3DTV service in a modern networking organization layout. Furthermore, exemplary functionalities of the proposed 3DTV model are depicted. It is indicated that modeling of a 3DTV service in the Software-defined Networking architecture leads to multiplicity of improvements, especially towards flexibility of a service supporting heterogeneity of end user devices.

Managing postgraduate research service quality: Developing and assessing a conceptual model

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Shawn Ramroop

2013-05-01

Full Text Available This paper reports on the conceptual development and empirical evaluation of a postgraduate (PG research service quality management model, through conducting an electronic survey among a cohort of master’s and doctorate graduates at one of the top three research universities in South Africa, using specifically developed and validated research instruments.By fitting the data from a sample of 117 graduates to a conceptual model using structural equation modelling, it became evident that the PG research students’ perception of the Organisational Climate for Research (OCR is associated with their perception of the PG Research Service Quality (PGSQUAL, the PG Service Experience (SERVEXP and their perception of their Role (RC. However, no association was found between the students’ perception of the research climate (OCR and their satisfaction (SERVSAT with the research service; the service experience (SERVEXP and postgraduate research service quality (PGSQUAL; service satisfaction (SERVSAT and postgraduate service quality (PGSQUAL.  The aforementioned findings imply that higher education institutions need to create a research climate which is supportive of service quality, and better manage the research climate, so that the PG students are clear about their role, which will eventually translate to a better PG service experience and improved perception of PG service quality.

A Mixed Bi-level Model to Correspond Service Recovery Chain

OpenAIRE

Abdolalipour, Amirhossein; Nazemi, Jamshid; Eshlaghi, Abbas Toloie; Lotfi, Farhad Hosseinzadeh

2017-01-01

In the competitive environment, minimizing time space between service failure perception and service recovery with lowest cost is one of fast responsiveness company’s requirements. In this article, modeling service failure response time is considered. It was not only service recovery chain profit optimization carefully planned but also satisfaction of consumers who disturbed by a service failure was considered profoundly. Inconsistency between optimization of service recovery chain’s total be...

Conceptual Models of the Individual Public Service Provider

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Lotte Bøgh; Pedersen, Lene Holm; Bhatti, Yosef

are used to gain insight on the motivation of public service providers; namely principal-agent theory, self-determination theory and public service motivation theory. We situate the theoretical discussions in the context of public service providers being transferred to private organizations......Individual public service providers’ motivation can be conceptualized as either extrinsic, autonomous or prosocial, and the question is how we can best theoretically understand this complexity without losing too much coherence and parsimony. Drawing on Allison’s approach (1969), three perspectives...... theoretical – to develop a coherent model of individual public service providers – but the empirical illustration also contributes to our understanding of motivation in the context of public sector outsourcing....

Integrated modelling of ecosystem services and energy systems research

Science.gov (United States)

Agarwala, Matthew; Lovett, Andrew; Bateman, Ian; Day, Brett; Agnolucci, Paolo; Ziv, Guy

2016-04-01

The UK Government is formally committed to reducing carbon emissions and protecting and improving natural capital and the environment. However, actually delivering on these objectives requires an integrated approach to addressing two parallel challenges: de-carbonising future energy system pathways; and safeguarding natural capital to ensure the continued flow of ecosystem services. Although both emphasise benefiting from natural resources, efforts to connect natural capital and energy systems research have been limited, meaning opportunities to improve management of natural resources and meet society's energy needs could be missed. The ecosystem services paradigm provides a consistent conceptual framework that applies in multiple disciplines across the natural and economic sciences, and facilitates collaboration between them. At the forefront of the field, integrated ecosystem service - economy models have guided public- and private-sector decision making at all levels. Models vary in sophistication from simple spreadsheet tools to complex software packages integrating biophysical, GIS and economic models and draw upon many fields, including ecology, hydrology, geography, systems theory, economics and the social sciences. They also differ in their ability to value changes in natural capital and ecosystem services at various spatial and temporal scales. Despite these differences, current models share a common feature: their treatment of energy systems is superficial at best. In contrast, energy systems research has no widely adopted, unifying conceptual framework that organises thinking about key system components and interactions. Instead, the literature is organised around modelling approaches, including life cycle analyses, econometric investigations, linear programming and computable general equilibrium models. However, some consistencies do emerge. First, often contain a linear set of steps, from exploration to resource supply, fuel processing, conversion

A verification strategy for web services composition using enhanced stacked automata model.

Science.gov (United States)

Nagamouttou, Danapaquiame; Egambaram, Ilavarasan; Krishnan, Muthumanickam; Narasingam, Poonkuzhali

2015-01-01

Currently, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is becoming the most popular software architecture of contemporary enterprise applications, and one crucial technique of its implementation is web services. Individual service offered by some service providers may symbolize limited business functionality; however, by composing individual services from different service providers, a composite service describing the intact business process of an enterprise can be made. Many new standards have been defined to decipher web service composition problem namely Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). BPEL provides an initial work for forming an Extended Markup Language (XML) specification language for defining and implementing business practice workflows for web services. The problems with most realistic approaches to service composition are the verification of composed web services. It has to depend on formal verification method to ensure the correctness of composed services. A few research works has been carried out in the literature survey for verification of web services for deterministic system. Moreover the existing models did not address the verification properties like dead transition, deadlock, reachability and safetyness. In this paper, a new model to verify the composed web services using Enhanced Stacked Automata Model (ESAM) has been proposed. The correctness properties of the non-deterministic system have been evaluated based on the properties like dead transition, deadlock, safetyness, liveness and reachability. Initially web services are composed using Business Process Execution Language for Web Service (BPEL4WS) and it is converted into ESAM (combination of Muller Automata (MA) and Push Down Automata (PDA)) and it is transformed into Promela language, an input language for Simple ProMeLa Interpreter (SPIN) tool. The model is verified using SPIN tool and the results revealed better recital in terms of finding dead transition and deadlock in contrast to the

QUALITY SERVICES EVALUATION MODEL BASED ON DEDICATED SOFTWARE TOOL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANDREEA CRISTINA IONICĂ

2012-10-01

Full Text Available In this paper we introduced a new model, called Service Quality (SQ, which combines QFD and SERVQUAL methods. This model takes from the SERVQUAL method the five dimensions of requirements and three of characteristics and from the QFD method the application methodology. The originality of the SQ model consists in computing a global index that reflects the customers’ requirements accomplishment level by the quality characteristics. In order to prove the viability of the SQ model, there was developed a software tool that was applied for the evaluation of a health care services provider.

Kirkpatrick evaluation model for in-service training on cardiopulmonary resuscitation

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Safoura Dorri

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Background: There are several evaluation models that can be used to evaluate the effect of in-service training; one of them is the Kirkpatrick model. The aim of the present study is to assess the in-service training of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR for nurses based on the Kirkpatrick′s model. Materials and Methods: This study is a cross-sectional study based on the Kirkpatrick′s model in which the efficacy of in-service training of CPR to nurses was assessed in the Shahadaye Lenjan Hospital in Isfahan province in 2014. 80 nurses and Nurse′s aides participated in the study after providing informed consent. The in-service training course was evaluated in reaction, learning, behavior, and results level of the Kirkpatrick model. Data were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the participants was 35 ± 8.5 years. The effectiveness score obtained in the reaction level (first level in the Kirkpatrick model was 4.2 ± 0.32. The effectiveness score in the second level of model or the learning level was 4.70 ± 0.09, which is statistically significant (P < 0.001. The effectiveness score at the third and fourth level were 4.1 ± 0.34 and 4.3 ± 0.12, respectively. Total effectiveness score was 4.35. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that CPR in-service training has a favorable effect on all four levels of the Kirkpatrick model for nurses and nurse′s aides.

Providing a New Model for Discovering Cloud Services Based on Ontology

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B. Heydari

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Due to its efficient, flexible, and dynamic substructure in information technology and service quality parameters estimation, cloud computing has become one of the most important issues in computer world. Discovering cloud services has been posed as a fundamental issue in reaching out high efficiency. In order to do one’s own operations in cloud space, any user needs to request several various services either simultaneously or according to a working routine. These services can be presented by different cloud producers or different decision-making policies. Therefore, service management is one of the important and challenging issues in cloud computing. With the advent of semantic web and practical services accordingly in cloud computing space, access to different kinds of applications has become possible. Ontology is the core of semantic web and can be used to ease the process of discovering services. A new model based on ontology has been proposed in this paper. The results indicate that the proposed model has explored cloud services based on user search results in lesser time compared to other models.

An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications.

Science.gov (United States)

Anjum, Maria; Budgen, David

2017-01-01

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the 'design model'. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model.

A service based estimation method for MPSoC performance modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tranberg-Hansen, Anders Sejer; Madsen, Jan; Jensen, Bjørn Sand

2008-01-01

This paper presents an abstract service based estimation method for MPSoC performance modelling which allows fast, cycle accurate design space exploration of complex architectures including multi processor configurations at a very early stage in the design phase. The modelling method uses a service...... oriented model of computation based on Hierarchical Colored Petri Nets and allows the modelling of both software and hardware in one unified model. To illustrate the potential of the method, a small MPSoC system, developed at Bang & Olufsen ICEpower a/s, is modelled and performance estimates are produced...

Services in wireless sensor networks modelling and optimisation for the efficient discovery of services

CERN Document Server

Becker, Markus

2014-01-01

In recent years, originally static and single purpose Wireless Sensor Networks have moved towards applications that need support for mobility and multiple purposes. These heterogeneous applications and services demand for a framework which distributes and discovers the various services, so that other pieces of equipment can use them. Markus Becker studies, extends, analytically models, simulates and employs the so called Trickle algorithm in measurements in a Wireless Sensor Network test bed for the service distribution. The obtained results apply to the application of the Trickle algorithm at

Product with service, technology with business model

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sakao, Tomohiko; McAloone, Tim C.

2011-01-01

Looking back over the last decade, the importance of an expanded understanding of engineering design has been shared within the engineering design community. Presented concepts and methods to support such expansion include Functional Product Development, Service Engineering, and Product/Service-S...... promising concept beyond PSS design; via an integrated development of technology and business model. This can be of particular interest for further research, especially due to its high freedom for designers....

A bipartite fitness model for online music streaming services

Science.gov (United States)

Pongnumkul, Suchit; Motohashi, Kazuyuki

2018-01-01

This paper proposes an evolution model and an analysis of the behavior of music consumers on online music streaming services. While previous studies have observed power-law degree distributions of usage in online music streaming services, the underlying behavior of users has not been well understood. Users and songs can be described using a bipartite network where an edge exists between a user node and a song node when the user has listened that song. The growth mechanism of bipartite networks has been used to understand the evolution of online bipartite networks Zhang et al. (2013). Existing bipartite models are based on a preferential attachment mechanism László Barabási and Albert (1999) in which the probability that a user listens to a song is proportional to its current popularity. This mechanism does not allow for two types of real world phenomena. First, a newly released song with high quality sometimes quickly gains popularity. Second, the popularity of songs normally decreases as time goes by. Therefore, this paper proposes a new model that is more suitable for online music services by adding fitness and aging functions to the song nodes of the bipartite network proposed by Zhang et al. (2013). Theoretical analyses are performed for the degree distribution of songs. Empirical data from an online streaming service, Last.fm, are used to confirm the degree distribution of the object nodes. Simulation results show improvements from a previous model. Finally, to illustrate the application of the proposed model, a simplified royalty cost model for online music services is used to demonstrate how the changes in the proposed parameters can affect the costs for online music streaming providers. Managerial implications are also discussed.

Evaluating intersectoral collaboration: a model for assessment by service users

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bengt Ahgren

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Introduction: DELTA was launched as a project in 1997 to improve intersectoral collaboration in the rehabilitation field. In 2005 DELTA was transformed into a local association for financial co-ordination between the institutions involved. Based on a study of the DELTA service users, the purpose of this article is to develop and to validate a model that can be used to assess the integration of welfare services from the perspective of the service users. Theory: The foundation of integration is a well functioning structure of integration. Without such structural conditions, it is difficult to develop a process of integration that combines the resources and competences of the collaborating organisations to create services advantageous for the service users. In this way, both the structure and the process will contribute to the outcome of integration. Method: The study was carried out as a retrospective cross-sectional survey during two weeks, including all the current service users of DELTA. The questionnaire contained 32 questions, which were derived from the theoretical framework and research on service users, capturing perceptions of integration structure, process and outcome. Ordinal scales and open questions where used for the assessment. Results: The survey had a response rate of 82% and no serious biases of the results were detected. The study shows that the users of the rehabilitation services perceived the services as well integrated, relevant and adapted to their needs. The assessment model was tested for reliability and validity and a few modifications were suggested. Some key measurement themes were derived from the study. Conclusion: The model developed in this study is an important step towards an assessment of service integration from the perspective of the service users. It needs to be further refined, however, before it can be used in other evaluations of collaboration in the provision of integrated welfare services.

Development of an Innovation Model Based on a Service-Oriented Product Service System (PSS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seungkyum Kim

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Recently, there have been many attempts to cope with increasingly-diversified and ever-changing customer needs by combining products and services that are critical components of innovation models. Although not only manufacturers, but also service providers, try to integrate products and services, most of the previous studies on Product Service System (PSS development deal with how to effectively integrate services into products from the product-centric point of view. Services provided by manufacturers’ PSSes, such as delivery services, training services, disposal services, and so on, offer customers ancillary value, whereas products of service providers’ PSSes enrich core value by enhancing the functionality and quality of the service. Thus, designing an effective PSS development process from the service-centric point of view is an important research topic. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to propose a service-oriented PSS development process, which consists of four stages: (1 strategic planning; (2 idea generation and selection; (3 service design; and (4 product development. In the proposed approach, the PSS development project is initiated and led by a service provider from a service-centric point of view. From the perspective of methodology, customer needs are converted into product functions according to Quality Function Deployment (QFD, while Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP is employed to prioritize the functions. Additionally, this paper illustrates a service-oriented PSS development that demonstrates the application of the proposed process. The proposed process and illustration are expected to serve as a foundation for research on service-oriented PSS development and as a useful guideline for service providers who are considering the development of a service-oriented PSS.

The model for evaluation of the effectiveness of civil service modernization

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O. A. Lyndyuk

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The effectiveness of the civil service modernization depends on the timely implementation of control measures and evaluating of the effectiveness of modernization processes and system components. The article analyzes the basic problems of evaluation the effectiveness of civil service modernization and scientific papers on these issues. The basic theoretical approaches to the definition of «assessment» and «evaluation» are studied. Existing theoretical and methodological approaches to the assessment process are analyzed and summarized, the main methods of evaluating the effectiveness of the civil service modernization and the most common assessment methods are defined. Eligible for evaluating the effectiveness of civil service modernization are special analytical techniques: functional review, Balanced Scorecard, taxonomic analysis, Key Performance Indicators, methods of multivariate analysis and others. Among the methods of studying consumer expectations about the effectiveness of the civil service modernization such ones are singled out: questionnaires, surveys, interviews, testing, monitoring, analysis of statistical sources, contents of documents, reports and regulatory framework and others. The methods of improving efficiency include: benchmarking, reengineering, performance assessment models and more. The importance of gradual replacement of cost evaluation methods by the results evaluation method is determined. It was shown the need for a comprehensive balanced scorecard to evaluate. With a view to the mutual agreement of principles, mechanisms and instruments for evaluating the effectiveness of civil service modernization the expediency of a systematic, targeted, synergistic, process, situational, strategic and resource approaches is grounded. Development of theoretical concepts and methodological principles of evaluating the effectiveness of civil service modernization should be based on the harmonious combination (integration of all

A QoS aware services mashup model for cloud computing applications

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Yee Ming Chen

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose: With the popularity of cloud computing, cloud services have become to be application programming platform where users can create new applications mashup(composing the functionality offered byothers.By composing of distributed, cloud services dynamicallyto provide more complex tasks, services mashup provides an attractive way for building large-scale Internetapplications.Oneof the challenging issues of cloud services mashup is how to find service paths to route the service instances provider through whilemeeting the applications’ resource requirements so that the QoS constraints are satisfied. However, QoS aware service routing problem istypically NP-hard.The purpose of this paper is to propose a QoS Aware Services Mashup(QASM model to solve this problem more effectively.Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, we focus on the QoS aware services selection problem in cloud services mashup, for example, given the user service composition requirements and their QoS constraint descriptions, how to select the required serviceinstances and route the data flows through these instances so that the QoS requirements are satisfied. We design a heuristic algorithm to find service paths to route the data flows through whilemeeting the applications’ resource requirements and specific QoS constraints.Findings: This study propose a QoS Aware Services Mashup(QASM model to solve this problem more effectively. Simulations show that QASM can achieve desired QoS assurances as well as load balancing in cloud services environment.Originality/value: This paperpresent a QASM model for providing high performance distributedapplications in the cloud computing systems.

A topic modeling approach for web service annotation

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Leandro Ordóñez-Ante

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The actual implementation of semantic-based mechanisms for service retrieval has been restricted, given the resource-intensive procedure involved in the formal specification of services, which generally comprises associating semantic annotations to their documentation sources. Typically, developer performs such a procedure by hand, requiring specialized knowledge on models for semantic description of services (e.g. OWL-S, WSMO, SAWSDL, as well as formal specifications of knowledge. Thus, this semantic-based service description procedure turns out to be a cumbersome and error-prone task. This paper introduces a proposal for service annotation, based on processing web service documentation for extracting information regarding its offered capabilities. By uncovering the hidden semantic structure of such information through statistical analysis techniques, we are able to associate meaningful annotations to the services operations/resources, while grouping those operations into non-exclusive semantic related categories. This research paper belongs to the TelComp 2.0 project, which Colciencas and University of Cauca founded in cooperation.

A Computational Agent-Based Modeling Approach for Competitive Wireless Service Market

KAUST Repository

Douglas, C C

2011-04-01

Using an agent-based modeling method, we study market dynamism with regard to wireless cellular services that are in competition for a greater market share and profit. In the proposed model, service providers and consumers are described as agents who interact with each other and actively participate in an economically well-defined marketplace. Parameters of the model are optimized using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. The quantitative prediction capabilities of the proposed model are examined through data reproducibility using past data from the U.S. and Korean wireless service markets. Finally, we investigate a disruptive market event, namely the introduction of the iPhone into the U.S. in 2007 and the resulting changes in the modeling parameters. We predict and analyze the impacts of the introduction of the iPhone into the Korean wireless service market assuming a release date of 2Q09 based on earlier data. © 2011 IEEE.

A Model-driven and Service-oriented framework for the business process improvement

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Andrea Delgado

2010-07-01

Full Text Available Business Process Management (BPM importance and benefits for organizations to focus on their business processes is nowadays broadly recognized, as business and technology areas are embracing and adopting the paradigm. The Service Oriented Computing (SOC paradigm bases software development on services to realize business processes. The implementation of business processes as services helps in reducing the gap between these two areas, easing the communication and understanding of business needs. The Model Driven Development (MDD paradigm bases software development in models, metamodels and languages that allow transformation between them. The automatic generation of service models from business process models is a key issue to support the separation of its definition from its technical implementation. In this article, we present MINERVA framework which applies Model Driven Development (MDD and Service Oriented Computing (SOC paradigms to business processes for the continuous business process improvement in organizations, giving support to the stages defined in the business process lifecycle from modeling to evaluation of its execution.

The Port Service Ecosystem Research Based on the Lotka-Volterra Model

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Li Wenjuan

2017-11-01

Full Text Available Under the new normal of China’s economy, the competition among the port enterprises is not only the competition of the core competence of the port, the port industry chain or the port supply chain, but also the competition of the port service ecosystem. In this paper, the concept and characteristics of the port service ecosystem is discussed, a hierarchical model of the port service ecosystem is constructed. As an extended logistic model, Lotka-Volterra model is applied to study the competitive co-evolution and mutually beneficial co-evolution of enterprises in the port service ecosystem. This paper simulates the co-evolution of enterprises in the port service ecosystem by using MATLAB programming. The simulation results show that the breadth of the niche of the enterprises is changing with the change of the competition coefficient and the coefficient of mutual benefit in the port service ecosystem. Based on that, some proposals are put forward to ensure the healthy and orderly development of the port service ecosystem.

Comparing the Applicability of Commonly Used Hydrological Ecosystem Services Models for Integrated Decision-Support

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Anna Lüke

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Different simulation models are used in science and practice in order to incorporate hydrological ecosystem services in decision-making processes. This contribution compares three simulation models, the Soil and Water Assessment Tool, a traditional hydrological model and two ecosystem services models, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs model and the Resource Investment Optimization System model. The three models are compared on a theoretical and conceptual basis as well in a comparative case study application. The application of the models to a study area in Nicaragua reveals that a practical benefit to apply these models for different questions in decision-making generally exists. However, modelling of hydrological ecosystem services is associated with a high application effort and requires input data that may not always be available. The degree of detail in temporal and spatial variability in ecosystem service provision is higher when using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool compared to the two ecosystem service models. In contrast, the ecosystem service models have lower requirements on input data and process knowledge. A relationship between service provision and beneficiaries is readily produced and can be visualized as a model output. The visualization is especially useful for a practical decision-making context.

A hidden service model based on HS-HS anonymous network

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Yitong; Zhao, Xing; Fei, Jinlong; Zhu, Yuefei

2017-10-01

The Hidden Service provided by Tor anonymous network can effectively protect the anonymity and security of the Hidden server, this article through the analysis of the data packet structure of Tor, three jump transmission mechanism and link establishment protocol and Hidden Service communication process, in view of the Hidden node number too much, link building Service for too long and too redundant link problem. An improved hidden service model HS-HS is proposed that incorporating multiple transmission link and reuse, and at the same time will be important transit point for reuse protection link anonymity, through the ExperimenTor simulation environment test, verify the improved model of HS-HS can be more effective in guarantee anonymity and security, improve the overall efficiency of data transmission, to meet the needs of today's anonymous service.

Self-Service Banking: Value Creation Models and Information Exchange

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Ragnvald Sannes

2001-01-01

Full Text Available This paper argues that most banks have failed to exploit the potential of self-service banking because they base their service design on an incomplete business model for self-service. A framework for evaluation of self-service banking concepts is developed on the basis of Stabell and Fjeldstad's three value configurations. The value network and the value shop are consistent with self-service banking while the value chain is inappropriate. The impact of the value configurations on information exchange and self-service functionality is discussed, and a framework for design of such services proposed. Current self-service banking practices are compared to the framework, and it is concluded that current practice matches the concept of a value network and not the value shop. However, current practices are only a partial implementation of a value network-based self-service banking concept.

Integrating hydrologic modeling web services with online data sharing to prepare, store, and execute models in hydrology

Science.gov (United States)

Gan, T.; Tarboton, D. G.; Dash, P. K.; Gichamo, T.; Horsburgh, J. S.

2017-12-01

Web based apps, web services and online data and model sharing technology are becoming increasingly available to support research. This promises benefits in terms of collaboration, platform independence, transparency and reproducibility of modeling workflows and results. However, challenges still exist in real application of these capabilities and the programming skills researchers need to use them. In this research we combined hydrologic modeling web services with an online data and model sharing system to develop functionality to support reproducible hydrologic modeling work. We used HydroDS, a system that provides web services for input data preparation and execution of a snowmelt model, and HydroShare, a hydrologic information system that supports the sharing of hydrologic data, model and analysis tools. To make the web services easy to use, we developed a HydroShare app (based on the Tethys platform) to serve as a browser based user interface for HydroDS. In this integration, HydroDS receives web requests from the HydroShare app to process the data and execute the model. HydroShare supports storage and sharing of the results generated by HydroDS web services. The snowmelt modeling example served as a use case to test and evaluate this approach. We show that, after the integration, users can prepare model inputs or execute the model through the web user interface of the HydroShare app without writing program code. The model input/output files and metadata describing the model instance are stored and shared in HydroShare. These files include a Python script that is automatically generated by the HydroShare app to document and reproduce the model input preparation workflow. Once stored in HydroShare, inputs and results can be shared with other users, or published so that other users can directly discover, repeat or modify the modeling work. This approach provides a collaborative environment that integrates hydrologic web services with a data and model sharing

FCT: a fully-distributed context-aware trust model for location based service recommendation

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Zhiquan LIU; Jianfeng MA; Zhongyuan JIANG; Yinbin MIAO

2017-01-01

With the popularity of location based service (LBS),a vast number of trust medels for LBS recommendation (LBSR) have been proposed.These trust models are centralized in essence,and the trusted third party may collude with malicious service providers or cause the single-point failure problem.This work improves the classic certified reputation (CR) model and proposes a novel fully-distributed context-aware trust (FCT) model for LBSR.Recommendation operations are conducted by service providers directly and the trusted third party is no longer required in our FCT model.Besides,our FCT model also supports the movements of service providers due to its self-certified characteristic.Moreover,for easing the collusion attack and value imbalance attack,we comprehensively consider four kinds of factor weights,namely number,time decay,preference and context weights.Finally,a fully-distributed service recommendation scenario is deployed,and comprehensive experiments and analysis are conducted.The results indicate that our FCT model significantly outperforms the CR model in terms of the robustness against the collusion attack and value imbalance attack,as well as the service recommendation performance in improving the successful trading rates of honest service providers and reducing the risks of trading with malicious service providers.

Train Dwell Time Models for Rail Passenger Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

San Hor Peay

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, more studies had been conducted about train dwell time as it is a key parameter of rail system performance and reliability. This paper draws an overview of train dwell time models for rail passenger service from various continents, namely Asia, North America, Europe and Australia. The factors affecting train dwell time are identified and analysed across some rail network operators. The dwell time models developed by various researches are also discussed and reviewed. Finally, the contributions from the outcomes of these models are briefly addressed. In conclusion, this paper suggests that there is a need to further study the factors with strong influence upon dwell time to improve the quality of the train services.

An investigation of modelling and design for software service applications

Science.gov (United States)

2017-01-01

Software services offer the opportunity to use a component-based approach for the design of applications. However, this needs a deeper understanding of how to develop service-based applications in a systematic manner, and of the set of properties that need to be included in the ‘design model’. We have used a realistic application to explore systematically how service-based designs can be created and described. We first identified the key properties of an SOA (service oriented architecture) and then undertook a single-case case study to explore its use in the development of a design for a large-scale application in energy engineering, modelling this with existing notations wherever possible. We evaluated the resulting design model using two walkthroughs with both domain and application experts. We were able to successfully develop a design model around the ten properties identified, and to describe it by adapting existing design notations. A component-based approach to designing such systems does appear to be feasible. However, it needs the assistance of a more integrated set of notations for describing the resulting design model. PMID:28489905

Value-added strategy models to provide quality services in senior health business.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ya-Ting; Lin, Neng-Pai; Su, Shyi; Chen, Ya-Mei; Chang, Yao-Mao; Handa, Yujiro; Khan, Hafsah Arshed Ali; Elsa Hsu, Yi-Hsin

2017-06-20

The rapid population aging is now a global issue. The increase in the elderly population will impact the health care industry and health enterprises; various senior needs will promote the growth of the senior health industry. Most senior health studies are focused on the demand side and scarcely on supply. Our study selected quality enterprises focused on aging health and analyzed different strategies to provide excellent quality services to senior health enterprises. We selected 33 quality senior health enterprises in Taiwan and investigated their excellent quality services strategies by face-to-face semi-structured in-depth interviews with CEO and managers of each enterprise in 2013. A total of 33 senior health enterprises in Taiwan. Overall, 65 CEOs and managers of 33 enterprises were interviewed individually. None. Core values and vision, organization structure, quality services provided, strategies for quality services. This study's results indicated four type of value-added strategy models adopted by senior enterprises to offer quality services: (i) residential care and co-residence model, (ii) home care and living in place model, (iii) community e-business experience model and (iv) virtual and physical portable device model. The common part in these four strategy models is that the services provided are elderly centered. These models offer virtual and physical integrations, and also offer total solutions for the elderly and their caregivers. Through investigation of successful strategy models for providing quality services to seniors, we identified opportunities to develop innovative service models and successful characteristics, also policy implications were summarized. The observations from this study will serve as a primary evidenced base for enterprises developing their senior market and, also for promoting the value co-creation possibility through dialogue between customers and those that deliver service. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford

Modelling Customer’s Attitude Towards EGovernment Services

OpenAIRE

Mohd Suki, Norazah; T, Ramayah

2011-01-01

e-Government structures permits the government to operate in a more transparent and accountable manner of which it increases the power of the individual in relation to that of the government. This paper identifies the factors that determine customer’s attitude towards e-Government services using a theoretical model based on the Technology Acceptance Model. Data relating to the constructs were collected from 200 respondents. The research model was tested using Structural E...

An integrative fuzzy Kansei engineering and Kano model for logistics services

Science.gov (United States)

Hartono, M.; Chuan, T. K.; Prayogo, D. N.; Santoso, A.

2017-11-01

Nowadays, customer emotional needs (known as Kansei) in product and especially in services become a major concern. One of the emerging services is the logistics services. In obtaining a global competitive advantage, logistics services should understand and satisfy their customer affective impressions (Kansei). How to capture, model and analyze the customer emotions has been well structured by Kansei Engineering, equipped with Kano model to strengthen its methodology. However, its methodology lacks of the dynamics of customer perception. More specifically, there is a criticism of perceived scores on user preferences, in both perceived service quality and Kansei response, whether they represent an exact numerical value. Thus, this paper is proposed to discuss an approach of fuzzy Kansei in logistics service experiences. A case study in IT-based logistics services involving 100 subjects has been conducted. Its findings including the service gaps accompanied with prioritized improvement initiatives are discussed.

A Computational Agent-Based Modeling Approach for Competitive Wireless Service Market

KAUST Repository

Douglas, C C; Hyoseop Lee,; Wonsuck Lee,

2011-01-01

Using an agent-based modeling method, we study market dynamism with regard to wireless cellular services that are in competition for a greater market share and profit. In the proposed model, service providers and consumers are described as agents

Combat Service Support Model Development: BRASS - TRANSLOG - Army 21

Science.gov (United States)

1984-07-01

throughout’the system. Transitional problems may address specific hardware and related software , such as the Standard Army Ammunition System ( SAAS ...FILE. 00 Cabat Service Support Model Development .,PASS TRANSLOG -- ARMY 21 0 Contract Number DAAK11-84-D-0004 Task Order #1 DRAFT REPOkT July 1984 D...Armament Systems, Inc. 211 West Bel Air Avenue P.O. Box 158 Aberdeen, MD 21001 8 8 8 2 1 S CORMIT SERVICE SUPPORT MODEL DEVELOPMENT BRASS -- TRANSLOG

Organization And Financing Models Of Health Service In Selected Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Branimir Marković

2009-07-01

Full Text Available The introductory part of the work gives a short theoretical presentation regarding possible financing models of health services in the world. In the applicative part of the work we shall present the basic practical models of financing health services in the countries that are the leaders of classic methods of health services financing, e. g. the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Croatia. Working out the applicative part of the work we gave the greatest significance to analysis of some macroeconomic indicators in health services (tendency of total health consumption in relation to GDP, average consumption per insured person etc., to structure analysis of health insurance and just to the scheme of health service organization and financing. We presume that each model of health service financing contains certain limitations that can cause problem (weak organization, increase of expenses etc.. This is the reason why we, in the applicative part of the work, paid a special attention to analysis of financial difficulties in the health sector and pointed to the needs and possibilities of solving them through possible reform measures. The end part of the work aims to point out to advantages and disadvantages of individual financing sources through the comparison method (budgetary – taxes or social health insurance – contributions.

Consumer-operated service program members' explanatory models of mental illness and recovery.

Science.gov (United States)

Hoy, Janet M

2014-10-01

Incorporating individuals' understandings and explanations of mental illness into service delivery offers benefits relating to increased service relevance and meaning. Existing research delineates explanatory models of mental illness held by individuals in home, outpatient, and hospital-based contexts; research on models held by those in peer-support contexts is notably absent. In this article, I describe themes identified within and across explanatory models of mental illness and recovery held by mental health consumers (N = 24) at one peer center, referred to as a consumer-operated service center (COSP). Participants held explanatory models inclusive of both developmental stressors and biomedical causes, consistent with a stress-diathesis model (although no participant explicitly referenced such). Explicit incorporation of stress-diathesis constructs into programming at this COSP offers the potential of increasing service meaning and relevance. Identifying and incorporating shared meanings across individuals' understandings of mental illness likewise can increase relevance and meaning for particular subgroups of service users. © The Author(s) 2014.

A Collaboration Service Model for a Global Port Cluster

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keith K.T. Toh

2010-03-01

Full Text Available The importance of port clusters to a global city may be viewed from a number of perspectives. The development of port clusters and economies of agglomeration and their contribution to a regional economy is underpinned by information and physical infrastructure that facilitates collaboration between business entities within the cluster. The maturity of technologies providing portals, web and middleware services provides an opportunity to push the boundaries of contemporary service reference models and service catalogues to what the authors propose to be "collaboration services". Servicing port clusters, portal engineers of the future must consider collaboration services to benefit a region. Particularly, service orchestration through a "public user portal" must gain better utilisation of publically owned infrastructure, to share knowledge and collaborate among organisations through information systems.

Emergency residential care settings: A model for service assessment and design.

Science.gov (United States)

Graça, João; Calheiros, Maria Manuela; Patrício, Joana Nunes; Magalhães, Eunice Vieira

2018-02-01

There have been calls for uncovering the "black box" of residential care services, with a particular need for research focusing on emergency care settings for children and youth in danger. In fact, the strikingly scant empirical attention that these settings have received so far contrasts with the role that they often play as gateway into the child welfare system. To answer these calls, this work presents and tests a framework for assessing a service model in residential emergency care. It comprises seven studies which address a set of different focal areas (e.g., service logic model; care experiences), informants (e.g., case records; staff; children/youth), and service components (e.g., case assessment/evaluation; intervention; placement/referral). Drawing on this process-consultation approach, the work proposes a set of key challenges for emergency residential care in terms of service improvement and development, and calls for further research targeting more care units and different types of residential care services. These findings offer a contribution to inform evidence-based practice and policy in service models of residential care. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deployment of e-health services - a business model engineering strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Kijl, Björn; Nieuwenhuis, Lambert J M; Huis in 't Veld, Rianne M H A; Hermens, Hermie J; Vollenbroek-Hutten, Miriam M R

2010-01-01

We designed a business model for deploying a myofeedback-based teletreatment service. An iterative and combined qualitative and quantitative action design approach was used for developing the business model and the related value network. Insights from surveys, desk research, expert interviews, workshops and quantitative modelling were combined to produce the first business model and then to refine it in three design cycles. The business model engineering strategy provided important insights which led to an improved, more viable and feasible business model and related value network design. Based on this experience, we conclude that the process of early stage business model engineering reduces risk and produces substantial savings in costs and resources related to service deployment.

A Behavioral Decision Making Modeling Approach Towards Hedging Services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Pennings, J.M.E.; Candel, M.J.J.M.; Egelkraut, T.M.

2003-01-01

This paper takes a behavioral approach toward the market for hedging services. A behavioral decision-making model is developed that provides insight into how and why owner-managers decide the way they do regarding hedging services. Insight into those choice processes reveals information needed by

Managing the bank service encounter: A conceptual model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. K. Govender

1999-06-01

Full Text Available In financial services marketing, especially among banks, there are a limited number of chances to impress the customer, since the services are becoming more automated. Since personal interactions with customers are becoming less numerous, customers are expecting higher quality contacts and more individual treatment. This paper proposes a service encounter management model which may impact on the customers service experience. By matching service employees with customers, the effects of certain human resources strategies may be ascertained through the customers perception of the employee service quality and the overall service quality. Opsomming Daar is 'n beperkte geleenthede om die finansiele dienste klient, veral die in banke, te beindruk, aangesien dienste al meer ge-outomatiseer raak. Seinde persoonlike kontak met kliente al minder word, verwag kliente hoer gehalte kontak en meer individuele behandeling. Hierdie artikel stel 'n bestuursmodel vir diensontmoetings voor wat 'n impak op kliente se dienservarings mag he. Deur dienswerknemers met kliente te verbind kan bepaalde menslike hulpbronstrategie-effekte vasgestel word, deur middel van kliente se persepsie van werknemer-diensgehalte en algemene diensgehalte.

Customer Decision Making in Web Services with an Integrated P6 Model

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Zhaohao; Sun, Junqing; Meredith, Grant

Customer decision making (CDM) is an indispensable factor for web services. This article examines CDM in web services with a novel P6 model, which consists of the 6 Ps: privacy, perception, propensity, preference, personalization and promised experience. This model integrates the existing 6 P elements of marketing mix as the system environment of CDM in web services. The new integrated P6 model deals with the inner world of the customer and incorporates what the customer think during the DM process. The proposed approach will facilitate the research and development of web services and decision support systems.

Disconfirming User Expectations of the Online Service Experience: Inferred versus Direct Disconfirmation Modeling.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Neill, Martin; Palmer, Adrian; Wright, Christine

2003-01-01

Disconfirmation models of online service measurement seek to define service quality as the difference between user expectations of the service to be received and perceptions of the service actually received. Two such models-inferred and direct disconfirmation-for measuring quality of the online experience are compared (WebQUAL, SERVQUAL). Findings…

Methodology for Evaluating Quality and Reusability of Learning Objects

Science.gov (United States)

Kurilovas, Eugenijus; Bireniene, Virginija; Serikoviene, Silvija

2011-01-01

The aim of the paper is to present the scientific model and several methods for the expert evaluation of quality of learning objects (LOs) paying especial attention to LOs reusability level. The activities of eQNet Quality Network for a European Learning Resource Exchange (LRE) aimed to improve reusability of LOs of European Schoolnet's LRE…

Research on manufacturing service behavior modeling based on block chain theory

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Gang; Zhang, Guangli; Liu, Ming; Yu, Shuqin; Liu, Yali; Zhang, Xu

2018-04-01

According to the attribute characteristics of processing craft, the manufacturing service behavior is divided into service attribute, basic attribute, process attribute, resource attribute. The attribute information model of manufacturing service is established. The manufacturing service behavior information is successfully divided into public and private domain. Additionally, the block chain technology is introduced, and the information model of manufacturing service based on block chain principle is established, which solves the problem of sharing and secreting information of processing behavior, and ensures that data is not tampered with. Based on the key pairing verification relationship, the selective publishing mechanism for manufacturing information is established, achieving the traceability of product data, guarantying the quality of processing quality.

Understanding Service Composition with Non-functional Properties Using Declarative Model-to-model Transformations

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Max Mäuhlhäuser

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Developing applications comprising service composition is a complex task. Therefore, to lower the skill barrier for developers, it is important to describe the problem at hand on an abstract level and not to focus on implementation details. This can be done using declarative programming which allows to describe only the result of the problem (which is what the developer wants rather than the description of the implementation. We therefore use purely declarative model-to-model transformations written in a universal model transformation language which is capable of handling even non functional properties using optimization and mathematical programming. This makes it easier to understand and describe service composition and non-functional properties for the developer.

Service provision in the wake of a new funding model for community pharmacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Alesha J; Scahill, Shane L; Harrison, Jeff; Carroll, Tilley; Medlicott, Natalie J

2018-05-02

Recently, New Zealand has taken a system wide approach providing the biggest reform to New Zealand community pharmacy for 70 years with the aim of providing more clinically orientated patient centred services through a new funding model. The aim of this study was to understand the types of services offered in New Zealand community pharmacies since introduction of the new funding model, what the barriers are to providing these services. A survey of all community pharmacies were undertaken between August, 2014 and February, 2015. Basic descriptive statistics were completed and group comparisons were made using the chi squared test with significance set at p funding attached. Costs and staff availability are the most common barriers to undertake services, more predominantly in patient centred services. This study was the first to provide an evaluation of service provision in response to a new funding model for New Zealand Community Pharmacies. A broad range of services are being undertaken in New Zealand community pharmacies including patient-centred services. A number of barriers to service provision were identified. This study provides a baseline for the current levels of service provision upon which future studies can compare to and evaluate any changes in service provision with differing funding models going forward.

Conceptual Model of Relationships among Customer Perceptions of Components of Insurance Service

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebjan Urban

2015-04-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to examine the conceptual model and to study the relationships between customer perceptions of the benefits of sales promotion, quality, adequacy of premium, and adequacy of information about the coverage of insurance services. The research model was tested with structural equation modeling (SEM with a sample of 200 Slovenian users of insurance services. The results indicated that higher perceived benefits of sales promotion were associated with higher perceived quality of insurance services. In addition, higher perceived quality was associated with higher perceived adequacy of information about the coverage and the premium for insurance services. The study also found that higher perceived adequacy of premium was associated with higher perceived adequacy of information about the coverage of insurance services.

Computational Everyday Life Human Behavior Model as Servicable Knowledge

Science.gov (United States)

Motomura, Yoichi; Nishida, Yoshifumi

A project called `Open life matrix' is not only a research activity but also real problem solving as an action research. This concept is realized by large-scale data collection, probabilistic causal structure model construction and information service providing using the model. One concrete outcome of this project is childhood injury prevention activity in new team consist of hospital, government, and many varieties of researchers. The main result from the project is a general methodology to apply probabilistic causal structure models as servicable knowledge for action research. In this paper, the summary of this project and future direction to emphasize action research driven by artificial intelligence technology are discussed.

Function Model for Community Health Service Information

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Peng; Pan, Feng; Liu, Danhong; Xu, Yongyong

In order to construct a function model of community health service (CHS) information for development of CHS information management system, Integration Definition for Function Modeling (IDEF0), an IEEE standard which is extended from Structured Analysis and Design(SADT) and now is a widely used function modeling method, was used to classifying its information from top to bottom. The contents of every level of the model were described and coded. Then function model for CHS information, which includes 4 super-classes, 15 classes and 28 sub-classed of business function, 43 business processes and 168 business activities, was established. This model can facilitate information management system development and workflow refinement.

Designing and redesigning medical telecare services: a forces-oriented model.

Science.gov (United States)

Gortzis, L G

2007-01-01

Medical telecare services' designing and redesigning still remains a challenging issue since it often depends on how a number of socio-technological issues are framed. This work has two key objectives; the former is to theoretically analyze the nature of a telecare environment by developing a model that reveals potential areas of analysis and the latter is to support designing and redesigning medical telecare services by formulating a strategy as well as a number of 'state of the art' guidelines. We have extended Leavitt's diamond to develop a model capable of accurately reflecting the telecare environment building dimensions as well as their interactions. This model depends on the i) technology, ii) collaborators, iii) tasks, iv) structure, v) social forces, and the vi) procedure dimensions. Taking this model as a core element we have proposed a service designing and redesigning strategy formulating, in parallel, six scalable dimension-oriented guidelines. During the two-year period (2003-2005) an enormous amount of data was collected (by active participating in two EU projects, by conducting semistructured interviews, by performing onsite observations as well as by reviewing 78 previous projects) and classified, structuring six guidelines. These guidelines can be considered as the 'state of the art' to support future services' design and redesign. This work considering the telecare environment as a multi-dimensional, operational organization has put the focus on accurate telecare services' design and redesign. The parameters are not limited, by any means, and are drawn from experience of designing services in a variety of telecare domains. The optimal parameter combination must be chosen according to the aim of each telecare procedure. Further research is needed to determine the minimum parameters to support telecare service design.

Heterogeneous characters modeling of instant message services users' online behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Cui, Hongyan; Li, Ruibing; Fang, Yajun; Horn, Berthold; Welsch, Roy E

2018-01-01

Research on temporal characteristics of human dynamics has attracted much attentions for its contribution to various areas such as communication, medical treatment, finance, etc. Existing studies show that the time intervals between two consecutive events present different non-Poisson characteristics, such as power-law, Pareto, bimodal distribution of power-law, exponential distribution, piecewise power-law, et al. With the occurrences of new services, new types of distributions may arise. In this paper, we study the distributions of the time intervals between two consecutive visits to QQ and WeChat service, the top two popular instant messaging services in China, and present a new finding that when the value of statistical unit T is set to 0.001s, the inter-event time distribution follows a piecewise distribution of exponential and power-law, indicating the heterogeneous character of IM services users' online behavior in different time scales. We infer that the heterogeneous character is related to the communication mechanism of IM and the habits of users. Then we develop a combination model of exponential model and interest model to characterize the heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that the exponent of the inter-event time distribution of the same service is different in two cities, which is correlated with the popularity of the services. Our research is useful for the application of information diffusion, prediction of economic development of cities, and so on.

Smart services – characteristics, challenges, opportunities and business models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marquardt Katrin

2017-07-01

Full Text Available “Industry 4.0”, “Digitalization”, “Internet of Things” and “Smart Services” are the today’s buzzwords when tracking economic news. It is to ask about the meaning of those phrases. The world has changed over the last decade from a mainly physical to software controlled economy and the information technology has become an integral part of our industry and society in its entirety. Nowadays it is no longer the product that matters it is the data that are generated by using the product or service. Those usage data collected and analyzed commence new business models and services. The economic future of a company will much more rely on the ability to collect and use the data to generate Smart Services for their customers and to transform from a simple product supplier to an entertainment provider. However there are not only opportunities there are also challenges on the way to that new services which needs to be known and considered. For instance the development cycles need to be faster, the business models need to be adjusted and the positive financial results will not come into the picture on the first day. Based on those thoughts and while there only a handful of researches about that new services exists, the main purpose of the present study is at first, to gain a common understanding about the meaning and the characteristics of Smart Services and their adjacencies. Secondly, the study summarizes the identified challenges and opportunities in relation to them. Thirdly, the author introduce and explain the main business models usable for those Smart Services and the requirements for starting the transformation towards those services. The aim of this paper is to set a basis for this exciting and relatively unsought topic and to produce an interest in further empirical and practical researches in this area. The methodologies used for this research are a systematic literature review and an evaluation of existing studies with the

Data mining approach to model the diagnostic service management.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sun-Mi; Lee, Ae-Kyung; Park, Il-Su

2006-01-01

Korea has National Health Insurance Program operated by the government-owned National Health Insurance Corporation, and diagnostic services are provided every two year for the insured and their family members. Developing a customer relationship management (CRM) system using data mining technology would be useful to improve the performance of diagnostic service programs. Under these circumstances, this study developed a model for diagnostic service management taking into account the characteristics of subjects using a data mining approach. This study could be further used to develop an automated CRM system contributing to the increase in the rate of receiving diagnostic services.

Modeling Temporal and Spatial Flows of Ecosystem Services in Chittenden County, VT

Science.gov (United States)

Voigt, B. G.; Bagstad, K.; Johnson, G.; Villa, F.

2010-12-01

This paper documents the integration of ARIES (ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services) with the land use change model UrbanSim to explore the impacts of current and future land use patterns on flood protection and water provision services in Chittenden County, VT. ARIES, an open source modeling platform, is particularly well-suited for measuring, mapping, and modeling the temporal and spatial flows of ecosystem services across the landscape, linking the areas of provision (sources) with human beneficiaries (users) through a spatially explicit agent-based modeling approach. UrbanSim is an open source agent-based land use model designed to facilitate a wide-range of scenarios based on user-specified behavioral assumptions, zoning regulations, and demographic, economic, and infrastructure (e.g. transportation, water, sewer, etc.) parameters. Ecosystem services travel through time and space and are susceptible to disruption and destruction from both natural and anthropogenic perturbations. The conversion of forested or agricultural land to urbanizing uses is replete with a long history of hydrologic impairment, habitat fragmentation, and the degradation of sensitive landscapes. Development decisions are predicated on the presence of landscape characteristics that meet the needs of developers and satisfy the desires of consumers, with minimal consideration of access to or effect on the provision of ecosystem services. The County houses nearly 25% of the state’s population and several employment centers that draw labor from throughout the region. Additionally, the County is expected to maintain modest residential and employment growth over the next 30 years, and will continue to serve as the state’s population and employment center. Expected future growth is likely to adversely affect the remaining farm and forest land in the County in the absence of policies to support sustainable development. We demonstrate how ARIES can be used to quantify changes in

Pre-Service Teachers' Mental Models of Basic Astronomy Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Arslan, A. Saglam; Durikan, U.

2016-01-01

The aim of the present study is to determine pre-service teachers' mental models related to basic astronomy concepts. The study was conducted using a survey method with 293 pre-service teachers from 4 different departments; physics education, science education, primary teacher education and early childhood education. An achievement test with…

Highway Passenger Transport Based Express Parcel Service Network Design: Model and Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuan Jiang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Highway passenger transport based express parcel service (HPTB-EPS is an emerging business that uses unutilised room of coach trunk to ship parcels between major cities. While it is reaping more and more express market, the managers are facing difficult decisions to design the service network. This paper investigates the HPTB-EPS network design problem and analyses the time-space characteristics of such network. A mixed-integer programming model is formulated integrating the service decision, frequency, and network flow distribution. To solve the model, a decomposition-based heuristic algorithm is designed by decomposing the problem as three steps: construction of service network, service path selection, and distribution of network flow. Numerical experiment using real data from our partner company demonstrates the effectiveness of our model and algorithm. We found that our solution could reduce the total cost by up to 16.3% compared to the carrier’s solution. The sensitivity analysis demonstrates the robustness and flexibility of the solutions of the model.

Linking ecosystem services with state-and-transition models to evaluate rangeland management decisions

Science.gov (United States)

Lohani, S.; Heilman, P.; deSteiguer, J. E.; Guertin, D. P.; Wissler, C.; McClaran, M. P.

2014-12-01

Quantifying ecosystem services is a crucial topic for land management decision making. However, market prices are usually not able to capture all the ecosystem services and disservices. Ecosystem services from rangelands, that cover 70% of the world's land area, are even less well-understood since knowledge of rangelands is limited. This study generated a management framework for rangelands that uses remote sensing to generate state and transition models (STMs) for a large area and a linear programming (LP) model that uses ecosystem services to evaluate natural and/or management induced transitions as described in the STM. The LP optimization model determines the best management plan for a plot of semi-arid land in the Empire Ranch in southeastern Arizona. The model allocated land among management activities (do nothing, grazing, fire, and brush removal) to optimize net benefits and determined the impact of monetizing environmental services and disservices on net benefits, acreage allocation and production output. The ecosystem services under study were forage production (AUM/ac/yr), sediment (lbs/ac/yr), water runoff (inches/yr), soil loss (lbs/ac/yr) and recreation (thousands of number of visitors/ac/yr). The optimization model was run for three different scenarios - private rancher, public rancher including environmental services and excluding disservices, and public rancher including both services and disservices. The net benefit was the highest for the public rancher excluding the disservices. A result from the study is a constrained optimization model that incorporates ecosystem services to analyze investments on conservation and management activities. Rangeland managers can use this model to understand and explain, not prescribe, the tradeoffs of management investments.

A behavioral choice model of the use of car-sharing and ride-sourcing services

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Dias, Felipe F.; Lavieri, Patrícia S.; Garikapati, Venu M.; Astroza, Sebastian; Pendyala, Ram M.; Bhat, Chandra R.

2017-07-26

There are a number of disruptive mobility services that are increasingly finding their way into the marketplace. Two key examples of such services are car-sharing services and ride-sourcing services. In an effort to better understand the influence of various exogenous socio-economic and demographic variables on the frequency of use of ride-sourcing and car-sharing services, this paper presents a bivariate ordered probit model estimated on a survey data set derived from the 2014-2015 Puget Sound Regional Travel Study. Model estimation results show that users of these services tend to be young, well-educated, higher-income, working individuals residing in higher-density areas. There are significant interaction effects reflecting the influence of children and the built environment on disruptive mobility service usage. The model developed in this paper provides key insights into factors affecting market penetration of these services, and can be integrated in larger travel forecasting model systems to better predict the adoption and use of mobility-on-demand services.

Prediction of liver-related events using fibroscan in chronic hepatitis B patients showing advanced liver fibrosis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seung Up Kim

Full Text Available Liver stiffness measurement (LSM using transient elastography (FibroScan® can assess liver fibrosis noninvasively. This study investigated whether LSM can predict the development of liver-related events (LREs in chronic hepatitis B (CHB patients showing histologically advanced liver fibrosis.Between March 2006 and April 2010, 128 CHB patients with who underwent LSM and liver biopsy (LB before starting nucleot(side analogues and showed histologically advanced fibrosis (≥F3 with a high viral loads [HBV DNA ≥2,000 IU/mL] were enrolled. All patients were followed regularly to detect LRE development, including hepatic decompensation (variceal bleeding, ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatorenal syndrome and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC.The mean age of the patient (72 men, 56 women was 52.2 years. During the median follow-up period [median 27.8 (12.6-61.6 months], LREs developed in 19 (14.8% patients (five with hepatic decompensation, 13 with HCC, one with both. Together with age, multivariate analysis identified LSM as an independent predictor of LRE development [P19 kPa were at significantly greater risk than those with LSM≤19 kPa for LRE development (HR, 7.176; 95% CI, 2.257-22.812; P = 0.001.LSM can be a useful predictor of LRE development in CHB patients showing histologically advanced liver fibrosis.

Developing a business-practice model for pharmacy services in ambulatory settings.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Ila M; Baker, Ed; Berry, Tricia M; Halloran, Mary Ann; Lindauer, Kathleen; Ragucci, Kelly R; McGivney, Melissa Somma; Taylor, A Thomas; Haines, Stuart T

2008-02-01

A business-practice model is a guide, or toolkit, to assist managers and clinical pharmacy practitioners in the exploration, proposal, development and implementation of new clinical pharmacy services and/or the enhancement of existing services. This document was developed by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Task Force on Ambulatory Practice to assist clinical pharmacy practitioners and administrators in the development of business-practice models for new and existing clinical pharmacy services in ambulatory settings. This document provides detailed instructions, examples, and resources on conducting a market assessment and a needs assessment, types of clinical services, operations, legal and regulatory issues, marketing and promotion, service development and exit plan, evaluation of service outcomes, and financial considerations in the development of a clinical pharmacy service in the ambulatory environment. Available literature is summarized, and an appendix provides valuable citations and resources. As ambulatory care practices continue to evolve, there will be increased knowledge of how to initiate and expand the services. This document is intended to serve as an essential resource to assist in the growth and development of clinical pharmacy services in the ambulatory environment.

A Proposal of B to B Collaboration Process Model based on a Concept of Service and its Application to Energy Saving Service Business

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qi; Kosaka, Michitaka; Shirahada, Kunio; Yabutani, Takashi

This paper proposes a new framework for B to B collaboration process based on a concept of service. Service value, which gives users satisfaction for provided services, depends on the situation, user characteristics, and user objectives in seeking the service. Vargo proposed Service Dominant Logic (SDL), which determines service value according to “value in use”. This concept illustrates the importance of the relationship between the service itself and its situation. This relationship is analogous to electro-magnetic field theory in physics. We developed the concept of service fields to create service value based on an analogy of the electro-magnetic field. By applying this concept to B to B collaboration, a model of service value co-creation in the collaboration can be formulated. Then, the collaboration can be described by 4 steps of KIKI model (Knowledge sharing related to service system, Identification of service field, Knowledge creation for new service idea, Implementation of service idea). As its application to B to B collaboration, the energy saving service business is reported to demonstrate the validity of the proposed collaboration model. This concept can be applied to make a collaboration process effective.

Reference model of future ubiquitous convergent network and context-aware telecommunication service platform

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

QIAO Xiu-quan; LI Xiao-feng; LIANG Shou-qing

2006-01-01

A reference model for future ubiquitous convergent network is analyzed. To provide user-centric, intelligent,personalized service, this article presents a context-aware telecommunication service platform (CaTSP) to adapt to dynamically changing context. This article focuses on the new design method of context-aware telecommunication service platform and its architecture. Through the use of model-driven architecture (MDA) and semantic web technologies, CaTSP can enable context reasoning and service personalization adaption.This article explores a new approach for service intelligence,personalization, and adaptability in the semantic web service computing era.

An Explanatory Model of Self-Service on the Internet

Science.gov (United States)

Oliver, Dave; Livermore, Celia Romm; Farag, Neveen Awad

This chapter describes research that identifies and classifies the dimensions of self-service activity enabled through the Internet. Self-service is effected by organizations providing ways and means whereby customers perform tasks related to the procurement of goods and services. We describe how an instrument used to measure Internet-based self-service was developed, validated and applied. The results from applying the instrument to a large number of Web sites, covering a range of industries, countries and cultures, are analyzed and discussed. The study presents a model in which type of industry, level of technological development, income and cultural factors are proposed as explanatory variables for Web-based self-service. We conclude with an assessment of this program of research’s achievements so far.

Heterogeneous characters modeling of instant message services users' online behavior.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongyan Cui

Full Text Available Research on temporal characteristics of human dynamics has attracted much attentions for its contribution to various areas such as communication, medical treatment, finance, etc. Existing studies show that the time intervals between two consecutive events present different non-Poisson characteristics, such as power-law, Pareto, bimodal distribution of power-law, exponential distribution, piecewise power-law, et al. With the occurrences of new services, new types of distributions may arise. In this paper, we study the distributions of the time intervals between two consecutive visits to QQ and WeChat service, the top two popular instant messaging services in China, and present a new finding that when the value of statistical unit T is set to 0.001s, the inter-event time distribution follows a piecewise distribution of exponential and power-law, indicating the heterogeneous character of IM services users' online behavior in different time scales. We infer that the heterogeneous character is related to the communication mechanism of IM and the habits of users. Then we develop a combination model of exponential model and interest model to characterize the heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that the exponent of the inter-event time distribution of the same service is different in two cities, which is correlated with the popularity of the services. Our research is useful for the application of information diffusion, prediction of economic development of cities, and so on.

Heterogeneous characters modeling of instant message services users’ online behavior

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Yajun; Horn, Berthold

2018-01-01

Research on temporal characteristics of human dynamics has attracted much attentions for its contribution to various areas such as communication, medical treatment, finance, etc. Existing studies show that the time intervals between two consecutive events present different non-Poisson characteristics, such as power-law, Pareto, bimodal distribution of power-law, exponential distribution, piecewise power-law, et al. With the occurrences of new services, new types of distributions may arise. In this paper, we study the distributions of the time intervals between two consecutive visits to QQ and WeChat service, the top two popular instant messaging services in China, and present a new finding that when the value of statistical unit T is set to 0.001s, the inter-event time distribution follows a piecewise distribution of exponential and power-law, indicating the heterogeneous character of IM services users’ online behavior in different time scales. We infer that the heterogeneous character is related to the communication mechanism of IM and the habits of users. Then we develop a combination model of exponential model and interest model to characterize the heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that the exponent of the inter-event time distribution of the same service is different in two cities, which is correlated with the popularity of the services. Our research is useful for the application of information diffusion, prediction of economic development of cities, and so on. PMID:29734327

Hierarchy Bayesian model based services awareness of high-speed optical access networks

Science.gov (United States)

Bai, Hui-feng

2018-03-01

As the speed of optical access networks soars with ever increasing multiple services, the service-supporting ability of optical access networks suffers greatly from the shortage of service awareness. Aiming to solve this problem, a hierarchy Bayesian model based services awareness mechanism is proposed for high-speed optical access networks. This approach builds a so-called hierarchy Bayesian model, according to the structure of typical optical access networks. Moreover, the proposed scheme is able to conduct simple services awareness operation in each optical network unit (ONU) and to perform complex services awareness from the whole view of system in optical line terminal (OLT). Simulation results show that the proposed scheme is able to achieve better quality of services (QoS), in terms of packet loss rate and time delay.

A service model for delivering care closer to home.

Science.gov (United States)

Dodd, Joanna; Taylor, Charlotte Elizabeth; Bunyan, Paul; White, Philippa Mary; Thomas, Siân Myra; Upton, Dominic

2011-04-01

Upton Surgery (Worcestershire) has developed a flexible and responsive service model that facilitates multi-agency support for adult patients with complex care needs experiencing an acute health crisis. The purpose of this service is to provide appropriate interventions that avoid unnecessary hospital admissions or, alternatively, provide support to facilitate early discharge from secondary care. Key aspects of this service are the collaborative and proactive identification of patients at risk, rapid creation and deployment of a reactive multi-agency team and follow-up of patients with an appropriate long-term care plan. A small team of dedicated staff (the Complex Care Team) are pivotal to coordinating and delivering this service. Key skills are sophisticated leadership and project management skills, and these have been used sensitively to challenge some traditional roles and boundaries in the interests of providing effective, holistic care for the patient.This is a practical example of early implementation of the principles underlying the Department of Health's (DH) recent Best Practice Guidance, 'Delivering Care Closer to Home' (DH, July 2008) and may provide useful learning points for other general practice surgeries considering implementing similar models. This integrated case management approach has had enthusiastic endorsement from patients and carers. In addition to the enhanced quality of care and experience for the patient, this approach has delivered value for money. Secondary care costs have been reduced by preventing admissions and also by reducing excess bed-days. The savings achieved have justified the ongoing commitment to the service and the staff employed in the Complex Care Team. The success of this service model has been endorsed recently by the 'Customer Care' award by 'Management in Practice'. The Surgery was also awarded the 'Practice of the Year' award for this and a number of other customer-focussed projects.

Improved workflow modelling using role activity diagram-based modelling with application to a radiology service case study.

Science.gov (United States)

Shukla, Nagesh; Keast, John E; Ceglarek, Darek

2014-10-01

The modelling of complex workflows is an important problem-solving technique within healthcare settings. However, currently most of the workflow models use a simplified flow chart of patient flow obtained using on-site observations, group-based debates and brainstorming sessions, together with historic patient data. This paper presents a systematic and semi-automatic methodology for knowledge acquisition with detailed process representation using sequential interviews of people in the key roles involved in the service delivery process. The proposed methodology allows the modelling of roles, interactions, actions, and decisions involved in the service delivery process. This approach is based on protocol generation and analysis techniques such as: (i) initial protocol generation based on qualitative interviews of radiology staff, (ii) extraction of key features of the service delivery process, (iii) discovering the relationships among the key features extracted, and, (iv) a graphical representation of the final structured model of the service delivery process. The methodology is demonstrated through a case study of a magnetic resonance (MR) scanning service-delivery process in the radiology department of a large hospital. A set of guidelines is also presented in this paper to visually analyze the resulting process model for identifying process vulnerabilities. A comparative analysis of different workflow models is also conducted. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

AAL service development loom--from the idea to a marketable business model.

Science.gov (United States)

Kriegel, Johannes; Auinger, Klemens

2015-01-01

The Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) market is still in an early stage of development. Previous approaches of comprehensive AAL services are mostly supply-side driven and focused on hardware and software. Usually this type of AAL solutions does not lead to a sustainable success on the market. Research and development increasingly focuses on demand and customer requirements in addition to the social and legal framework. The question is: How can a systematic performance measurement strategy along a service development process support the market-ready design of a concrete business model for AAL service? Within the EU funded research project DALIA (Assistant for Daily Life Activities at Home) an iterative service development process uses an adapted Osterwalder business model canvas. The application of a performance measurement index (PMI) to support the process has been developed and tested. Development of an iterative service development model using a supporting PMI. The PMI framework is developed throughout the engineering of a virtual assistant (AVATAR) as a modular interface to connect informal carers with necessary and useful services. Future research should seek to ensure that the PMI enables meaningful transparency regarding targeting (e.g. innovative AAL service), design (e.g. functional hybrid AAL service) and implementation (e.g. marketable AAL support services). To this end, a further reference to further testing practices is required. The aim must be to develop a weighted PMI in the context of further research, which supports both the service engineering and the subsequent service management process.

Discrete event simulation modelling of patient service management with Arena

Science.gov (United States)

Guseva, Elena; Varfolomeyeva, Tatyana; Efimova, Irina; Movchan, Irina

2018-05-01

This paper describes the simulation modeling methodology aimed to aid in solving the practical problems of the research and analysing the complex systems. The paper gives the review of a simulation platform sand example of simulation model development with Arena 15.0 (Rockwell Automation).The provided example of the simulation model for the patient service management helps to evaluate the workload of the clinic doctors, determine the number of the general practitioners, surgeons, traumatologists and other specialized doctors required for the patient service and develop recommendations to ensure timely delivery of medical care and improve the efficiency of the clinic operation.

New payment model for rural health services in Mongolia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hindle, Don; Khulan, Buyankhishig

2006-01-01

This article describes experiences in Mongolia in designing and implementing a new method of payment for rural health services. The new method involves using a formula that allocates 65% of available funding on the basis of risk-adjusted capitation, 20% on the basis of asset costs, 10% on the basis of variations in distance-related costs, and 5% on the basis of satisfactory attainment of quality of care targets. Rural populations have inferior health services in most countries, whether rich or poor. Their situation has deteriorated in most transition economies, including Mongolia since 1990. One factor has been the use of inappropriate methods of payment of care providers. Changes in payment methods have therefore been made in most transition economies with mixed success. One factor has been a tendency to over-simplify, for example, to introduce capitation without risk adjustment or to make per case payments that ignored casemix. In 2002, the Mongolian government decided that its crude funding formula for rural health services should be replaced. It had two main components. The first was payment of an annual grant by the local government from its general revenue on the basis of estimated service population, number of inpatient beds, and number of clinical staff. The second was an output-based payment per inpatient day from the National Health Insurance Fund. The model was administratively complicated, and widely believed to be unfair. The two funding agencies were giving conflicting types of financial incentives. Most important, the funding methods gave few incentives or rewards for service improvement. In some respects, the incentives were perverse (such as the encouragement of hospital admission by the National Health Insurance Fund). A new funding model was developed through statistical analysis of data from routine service reports and opinions questionnaires. As noted above, there are components relating to per capita needs for care, capital assets, distance

A service based component model for composing and exploring MPSoC platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tranberg-Hansen, Anders Sejer; Madsen, Jan

2008-01-01

This paper presents an abstract service based modelling method for use in performance estimation and design space exploration of Multi Processor System On Chip (MPSoC) based systems. The method provides the infrastructure for composing abstract hardware and software models of stream based systems...... which can be used to produce detailed quantitative information regarding runtime properties of a given system through simulations. The method is based on a service oriented model of computation which is a modified version of Hierarchical Coloured Petri Nets.......This paper presents an abstract service based modelling method for use in performance estimation and design space exploration of Multi Processor System On Chip (MPSoC) based systems. The method provides the infrastructure for composing abstract hardware and software models of stream based systems...

QoS prediction for web services based on user-trust propagation model

Science.gov (United States)

Thinh, Le-Van; Tu, Truong-Dinh

2017-10-01

There is an important online role for Web service providers and users; however, the rapidly growing number of service providers and users, it can create some similar functions among web services. This is an exciting area for research, and researchers seek to to propose solutions for the best service to users. Collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms are widely used in recommendation systems, although these are less effective for cold-start users. Recently, some recommender systems have been developed based on social network models, and the results show that social network models have better performance in terms of CF, especially for cold-start users. However, most social network-based recommendations do not consider the user's mood. This is a hidden source of information, and is very useful in improving prediction efficiency. In this paper, we introduce a new model called User-Trust Propagation (UTP). The model uses a combination of trust and the mood of users to predict the QoS value and matrix factorisation (MF), which is used to train the model. The experimental results show that the proposed model gives better accuracy than other models, especially for the cold-start problem.

Mapping and modelling ecosystem services for science, policy and practice

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Burkhard, B.; Crossman, N.; Nedkov, S.; Petz, K.; Alkemade, R.

2013-01-01

Ecosystem services are a significant research and policy topic and there are many modelling and mapping approaches aimed at understanding the stocks, demands and flows of ecosystem services on different spatial and temporal scales. The integration of geo-biophysical processes and structure

Virtual vs. real: Modeling the energy performance of a quick service restaurant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith, V.A.; Young, R.; Spata, A.J.; Fisher, D.

1999-07-01

This paper describes the process of modeling a number of energy conservation measures used in constructing a new quick service restaurant. An hour-by-hour energy simulation model was used to predict energy savings for each energy conservation measure. The initial model was based on the design drawings and assumptions about operating conditions and energy use by the food service equipment. Based on a year's worth of measured energy and environmental data, the model inputs were calibrated and the model outputs were validated. The modifications to initial model conditions required for calibration and validation are discussed for each energy end use: lighting, water heating, HVAC, food processing, and building envelope. Differences between the measured data and the predicted results of the final model are summarized. The strengths and shortcomings of building energy modeling in the context of food service applications and the potential for future application of the model during restaurant design are discussed.

Implementation of the Strengths Model at an area mental health service.

Science.gov (United States)

Chopra, Prem; Hamilton, Bridget; Castle, David; Smith, Jenny; Mileshkin, Cris; Deans, Michael; Wynne, Brad; Prigg, Glenn; Toomey, Nigel; Wilson, Michael

2009-06-01

The objectives of this paper are to provide an overview of recovery-focused models of care and discuss the implementation of the Strengths Model at St. Vincent's Mental Health Melbourne (SVMH), Victoria, Australia. The implementation of the Strengths Model at SVMH is discussed with particular emphasis on the process of implementation, service implications, practical challenges and dilemmas that have arisen, and proposed evaluation. Recovery-focused care is feasible and can enhance current practice of mental health services.

Non-communicable diseases and HIV care and treatment: models of integrated service delivery.

Science.gov (United States)

Duffy, Malia; Ojikutu, Bisola; Andrian, Soa; Sohng, Elaine; Minior, Thomas; Hirschhorn, Lisa R

2017-08-01

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) are a growing cause of morbidity in low-income countries including in people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Integration of NCD and HIV services can build upon experience with chronic care models from HIV programmes. We describe models of NCD and HIV integration, challenges and lessons learned. A literature review of published articles on integrated NCD and HIV programs in low-income countries and key informant interviews were conducted with leaders of identified integrated NCD and HIV programs. Information was synthesised to identify models of NCD and HIV service delivery integration. Three models of integration were identified as follows: NCD services integrated into centres originally providing HIV care; HIV care integrated into primary health care (PHC) already offering NCD services; and simultaneous introduction of integrated HIV and NCD services. Major challenges identified included NCD supply chain, human resources, referral systems, patient education, stigma, patient records and monitoring and evaluation. The range of HIV and NCD services varied widely within and across models. Regardless of model of integration, leveraging experience from HIV care models and adapting existing systems and tools is a feasible method to provide efficient care and treatment for the growing numbers of patients with NCDs. Operational research should be conducted to further study how successful models of HIV and NCD integration can be expanded in scope and scaled-up by managers and policymakers seeking to address all the chronic care needs of their patients. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Query Language for Location-Based Services: A Model Checking Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hoareau, Christian; Satoh, Ichiro

We present a model checking approach to the rationale, implementation, and applications of a query language for location-based services. Such query mechanisms are necessary so that users, objects, and/or services can effectively benefit from the location-awareness of their surrounding environment. The underlying data model is founded on a symbolic model of space organized in a tree structure. Once extended to a semantic model for modal logic, we regard location query processing as a model checking problem, and thus define location queries as hybrid logicbased formulas. Our approach is unique to existing research because it explores the connection between location models and query processing in ubiquitous computing systems, relies on a sound theoretical basis, and provides modal logic-based query mechanisms for expressive searches over a decentralized data structure. A prototype implementation is also presented and will be discussed.

Information model design health service childhood cancer for parents and caregivers

Science.gov (United States)

Ramli, Syazwani; Muda, Zurina

2015-05-01

Most Malaysians do not realize that they are suffer from a chronic disease until the disease is confirmed to be at a critical stage. This is because lack of awareness among Malaysians about a chronic disease especially in a childhood cancer. Based on report of the National Cancer Council (MAKNA),11 million adults and children suffered with cancer and 6 million of them die in a worldwide. Lack of public exposure to this disease leads to health problems to their children. Information model design health service childhood cancer for p arents and caregivers using an android application medium can be used by a doctor to deliver an information of cancer to the parents and caregivers. The development of this information model design health service childhood cancer for parents and caregivers are using an integration of health promotion theory, spiral model and lean model to form a new model that can be used as a model design content of health service. The method using in this study are by an interview technique and questionnaires along the study was conducted. Hopefully the production of this information model design health service childhood cancer for parents and caregivers using an android apps as a medium can help parents, caregivers and public to know more about information of childhood cancer and at the same time can gain an awareness among them and this app also can be used as a medium for doctors to deliver an information to the parents and caregivers.

Verification of communication protocols in web services model-checking service compositions

CERN Document Server

Tari, Zahir; Mukherjee, Anshuman

2014-01-01

Gathers recent advancements in the field of self-organizing wireless sensor networks and provides readers with the essential, state-of-the-art information about sensor networking. In the near future, wireless sensor networks will become an integral part of our day-to-day life. To solve different sensor networking related issues, researchers have put a great deal of effort into coming up with innovative ideas. Verification of Communication Protocols in Web Services: Model-Checking Service Compositions gathers recent advancements in the field of self-organizing wireless sensor networks and provides readers with integral information about sensor networking. It introduces current technological trends, particularly in node organization, and provides implementation details of each networking type to help readers set up sensor networks in their related job fields. In addition, it identifies the limitations of current technologies, as well as future research directions.

Constructing RBAC based security model in u-healthcare service platform.

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Moon Sun; Jeon, Heung Seok; Ju, Yong Wan; Lee, Bum Ju; Jeong, Seon-Phil

2015-01-01

In today's era of aging society, people want to handle personal health care by themselves in everyday life. In particular, the evolution of medical and IT convergence technology and mobile smart devices has made it possible for people to gather information on their health status anytime and anywhere easily using biometric information acquisition devices. Healthcare information systems can contribute to the improvement of the nation's healthcare quality and the reduction of related cost. However, there are no perfect security models or mechanisms for healthcare service applications, and privacy information can therefore be leaked. In this paper, we examine security requirements related to privacy protection in u-healthcare service and propose an extended RBAC based security model. We propose and design u-healthcare service integration platform (u-HCSIP) applying RBAC security model. The proposed u-HCSIP performs four main functions: storing and exchanging personal health records (PHR), recommending meals and exercise, buying/selling private health information or experience, and managing personal health data using smart devices.

Constructing RBAC Based Security Model in u-Healthcare Service Platform

Science.gov (United States)

Shin, Moon Sun; Jeon, Heung Seok; Ju, Yong Wan; Lee, Bum Ju; Jeong, Seon-Phil

2015-01-01

In today's era of aging society, people want to handle personal health care by themselves in everyday life. In particular, the evolution of medical and IT convergence technology and mobile smart devices has made it possible for people to gather information on their health status anytime and anywhere easily using biometric information acquisition devices. Healthcare information systems can contribute to the improvement of the nation's healthcare quality and the reduction of related cost. However, there are no perfect security models or mechanisms for healthcare service applications, and privacy information can therefore be leaked. In this paper, we examine security requirements related to privacy protection in u-healthcare service and propose an extended RBAC based security model. We propose and design u-healthcare service integration platform (u-HCSIP) applying RBAC security model. The proposed u-HCSIP performs four main functions: storing and exchanging personal health records (PHR), recommending meals and exercise, buying/selling private health information or experience, and managing personal health data using smart devices. PMID:25695104

Synthetic Earthquake Statistics From Physical Fault Models for the Lower Rhine Embayment

Science.gov (United States)

Brietzke, G. B.; Hainzl, S.; Zöller, G.

2012-04-01

As of today, seismic risk and hazard estimates mostly use pure empirical, stochastic models of earthquake fault systems tuned specifically to the vulnerable areas of interest. Although such models allow for reasonable risk estimates they fail to provide a link between the observed seismicity and the underlying physical processes. Solving a state-of-the-art fully dynamic description set of all relevant physical processes related to earthquake fault systems is likely not useful since it comes with a large number of degrees of freedom, poor constraints on its model parameters and a huge computational effort. Here, quasi-static and quasi-dynamic physical fault simulators provide a compromise between physical completeness and computational affordability and aim at providing a link between basic physical concepts and statistics of seismicity. Within the framework of quasi-static and quasi-dynamic earthquake simulators we investigate a model of the Lower Rhine Embayment (LRE) that is based upon seismological and geological data. We present and discuss statistics of the spatio-temporal behavior of generated synthetic earthquake catalogs with respect to simplification (e.g. simple two-fault cases) as well as to complication (e.g. hidden faults, geometric complexity, heterogeneities of constitutive parameters).

Collaborative QoS Prediction for Mobile Service with Data Filtering and SlopeOne Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuyu Yin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available The mobile service is a widely used carrier for mobile applications. With the increase of the number of mobile services, for service recommendation and selection, the nonfunctional properties (also known as quality of service, QoS become increasingly important. However, in many cases, the number of mobile services invoked by a user is quite limited, which leads to the large number of missing QoS values. In recent years, many prediction algorithms, such as algorithms extended from collaborative filtering (CF, are proposed to predict QoS values. However, the ideas of most existing algorithms are borrowed from the recommender system community, not specific for mobile service. In this paper, we first propose a data filtering-extended SlopeOne model (filtering-based CF, which is based on the characteristics of a mobile service and considers the relation with location. Also, using the data filtering technique in FB-CF and matrix factorization (MF, this paper proposes another model FB-MF (filtering-based MF. We also build an ensemble model, which combines the prediction results of FB-CF model and FB-MF model. We conduct sufficient experiments, and the experimental results demonstrate that our models outperform all compared methods and achieve good results in high data sparsity scenario.

Application of Gap Model in the Researches of Hotel Services Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ivana Blešić

2011-01-01

Full Text Available This work presents the research results of the hotel services quality by applying Gap model and SERVQUAL questionnaire. The research was conducted in five health spa centers in the West Morava river valley region during August and September 2008. The reach is aimed at testing of Gap model, i.e. identification of exceptions when the hotel services quality in the observed sample is concerned.

The EBM-DPSER conceptual model: integrating ecosystem services into the DPSIR framework.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher R Kelble

Full Text Available There is a pressing need to integrate biophysical and human dimensions science to better inform holistic ecosystem management supporting the transition from single species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management should focus upon ecosystem services, since they reflect societal goals, values, desires, and benefits. The inclusion of ecosystem services into holistic management strategies improves management by better capturing the diversity of positive and negative human-natural interactions and making explicit the benefits to society. To facilitate this inclusion, we propose a conceptual model that merges the broadly applied Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and Response (DPSIR conceptual model with ecosystem services yielding a Driver, Pressure, State, Ecosystem service, and Response (EBM-DPSER conceptual model. The impact module in traditional DPSIR models focuses attention upon negative anthropomorphic impacts on the ecosystem; by replacing impacts with ecosystem services the EBM-DPSER model incorporates not only negative, but also positive changes in the ecosystem. Responses occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services and include inter alia management actions directed at proactively altering human population or individual behavior and infrastructure to meet societal goals. The EBM-DPSER conceptual model was applied to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem as a case study to illustrate how it can inform management decisions. This case study captures our system-level understanding and results in a more holistic representation of ecosystem and human society interactions, thus improving our ability to identify trade-offs. The EBM-DPSER model should be a useful operational tool for implementing EBM, in that it fully integrates our knowledge of all ecosystem components while focusing management attention upon those aspects of the ecosystem most important to human society

The EBM-DPSER Conceptual Model: Integrating Ecosystem Services into the DPSIR Framework

Science.gov (United States)

Kelble, Christopher R.; Loomis, Dave K.; Lovelace, Susan; Nuttle, William K.; Ortner, Peter B.; Fletcher, Pamela; Cook, Geoffrey S.; Lorenz, Jerry J.; Boyer, Joseph N.

2013-01-01

There is a pressing need to integrate biophysical and human dimensions science to better inform holistic ecosystem management supporting the transition from single species or single-sector management to multi-sector ecosystem-based management. Ecosystem-based management should focus upon ecosystem services, since they reflect societal goals, values, desires, and benefits. The inclusion of ecosystem services into holistic management strategies improves management by better capturing the diversity of positive and negative human-natural interactions and making explicit the benefits to society. To facilitate this inclusion, we propose a conceptual model that merges the broadly applied Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and Response (DPSIR) conceptual model with ecosystem services yielding a Driver, Pressure, State, Ecosystem service, and Response (EBM-DPSER) conceptual model. The impact module in traditional DPSIR models focuses attention upon negative anthropomorphic impacts on the ecosystem; by replacing impacts with ecosystem services the EBM-DPSER model incorporates not only negative, but also positive changes in the ecosystem. Responses occur as a result of changes in ecosystem services and include inter alia management actions directed at proactively altering human population or individual behavior and infrastructure to meet societal goals. The EBM-DPSER conceptual model was applied to the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas marine ecosystem as a case study to illustrate how it can inform management decisions. This case study captures our system-level understanding and results in a more holistic representation of ecosystem and human society interactions, thus improving our ability to identify trade-offs. The EBM-DPSER model should be a useful operational tool for implementing EBM, in that it fully integrates our knowledge of all ecosystem components while focusing management attention upon those aspects of the ecosystem most important to human society and does so within

Virtual Reference, Real Money: Modeling Costs in Virtual Reference Services

Science.gov (United States)

Eakin, Lori; Pomerantz, Jeffrey

2009-01-01

Libraries nationwide are in yet another phase of belt tightening. Without an understanding of the economic factors that influence library operations, however, controlling costs and performing cost-benefit analyses on services is difficult. This paper describes a project to develop a cost model for collaborative virtual reference services. This…

Service learning in teacher education: an institutional model for an ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Interest in service learning is growing at a time of curriculum change in teacher education and institutional change in higher education in South Africa. This raises the question ";What models are available to guide institutions to develop service learning?"; This article outlines Pollack's typology of institutional responses to ...

Formalize clinical processes into electronic health information systems: Modelling a screening service for diabetic retinopathy.

Science.gov (United States)

Eguzkiza, Aitor; Trigo, Jesús Daniel; Martínez-Espronceda, Miguel; Serrano, Luis; Andonegui, José

2015-08-01

Most healthcare services use information and communication technologies to reduce and redistribute the workload associated with follow-up of chronic conditions. However, the lack of normalization of the information handled in and exchanged between such services hinders the scalability and extendibility. The use of medical standards for modelling and exchanging information, especially dual-model based approaches, can enhance the features of screening services. Hence, the approach of this paper is twofold. First, this article presents a generic methodology to model patient-centered clinical processes. Second, a proof of concept of the proposed methodology was conducted within the diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening service of the Health Service of Navarre (Spain) in compliance with a specific dual-model norm (openEHR). As a result, a set of elements required for deploying a model-driven DR screening service has been established, namely: clinical concepts, archetypes, termsets, templates, guideline definition rules, and user interface definitions. This model fosters reusability, because those elements are available to be downloaded and integrated in any healthcare service, and interoperability, since from then on such services can share information seamlessly. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Real-time GIS data model and sensor web service platform for environmental data management.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Jianya; Geng, Jing; Chen, Zeqiang

2015-01-09

Effective environmental data management is meaningful for human health. In the past, environmental data management involved developing a specific environmental data management system, but this method often lacks real-time data retrieving and sharing/interoperating capability. With the development of information technology, a Geospatial Service Web method is proposed that can be employed for environmental data management. The purpose of this study is to determine a method to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework. A real-time GIS (Geographic Information System) data model and a Sensor Web service platform to realize environmental data management under the Geospatial Service Web framework are proposed in this study. The real-time GIS data model manages real-time data. The Sensor Web service platform is applied to support the realization of the real-time GIS data model based on the Sensor Web technologies. To support the realization of the proposed real-time GIS data model, a Sensor Web service platform is implemented. Real-time environmental data, such as meteorological data, air quality data, soil moisture data, soil temperature data, and landslide data, are managed in the Sensor Web service platform. In addition, two use cases of real-time air quality monitoring and real-time soil moisture monitoring based on the real-time GIS data model in the Sensor Web service platform are realized and demonstrated. The total time efficiency of the two experiments is 3.7 s and 9.2 s. The experimental results show that the method integrating real-time GIS data model and Sensor Web Service Platform is an effective way to manage environmental data under the Geospatial Service Web framework.

Applying Quality Function Deployment Model in Burn Unit Service Improvement.

Science.gov (United States)

Keshtkaran, Ali; Hashemi, Neda; Kharazmi, Erfan; Abbasi, Mehdi

2016-01-01

Quality function deployment (QFD) is one of the most effective quality design tools. This study applies QFD technique to improve the quality of the burn unit services in Ghotbedin Hospital in Shiraz, Iran. First, the patients' expectations of burn unit services and their priorities were determined through Delphi method. Thereafter, burn unit service specifications were determined through Delphi method. Further, the relationships between the patients' expectations and service specifications and also the relationships between service specifications were determined through an expert group's opinion. Last, the final importance scores of service specifications were calculated through simple additive weighting method. The findings show that burn unit patients have 40 expectations in six different areas. These expectations are in 16 priority levels. Burn units also have 45 service specifications in six different areas. There are four-level relationships between the patients' expectations and service specifications and four-level relationships between service specifications. The most important burn unit service specifications have been identified in this study. The QFD model developed in the study can be a general guideline for QFD planners and executives.

Conceptual Model As The Tool For Managing Bank Services Quality

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kornelija Severović

2009-07-01

Full Text Available Quality has become basic factor of economic efficiency and basic principle of business activities of successful organizations. Its consequence is revolution on the area of quality that has comprised all kinds of products and services and so the bank services as well. To understand the present and future needs of clients and to know how to fulfill and try to exceed their expectations is the task of each efficient economy. Therefore, the banks in the developed economies try to re-orientate organizationally, technologically and informatically their business activities placing the client in the core of this business activity. Significant indicators of quality services that banks offer is measured by the waiting time of clients for the offer of the desirable service and the number of clients who give up to enter the bank due to the long waiting queues. Dissatisfied client is the worst work result and business activity of banks. Following the stated, the great effort is made to improve service qualities, which means professionalism and communication of personnel with whom the clients come in contact, and giving punctual and clear information and short waiting period of standing in the lines. The aim of this work is to present and describe the functioning of bank system under the conditions of establishing quality in offering services to clients and to recognize basic guidelines for quality increase in the work of sub branches. Since the banking is very dynamic and complex system, the conceptual model is carried out for the purpose of optimization of the stated quality parameters for the bank business activity; this model, in further research, will serve for the development of simulation model.

Cost Calculation Model for Logistics Service Providers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zoltán Bokor

2012-11-01

Full Text Available The exact calculation of logistics costs has become a real challenge in logistics and supply chain management. It is essential to gain reliable and accurate costing information to attain efficient resource allocation within the logistics service provider companies. Traditional costing approaches, however, may not be sufficient to reach this aim in case of complex and heterogeneous logistics service structures. So this paper intends to explore the ways of improving the cost calculation regimes of logistics service providers and show how to adopt the multi-level full cost allocation technique in logistics practice. After determining the methodological framework, a sample cost calculation scheme is developed and tested by using estimated input data. Based on the theoretical findings and the experiences of the pilot project it can be concluded that the improved costing model contributes to making logistics costing more accurate and transparent. Moreover, the relations between costs and performances also become more visible, which enhances the effectiveness of logistics planning and controlling significantly

Amygdala enlargement: Temporal lobe epilepsy subtype or nonspecific finding?

Science.gov (United States)

Reyes, Anny; Thesen, Thomas; Kuzniecky, Ruben; Devinsky, Orrin; McDonald, Carrie R; Jackson, Graeme D; Vaughan, David N; Blackmon, Karen

2017-05-01

Amygdala enlargement (AE) is observed in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), which has led to the suggestion that it represents a distinct TLE subtype; however, it is unclear whether AE is found at similar rates in other epilepsy syndromes or in healthy controls, which would limit its value as a marker for focal epileptogenicity. We compared rates of AE, defined quantitatively from high-resolution T1-weighted MRI, in a large multi-site sample of 136 patients with nonlesional localization related epilepsy (LRE), including TLE and extratemporal (exTLE) focal epilepsy, 34 patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), and 233 healthy controls (HCs). AE was found in all groups including HCs; however, the rate of AE was higher in LRE (18.4%) than in IGE (5.9%) and HCs (6.4%). Patients with unilateral LRE were further evaluated to compare rates of concordant ipsilateral AE in TLE and exTLE, with the hypothesis that rates of ipsilateral AE would be higher in TLE. Although ipsilateral AE was higher in TLE (19.4%) than exTLE (10.5%), this difference was not significant. Furthermore, among the 25 patients with unilateral LRE and AE, 13 (52%) had either bilateral AE or AE contralateral to seizure onset. Results suggest that AE, as defined with MRI volumetry, may represent an associated feature of nonlesional localization related epilepsy with limited seizure onset localization value. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cross-talk between light and glucose regulation controls toxin production and morphogenesis in Aspergillus nidulans

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atoui, A.; Larey, C.; Thokala, R.; Calvo, A.M.; Kastner, C.; Fischer, R.; Etxebeste, O; Espeso, E.A.

2010-01-01

Light is a major environmental stimulus that has a broad effect on organisms, triggering a cellular response that results in an optimal adaptation enhancing fitness and survival. In fungi, light affects growth, and causes diverse morphological changes such as those leading to reproduction. Light can also affect fungal metabolism, including the biosynthesis of natural products. In this study we show that in Aspergillus nidulans the effect of light on the production of the sterigmatocystin (ST) toxin depends on the glucose concentration. In cultures grown with 1% glucose and exposed to light, ST production was lower than when grown in the dark. This lower ST production coincided with an elevated rate of cellular damage with partial loss of nuclear integrity and vacuolated cytoplasm. However, in cultures grown with 2% glucose these effects were reversed and light enhanced ST production. Glucose abundance also affected the light-dependent subcellular localization of the VeA (velvet) protein, a key regulator necessary for normal light-dependent morphogenesis and secondary metabolism in Aspergilli and other fungal gen- era. The role of other VeA-associated proteins, particularly the blue-light-sensing proteins LreA and LreB (WC-1 and WC-2 orthologs), on conidiation could also be modified by the abundance of glucose. We also show that LreA and LreB, as well as the phytochrome FphA, modulate not only the synthesis of sterigmat- ocystin, but also the production of the antibiotic penicillin. (author)

Modelling impacts of second generation bioenergy production on Ecosystem Services in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Henner, Dagmar; Smith, Pete; Davies, Christian; McNamara, Niall

2016-04-01

Bioenergy crops are an important source of renewable energy and are a possible mechanism to mitigate global climate warming, by replacing fossil fuel energy with higher greenhouse gas emissions. There is, however, uncertainty about the impacts of the growth of bioenergy crops on ecosystem services. This uncertainty is further enhanced by the unpredictable climate change currently going on. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive model that covers high impact, policy relevant ecosystem services at a Continental scale including biodiversity and pollination, water and air security, erosion control and soil security, GHG emissions, soil C and cultural services like tourism value. The technical distribution potential and likely yield of second generation energy crops, such as Miscanthus, Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) with willow, poplar, eucalyptus and other broadleaf species and Short Rotation Forestry (SRF), is currently being modelled using ECOSSE, DayCent, SalixFor and MiscanFor, and ecosystem models will be used to examine the impacts of these crops on ecosystem services. The project builds on models of energy crop production, biodiversity, soil impacts, greenhouse gas emissions and other ecosystem services, and on work undertaken in the UK on the ETI-funded ELUM project (www.elum.ac.uk). In addition, methods like water footprint tools, tourism value maps and ecosystem valuation tools and models (e.g. InVest, TEEB database, GREET LCA Model, World Business Council for Sustainable Development corporate ecosystem valuation, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the Ecosystem Services Framework) will be utilised. Research will focus on optimisation of land use change feedbacks on above named ecosystem services, impact on food security, land management practices and impacts from climate change. We will present results for GHG emissions and soil organic carbon change after different land use change scenarios (e.g. arable to Miscanthus, forest to SRF), and

Exploring public bus service quality in South Africa: A structural equation modelling approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayanda M. Vilakazi

2014-07-01

Full Text Available This study, which is a deviation from the usual practice of using SERVQUAL or an adaptedversion thereof, uses McKnight, Pagano and Paaswell’s (1986 service quality dimensions,namely reliability; extent of service; comfort; safety; and affordability (RECSA and structuralequation modelling to determine commuters’ perception of public bus service quality in amajor city in South Africa. The RECSA model was adapted and fitted to the data collectedfrom a convenience sample of bus commuters in Johannesburg, using structural equationmodelling. It was ascertained that reliability, service, comfort and safety influenced thepublic bus commuters’ perception of the overall service quality. The implications of theaforementioned findings for providers of public bus services are explained.

Measuring Service Quality in Higher Education: Development of a Hierarchical Model (HESQUAL)

Science.gov (United States)

Teeroovengadum, Viraiyan; Kamalanabhan, T. J.; Seebaluck, Ashley Keshwar

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to develop and empirically test a hierarchical model for measuring service quality in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The first phase of the study consisted of qualitative research methods and a comprehensive literature review, which allowed the development of a conceptual model comprising 53 service quality…

A MODEL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION CAMPUS HEALTH SERVICES

African Journals Online (AJOL)

2010-03-17

Mar 17, 2010 ... generation was used to develop a holistic healthcare model for a higher education campus' health service. It became ... innovative. Health plays a .... conducted will set the tone for the interactive process of holistic healthcare.

Interim Service ISDN Satellite (ISIS) network model for advanced satellite designs and experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Pepin, Gerard R.; Hager, E. Paul

1991-01-01

The Interim Service Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Satellite (ISIS) Network Model for Advanced Satellite Designs and Experiments describes a model suitable for discrete event simulations. A top-down model design uses the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) as its basis. The ISDN modeling abstractions are added to permit the determination and performance for the NASA Satellite Communications Research (SCAR) Program.

Characteristics of Indigenous primary health care service delivery models: a systematic scoping review.

Science.gov (United States)

Harfield, Stephen G; Davy, Carol; McArthur, Alexa; Munn, Zachary; Brown, Alex; Brown, Ngiare

2018-01-25

Indigenous populations have poorer health outcomes compared to their non-Indigenous counterparts. The evolution of Indigenous primary health care services arose from mainstream health services being unable to adequately meet the needs of Indigenous communities and Indigenous peoples often being excluded and marginalised from mainstream health services. Part of the solution has been to establish Indigenous specific primary health care services, for and managed by Indigenous peoples. There are a number of reasons why Indigenous primary health care services are more likely than mainstream services to improve the health of Indigenous communities. Their success is partly due to the fact that they often provide comprehensive programs that incorporate treatment and management, prevention and health promotion, as well as addressing the social determinants of health. However, there are gaps in the evidence base including the characteristics that contribute to the success of Indigenous primary health care services in providing comprehensive primary health care. This systematic scoping review aims to identify the characteristics of Indigenous primary health care service delivery models. This systematic scoping review was led by an Aboriginal researcher, using the Joanna Briggs Institute Scoping Review Methodology. All published peer-reviewed and grey literature indexed in PubMed, EBSCO CINAHL, Embase, Informit, Mednar, and Trove databases from September 1978 to May 2015 were reviewed for inclusion. Studies were included if they describe the characteristics of service delivery models implemented within an Indigenous primary health care service. Sixty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and then thematically analysed to identify the characteristics of Indigenous PHC service delivery models. Culture was the most prominent characteristic underpinning all of the other seven characteristics which were identified - accessible health services, community

Local and regional energy companies offering energy services: Key activities and implications for the business model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kindström, Daniel; Ottosson, Mikael

2016-01-01

Highlights: • Many companies providing energy services are experiencing difficulties. • This research identifies key activities for the provision of energy services. • Findings are aggregated to the business-model level providing managerial insights. • This research identifies two different business model innovation paths. • Energy companies may need to renew parts of, or the entire, business model. - Abstract: Energy services play a key role in increasing energy efficiency in the industry. The key actors in these services are the local and regional energy companies that are increasingly implementing energy services as part of their market offering and developing service portfolios. Although expectations for energy services have been high, progress has so far been limited, and many companies offering energy services, including energy companies, are experiencing difficulties in implementing energy services and providing them to the market. Overall, this research examines what is needed for local and regional energy companies to successfully implement energy services (and consequently provide them to the market). In doing this, a two-stage process is used: first, we identify key activities for the successful implementation of energy services, and second, we aggregate the findings to the business model level. This research demonstrates that to succeed in implementing energy services, an energy company may need to renew parts or all of its existing product-based business model, formulate a new business model, or develop coexisting multiple business models. By discussing two distinct business model innovation processes, this research demonstrates that there can be different paths to success.

Improving the Efficiency of Medical Services Systems: A New Integrated Mathematical Modeling Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Davood Shishebori

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, the efficient design of medical service systems plays a critical role in improving the performance and efficiency of medical services provided by governments. Accordingly, health care planners in countries especially with a system based on a National Health Service (NHS try to make decisions on where to locate and how to organize medical services regarding several conditions in different residence areas, so as to improve the geographic equity of comfortable access in the delivery of medical services while accounting for efficiency and cost issues especially in crucial situations. Therefore, optimally locating of such services and also suitable allocating demands them, can help to enhance the performance and responsiveness of medical services system. In this paper, a multiobjective mixed integer nonlinear programming model is proposed to decide locations of new medical system centers, link roads that should be constructed or improved, and also urban residence centers covered by these medical service centers and link roads under investment budget constraint in order to both minimize the total transportation cost of the overall system and minimize the total failure cost (i.e., maximize the system reliability of medical service centers under unforeseen situations. Then, the proposed model is linearized by suitable techniques. Moreover, a practical case study is presented in detail to illustrate the application of the proposed mathematical model. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is done to provide an insight into the behavior of the proposed model in response to changes of key parameters of the problem.

A New Model for a Carpool Matching Service.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jizhe Xia

Full Text Available Carpooling is an effective means of reducing traffic. A carpool team shares a vehicle for their commute, which reduces the number of vehicles on the road during rush hour periods. Carpooling is officially sanctioned by most governments, and is supported by the construction of high-occupancy vehicle lanes. A number of carpooling services have been designed in order to match commuters into carpool teams, but it known that the determination of optimal carpool teams is a combinatorially complex problem, and therefore technological solutions are difficult to achieve. In this paper, a model for carpool matching services is proposed, and both optimal and heuristic approaches are tested to find solutions for that model. The results show that different solution approaches are preferred over different ranges of problem instances. Most importantly, it is demonstrated that a new formulation and associated solution procedures can permit the determination of optimal carpool teams and routes. An instantiation of the model is presented (using the street network of Guangzhou city, China to demonstrate how carpool teams can be determined.

ESTIMAP: A GIS-BASED MODEL TO MAP ECOSYSTEM SERVICES IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Zulian

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Policies of the European Union which affect the use or protection of natural resources increasingly need spatial data on the supply, the flow and the demand of ecosystem services. The model ESTIMAP was developed to this purpose. ESTIMAP departs from land cover and land use maps to which it adds other spatial information with the objective to map various ecosystem services. This study introduces the ESTIMAP map as tool to support the mapping and modelling of ecosystem services at European scale. Examples are provided for three regulating ecosystem services, air quality regulation, coastal protection, and pollination and one cultural ecosystem services, recreation. 

Full Service ISDN Satellite (FSIS) network model for advanced ISDN satellite design and experiments

Science.gov (United States)

Pepin, Gerard R.

1992-01-01

The Full Service Integrated Services Digital Network (FSIS) network model for advanced satellite designs describes a model suitable for discrete event simulations. A top down model design uses the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) as its basis. The ACTS and the Interim Service ISDN Satellite (ISIS) perform ISDN protocol analyses and switching decisions in the terrestrial domain, whereas FSIS makes all its analyses and decisions on-board the ISDN satellite.

Agent-based self-service technology adoption model for air-travelers: Exploring best operational practices

Science.gov (United States)

Ueda, Keiichi; Kurahashi, Setsuya

2018-02-01

The continuous development of the service economy and an aging society with fewer children is expected to lead to a shortage of workers in the near future. In addition, the growth of the service economy would require service providers to meet various service requirements. In this regard, self-service technology (SST) is a promising alternative to securing labor in both developed and emerging countries. SST is expected to coordinate the controllable productive properties in order to optimize resources and minimize consumer stress. As services are characterized by simultaneity and inseparability, a smoother operation in cooperation with the consumer is required to provide a certain level of service. This study focuses on passenger handling in an airport departure lobby with the objective of optimizing multiple service resources comprising interpersonal service staff and self-service kiosks. Our aim is to elucidate the passenger decision- making mechanism of choosing either interpersonal service or self-service as the check-in option, and to apply it to analyze several scenarios to determine the best practice. The experimental space is studied and an agent-based model is proposed to analyze the operational efficiency via a simulation. We expand on a previous SST adoption model, which is enhanced by introducing the concept of individual traits. We focus on the decision-making of individuals who are neutral toward the service option, by tracking the actual activity of passengers and mapping their behavior into the model. A new method of validation that follows a different approach is proposed to ensure that this model approximates real-world situations. A scenario analysis is then carried out with the aim of exploring the best operational practice to minimize the stress experienced by the air travelers and to meet the business needs of the airline managers at the airport. We collected actual data from the Departure Control System of an airline to map the real-world data

Agent-Based Self-Service Technology Adoption Model for Air-Travelers: Exploring Best Operational Practices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Keiichi Ueda

2018-02-01

Full Text Available The continuous development of the service economy and an aging society with fewer children is expected to lead to a shortage of workers in the near future. In addition, the growth of the service economy would require service providers to meet various service requirements. In this regard, self-service technology (SST is a promising alternative to securing labor in both developed and emerging countries. SST is expected to coordinate the controllable productive properties in order to optimize resources and minimize consumer stress. As services are characterized by simultaneity and inseparability, a smoother operation in cooperation with the consumer is required to provide a certain level of service. This study focuses on passenger handling in an airport departure lobby with the objective of optimizing multiple service resources comprising interpersonal service staff and self-service kiosks. Our aim is to elucidate the passenger decision-making mechanism of choosing either interpersonal service or self-service as the check-in option, and to apply it to analyze several scenarios to determine the best practice. The experimental space is studied and an agent-based model is proposed to analyze the operational efficiency via a simulation. We expand on a previous SST adoption model, which is enhanced by introducing the concept of individual traits. We focus on the decision-making of individuals who are neutral toward the service option, by tracking the actual activity of passengers and mapping their behavior into the model. A new method of validation that follows a different approach is proposed to ensure that this model approximates real-world situations. A scenario analysis is then carried out with the aim of exploring the best operational practice to minimize the stress experienced by the air travelers and to meet the business needs of the airline managers at the airport. We collected actual data from the Departure Control System of an airline to map

Fast substation service restoration using intelligent petri-nets models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yang, H.T.; Peng, P.C.; Jiang, H.L. [Chung Yuan Christian Univ., Chung Li, Taiwan (China)

2006-07-01

Service restoration of a substation is a stressful and immediate task that must be conducted by system operators following a blackout. Operators, including those of Taiwan Power Company (TPC), normally restore power loads on the basis of their past experiences and engineering heuristics. Due to the significant number of switching operations to be evaluated, a computer-aided decision support system can be quite valuable. In distribution system automation, installation of unmanned substations requires an automated restoration computer system to rapidly devise a switching plan after a fault event. The modeling technique of Petri Nets (PNs) encompasses fault diagnosis of distribution systems, protective scheming of relays, and generic restoration schedule of power transmission systems. Knowledge or configuration about the system concerned can be expressed systematically through a structured model with parallelism and synchronization. This paper proposed a new PNs knowledge representation scheme to achieve a fast, on-line service restoration plan of a substation. The paper described the task of service restoration in a substation as well as the heuristic rules adopted by the dispatchers of the TPC distribution systems. The paper also introduced the topic of Typical PN properties and the proposed matrix operations for PNs reasoning. The proposed basic PNs model for service restoration on the basis of the engineering heuristics were also identified. It was concluded that the proposed approach not only facilitated software programming, but was highly adaptive to the extension or maintenance of the developed programs, arising from the changes of the substation configuration. 18 refs., 1 tab., 8 figs.

River City High School Guidance Services: A Conceptual Model.

Science.gov (United States)

American Coll. Testing Program, Iowa City, IA.

This model describes how the guidance staff at a hypothetical high school communicated the effectiveness of the guidance program to students, parents, teachers, and administrators. A description of the high school is presented, and guidance services and personnel are described. A conceptual model responding to student needs is outlined along with…

Business Value of Information Technology Service Quality Based on Probabilistic Business-Driven Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaka Sembiring

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The business value of information technology (IT services is often difficult to assess, especially from the point of view of a non-IT manager. This condition could severely impact organizational IT strategic decisions. Various approaches have been proposed to quantify the business value, but some are trapped in technical complexity while others misguide managers into directly and subjectively judging some technical entities outside their domain of expertise. This paper describes a method on how to properly capture both perspectives based on a  probabilistic business-driven model. The proposed model presents a procedure to calculate the business value of IT services. The model also covers IT security services and their business value as an important aspect of IT services that is not covered in previously published researches. The impact of changes in the quality of IT services on business value will also be discussed. A simulation and a case illustration are provided to show the possible application of the proposed model for a simple business process in an enterprise.

Conception and Organizational and Structural Models of Psychological Service in Education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zabrodin Yu.M.,

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the discussion of the key problems of practical psychology of education and to formulation of the main principles of conception of the psychological service in education, which is considered as one of the most important elements of the whole educational system modernization. Based on the data obtained by the monitoring of the psychological service in Russian education, conducted in 2006-2008, as well as on the analysis of the research materials, the service development strategy is formulated that determines the key directions of its' work till 2020 year. The mechanism of this strategy realization will be formulated as a suggested structural and functional model of the psychological service in education. The variants of organization of psychological service in education on the federal, as well as regional and municipal levels, specified under the regional and other contextual peculiarities, can be applied in creating particular versions of psychological service aimed at the different categories: gifted children and children with special educational needs, orphans and deviant children, children that suffer difficulties in learning, etc. the example of concrete target model of work with child's giftedness is widely described in the article.

Constructing RBAC Based Security Model in u-Healthcare Service Platform

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Moon Sun Shin

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In today’s era of aging society, people want to handle personal health care by themselves in everyday life. In particular, the evolution of medical and IT convergence technology and mobile smart devices has made it possible for people to gather information on their health status anytime and anywhere easily using biometric information acquisition devices. Healthcare information systems can contribute to the improvement of the nation’s healthcare quality and the reduction of related cost. However, there are no perfect security models or mechanisms for healthcare service applications, and privacy information can therefore be leaked. In this paper, we examine security requirements related to privacy protection in u-healthcare service and propose an extended RBAC based security model. We propose and design u-healthcare service integration platform (u-HCSIP applying RBAC security model. The proposed u-HCSIP performs four main functions: storing and exchanging personal health records (PHR, recommending meals and exercise, buying/selling private health information or experience, and managing personal health data using smart devices.

Research on Methods for Discovering and Selecting Cloud Infrastructure Services Based on Feature Modeling

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Huamin Zhu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays more and more cloud infrastructure service providers are providing large numbers of service instances which are a combination of diversified resources, such as computing, storage, and network. However, for cloud infrastructure services, the lack of a description standard and the inadequate research of systematic discovery and selection methods have exposed difficulties in discovering and choosing services for users. First, considering the highly configurable properties of a cloud infrastructure service, the feature model method is used to describe such a service. Second, based on the description of the cloud infrastructure service, a systematic discovery and selection method for cloud infrastructure services are proposed. The automatic analysis techniques of the feature model are introduced to verify the model’s validity and to perform the matching of the service and demand models. Finally, we determine the critical decision metrics and their corresponding measurement methods for cloud infrastructure services, where the subjective and objective weighting results are combined to determine the weights of the decision metrics. The best matching instances from various providers are then ranked by their comprehensive evaluations. Experimental results show that the proposed methods can effectively improve the accuracy and efficiency of cloud infrastructure service discovery and selection.

Model of Emergency and Observation Nursing Services at the Community Health Center in East Java

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dwi Ananto Wibrata

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Public health centers as the spearhead of health services, also provide 'emergency and observation' nursing services, due to the high number of accidents in East Java. The purpose of this study was to develop the nurse's performance model in providing 'emergency and obeservation' nursing services at Puskesgadarsi ('Emergency and Observation' Community Health Center in East Java, using cross sectional design. The subjects of 120 nurses were selected by multi stage sampling technique. Data were collected through questionnaires and FGDs, and then analyzed using structural equation modeling to produce an model of ‘emergency and observation’ nursing service for nurses at Puskesgadarsi. Components of the model were reinforcing factors, personal factors, cognition factors, affection factors, commitment, interpersonal, reinforcement and nurse performance. Nurses can use this model in providing nursing services with due regard to their knowledge and skills, facilities and infrastructure, as well as interaction and self-reinforcement, so as to be able to perform nursing services 'emergency and observation' well.

Lessons learned for spatial modelling of ecosystem services in support of ecosystem accounting

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Schroter, M.; Remme, R.P.; Sumarga, E.; Barton, D.N.; Hein, L.G.

2015-01-01

Assessment of ecosystem services through spatial modelling plays a key role in ecosystem accounting. Spatial models for ecosystem services try to capture spatial heterogeneity with high accuracy. This endeavour, however, faces several practical constraints. In this article we analyse the trade-offs

Refinement, Validation and Benchmarking of a Model for E-Government Service Quality

Science.gov (United States)

Magoutas, Babis; Mentzas, Gregoris

This paper presents the refinement and validation of a model for Quality of e-Government Services (QeGS). We built upon our previous work where a conceptualized model was identified and put focus on the confirmatory phase of the model development process, in order to come up with a valid and reliable QeGS model. The validated model, which was benchmarked with very positive results with similar models found in the literature, can be used for measuring the QeGS in a reliable and valid manner. This will form the basis for a continuous quality improvement process, unleashing the full potential of e-government services for both citizens and public administrations.

A Simple Model of Service Trade with Time Zone Differences

OpenAIRE

Kikuchi, Toru; Iwasa, Kazumichi

2008-01-01

This note proposes a two-country monopolistic competition model of service trade that captures the role of time zone differences as a determinant of trade patterns. It is shown that the utilization of time zone differences induces drastic change in trade patterns: Due to taking advantage of time zone differences, service firms learve larger countries for smaller countries.

French gas industry in transition: breach in the public service model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Finon, D.

2001-08-01

France is generally viewed as the European country that most vigorously resists the pressure to liberalize its national gas markets. The moderate reform which has resulted from the transcription of the European gas directive was voted in 2002 after much delay. The main reason is the robustness of the French public service-model which has shaped the gas industry organisation in the same way as most of the network industries. To explain the institutional stability of the French gas industry, this document analyses its institutional trajectory shaped by the public service model and its strong institutional path dependency, marked by the resistance to change. The central hypothesis of the analysis is that, as long as this model demonstrates economic and social efficiency in the development of gas supply in relation to public services obligation and in the control of the import dependence risk in the gas sector, no reform can be brought about by endogenous factors. The analysis of the French gas industry transition consists of four sections. After a survey of its historical development, the author presents its organisation and regulation under the public service model and its performances in terms of social and economic efficiency. In the third section, the minimalist reform for transcribing the European Directive in the French law is presented, in order to identify its potential effects in terms of competition development and public service erosion. Finally, in the fourth section, the industrial policy option to preserve the existence of a French mono-energy company and its consequences in terms of strategic adaptation are discussed. (A.L.B.)

A Bi-Level Programming Model for the Railway Express Cargo Service Network Design Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Boliang Lin

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Service network design is fundamentally crucial for railway express cargo transportation. The main challenge is to strike a balance between two conflicting objectives: low network setup costs and high expected operational incomes. Different configurations of these objectives will have different impacts on the quality of freight transportation services. In this paper, a bi-level programming model for the railway express cargo service network design problem is proposed. The upper-level model forms the optimal decisions in terms of the service characteristics, and the low-level model selects the service arcs for each commodity. The rail express cargo is strictly subject to the service commitment, the capacity restriction, flow balance constraints, and logical relationship constraints among the decisions variables. Moreover, linearization techniques are used to convert the lower-level model to a linear one so that it can be directly solved by a standard optimization solver. Finally, a real-world case study based on the Beijing–Guangzhou Railway Line is carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed solution approach.

Exploring public bus service quality in South Africa: A structural equation modelling approach

OpenAIRE

Ayanda M. Vilakazi; Krishna K. Govender

2014-01-01

This study, which is a deviation from the usual practice of using SERVQUAL or an adaptedversion thereof, uses McKnight, Pagano and Paaswell’s (1986) service quality dimensions,namely reliability; extent of service; comfort; safety; and affordability (RECSA) and structuralequation modelling to determine commuters’ perception of public bus service quality in amajor city in South Africa. The RECSA model was adapted and fitted to the data collectedfrom a convenience sample of bus commuters in Joh...

Probabilistic Design and Management of Sustainable Concrete Infrastructure Using Multi-Physics Service Life Models

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lepech, Michael; Geiker, Mette; Michel, Alexander

This paper looks to address the grand challenge of integrating construction materials engineering research within a multi-scale, inter-disciplinary research and management framework for sustainable concrete infrastructure. The ultimate goal is to drive sustainability-focused innovation and adoption...... cycles in the broader architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) industry. Specifically, a probabilistic design framework for sustainable concrete infrastructure and a multi-physics service life model for reinforced concrete are presented as important points of integration for innovation between...... design, consists of concrete service life models and life cycle assessment (LCA) models. Both types of models (service life and LCA) are formulated stochastically so that the service life and time(s) to repair, as well as total sustainability impact, are described by a probability distribution. A central...

Three models of community mental health services In low-income countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

De Silva Mary

2011-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Objective To compare and contrast three models of community mental health services in low-income settings. Data Sources/Study Setting Primary and secondary data collected before, during, and after site visits to mental health programs in Nigeria, the Philippines, and India. Study Design Qualitative case study methodology. Data Collection Data were collected through interviews and observations during site visits to the programs, as well as from reviews of documentary evidence. Principal Findings A set of narrative topics and program indicators were used to compare and contrast three community mental health programs in low-income countries. This allowed us to identify a diversity of service delivery models, common challenges, and the strengths and weaknesses of each program. More definitive evaluations will require the establishment of data collection methods and information systems that provide data about the clinical and social outcomes of clients, as well as their use of services. Conclusions Community mental health programs in low-income countries face a number of challenges. Using a case study methodology developed for this purpose, it is possible to compare programs and begin to assess the effectiveness of diverse service delivery models.

Service modelling

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Steen, M.W.A.; Iacob, Maria Eugenia; Lankhorst, M.M.; Jonkers, H.; Zoet, M.; Engelsman, W.; Versendaal, J.; Proper, H.A.; Debije, L.; Gaaloul, K.; Lankhorst, M.

2012-01-01

The development of enterprise services involves making design decisions at different levels, ranging from strategic to infrastructural choices, and concerning many different aspects, ranging from customer interaction to information registration concerns. In order to support an agile development

Design Challenges of an Episode-Based Payment Model in Oncology: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Oncology Care Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Kline, Ronald M; Muldoon, L Daniel; Schumacher, Heidi K; Strawbridge, Larisa M; York, Andrew W; Mortimer, Laura K; Falb, Alison F; Cox, Katherine J; Bazell, Carol; Lukens, Ellen W; Kapp, Mary C; Rajkumar, Rahul; Bassano, Amy; Conway, Patrick H

2017-07-01

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services developed the Oncology Care Model as an episode-based payment model to encourage participating practitioners to provide higher-quality, better-coordinated care at a lower cost to the nearly three-quarter million fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with cancer who receive chemotherapy each year. Episode payment models can be complex. They combine into a single benchmark price all payments for services during an episode of illness, many of which may be delivered at different times by different providers in different locations. Policy and technical decisions include the definition of the episode, including its initiation, duration, and included services; the identification of beneficiaries included in the model; and beneficiary attribution to practitioners with overall responsibility for managing their care. In addition, the calculation and risk adjustment of benchmark episode prices for the bundle of services must reflect geographic cost variations and diverse patient populations, including varying disease subtypes, medical comorbidities, changes in standards of care over time, the adoption of expensive new drugs (especially in oncology), as well as diverse practice patterns. Other steps include timely monitoring and intervention as needed to avoid shifting the attribution of beneficiaries on the basis of their expected episode expenditures as well as to ensure the provision of necessary medical services and the development of a meaningful link to quality measurement and improvement through the episode-based payment methodology. The complex and diverse nature of oncology business relationships and the specific rules and requirements of Medicare payment systems for different types of providers intensify these issues. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services believes that by sharing its approach to addressing these decisions and challenges, it may facilitate greater understanding of the model within the oncology

Alternate service delivery models in cancer genetic counseling: a mini-review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adam Hudson Buchanan

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Demand for cancer genetic counseling has grown rapidly in recent years as germline genomic information has become increasingly incorporated into cancer care and the field has entered the public consciousness through high-profile celebrity publications. Increased demand and existing variability in the availability of trained cancer genetics clinicians place a priority on developing and evaluating alternate service delivery models for genetic counseling. This mini-review summarizes the state of science regarding service delivery models such as telephone counseling, telegenetics and group counseling. Research on comparative effectiveness of these models in traditional individual, in-person genetic counseling has been promising for improving access to care in a manner acceptable to patients. Yet, it has not fully evaluated the short- and long-term patient- and system-level outcomes that will help answer the question of whether these models achieve the same beneficial psychosocial and behavioral outcomes as traditional cancer genetic counseling. We propose a research agenda focused on comparative effectiveness of available service delivery models and how to match models to patients and practice settings. Only through this rigorous research can clinicians and systems find the optimal balance of clinical quality, ready and secure access to care, and financial sustainability. Such research will be integral to achieving the promise of genomic medicine in oncology.

A Framework for Sharing and Integrating Remote Sensing and GIS Models Based on Web Service

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zeqiang; Lin, Hui; Chen, Min; Liu, Deer; Bao, Ying; Ding, Yulin

2014-01-01

Sharing and integrating Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System/Science (GIS) models are critical for developing practical application systems. Facilitating model sharing and model integration is a problem for model publishers and model users, respectively. To address this problem, a framework based on a Web service for sharing and integrating RS and GIS models is proposed in this paper. The fundamental idea of the framework is to publish heterogeneous RS and GIS models into standard Web services for sharing and interoperation and then to integrate the RS and GIS models using Web services. For the former, a “black box” and a visual method are employed to facilitate the publishing of the models as Web services. For the latter, model integration based on the geospatial workflow and semantic supported marching method is introduced. Under this framework, model sharing and integration is applied for developing the Pearl River Delta water environment monitoring system. The results show that the framework can facilitate model sharing and model integration for model publishers and model users. PMID:24901016

A framework for sharing and integrating remote sensing and GIS models based on Web service.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Zeqiang; Lin, Hui; Chen, Min; Liu, Deer; Bao, Ying; Ding, Yulin

2014-01-01

Sharing and integrating Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System/Science (GIS) models are critical for developing practical application systems. Facilitating model sharing and model integration is a problem for model publishers and model users, respectively. To address this problem, a framework based on a Web service for sharing and integrating RS and GIS models is proposed in this paper. The fundamental idea of the framework is to publish heterogeneous RS and GIS models into standard Web services for sharing and interoperation and then to integrate the RS and GIS models using Web services. For the former, a "black box" and a visual method are employed to facilitate the publishing of the models as Web services. For the latter, model integration based on the geospatial workflow and semantic supported marching method is introduced. Under this framework, model sharing and integration is applied for developing the Pearl River Delta water environment monitoring system. The results show that the framework can facilitate model sharing and model integration for model publishers and model users.

An evolving model for the lodging-service network in a tourism destination

Science.gov (United States)

Hernández, Juan M.; González-Martel, Christian

2017-09-01

Tourism is a complex dynamic system including multiple actors which are related each other composing an evolving social network. This paper presents a growing model that explains how part of the supply components in a tourism system forms a social network. Specifically, the lodgings and services in a destination are the network nodes and a link between them appears if a representative tourist hosted in the lodging visits/consumes the service during his/her stay. The specific link between both categories are determined by a random and preferential attachment rule. The analytic results show that the long-term degree distribution of services follows a shifted power-law distribution. The numerical simulations show slight disagreements with the theoretical results in the case of the one-mode degree distribution of services, due to the low order of convergence to zero of X-motifs. The model predictions are compared with real data coming from a popular tourist destination in Gran Canaria, Spain, showing a good agreement between analytical and empirical data for the degree distribution of services. The theoretical model was validated assuming four type of perturbations in the real data.

Models of home care services for persons with dementia: a narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Low, Lee-Fay; Fletcher, Jennifer

2015-10-01

Worldwide trends of increasing dementia prevalence, have put economic and workforce pressures to shifting care for persons with dementia from residential care to home care. We reviewed the effects of the four dominant models of home care delivery on outcomes for community-dwelling persons with dementia. These models are: case management, integrated care, consumer directed care, and restorative care. This narrative review describes benefits and possible drawbacks for persons with dementia outcomes and elements that comprise successful programs. Case management for persons with dementia may increase use of community-based services and delay nursing home admission. Integrated care is associated with greater client satisfaction, increased use of community based services, and reduced hospital days however the clinical impacts on persons with dementia and their carers are not known. Consumer directed care increases satisfaction with care and service usage, but had little effect on clinical outcomes. Restorative models of home care have been shown to improve function and quality of life however these trials have excluded persons with dementia, with the exception of a pilot study. There has been a little research into models of home care for people with dementia, and no head-to-head comparison of the different models. Research to inform evidence-based policy and service delivery for people with dementia needs to evaluate both the impact of different models on outcomes, and investigate how to best deliver these models to maximize outcomes.

Language Recognition Using Latent Dynamic Conditional Random Field Model with Phonological Features

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sirinoot Boonsuk

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Spoken language recognition (SLR has been of increasing interest in multilingual speech recognition for identifying the languages of speech utterances. Most existing SLR approaches apply statistical modeling techniques with acoustic and phonotactic features. Among the popular approaches, the acoustic approach has become of greater interest than others because it does not require any prior language-specific knowledge. Previous research on the acoustic approach has shown less interest in applying linguistic knowledge; it was only used as supplementary features, while the current state-of-the-art system assumes independency among features. This paper proposes an SLR system based on the latent-dynamic conditional random field (LDCRF model using phonological features (PFs. We use PFs to represent acoustic characteristics and linguistic knowledge. The LDCRF model was employed to capture the dynamics of the PFs sequences for language classification. Baseline systems were conducted to evaluate the features and methods including Gaussian mixture model (GMM based systems using PFs, GMM using cepstral features, and the CRF model using PFs. Evaluated on the NIST LRE 2007 corpus, the proposed method showed an improvement over the baseline systems. Additionally, it showed comparable result with the acoustic system based on i-vector. This research demonstrates that utilizing PFs can enhance the performance.

Modelling impacts of second generation bioenergy production on Ecosystem Services in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Henner, D. N.; Smith, P.; Davies, C.; McNamara, N. P.

2016-12-01

Bioenergy crops are an important source of renewable energy and likely to play a major role in transitioning to a lower CO2 energy system. There is, however, uncertainty about the impacts of the growth of bioenergy crops on broader sustainability encompassed by ecosystem services, further enhanced by ongoing climate change. The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive model that covers ecosystem services at a continental scale including biodiversity and pollination, water and air security, erosion control and soil security, GHG emissions, soil C and cultural services like tourism value. The technical distribution potential and likely yield of second generation energy crops, such as Miscanthus, Short Rotation Coppice (SRC; willow and poplar) was modelled using ECOSSE, DayCent, SalixFor and MiscanFor models. In addition, methods like water footprint tools, tourism value maps and ecosystem valuation tools and models are utilised. We will present results for synergies and trade-offs between land use change and ecosystem services, impact on food security and land management. Further, we will show modelled yield maps for different cultivars of Miscanthus, willow and poplar in Europe and constraint/opportunity maps based on projected yield and other factors e.g. total economic value, technical potential, current land use, climate change and trade-offs and synergies. It will be essential to include multiple ecosystem services when assessing the potential for bioenergy production/expansion that does not impact other land uses or provisioning services. Considering that the soil GHG balance is dominated by change in soil organic carbon (SOC) and the difference among Miscanthus and SRC is largely determined by yield, an important target for management of perennial energy crops is to achieve the best possible yield using the most appropriate energy crop and cultivar for the local situation. This research could inform future policy decisions on bioenergy crops in

Synthesizing Service Composition Models on the Basis of Temporal Business Rules

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

Jian Yu; Yan-Bo Han; Jun Han; Yan Jin; Paolo Falcarin; Maurizio Morisio

2008-01-01

Transformational approaches to generating design and implementation models from requirements can bring effectiveness and quality to software development. In this paper we present a framework and associated techniques to generate the process model of a service composition from a set of temporal business rules. Dedicated techniques including pathfinding, branching structure identification and parallel structure identification are used for semi-automatically synthesizing the process model from the semantics-equivalent Finite State Automata of the rules. These process models naturally satisfy the prescribed behavioral constraints of the rules. With the domain knowledge encoded in the temporal business rules,an executable service composition program, e.g., a BPEL program, can be further generated from the process models. A running example in the e-business domain is used for illustrating our approach throughout this paper.

Constructing a Measurement in Service Quality for Indian Banks: Structural Equation Modeling Approach

OpenAIRE

Anil Kumar; Manoj Kumar Dash

2013-01-01

The aim of this paper is to construct a measure in service quality for Indian banks and establishes a causal relationship of service attributes performance with customer satisfaction. The SERVQUAL model is used. The quantification of service quality led to the attempt to construct an index. The index is constructed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) as the underlying frameworks. The analysis is based on data of 200 bank customers from the ...

A novel client service quality measuring model and an eHealthcare mitigating approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Cheng, L M; Choi, Wai Ping Choi; Wong, Anita Yiu Ming

2016-07-01

Facing population ageing in Hong Kong, the demand of long-term elderly health care services is increasing. The challenge is to support a good quality service under the constraints faced by recent shortage of nursing and care services professionals without redesigning the work flow operated in the existing elderly health care industries. the existing elderly health care industries. The Total QoS measure based on Finite Capacity Queuing Model is a reliable method and an effective measurement for Quality of services. The value is good for measuring the staffing level and offers a measurement for efficiency enhancement when incorporate new technologies like ICT. The implemented system has improved the Quality of Service by more than 14% and the extra released manpower resource will allow clinical care provider to offer further value added services without actually increasing head count. We have developed a novel Quality of Service measurement for Clinical Care services based on multi-queue using finite capacity queue model M/M/c/K/n and the measurement is useful for estimating the shortage of staff resource in a caring institution. It is essential for future integration with the existing widely used assessment model to develop reliable measuring limits which allow an effective measurement of public fund used in health care industries. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

THE DATA AND SERVICES ANALYSIS OF CHINESE NSDI BASED ON BACKX MODEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

W. Wang

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The data and services analysis are indispensable for the refined development of SDI. This paper, taking Chinese NSDI as a study case, analyzed the data and services advantages and shortcomings of Chinese NSDI and developed a recommendable data and services framework which could improve the Chinese NSDI better services for public and private sectors from known, attainable and usable aspects by using Backx model. And the recommendation framework can also be referenced by other national and local SDI for its better services and applications.

Economic modelling of energy services: Rectifying misspecified energy demand functions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hunt, Lester C.; Ryan, David L.

2015-01-01

Although it is well known that energy demand is derived, since energy is required not for its own sake but for the energy services it produces – such as heating, lighting, and motive power – energy demand models, both theoretical and empirical, often fail to take account of this feature. In this paper, we highlight the misspecification that results from ignoring this aspect, and its empirical implications – biased estimates of price elasticities and other measures – and provide a relatively simple and empirically practicable way to rectify it, which has a strong theoretical grounding. To do so, we develop an explicit model of consumer behaviour in which utility derives from consumption of energy services rather than from the energy sources that are used to produce them. As we discuss, this approach opens up the possibility of examining many aspects of energy demand in a theoretically sound way that have not previously been considered on a widespread basis, although some existing empirical work could be interpreted as being consistent with this type of specification. While this formulation yields demand equations for energy services rather than for energy or particular energy sources, these are shown to be readily converted, without added complexity, into the standard type of energy demand equation(s) that is (are) typically estimated. The additional terms that the resulting energy demand equations include, compared to those that are typically estimated, highlight the misspecification that is implicit when typical energy demand equations are estimated. A simple solution for dealing with an apparent drawback of this formulation for empirical purposes, namely that information is required on typically unobserved energy efficiency, indicates how energy efficiency can be captured in the model, such as by including exogenous trends and/or including its possible dependence on past energy prices. The approach is illustrated using an empirical example that involves

Identifying Ghanaian Pre-Service Teachers' Readiness for Computer Use: A Technology Acceptance Model Approach

Science.gov (United States)

Gyamfi, Stephen Adu

2016-01-01

This study extends the technology acceptance model to identify factors that influence technology acceptance among pre-service teachers in Ghana. Data from 380 usable questionnaires were tested against the research model. Utilising the extended technology acceptance model (TAM) as a research framework, the study found that: pre-service teachers'…

Revenue Potential for Inpatient IR Consultation Services: A Financial Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Misono, Alexander S; Mueller, Peter R; Hirsch, Joshua A; Sheridan, Robert M; Siddiqi, Assad U; Liu, Raymond W

2016-05-01

Interventional radiology (IR) has historically failed to fully capture the value of evaluation and management services in the inpatient setting. Understanding financial benefits of a formally incorporated billing discipline may yield meaningful insights for interventional practices. A revenue modeling tool was created deploying standard financial modeling techniques, including sensitivity and scenario analyses. Sensitivity analysis calculates revenue fluctuation related to dynamic adjustment of discrete variables. In scenario analysis, possible future scenarios as well as revenue potential of different-size clinical practices are modeled. Assuming a hypothetical inpatient IR consultation service with a daily patient census of 35 patients and two new consults per day, the model estimates annual charges of $2.3 million and collected revenue of $390,000. Revenues are most sensitive to provider billing documentation rates and patient volume. A range of realistic scenarios-from cautious to optimistic-results in a range of annual charges of $1.8 million to $2.7 million and a collected revenue range of $241,000 to $601,000. Even a small practice with a daily patient census of 5 and 0.20 new consults per day may expect annual charges of $320,000 and collected revenue of $55,000. A financial revenue modeling tool is a powerful adjunct in understanding economics of an inpatient IR consultation service. Sensitivity and scenario analyses demonstrate a wide range of revenue potential and uncover levers for financial optimization. Copyright © 2016 SIR. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Comparison of Competing Models for Understanding Industrial Organization’s Acceptance of Cloud Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shui-Lien Chen

2018-03-01

Full Text Available Cloud computing is the next generation in computing, and the next natural step in the evolution of on-demand information technology services and products. However, only a few studies have addressed the adoption of cloud computing from an organizational perspective, which have not proven whether the research model is the best-fitting model. The purpose of this paper is to construct research competing models (RCMs and determine the best-fitting model for understanding industrial organization’s acceptance of cloud services. This research integrated the technology acceptance model and the principle of model parsimony to develop four cloud service adoption RCMs with enterprise usage intention being used as a proxy for actual behavior, and then compared the RCMs using structural equation modeling (SEM. Data derived from a questionnaire-based survey of 227 firms in Taiwan were tested against the relationships through SEM. Based on the empirical study, the results indicated that, although all four RCMs had a high goodness of fit, in both nested and non-nested structure comparisons, research competing model A (Model A demonstrated superior performance and was the best-fitting model. This study introduced a model development strategy that can most accurately explain and predict the behavioral intention of organizations to adopt cloud services.

Re-engineering pre-employment check-up systems: a model for improving health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Rateb, Said Abdel Hakim; El Nouman, Azza Abdel Razek; Rateb, Moshira Abdel Hakim; Asar, Mohamed Naguib; El Amin, Ayman Mohammed; Gad, Saad abdel Aziz; Mohamed, Mohamed Salah Eldin

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for improving health services provided by the pre-employment medical fitness check-up system affiliated to Egypt's Health Insurance Organization (HIO). Operations research, notably system re-engineering, is used in six randomly selected centers and findings before and after re-engineering are compared. The re-engineering model follows a systems approach, focusing on three areas: structure, process and outcome. The model is based on six main components: electronic booking, standardized check-up processes, protected medical documents, advanced archiving through an electronic content management (ECM) system, infrastructure development, and capacity building. The model originates mainly from customer needs and expectations. The centers' monthly customer flow increased significantly after re-engineering. The mean time spent per customer cycle improved after re-engineering--18.3 +/- 5.5 minutes as compared to 48.8 +/- 14.5 minutes before. Appointment delay was also significantly decreased from an average 18 to 6.2 days. Both beneficiaries and service providers were significantly more satisfied with the services after re-engineering. The model proves that re-engineering program costs are exceeded by increased revenue. Re-engineering in this study involved multiple structure and process elements. The literature review did not reveal similar re-engineering healthcare packages. Therefore, each element was compared separately. This model is highly recommended for improving service effectiveness and efficiency. This research is the first in Egypt to apply the re-engineering approach to public health systems. Developing user-friendly models for service improvement is an added value.

Business service modeling for the service-oriented enterprise

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Jayasinghe Arachchig, J.; Weigand, H.; Jeusfeld, M.A.

2012-01-01

Service-oriented architectures are the upcoming business standard for realizing enterprise information systems, thus creating a need for analysis and design methods that are truly service-oriented. Most research on this topic so far takes a strict software engineering perspective. For a proper

Electronic resource management practical perspectives in a new technical services model

CERN Document Server

Elguindi, Anne

2012-01-01

A significant shift is taking place in libraries, with the purchase of e-resources accounting for the bulk of materials spending. Electronic Resource Management makes the case that technical services workflows need to make a corresponding shift toward e-centric models and highlights the increasing variety of e-formats that are forcing new developments in the field.Six chapters cover key topics, including: technical services models, both past and emerging; staffing and workflow in electronic resource management; implementation and transformation of electronic resource management systems; the ro

Resilient organizations: matrix model and service line management.

Science.gov (United States)

Westphal, Judith A

2005-09-01

Resilient organizations modify structures to meet the demands of the marketplace. The author describes a structure that enables multihospital organizations to innovate and rapidly adapt to changes. Service line management within a matrix model is an evolving organizational structure for complex systems in which nurses are pivotal members.

Service Life and Maintenance Modelling of Reinforced Concrete Bridge Decks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Thoft-Christensen, Palle

Recent research in the area of assessment and maintenance of reinforced concrete bridge decks is presented in this paper. Three definitions of service lifetime are introduced and the difficult problem of assessing the service life is discussed. A stochastic modelling of corrosion and corrosion...... cracking is introduced and the site dependency of corrosion is stressed. Finally, a recently developed optimal repair strategy for bridges is briefly explained....

E-Government Maturity Model for Sustainable E-Government Services from the Perspective of Developing Countries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pusp Raj Joshi

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Electric government (e-government projects in developing countries are facing many challenges to deliver sustainable e-government services. From the existing literature, we found that most of the studies considered lack of technology, and limitations in budgets and human resources as the main hurdles in effective implementation of e-government services. Along with these limitations, we found that the e-government maturity models adopted by developing countries are failing to provide an appropriate strategic plan to deploy sustainable e-government services. While assessing the existing e-government maturity model, we made several observations on the lack of detail, the technology-centric nature, the emphasis on implementation, and the lack of an adoption strategy. This work contributes toward the proposition of a new e-government maturity model that would address the limitations of exiting e-government maturity models, and would support governments in developing countries to achieve sustainable e-government services. To achieve this goal, we considered five determinants—a detailed process, streamlined services, agile accessibility, use of state-of-the-art technology, and trust and awareness. The proposed model was validated by employing an empirical investigation through case-study and survey methods. We found that both the implementers (government and adopters (users of the e-government services benefited from the proposed model, resulting in an increased sustainability of e-government services.

Integrating Music Therapy Services and Speech-Language Therapy Services for Children with Severe Communication Impairments: A Co-Treatment Model

Science.gov (United States)

Geist, Kamile; McCarthy, John; Rodgers-Smith, Amy; Porter, Jessica

2008-01-01

Documenting how music therapy can be integrated with speech-language therapy services for children with communication delay is not evident in the literature. In this article, a collaborative model with procedures, experiences, and communication outcomes of integrating music therapy with the existing speech-language services is given. Using…

Fedora Content Modelling for Improved Services for Research Databases

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elbæk, Mikael Karstensen; Heller, Alfred; Pedersen, Gert Schmeltz

A re-implementation of the research database of the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, is based on Fedora. The backbone consists of content models for primary and secondary entities and their relationships, giving flexible and powerful extraction capabilities for interoperability and reporting....... By adopting such an abstract data model, the platform enables new and improved services for researchers, librarians and administrators....

A Service Delivery Model for Addressing Activity and Social Participation Needs of People Living with HIV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gayle Restall

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Occupational therapy can contribute to the health and well-being of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV who are experiencing health consequences of living long term with this disease. However, there are no comprehensive rehabilitation service delivery models to guide this emerging area of practice. The purpose of this study was to obtain critical feedback about a service delivery model to address the activity and social participation needs of people living with HIV. Method: We developed a service delivery model from a synthesis of the literature. Using a qualitative research design, we conducted individual and focus group interviews with 35 informants from diverse backgrounds and involvement in HIV-related research, service provision, and policymaking to provide critical feedback about the model. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using inductive qualitative methods. Results: The informants identified the strengths and limitations of the model and supports and barriers to its implementation. They highlighted the importance of principle-based services, increasing resources for service navigation, building capacity of rehabilitation services to address the needs of people with HIV, and increasing research and program evaluation targeted to achieving activity and social participation outcomes. Conclusions: The model provides a framework for occupational therapists to design and evaluate services for this population.

Emerging Issues and Models in College Mental Health Services

Science.gov (United States)

Locke, Ben; Wallace, David; Brunner, Jon

2016-01-01

This chapter provides a brief overview of the psychological issues facing today's college students, information about students receiving mental health services, and an evidence-based model describing the practice and functions of today's counseling centers.

Integrated Specialized Early-Course Psychosis Treatment Services - University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapce Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Ostojić, DraŽenka; Čulo, Ilaria; Silić, Ante; Kos, Suzana; Savić, Aleksandar

2018-06-01

First episode of psychosis presents a critical period in terms of numerous associated risks, but also possibilities for effective therapeutic interventions. There is a continued focus on early interventions in prodromal states and early course of frank psychosis, aimed at ensuring faster remission, reducing relapses, achieving better long-term functioning, and preventing adverse outcomes linked to untreated psychosis and chronic psychotic disorders. A number of different specialized treatment models and services exist trying to close knowledge gaps and provide clinical interventions to first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients, but there is still no generally accepted standard of care informing our every-day practice. FEP and early-course psychosis specialized treatment model developed in 2004 in University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapce rests on integration of care across different organization units and clinical presentation acuity levels and patient needs (intensive care, FEP inpatient unit, FEP outpatient services including day hospital). Such integration of FEP services allows for flexible entry point on multiple levels, earlier structuring of therapeutic alliance for those requiring inpatient care, reduction of risks associated with FEP, quicker formation of long-term treatment plans, reduction of delay in accessing specialized services, and a more coordinated diagnostic process and recruitment of FEP patient population. Detailed evaluations of outcomes and comparisons with different treatment models are necessary in order to assess strengths and weaknesses of each specific model and inform modifications to current practice models.

Two cases of listeria rhombencephalitis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Christopher Thomas Mansbridge

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Listeria rhombencephalitis (LRE is a rare encephalitis of the hindbrain that can present with a variety of neurological symptoms. It is a diagnostic challenge, but prompt antimicrobial therapy is important to prevent high rates of mortality and morbidity. We report two cases of LRE, with several contrasting clinical features and different disease courses. Despite being rare, it is important to consider listeria in patients with possible meningoencephalitis, even if cultures are negative. Empirical treatment of meningoencephalitis should provide coverage for listeria, especially if the patient is at risk of listeriosis or there is a potential history of listeria exposure.

Advancing LGBT Elder Policy and Support Services: The Massachusetts Model.

Science.gov (United States)

Krinsky, Lisa; Cahill, Sean R

2017-12-01

The Massachusetts-based LGBT Aging Project has trained elder service providers in affirming and culturally competent care for LGBT older adults, supported development of LGBT-friendly meal programs, and advanced LGBT equality under aging policy. Working across sectors, this innovative model launched the country's first statewide Legislative Commission on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Aging. Advocates are working with policymakers to implement key recommendations, including cultural competency training and data collection in statewide networks of elder services. The LGBT Aging Project's success provides a template for improving services and policy for LGBT older adults throughout the country.

Performance-Based Service Quality Model: An Empirical Study on Japanese Universities

Science.gov (United States)

Sultan, Parves; Wong, Ho

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to develop and empirically test the performance-based higher education service quality model. Design/methodology/approach: The study develops 67-item instrument for measuring performance-based service quality with a particular focus on the higher education sector. Scale reliability is confirmed using the Cronbach's alpha.…

Single, Integrated, Service-Centric Model of Military Health System Governance

Science.gov (United States)

of the research is to establish what the model of governance of the Military Health System should be. That, with other recommendations, should be the...foundation for the impending transformation. The research found that the model of governance should be a single service model with regional health...commands that support the geographic combatant commander (GCC). With an organization based on the presented model of governance , the Military Health

Business model engineering: creating non-linear growth effects for service innovations

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Kijl, Björn; Ehrenhard, Michel Léon; Wijnhoven, Alphonsus B.J.M.; Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; Boersma, D.

2012-01-01

Every service innovation needs a viable business model in order to create and capture value. Strikingly, most of the current literature is focused on business model design only, whereas almost no attention is given to business model validation and implementation – let alone experimentation with

Flexibility in community pharmacy: a qualitative study of business models and cognitive services.

Science.gov (United States)

Feletto, Eleonora; Wilson, Laura K; Roberts, Alison S; Benrimoj, Shalom I

2010-04-01

To identify the capacity of current pharmacy business models, and the dimensions of organisational flexibility within them, to integrate products and services as well as the perceptions of viability of these models. Fifty-seven semi-structured interviews were conducted with community pharmacy owners or managers and support staff in 30 pharmacies across Australia. A framework of organisational flexibility was used to analyse their capacity to integrate services and perceptions of viability. Data were analysed using the method of constant comparison by two independent researchers. The study found that Australian community pharmacies have used the four types of flexibility to build capacity in distinct ways and react to changes in the local environment. This capacity building was manifested in four emerging business models which integrate services to varying degrees: classic community pharmacy, retail destination pharmacy, health care solution pharmacy and networked pharmacy. The perception of viability is less focused on dispensing medications and more focused on differentiating pharmacies through either a retail or services focus. Strategic flexibility appeared to offer pharmacies the ability to integrate and sustainably deliver services more successfully than other types, as exhibited by health care solution and networked pharmacies. Active support and encouragement to transition from being dependent on dispensing to implementing services is needed. The study showed that pharmacies where services were implemented and showed success are those strategically differentiating their businesses to become focused health care providers. This holistic approach should inevitably influence the sustainability of services.

Implementing an inclusive staffing model for today's reference services a practical guide for librarians

CERN Document Server

Nims, Julia K; Stevens, Robert

2013-01-01

Reference service remains a core function of modern libraries. However, how and where we provide assistance has evolved with changing technologies and the shifting habits and preferences of our users. One way libraries can provide the on-demand, in-person assistance while managing and developing new services and resources that will benefit current and future users is to reconsider how their reference points and services are staffed and adopt a staff-based reference model. In Implementing an Inclusive Staffing Model for Today's Reference Services, Nims, Storm, and Stevens describe step-by-step

Applying revised gap analysis model in measuring hotel service quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Yu-Cheng; Wang, Yu-Che; Chien, Chih-Hung; Wu, Chia-Huei; Lu, Shu-Chiung; Tsai, Sang-Bing; Dong, Weiwei

2016-01-01

With the number of tourists coming to Taiwan growing by 10-20 % since 2010, the number has increased due to an increasing number of foreign tourists, particularly after deregulation allowed admitting tourist groups, followed later on by foreign individual tourists, from mainland China. The purpose of this study is to propose a revised gap model to evaluate and improve service quality in Taiwanese hotel industry. Thus, service quality could be clearly measured through gap analysis, which was more effective for offering direction in developing and improving service quality. The HOLSERV instrument was used to identify and analyze service gaps from the perceptions of internal and external customers. The sample for this study included three main categories of respondents: tourists, employees, and managers. The results show that five gaps influenced tourists' evaluations of service quality. In particular, the study revealed that Gap 1 (management perceptions vs. customer expectations) and Gap 9 (service provider perceptions of management perceptions vs. service delivery) were more critical than the others in affecting perceived service quality, making service delivery the main area of improvement. This study contributes toward an evaluation of the service quality of the Taiwanese hotel industry from the perspectives of customers, service providers, and managers, which is considerably valuable for hotel managers. It was the aim of this study to explore all of these together in order to better understand the possible gaps in the hotel industry in Taiwan.

Trust-Enhanced Cloud Service Selection Model Based on QoS Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Yuchen; Ding, Shuai; Fan, Wenjuan; Li, Jing; Yang, Shanlin

2015-01-01

Cloud computing technology plays a very important role in many areas, such as in the construction and development of the smart city. Meanwhile, numerous cloud services appear on the cloud-based platform. Therefore how to how to select trustworthy cloud services remains a significant problem in such platforms, and extensively investigated owing to the ever-growing needs of users. However, trust relationship in social network has not been taken into account in existing methods of cloud service selection and recommendation. In this paper, we propose a cloud service selection model based on the trust-enhanced similarity. Firstly, the direct, indirect, and hybrid trust degrees are measured based on the interaction frequencies among users. Secondly, we estimate the overall similarity by combining the experience usability measured based on Jaccard's Coefficient and the numerical distance computed by Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Then through using the trust degree to modify the basic similarity, we obtain a trust-enhanced similarity. Finally, we utilize the trust-enhanced similarity to find similar trusted neighbors and predict the missing QoS values as the basis of cloud service selection and recommendation. The experimental results show that our approach is able to obtain optimal results via adjusting parameters and exhibits high effectiveness. The cloud services ranking by our model also have better QoS properties than other methods in the comparison experiments.

Teaching Qualitative Research for Human Services Students: A Three-Phase Model

Science.gov (United States)

Goussinsky, Ruhama; Reshef, Arie; Yanay-Ventura, Galit; Yassour-Borochowitz, Dalit

2011-01-01

Qualitative research is an inherent part of the human services profession, since it emphasizes the great and multifaceted complexity characterizing human experience and the sociocultural context in which humans act. In the department of human services at Emek Yezreel College, Israel, we have developed a three-phase model to ensure a relatively…

Cultural ecosystem services of mountain regions: Modelling the aesthetic value

OpenAIRE

Schirpke, Uta; Timmermann, Florian; Tappeiner, Ulrike; Tasser, Erich

2016-01-01

Mountain regions meet an increasing demand for pleasant landscapes, offering many cultural ecosystem services to both their residents and tourists. As a result of global change, land managers and policy makers are faced with changes to this landscape and need efficient evaluation techniques to assess cultural ecosystem services. This study provides a spatially explicit modelling approach to estimating aesthetic landscape values by relating spatial landscape patterns to human perceptions via a...

Defining Generic Architecture for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Demchenko, Y.; de Laat, C.

2011-01-01

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is one of the provisioning models for Clouds as defined in the NIST Clouds definition. Although widely used, current IaaS implementations and solutions doesn’t have common and well defined architecture model. The paper attempts to define a generic architecture for

Family-centred care delivery: comparing models of primary care service delivery in Ontario.

Science.gov (United States)

Mayo-Bruinsma, Liesha; Hogg, William; Taljaard, Monica; Dahrouge, Simone

2013-11-01

To determine whether models of primary care service delivery differ in their provision of family-centred care (FCC) and to identify practice characteristics associated with FCC. Cross-sectional study. Primary care practices in Ontario (ie, 35 salaried community health centres, 35 fee-for-service practices, 32 capitation-based health service organizations, and 35 blended remuneration family health networks) that belong to 4 models of primary care service delivery. A total of 137 practices, 363 providers, and 5144 patients. Measures of FCC in patient and provider surveys were based on the Primary Care Assessment Tool. Statistical analyses were conducted using linear mixed regression models and generalized estimating equations. Patient-reported FCC scores were high and did not vary significantly by primary care model. Larger panel size in a practice was associated with lower odds of patients reporting FCC. Provider-reported FCC scores were significantly higher in community health centres than in family health networks (P = .035). A larger number of nurse practitioners and clinical services on-site were both associated with higher FCC scores, while scores decreased as the number of family physicians in a practice increased and if practices were more rural. Based on provider and patient reports, primary care reform strategies that encourage larger practices and more patients per family physician might compromise the provision of FCC, while strategies that encourage multidisciplinary practices and a range of services might increase FCC.

The IRMIS object model and services API

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saunders, C.; Dohan, D.A.; Arnold, N.D.

2005-01-01

The relational model developed for the Integrated Relational Model of Installed Systems (IRMIS) toolkit has been successfully used to capture the Advanced Photon Source (APS) control system software (EPICS process variables and their definitions). The relational tables are populated by a crawler script that parses each Input/Output Controller (IOC) start-up file when an IOC reboot is detected. User interaction is provided by a Java Swing application that acts as a desktop for viewing the process variable information. Mapping between the display objects and the relational tables was carried out with the Hibernate Object Relational Modeling (ORM) framework. Work is well underway at the APS to extend the relational modeling to include control system hardware. For this work, due in part to the complex user interaction required, the primary application development environment has shifted from the relational database view to the object oriented (Java) perspective. With this approach, the business logic is executed in Java rather than in SQL stored procedures. This paper describes the object model used to represent control system software, hardware, and interconnects in IRMIS. We also describe the services API used to encapsulate the required behaviors for creating and maintaining the complex data. In addition to the core schema and object model, many important concepts in IRMIS are captured by the services API. IRMIS is an ambitious collaborative effort for defining and developing a relational database and associated applications to comprehensively document the large and complex EPICS-based control systems of today's accelerators. The documentation effort includes process variables, control system hardware, and interconnections. The approach could also be used to document all components of the accelerator, including mechanical, vacuum, power supplies, etc. One key aspect of IRMIS is that it is a documentation framework, not a design and development tool. We do not

A proposed model for assessing service quality in small machining and industrial maintenance companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Morvam dos Santos Netto

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Machining and industrial maintenance services include repair (corrective maintenance of equipments, activities involving the assembly-disassembly of equipments, fault diagnosis, machining operations, forming operations, welding processes, assembly and test of equipments. This article proposes a model for assessing the quality of services provided by small machining and industrial maintenance companies, since there is a gap in the literature regarding this issue and because the importance of small service companies in socio-economic development of the country. The model is an adaptation of the SERVQUAL instrument and the criteria determining the quality of services are designed according to the service cycle of a typical small machining and industrial maintenance company. In this sense, the Moments of Truth have been considered in the preparation of two separate questionnaires. The first questionnaire contains 24 statements that reflect the expectations of customers, and the second one contains 24 statements that measure perceptions of service performance. An additional item was included in each questionnaire to assess, respectively, the overall expectation about the services and the overall company performance. Therefore, it is a model that considers the interfaces of the client/supplier relationship, the peculiarities of the machining and industrial maintenance service sector and the company size.

The use of the quality model of Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry in health services

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Mileide Morais Pena

2013-10-01

Full Text Available This is an article about the theoretical model for assessing quality in health services proposed by Parasuraman, Zheitaml and Berry, in order to measure the degree of satisfaction of users. This model is based on the analysis of expectations and perceptions of users of health services, by means of five dimensions: tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. From the difference between what is expected by the user and the service offered, gaps or shortcomings are derived that may be the main obstacle for users to perceive the provision of such services with quality. It was observed that the use of the psychometric scale called Service Quality (SERVQUAL in some studies about satisfaction, obtained very favorable results in the institutions in which it was employed. The analysis revealed the need to improve the existing models of evaluation, as well as the importance of measuring user satisfaction in health institutions.

INVESTIGATING THE PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY IN CROATIAN RESTAURANT INDUSTRY USING DINESERV MODEL

OpenAIRE

SUZANA MARKOVIC; SANJA RASPOR

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study is to assess perceptions of restaurant customers and to determine the factor structure of perceived restaurant service quality. A modified DINESERV model was applied. The model was tested on the sample of 32 restaurants on the Opatija Riviera (Croatia), resulting with 156 usable questionnaires on which statistical analysis was performed. Results suggest a rather high perceived service quality, explained with two main dimensions, namely “overall dining experience” and...

Modelling the Antecedent and Consequence of Consumer Perceived Deception in Loan Services

OpenAIRE

Mbawuni Joseph; Simon Gyasi Nimako

2015-01-01

This paper assesses the antecedent and consequence of consumer perceived deception (CPD) on consumer trust, satisfaction, attitude recommendation and intentions to acquire future loans from financial service providers. The proposed research model was tested using data from a survey of 371 loan customers of leading financial service providers in Ghana. Data were analysed using SmartPLS 2.0 for Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling. The results show high information quality could ...

An Analysis of Business Models in Public Service Platforms

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ranerup, Agneta; Zinner Henriksen, Helle; Hedman, Jonas

2016-01-01

Public Service Platforms (PSPs) are a new type of technology platform. They are based in the philosophy of New Public Management (NPM) and support public services for citizens in quasi-markets. This article increases our understanding of the business models behind these PSPs in terms of their Value......” that includes dialogues, user evaluations, long-term perspectives on choice, promotion of the ideal of choice, and self-promotion by public agencies. The article contributes to research with its empirical example of the digitalization of NPM and the underlying business logic of PSPs....

Linking biophysical models and public preferences for ecosystem service assessments: a case study for the Southern Rocky Mountains

Science.gov (United States)

Bagstad, Kenneth J.; Reed, James; Semmens, Darius J.; Sherrouse, Ben C.; Troy, Austin

2016-01-01

Through extensive research, ecosystem services have been mapped using both survey-based and biophysical approaches, but comparative mapping of public values and those quantified using models has been lacking. In this paper, we mapped hot and cold spots for perceived and modeled ecosystem services by synthesizing results from a social-values mapping study of residents living near the Pike–San Isabel National Forest (PSI), located in the Southern Rocky Mountains, with corresponding biophysically modeled ecosystem services. Social-value maps for the PSI were developed using the Social Values for Ecosystem Services tool, providing statistically modeled continuous value surfaces for 12 value types, including aesthetic, biodiversity, and life-sustaining values. Biophysically modeled maps of carbon sequestration and storage, scenic viewsheds, sediment regulation, and water yield were generated using the Artificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services tool. Hotspots for both perceived and modeled services were disproportionately located within the PSI’s wilderness areas. Additionally, we used regression analysis to evaluate spatial relationships between perceived biodiversity and cultural ecosystem services and corresponding biophysical model outputs. Our goal was to determine whether publicly valued locations for aesthetic, biodiversity, and life-sustaining values relate meaningfully to results from corresponding biophysical ecosystem service models. We found weak relationships between perceived and biophysically modeled services, indicating that public perception of ecosystem service provisioning regions is limited. We believe that biophysical and social approaches to ecosystem service mapping can serve as methodological complements that can advance ecosystem services-based resource management, benefitting resource managers by showing potential locations of synergy or conflict between areas supplying ecosystem services and those valued by the public.

Service quality in Islamic banks: The role of PAKSERV model, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Feras M.I. Alnaser

2018-04-01

Full Text Available In service oriented industry, it is very difficult to set a standard rule to satisfy customers. As customer awareness increases on the service offered by banks, expectation from services quality increases too. Quality of a service in banking industry plays an essential role in measuring the performance of banks. Thus, the present study examines the PAKSERV model to measure customer satisfaction and customer loyalty of Islamic Banks in Palestine. A survey method was adopted where data was collected from 482 respondents through structured questionnaire. Structural equation model (SEM was applied to check the hypothesis relationship between proposed constructs. Statistical finding revealed that PAKSERV model had significant impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in Islamic banks of Palestine. Results also revealed that in cultural context PAKSERV model was the most appropriate scale and had predictive power of service quality in banking industry of Palestine. The findings of this study will be helpful for managers and policy makers to improve the service quality in Islamic banks of Palestine.

Library 2.0 A New Service Model For Libraries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Agnes Erich

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The utilization of the new information and communication technologies implies a series of changes concerning the libraries. Currently it is spoken more and more about a new type of service offered by them, Library 2.0, which brings in foreground the user who becomes a modeler of the library services and resources. The information structures customer is not satisfied anymore by the unidirectional access to the resources, he wanted to be involved in the evaluation of them, making comments and sharing his ideas with another user. In this sense the library managers are looking for more efficient means to deliver services so that to obtain a proper feedback which enable them to take the best measures to make profitable them. Library 2.0 can be a solution for all these problems.

Fraud Risk Modelling: Requirements Elicitation in the Case of Telecom Services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yesuf, Ahmed; Wolos, Lars Peter; Rannenberg, Kai

2017-01-01

Telecom providers are losing tremendous amounts of money due to fraud risks posed to Telecom services and products. Currently, they are mainly focusing on fraud detection approaches to reduce the impact of fraud risks against their services. However, fraud prevention approaches should also...... be investigated in order to further reduce fraud risks and improve the revenue of Telecom providers. Fraud risk modelling is a fraud prevention approach aims at identifying the potential fraud risks, estimating the damage and setting up preventive mechanisms before the fraud risks lead to actual losses....... In this paper, we highlight the important requirements for a usable and context-aware fraud risk modelling approach for Telecom services. To do so, we have conducted two workshops with experts from a Telecom provider and experts from multi-disciplinary areas. In order to show and document the requirements, we...

Models of psychological service provision under Australia's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program.

Science.gov (United States)

Pirkis, Jane; Burgess, Philip; Kohn, Fay; Morley, Belinda; Blashki, Grant; Naccarella, Lucio

2006-08-01

The Access to Allied Psychological Services component of Australia's Better Outcomes in Mental Health Care program enables eligible general practitioners to refer consumers to allied health professionals for affordable, evidence-based mental health care, via 108 projects conducted by Divisions of General Practice. The current study profiled the models of service delivery across these projects, and examined whether particular models were associated with differential levels of access to services. We found: 76% of projects were retaining their allied health professionals under contract, 28% via direct employment, and 7% some other way; Allied health professionals were providing services from GPs' rooms in 63% of projects, from their own rooms in 63%, from a third location in 42%; and The referral mechanism of choice was direct referral in 51% of projects, a voucher system in 27%, a brokerage system in 24%, and a register system in 25%. Many of these models were being used in combination. No model was predictive of differential levels of access, suggesting that the approach of adapting models to the local context is proving successful.

Energy renovation services for single-family houses. Generalization and challenges of the one-stop-shop service model; Pientalojen energiaremonttipalvelut. Kokonaispalvelumallin yleistyminen ja sen haasteet

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paiho, S.; Kuusisto, J.; Stenlund, O.; Ala-Juusela, M.

2012-08-15

There are about 1.1 million single-family houses in Finland. 75% of these houses were built before year 1990. Majority of the houses remain at the energy- and eco-efficiency level of their construction time. If all of these houses were renovated to meet the state-of-the- art energy-efficiency requirements, the savings in nationwide consumption of heating energy would be 11.8 TWh. There are lots of typical single-family houses in the Finnish housing stock from the construction period. Renovation concepts with typical solutions can be developed for these typical houses. However, it must always be ensured that the selected concept suits the particular house. Comprehensive, full-service or one-stop-shop service models can be developed based on the renovation concepts. These may also include other services such as a building condition survey or a study, energy certificate, equipment and system installations, financial services, operation and maintenance services, and energy-monitoring and consumption analysis. It is natural to connect the one-stop-shop service model into the renovation process. The process includes stages for marketing, preliminary building inspection and energy audit, a detailed building inspection and energy analysis, a proposal for an integrated solution, the actual repair work, and quality assurance and continuous commissioning. Different stages involve different actors and service providers. There are several options for which type of organization or agent takes the main responsibility for the one-stop-shop service. Depending on the responsible organization, the content provider's business model and priorities differ. The one-stop-shop services business has been a narrow part of actors' whole business, so far. Some actors have already stopped providing the services, either due to the lack of demand or unprofitableness of the services. In an ideal model, the value promise and the main features of the model are the same, but the service

Service and Data Driven Multi Business Model Platform in a World of Persuasive Technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Troels Christian; Bjerrum, Torben Cæsar Bisgaard

2016-01-01

companies in establishing a service organization that delivers, creates and captures value through service and data driven business models by utilizing their network, resources and customers and/or users. Furthermore, based on literature and collaboration with the case company, the suggestion of a new...... framework provides the necessary construction of how the manufac- turing companies can evolve their current business to provide multi service and data driven business models, using the same resources, networks and customers....

Exploring business model innovation in professional service firms : Insights from architecture

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lieftink, B.; Bos-de Vos, M.; Lauche, K.; Smits, A.

2014-01-01

Business model innovation may be a significant source of competitive advantage and firm performance. New ways of doing business have become increasingly important in the professional service sector. This research specifically focuses on business model innovation by architecture firms, which are

Assessing Satisfaction with Selected Student Services Using SERVQUAL, a Market-Driven Model of Service Quality.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruby, Carl A.

1998-01-01

Demonstrates how the use of SERVQUAL, a market-driven assessment model adapted from business, can be used to study student satisfaction with four areas of support services hypothetically related to enrollment management. The sample included 748 students enrolled in general education courses at ten different private institutions. (Contains 27…

42 CFR Appendix to Part 54a - Model Notice of Individuals Receiving Substance Abuse Services

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Model Notice of Individuals Receiving Substance... ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVING DISCRETIONARY FUNDING UNDER TITLE V OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE ACT, 42 U.S.C. 290aa...—Model Notice of Individuals Receiving Substance Abuse Services Model Notice to Individuals Receiving...

A Hybrid Artificial Reputation Model Involving Interaction Trust, Witness Information and the Trust Model to Calculate the Trust Value of Service Providers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Gurdeep Singh Ransi

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Agent interaction in a community, such as the online buyer-seller scenario, is often uncertain, as when an agent comes in contact with other agents they initially know nothing about each other. Currently, many reputation models are developed that help service consumers select better service providers. Reputation models also help agents to make a decision on who they should trust and transact with in the future. These reputation models are either built on interaction trust that involves direct experience as a source of information or they are built upon witness information also known as word-of-mouth that involves the reports provided by others. Neither the interaction trust nor the witness information models alone succeed in such uncertain interactions. In this paper we propose a hybrid reputation model involving both interaction trust and witness information to address the shortcomings of existing reputation models when taken separately. A sample simulation is built to setup buyer-seller services and uncertain interactions. Experiments reveal that the hybrid approach leads to better selection of trustworthy agents where consumers select more reputable service providers, eventually helping consumers obtain more gains. Furthermore, the trust model developed is used in calculating trust values of service providers.

Model projections and policy reviews for energy saving in China's service sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Lin

2013-01-01

Energy efficiency of buildings in the service sector is becoming increasingly important in China due to the structural shift of the economy from industry to services. This paper employs a bottom-up cohort model to simulate current energy saving policies and to make projections for future energy use and CO 2 emissions for the period 2000–2030 in the Chinese service sector. The analysis shows that energy demand in the service sector will approximately triple in 2030, far beyond the target of quadrupling GDP while only doubling energy use. However, it is feasible to achieve the target of emission reduction by 40% in 2020 even under the poor state of compliance rate of building standard. This paper also highlights four crucial aspects of designing optimal energy saving policies for China's service sector based on the model results. - Highlights: • Government energy saving target cannot realize with current policies in services. • Energy savings policies for new buildings are crucial than building retrofitting. • Cooling energy use increases significantly to reach equal weight as heating. • CO 2 tax can contribute to change in fuel mix, and thus emission reductions. • Low compliance rate limits further energy saving, hence green fund is required

Sharing Service Resource Information for Application Integration in a Virtual Enterprise - Modeling the Communication Protocol for Exchanging Service Resource Information

Science.gov (United States)

Yamada, Hiroshi; Kawaguchi, Akira

Grid computing and web service technologies enable us to use networked resources in a coordinated manner. An integrated service is made of individual services running on coordinated resources. In order to achieve such coordinated services autonomously, the initiator of a coordinated service needs to know detailed service resource information. This information ranges from static attributes like the IP address of the application server to highly dynamic ones like the CPU load. The most famous wide-area service discovery mechanism based on names is DNS. Its hierarchical tree organization and caching methods take advantage of the static information managed. However, in order to integrate business applications in a virtual enterprise, we need a discovery mechanism to search for the optimal resources based on the given a set of criteria (search keys). In this paper, we propose a communication protocol for exchanging service resource information among wide-area systems. We introduce the concept of the service domain that consists of service providers managed under the same management policy. This concept of the service domain is similar to that for autonomous systems (ASs). In each service domain, the service information provider manages the service resource information of service providers that exist in this service domain. The service resource information provider exchanges this information with other service resource information providers that belong to the different service domains. We also verified the protocol's behavior and effectiveness using a simulation model developed for proposed protocol.

A structured patient identification model for medication therapy management services in a community pharmacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Pagano, Gina M; Groves, Brigid K; Kuhn, Catherine H; Porter, Kyle; Mehta, Bella H

To describe the development and implementation of a structured patient identification model for medication therapy management (MTM) services within traditional dispensing activities of a community pharmacy to facilitate pharmacist-provided completion of MTM services. A daily clinical opportunity report was developed as a structured model to identify MTM opportunities daily for all MTM-eligible patients expecting to pick up a prescription. Pharmacy staff was trained and the standardized model was implemented at study sites. One hundred nineteen grocery store-based community pharmacies throughout Ohio, West Virginia, and Michigan. A structured patient identification model in a community pharmacy consists of reviewing a clinical opportunity report, identifying interventions for MTM-eligible patients, and possibly collaborating with an interdisciplinary team. This model allows pharmacists to increase MTM cases performed by providing a structured process for identifying MTM-eligible patients and completing MTM services. The development and implementation of a structured patient identification model in the community pharmacy was completed and consists of pharmacists reviewing a clinical opportunity report to identify MTM opportunities and perform clinical interventions for patients. In a 3-month pre- and post-implementation comparison, there was a 49% increase in the number of MTM services provided by pharmacists (P < 0.001). A structured patient identification model in the community pharmacy was associated with an increase in the amount of MTM services provided by pharmacists. This method could be a useful tool at a variety of community pharmacies to solve challenges associated with MTM completion. Copyright © 2017 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Pre-Service Physics Teachers' Argumentation in a Model Rocketry Physics Experience

Science.gov (United States)

Gürel, Cem; Süzük, Erol

2017-01-01

This study investigates the quality of argumentation developed by a group of pre-service physics teachers' (PSPT) as an indicator of subject matter knowledge on model rocketry physics. The structure of arguments and scientific credibility model was used as a design framework in the study. The inquiry of model rocketry physics was employed in…

Modeling and Detecting Feature Interactions among Integrated Services of Home Network Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Igaki, Hiroshi; Nakamura, Masahide

This paper presents a framework for formalizing and detecting feature interactions (FIs) in the emerging smart home domain. We first establish a model of home network system (HNS), where every networked appliance (or the HNS environment) is characterized as an object consisting of properties and methods. Then, every HNS service is defined as a sequence of method invocations of the appliances. Within the model, we next formalize two kinds of FIs: (a) appliance interactions and (b) environment interactions. An appliance interaction occurs when two method invocations conflict on the same appliance, whereas an environment interaction arises when two method invocations conflict indirectly via the environment. Finally, we propose offline and online methods that detect FIs before service deployment and during execution, respectively. Through a case study with seven practical services, it is shown that the proposed framework is generic enough to capture feature interactions in HNS integrated services. We also discuss several FI resolution schemes within the proposed framework.

Modeling of the service taxi

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

R. M. Bezborodnikova

2016-01-01

Full Text Available Modeling and optimization business processes are ongoing challenges of modernity. Based on the study of business processes to anticipate and avoid many problems in the work of companies linked primarily with an increased level of costs, the low quality of the performed works and manufactured products, excessive run time functions. Application of simulation tool for business processes allows at the stage of planning to assess various indicators of the effectiveness of processes to identify the best sequence of functions, determine resource costs to calculate personnel workload, thereby facilitating timely adoption of the correct administrative decisions. The article deals with the modeling of the business process “Order processing” taxi service Heat the city of Orenburg. Based on the methodology of modeling Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN built functional diagram of the business process (with freely distributed software product Bizagi Modeler, given the resources used, the costs of their use, built calendar schedules. Next, the operation was carried out simulations with different process input data: the number of incoming applications, the number of controllers and advertising budget. It is shown that the efficiency of the business process will contribute to the increase in the total number of dispatchers up to 6 people, as well as increasing advertising costs doubled. As a result of the decisions taken is expected to increase the net income of the company to 76 794 RUR and the average salary of the staff (in particular taxi drivers to 42 281 RUR, dispatchers and 22 799 RUR, as well as reducing the duration of processing a single order up to 31 minutes.

Empowering Education: A New Model for In-service Training of Nursing Staff.

Science.gov (United States)

Chaghari, Mahmud; Saffari, Mohsen; Ebadi, Abbas; Ameryoun, Ahmad

2017-01-01

In-service training of nurses plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of inpatient care. Need to enhance the effectiveness of in-service training of nurses is an inevitable requirement. This study attempted to design a new optimal model for in-service training of nurses. This qualitative study was conducted in two stages during 2015-2016. In the first stage, the Grounded Theory was adopted to explore the process of training 35 participating nurses. The sampling was initially purposeful and then theoretically based on emerging concept. Data were collected through interview, observation and field notes. Moreover, the data were analyzed through Corbin-Strauss method and the data were coded through MAXQDA-10. In the second stage, the findings were employed through 'Walker and Avants strategy for theory construction so as to design an optimal model for in-service training of nursing staff. In the first stage, there were five major themes including unsuccessful mandatory education, empowering education, organizational challenges of education, poor educational management, and educational-occupational resiliency. Empowering education was the core variable derived from the research, based on which a grounded theory was proposed. The new empowering education model was composed of self-directed learning and practical learning. There are several strategies to achieve empowering education, including the fostering of searching skills, clinical performance monitoring, motivational factors, participation in the design and implementation, and problem-solving approach. Empowering education is a new model for in-service training of nurses, which matches the training programs with andragogical needs and desirability of learning among the staff. Owing to its practical nature, the empowering education can facilitate occupational tasks and achieving greater mastery of professional skills among the nurses.

Adding Value to the Network: Exploring the Software as a Service and Platform as a Service Models for Mobile Operators

Science.gov (United States)

Gonçalves, Vânia

The environments of software development and software provision are shifting to Web-based platforms supported by Platform/Software as a Service (PaaS/SaaS) models. This paper will make the case that there is equally an opportunity for mobile operators to identify additional sources of revenue by exposing network functionalities through Web-based service platforms. By elaborating on the concepts, benefits and risks of SaaS and PaaS, several factors that should be taken into consideration in applying these models to the telecom world are delineated.

Modeling Message Queueing Services with Reliability Guarantee in Cloud Computing Environment Using Colored Petri Nets

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Jing Li

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Motivated by the need for loosely coupled and asynchronous dissemination of information, message queues are widely used in large-scale application areas. With the advent of virtualization technology, cloud-based message queueing services (CMQSs with distributed computing and storage are widely adopted to improve availability, scalability, and reliability; however, a critical issue is its performance and the quality of service (QoS. While numerous approaches evaluating system performance are available, there is no modeling approach for estimating and analyzing the performance of CMQSs. In this paper, we employ both the analytical and simulation modeling to address the performance of CMQSs with reliability guarantee. We present a visibility-based modeling approach (VMA for simulation model using colored Petri nets (CPN. Our model incorporates the important features of message queueing services in the cloud such as replication, message consistency, resource virtualization, and especially the mechanism named visibility timeout which is adopted in the services to guarantee system reliability. Finally, we evaluate our model through different experiments under varied scenarios to obtain important performance metrics such as total message delivery time, waiting number, and components utilization. Our results reveal considerable insights into resource scheduling and system configuration for service providers to estimate and gain performance optimization.

Modeling work of the dispatching service of high-rise building as queuing system

Science.gov (United States)

Dement'eva, Marina; Dement'eva, Anastasiya

2018-03-01

The article presents the results of calculating the performance indicators of the dispatcher service of a high-rise building as a queuing system with an unlimited queue. The calculation was carried out for three models: with a single control room and brigade of service, with a single control room and a specialized service, with several dispatch centers and specialized services. The aim of the work was to investigate the influence of the structural scheme of the organization of the dispatcher service of a high-rise building on the amount of operating costs and the time of processing and fulfilling applications. The problems of high-rise construction and their impact on the complication of exploitation are analyzed. The composition of exploitation activities of high-rise buildings is analyzed. The relevance of the study is justified by the need to review the role of dispatch services in the structure of management of the quality of buildings. Dispatching service from the lower level of management of individual engineering systems becomes the main link in the centralized automated management of the exploitation of high-rise buildings. With the transition to market relations, the criterion of profitability at the organization of the dispatching service becomes one of the main parameters of the effectiveness of its work. A mathematical model for assessing the efficiency of the dispatching service on a set of quality of service indicators is proposed. The structure of operating costs is presented. The algorithm of decision-making is given when choosing the optimal structural scheme of the dispatching service of a high-rise building.

Resource Storage Management Model For Ensuring Quality Of Service In The Cloud Archive Systems

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Mariusz Kapanowski

2014-01-01

Full Text Available Nowadays, service providers offer a lot of IT services in the public or private cloud. The client can buy various kinds of services like SaaS, PaaS, etc. Recently there was introduced Backup as a Service (BaaS as a variety of SaaS. At the moment there are available several different BaaSes for archiving the data in the cloud, but they provide only a basic level of service quality. In the paper we propose a model which ensures QoS for BaaS and some  methods for management of storage resources aimed at achieving the required SLA. This model introduces a set of parameters responsible for SLA level which can be offered on the basic or higher level of quality. The storage systems (typically HSM, which are distributed between several Data Centres,  are built based on disk arrays, VTLs, and tape libraries. The RSMM model does not assume bandwidth reservation or control, but is rather focused on the management of storage resources.

Pattern-based translation of BPMN process models to BPEL web services

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ouyang, C.; Dumas, M.; Hofstede, ter A.H.M.; Aalst, van der W.M.P.

2008-01-01

The business process modeling notation (BPMN) is a graph-oriented language primarily targeted at domain analysts and supported by many modeling tools. The business process execution language for Web services (BPEL) on the other hand is a mainly block-structured language targeted at software

Service-oriented enterprise modelling and analysis: a case study

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Iacob, Maria Eugenia; Jonkers, H.; Lankhorst, M.M.; Steen, M.W.A.

2007-01-01

In order to validate the concepts and techniques for service-oriented enterprise architecture modelling, developed in the ArchiMate project (Lankhorst, et al., 2005), we have conducted a number of case studies. This paper describes one of these case studies, conducted at the Dutch Tax and Customs

Alternative Public Service Delivery Models in Health, Water and ...

International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

The literature on public service delivery alternatives has to date been highly localized, sector specific and lacking in methodological consistency. This project seeks to analyze health, water and electricity delivery models in Africa, Asia and Latin America in order to identify and document successful alternatives to ...

Model-Driven Development for PDS4 Software and Services

Science.gov (United States)

Hughes, J. S.; Crichton, D. J.; Algermissen, S. S.; Cayanan, M. D.; Joyner, R. S.; Hardman, S. H.; Padams, J. H.

2018-04-01

PDS4 data product labels provide the information necessary for processing the referenced digital object. However, significantly more information is available in the PDS4 Information Model. This additional information is made available for use, by both software and services, to configure, promote resiliency, and improve interoperability.

An Integrated Recovery-oriented Model (IRM) for mental health services: evolution and challenges.

Science.gov (United States)

Frost, Barry G; Tirupati, Srinivasan; Johnston, Suzanne; Turrell, Megan; Lewin, Terry J; Sly, Ketrina A; Conrad, Agatha M

2017-01-17

Over past decades, improvements in longer-term clinical and personal outcomes for individuals experiencing serious mental illness (SMI) have been moderate, although recovery has clearly been shown to be possible. Recovery experiences are inherently personal, and recovery can be complex and non-linear; however, there are a broad range of potential recovery contexts and contributors, both non-professional and professional. Ongoing refinement of recovery-oriented models for mental health (MH) services needs to be fostered. This descriptive paper outlines a service-wide Integrated Recovery-oriented Model (IRM) for MH services, designed to enhance personally valued health, wellbeing and social inclusion outcomes by increasing access to evidenced-based psychosocial interventions (EBIs) within a service context that supports recovery as both a process and an outcome. Evolution of the IRM is characterised as a series of five broad challenges, which draw together: relevant recovery perspectives; overall service delivery frameworks; psychiatric and psychosocial rehabilitation approaches and literature; our own clinical and service delivery experience; and implementation, evaluation and review strategies. The model revolves around the person's changing recovery needs, focusing on underlying processes and the service frameworks to support and reinforce hope as a primary catalyst for symptomatic and functional recovery. Within the IRM, clinical rehabilitation (CR) practices, processes and partnerships facilitate access to psychosocial EBIs to promote hope, recovery, self-agency and social inclusion. Core IRM components are detailed (remediation of functioning; collaborative restoration of skills and competencies; and active community reconnection), together with associated phases, processes, evaluation strategies, and an illustrative IRM scenario. The achievement of these goals requires ongoing collaboration with community organisations. Improved outcomes are achievable for

The state of the art of innovation-driven business models in the financial services industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Lüftenegger, E.R.; Angelov, S.A.; Linden, van der E.; Grefen, P.W.P.J.

2010-01-01

Emerging innovation-driven business models are changing the financial services landscape. Most companies are using innovation to sustain their business models. However, new entrants into the financial services market innovate in a way that disrupts the industry. Typically, directions for innovation

Model to Implement Virtual Computing Labs via Cloud Computing Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Washington Luna Encalada

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In recent years, we have seen a significant number of new technological ideas appearing in literature discussing the future of education. For example, E-learning, cloud computing, social networking, virtual laboratories, virtual realities, virtual worlds, massive open online courses (MOOCs, and bring your own device (BYOD are all new concepts of immersive and global education that have emerged in educational literature. One of the greatest challenges presented to e-learning solutions is the reproduction of the benefits of an educational institution’s physical laboratory. For a university without a computing lab, to obtain hands-on IT training with software, operating systems, networks, servers, storage, and cloud computing similar to that which could be received on a university campus computing lab, it is necessary to use a combination of technological tools. Such teaching tools must promote the transmission of knowledge, encourage interaction and collaboration, and ensure students obtain valuable hands-on experience. That, in turn, allows the universities to focus more on teaching and research activities than on the implementation and configuration of complex physical systems. In this article, we present a model for implementing ecosystems which allow universities to teach practical Information Technology (IT skills. The model utilizes what is called a “social cloud”, which utilizes all cloud computing services, such as Software as a Service (SaaS, Platform as a Service (PaaS, and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS. Additionally, it integrates the cloud learning aspects of a MOOC and several aspects of social networking and support. Social clouds have striking benefits such as centrality, ease of use, scalability, and ubiquity, providing a superior learning environment when compared to that of a simple physical lab. The proposed model allows students to foster all the educational pillars such as learning to know, learning to be, learning

Developing a change model for peer worker interventions in mental health services: a qualitative research study.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillard, S; Gibson, S L; Holley, J; Lucock, M

2015-10-01

A range of peer worker roles are being introduced into mental health services internationally. There is some evidence that attests to the benefits of peer workers for the people they support but formal trial evidence in inconclusive, in part because the change model underpinning peer support-based interventions is underdeveloped. Complex intervention evaluation guidance suggests that understandings of how an intervention is associated with change in outcomes should be modelled, theoretically and empirically, before the intervention can be robustly evaluated. This paper aims to model the change mechanisms underlying peer worker interventions. In a qualitative, comparative case study of ten peer worker initiatives in statutory and voluntary sector mental health services in England in-depth interviews were carried out with 71 peer workers, service users, staff and managers, exploring their experiences of peer working. Using a Grounded Theory approach we identified core processes within the peer worker role that were productive of change for service users supported by peer workers. Key change mechanisms were: (i) building trusting relationships based on shared lived experience; (ii) role-modelling individual recovery and living well with mental health problems; (iii) engaging service users with mental health services and the community. Mechanisms could be further explained by theoretical literature on role-modelling and relationship in mental health services. We were able to model process and downstream outcomes potentially associated with peer worker interventions. An empirically and theoretically grounded change model can be articulated that usefully informs the development, evaluation and planning of peer worker interventions.

An order insertion scheduling model of logistics service supply chain considering capacity and time factors.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Weihua; Yang, Yi; Wang, Shuqing; Liu, Yang

2014-01-01

Order insertion often occurs in the scheduling process of logistics service supply chain (LSSC), which disturbs normal time scheduling especially in the environment of mass customization logistics service. This study analyses order similarity coefficient and order insertion operation process and then establishes an order insertion scheduling model of LSSC with service capacity and time factors considered. This model aims to minimize the average unit volume operation cost of logistics service integrator and maximize the average satisfaction degree of functional logistics service providers. In order to verify the viability and effectiveness of our model, a specific example is numerically analyzed. Some interesting conclusions are obtained. First, along with the increase of completion time delay coefficient permitted by customers, the possible inserting order volume first increases and then trends to be stable. Second, supply chain performance reaches the best when the volume of inserting order is equal to the surplus volume of the normal operation capacity in mass service process. Third, the larger the normal operation capacity in mass service process is, the bigger the possible inserting order's volume will be. Moreover, compared to increasing the completion time delay coefficient, improving the normal operation capacity of mass service process is more useful.

Knowledge service decision making in business incubators based on the supernetwork model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Liming; Zhang, Haihong; Wu, Wenqing

2017-08-01

As valuable resources for incubating firms, knowledge resources have received gradually increasing attention from all types of business incubators, and business incubators use a variety of knowledge services to stimulate rapid growth in incubating firms. Based on previous research, we generalize the knowledge transfer and knowledge networking services of two main forms of knowledge services and further divide knowledge transfer services into knowledge depth services and knowledge breadth services. Then, we construct the business incubators' knowledge supernetwork model, describe the evolution mechanism among heterogeneous agents and utilize a simulation to explore the performance variance of different business incubators' knowledge services. The simulation results show that knowledge stock increases faster when business incubators are able to provide knowledge services to more incubating firms and that the degree of discrepancy in the knowledge stock increases during the process of knowledge growth. Further, knowledge transfer services lead to greater differences in the knowledge structure, while knowledge networking services lead to smaller differences. Regarding the two types of knowledge transfer services, knowledge depth services are more conducive to knowledge growth than knowledge breadth services, but knowledge depth services lead to greater gaps in knowledge stocks and greater differences in knowledge structures. Overall, it is optimal for business incubators to select a single knowledge service or portfolio strategy based on the amount of time and energy expended on the two types of knowledge services.

CO-CD base management model of Universitas Terbuka community service program

Science.gov (United States)

Kridasakti, S. W.; Sudirah; Siregar, H.

2018-03-01

These studies were to respond whether the UT social-aid management had been executed under CO-CD principles (Ife J. 1995) and what CO-CD base community service management model can be built. The goals of these evaluational studies were UT social-aid managerial performance profile (2011-2013) and CO-CD management model development. The methods used were Survey and FGD. For data collection were involving the UT officers, the counterparts, and the documents. The analysis used combination between the Performance Analysis (Irawan P., 2003) and the CIPP (Stuffelbeam, D, L., & Shinkfield, A, J., 1985). The findings showed that the quantitative targeting in program completion was credible in achievement (85%). However, the “qulitative targeting” of the management goals was indicating far from a good-stage (≤5.0_Interval-Force: 1-10 Scale). The “Gap” was due to the absent of socialization_needs-analysis_maintenance_release factors on the UT social-service grand-policy. The trial of CO-CD Base Management Model had been imposed to the community that turned out to be very effective to self-help, and the ensuing SOP had been successfully defined. Conclusion, ‘CO-CD Principles’ were not designed in UT community service programs management. However, if efficiency and effectivity likely to be achieved, the SOP of ‘CO-CD Base Management Model has to be adopted.

Office-based deep sedation for pediatric ophthalmologic procedures using a sedation service model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lalwani, Kirk; Tomlinson, Matthew; Koh, Jeffrey; Wheeler, David

2012-01-01

Aims. (1) To assess the efficacy and safety of pediatric office-based sedation for ophthalmologic procedures using a pediatric sedation service model. (2) To assess the reduction in hospital charges of this model of care delivery compared to the operating room (OR) setting for similar procedures. Background. Sedation is used to facilitate pediatric procedures and to immobilize patients for imaging and examination. We believe that the pediatric sedation service model can be used to facilitate office-based deep sedation for brief ophthalmologic procedures and examinations. Methods. After IRB approval, all children who underwent office-based ophthalmologic procedures at our institution between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2008 were identified using the sedation service database and the electronic health record. A comparison of hospital charges between similar procedures in the operating room was performed. Results. A total of 855 procedures were reviewed. Procedure completion rate was 100% (C.I. 99.62-100). There were no serious complications or unanticipated admissions. Our analysis showed a significant reduction in hospital charges (average of $1287 per patient) as a result of absent OR and recovery unit charges. Conclusions. Pediatric ophthalmologic minor procedures can be performed using a sedation service model with significant reductions in hospital charges.

Office-Based Deep Sedation for Pediatric Ophthalmologic Procedures Using a Sedation Service Model

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kirk Lalwani

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Aims. (1 To assess the efficacy and safety of pediatric office-based sedation for ophthalmologic procedures using a pediatric sedation service model. (2 To assess the reduction in hospital charges of this model of care delivery compared to the operating room (OR setting for similar procedures. Background. Sedation is used to facilitate pediatric procedures and to immobilize patients for imaging and examination. We believe that the pediatric sedation service model can be used to facilitate office-based deep sedation for brief ophthalmologic procedures and examinations. Methods. After IRB approval, all children who underwent office-based ophthalmologic procedures at our institution between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2008 were identified using the sedation service database and the electronic health record. A comparison of hospital charges between similar procedures in the operating room was performed. Results. A total of 855 procedures were reviewed. Procedure completion rate was 100% (C.I. 99.62–100. There were no serious complications or unanticipated admissions. Our analysis showed a significant reduction in hospital charges (average of $1287 per patient as a result of absent OR and recovery unit charges. Conclusions. Pediatric ophthalmologic minor procedures can be performed using a sedation service model with significant reductions in hospital charges.

A stepped-care model of post-disaster child and adolescent mental health service provision.

Science.gov (United States)

McDermott, Brett M; Cobham, Vanessa E

2014-01-01

From a global perspective, natural disasters are common events. Published research highlights that a significant minority of exposed children and adolescents develop disaster-related mental health syndromes and associated functional impairment. Consistent with the considerable unmet need of children and adolescents with regard to psychopathology, there is strong evidence that many children and adolescents with post-disaster mental health presentations are not receiving adequate interventions. To critique existing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) models of care and the capacity of such models to deal with any post-disaster surge in clinical demand. Further, to detail an innovative service response; a child and adolescent stepped-care service provision model. A narrative review of traditional CAMHS is presented. Important elements of a disaster response - individual versus community recovery, public health approaches, capacity for promotion and prevention and service reach are discussed and compared with the CAMHS approach. Difficulties with traditional models of care are highlighted across all levels of intervention; from the ability to provide preventative initiatives to the capacity to provide intense specialised posttraumatic stress disorder interventions. In response, our over-arching stepped-care model is advocated. The general response is discussed and details of the three tiers of the model are provided: Tier 1 communication strategy, Tier 2 parent effectiveness and teacher training, and Tier 3 screening linked to trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy. In this paper, we argue that traditional CAMHS are not an appropriate model of care to meet the clinical needs of this group in the post-disaster setting. We conclude with suggestions how improved post-disaster child and adolescent mental health outcomes can be achieved by applying an innovative service approach.

Service technologies as factor of service and tourism companies' competitiveness

OpenAIRE

Zhanna Gornostaeva; Vladimir Zhidkov

2014-01-01

The authors define the role of service technology in shaping the quality of service and tourism companies, the authors' method of measuring the quality of service and tourism businesses and developing a conceptual model of quality of service and the conceptual model of the internal quality of the service, and also carry out testing of the model on the example of the 'Intourist' Hotel in Volgograd, Russia.

AN INFORMATION SERVICE MODEL FOR REMOTE SENSING EMERGENCY SERVICES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Z. Zhang

2017-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a method on the semantic access environment, which can solve the problem about how to identify the correct natural disaster emergency knowledge and return to the demanders. The study data is natural disaster knowledge text set. Firstly, based on the remote sensing emergency knowledge database, we utilize the sematic network to extract the key words in the input documents dataset. Then, using the semantic analysis based on words segmentation and PLSA, to establish the sematic access environment to identify the requirement of users and match the emergency knowledge in the database. Finally, the user preference model was established, which could help the system to return the corresponding information to the different users. The results indicate that semantic analysis can dispose the natural disaster knowledge effectively, which will realize diversified information service, enhance the precision of information retrieval and satisfy the requirement of users.

Service Level Decision-making in Rural Physiotherapy: Development of Conceptual Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Robyn; Jones, Anne; Lefmann, Sophie; Sheppard, Lorraine

2016-06-01

Understanding decision-making about health service provision is increasingly important in an environment of increasing demand and constrained resources. Multiple factors are likely to influence decisions about which services will be provided, yet workforce is the most noted factor in the rural physiotherapy literature. This paper draws together results obtained from exploration of service level decision-making (SLDM) to propose 'conceptual' models of rural physiotherapy SLDM. A prioritized qualitative approach enabled exploration of participant perspectives about rural physiotherapy decision-making. Stakeholder perspectives were obtained through surveys and in-depth interviews. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and reviewed by participants. Participant confidentiality was maintained by coding both participants and sites. A system theory-case study heuristic provided a framework for exploration across sites within the investigation area: a large area of one Australian state with a mix of regional, rural and remote communities. Thirty-nine surveys were received from participants in 11 communities. Nineteen in-depth interviews were conducted with physiotherapists and key decision-makers. Results reveal the complexity of factors influencing rural physiotherapy service provision and the value of a systems approach when exploring decision-making about rural physiotherapy service provision. Six key features were identified that formed the rural physiotherapy SLDM system: capacity and capability; contextual influences; layered decision-making; access issues; value and beliefs; and tensions and conflict. Rural physiotherapy SLDM is not a one-dimensional process but results from the complex interaction of clusters of systems issues. Decision-making about physiotherapy service provision is influenced by both internal and external factors. Similarities in influencing factors and the iterative nature of decision-making emerged, which enabled linking physiotherapy SLDM with

Empowering education: A new model for in-service training of nursing staff

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MAHMUD CHAGHARI

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: In-service training of nurses plays an indispensable role in improving the quality of inpatient care. Need to enhance the effectiveness of in-service training of nurses is an inevitable requirement. This study attempted to design a new optimal model for in-service training of nurses. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted in two stages during 2015-2016. In the first stage, the Grounded Theory was adopted to explore the process of training 35 participating nurses. The sampling was initially purposeful and then theoretically based on emerging concept. Data were collected through interview, observation and field notes. Moreover, the data were analyzed through Corbin-Strauss method and the data were coded through MAXQDA-10. In the second stage, the findings were employed through Walker and Avant’s strategy for theory construction so as to design an optimal model for in-service training of nursing staff. Results: In the first stage, there were five major themes including unsuccessful mandatory education, empowering education, organizational challenges of education, poor educational management, and educational-occupational resiliency. Empowering education was the core variable derived from the research, based on which a grounded theory was proposed. The new empowering education model was composed of self-directed learning and practical learning. There are several strategies to achieve empowering education, including the fostering of searching skills, clinical performance monitoring, motivational factors, participation in the design and implementation, and problem-solving approach. Conclusion: Empowering education is a new model for in-service training of nurses, which matches the training programs with andragogical needs and desirability of learning among the staff. Owing to its practical nature, the empowering education can facilitate occupational tasks and achieving greater mastery of professional skills among the nurses.

Extending Geographic Weights of Evidence Models for Use in Location Based Services

Science.gov (United States)

Sonwalkar, Mukul Dinkar

2012-01-01

This dissertation addresses the use and modeling of spatio-temporal data for the purposes of providing applications for location based services. One of the major issues in dealing with spatio-temporal data for location based services is the availability and sparseness of such data. Other than the hardware costs associated with collecting movement…

Interpersonal social responsibility model of service learning: A longitudinal study.

Science.gov (United States)

Lahav, Orit; Daniely, Noa; Yalon-Chamovitz, Shira

2018-01-01

Service-learning (SL) is commonly used in Occupational Therapy (OT) programs worldwide as a community placement educational strategy. However, most SL models are not clearly defined in terms of both methodology and learning outcomes. This longitudinal study explores a structured model of Service-Learning (Interpersonal Social Responsibility-Service Learning: ISR-SL) aimed towards the development of professional identity among OT students. Based on OT students experiences from the end of the course through later stages as mature students and professionals. A qualitative research design was used to explore the perceptions and experiences of 150 first, second, and third-year OT students and graduates who have participated in ISR-SL during their first academic year. Our findings suggest that the structured, long-term relationship with a person with a disability in the natural environment, which is the core of the ISR-SL, allowed students to develop a professional identity based on seeing the person as a whole and recognizing his/her centrality in the therapeutic relationship. This study suggests ISR-SL as future direction or next step for implementing SL in OT and other healthcare disciplines programs.

Involving mental health service users in suicide-related research: a qualitative inquiry model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lees, David; Procter, Nicholas; Fassett, Denise; Handley, Christine

2016-03-01

To describe the research model developed and successfully deployed as part of a multi-method qualitative study investigating suicidal service-users' experiences of mental health nursing care. Quality mental health care is essential to limiting the occurrence and burden of suicide, however there is a lack of relevant research informing practice in this context. Research utilising first-person accounts of suicidality is of particular importance to expanding the existing evidence base. However, conducting ethical research to support this imperative is challenging. The model discussed here illustrates specific and more generally applicable principles for qualitative research regarding sensitive topics and involving potentially vulnerable service-users. Researching into mental health service users with first-person experience of suicidality requires stakeholder and institutional support, researcher competency, and participant recruitment, consent, confidentiality, support and protection. Research with service users into their experiences of sensitive issues such as suicidality can result in rich and valuable data, and may also provide positive experiences of collaboration and inclusivity. If challenges are not met, objectification and marginalisation of service-users may be reinforced, and limitations in the evidence base and service provision may be perpetuated.

Convolution Model of a Queueing System with the cFIFO Service Discipline

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sławomir Hanczewski

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This article presents an approximate convolution model of a multiservice queueing system with the continuous FIFO (cFIFO service discipline. The model makes it possible to service calls sequentially with variable bit rate, determined by unoccupied (free resources of the multiservice server. As compared to the FIFO discipline, the cFIFO queue utilizes the resources of a multiservice server more effectively. The assumption in the model is that the queueing system is offered a mixture of independent multiservice Bernoulli-Poisson-Pascal (BPP call streams. The article also discusses the results of modelling a number of queueing systems to which different, non-Poissonian, call streams are offered. To verify the accuracy of the model, the results of the analytical calculations are compared with the results of simulation experiments for a number of selected queueing systems. The study has confirmed the accuracy of all adopted theoretical assumptions for the proposed analytical model.

47 CFR 76.1905 - Petitions to modify encoding rules for new services within defined business models.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... services within defined business models. 76.1905 Section 76.1905 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS... Rules § 76.1905 Petitions to modify encoding rules for new services within defined business models. (a) The encoding rules for defined business models in § 76.1904 reflect the conventional methods for...

Modeling and performance analysis for composite network–compute service provisioning in software-defined cloud environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qiang Duan

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The crucial role of networking in Cloud computing calls for a holistic vision of both networking and computing systems that leads to composite network–compute service provisioning. Software-Defined Network (SDN is a fundamental advancement in networking that enables network programmability. SDN and software-defined compute/storage systems form a Software-Defined Cloud Environment (SDCE that may greatly facilitate composite network–compute service provisioning to Cloud users. Therefore, networking and computing systems need to be modeled and analyzed as composite service provisioning systems in order to obtain thorough understanding about service performance in SDCEs. In this paper, a novel approach for modeling composite network–compute service capabilities and a technique for evaluating composite network–compute service performance are developed. The analytic method proposed in this paper is general and agnostic to service implementation technologies; thus is applicable to a wide variety of network–compute services in SDCEs. The results obtained in this paper provide useful guidelines for federated control and management of networking and computing resources to achieve Cloud service performance guarantees.

A Global Remote Laboratory Experimentation Network and the Experiment Service Provider Business Model and Plans

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tor Ivar Eikaas

2003-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents results from the IST KAII Trial project ReLAX - Remote LAboratory eXperimentation trial (IST 1999-20827, and contributes with a framework for a global remote laboratory experimentation network supported by a new business model. The paper presents this new Experiment Service Provider business model that aims at bringing physical experimentation back into the learning arena, where remotely operable laboratory experiments used in advanced education and training schemes are made available to a global education and training market in industry and academia. The business model is based on an approach where individual experiment owners offer remote access to their high-quality laboratory facilities to users around the world. The usage can be for research, education, on-the-job training etc. The access to these facilities is offered via an independent operating company - the Experiment Service Provider. The Experiment Service Provider offers eCommerce services like booking, access control, invoicing, dispute resolution, quality control, customer evaluation services and a unified Lab Portal.

A Consideration on Service Business Model for Saving Energy and Reduction of CO2 Emissions Using Inverters

Science.gov (United States)

Kosaka, Michitaka; Yabutani, Takashi

This paper considers the effectiveness of service business approach for reducing CO2 emission. “HDRIVE” is a service business using inverters to reduce energy consumption of motor drive. The business model of this service is changed for finding new opportunities of CO2 emission reduction by combining various factors such as financial service or long-term service contract. Risk analysis of this business model is very important for giving stable services to users for long term. HDRIVE business model is found to be suitable for this objective. This service can be applied to the industries such as chemical or steel industry effectively, where CO2 emission is very large, and has the possibility of creating new business considering CDM or trading CO2 emission right. The effectiveness of this approach is demonstrated through several examples in real business.

Predicting Urban Medical Services Demand in China: An Improved Grey Markov Chain Model by Taylor Approximation.

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Jinli; Jiao, Feng; Zhang, Qishan; Lin, Zhibin

2017-08-06

The sharp increase of the aging population has raised the pressure on the current limited medical resources in China. To better allocate resources, a more accurate prediction on medical service demand is very urgently needed. This study aims to improve the prediction on medical services demand in China. To achieve this aim, the study combines Taylor Approximation into the Grey Markov Chain model, and develops a new model named Taylor-Markov Chain GM (1,1) (T-MCGM (1,1)). The new model has been tested by adopting the historical data, which includes the medical service on treatment of diabetes, heart disease, and cerebrovascular disease from 1997 to 2015 in China. The model provides a predication on medical service demand of these three types of disease up to 2022. The results reveal an enormous growth of urban medical service demand in the future. The findings provide practical implications for the Health Administrative Department to allocate medical resources, and help hospitals to manage investments on medical facilities.

Supporting good practice in the provision of services to people with comorbid mental health and alcohol and other drug problems in Australia: describing key elements of good service models

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Canaway Rachel

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The co-occurrence of mental illness and substance use problems (referred to as "comorbidity" in this paper is common, and is often reported by service providers as the expectation rather than the exception. Despite this, many different treatment service models are being used in the alcohol and other drugs (AOD and mental health (MH sectors to treat this complex client group. While there is abundant literature in the area of comorbidity treatment, no agreed overarching framework to describe the range of service delivery models is apparent internationally or at the national level. The aims of the current research were to identify and describe elements of good practice in current service models of treatment of comorbidity in Australia. The focus of the research was on models of service delivery. The research did not aim to measure the client outcomes achieved by individual treatment services, but sought to identify elements of good practice in services. Methods Australian treatment services were identified to take part in the study through a process of expert consultation. The intent was to look for similarities in the delivery models being implemented across a diverse set of services that were perceived to be providing good quality treatment for people with comorbidity problems. Results A survey was designed based on a concept map of service delivery devised from a literature review. Seventeen Australian treatment services participated in the survey, which explored the context in which services operate, inputs such as organisational philosophy and service structure, policies and procedures that guide the way in which treatment is delivered by the service, practices that reflect the way treatment is provided to clients, and client impacts. Conclusions The treatment of people with comorbidity of mental health and substance use disorders presents complex problems that require strong but flexible service models. While the treatment

Ecosystem Services Modeling as a Tool for Defining Priority Areas for Conservation.

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Gabriela Teixeira Duarte

Full Text Available Conservationists often have difficulty obtaining financial and social support for protected areas that do not demonstrate their benefits for society. Therefore, ecosystem services have gained importance in conservation science in the last decade, as these services provide further justification for appropriate management and conservation of natural systems. We used InVEST software and a set of GIS procedures to quantify, spatialize and evaluated the overlap between ecosystem services-carbon stock and sediment retention-and a biodiversity proxy-habitat quality. In addition, we proposed a method that serves as an initial approach of a priority areas selection process. The method considers the synergism between ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Our study region is the Iron Quadrangle, an important Brazilian mining province and a conservation priority area located in the interface of two biodiversity hotspots, the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes. The resultant priority area for the maintenance of the highest values of ecosystem services and habitat quality was about 13% of the study area. Among those priority areas, 30% are already within established strictly protected areas, and 12% are in sustainable use protected areas. Following the transparent and highly replicable method we proposed in this study, conservation planners can better determine which areas fulfill multiple goals and can locate the trade-offs in the landscape. We also gave a step towards the improvement of the habitat quality model with a topography parameter. In areas of very rugged topography, we have to consider geomorfometric barriers for anthropogenic impacts and for species movement and we must think beyond the linear distances. Moreover, we used a model that considers the tree mortality caused by edge effects in the estimation of carbon stock. We found low spatial congruence among the modeled services, mostly because of the pattern of sediment retention

Ecosystem Services Modeling as a Tool for Defining Priority Areas for Conservation.

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, Gabriela Teixeira; Ribeiro, Milton Cezar; Paglia, Adriano Pereira

2016-01-01

Conservationists often have difficulty obtaining financial and social support for protected areas that do not demonstrate their benefits for society. Therefore, ecosystem services have gained importance in conservation science in the last decade, as these services provide further justification for appropriate management and conservation of natural systems. We used InVEST software and a set of GIS procedures to quantify, spatialize and evaluated the overlap between ecosystem services-carbon stock and sediment retention-and a biodiversity proxy-habitat quality. In addition, we proposed a method that serves as an initial approach of a priority areas selection process. The method considers the synergism between ecosystem services and biodiversity conservation. Our study region is the Iron Quadrangle, an important Brazilian mining province and a conservation priority area located in the interface of two biodiversity hotspots, the Cerrado and Atlantic Forest biomes. The resultant priority area for the maintenance of the highest values of ecosystem services and habitat quality was about 13% of the study area. Among those priority areas, 30% are already within established strictly protected areas, and 12% are in sustainable use protected areas. Following the transparent and highly replicable method we proposed in this study, conservation planners can better determine which areas fulfill multiple goals and can locate the trade-offs in the landscape. We also gave a step towards the improvement of the habitat quality model with a topography parameter. In areas of very rugged topography, we have to consider geomorfometric barriers for anthropogenic impacts and for species movement and we must think beyond the linear distances. Moreover, we used a model that considers the tree mortality caused by edge effects in the estimation of carbon stock. We found low spatial congruence among the modeled services, mostly because of the pattern of sediment retention distribution.

Modelling CRM implementation services with SysML

OpenAIRE

Bibiano, Luis H.; Pastor Collado, Juan Antonio; Mayol Sarroca, Enric

2009-01-01

CRM information systems are valuable tools for enterprises. But CRM implementation projects are risky and present a high failure rate. In this paper we regard CRM implementation projects as services that could be greatly improved by addressing them in a methodological way that can be designed with the help of tools such as SysML. Here we introduce and comment on our first experience on the use of SysML language, not very well known, for modelling the elements involved in the CRM implementatio...

Service Interaction Flow Analysis Technique for Service Personalization

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Korhonen, Olli; Kinnula, Marianne; Syrjanen, Anna-Liisa

2017-01-01

Service interaction flows are difficult to capture, analyze, outline, and represent for research and design purposes. We examine how variation of personalized service flows in technology-mediated service interaction can be modeled and analyzed to provide information on how service personalization...... could support interaction. We have analyzed service interaction cases in a context of technology-mediated car rental service. With the analysis technique we propose, inspired by Interaction Analysis method, we were able to capture and model the situational service interaction. Our contribution regarding...... technology-mediated service interaction design is twofold: First, with the increased understanding on the role of personalization in managing variation in technology-mediated service interaction, our study contributes to designing service management information systems and human-computer interfaces...

ServiceBlueprinting as a service management tool in radiology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maurer, Martin H.; Hamm, Bernd; Teichgraeber, Ulf

2011-01-01

Purpose: To describe the ServiceBlueprint model as a suitable method of service management in clinical medicine using the example of the routine clinical setting of a radiological department. Materials and methods: ServiceBlueprinting is a concept for the analysis, visualization, and optimization of service processes. To investigate whether the model will also provide a suitable representation of medical services, particularly the provision of radiological services, ServiceBlueprints were created for the modality computed tomography (CT). To this end, an independent observer analyzed the workflow of 40 consecutive CT examinations. Results: The ServiceBlueprint provided an analysis of the status quo of the service processes in CT imaging modality. Weak points in the processes thus became immediately apparent. The model could also be used for personnel management in that it helped to define the roles of staff members from different categories in the value-added process. It served as a basis for the implementation of quality management systems according to Total Quality Management (TQM) and DIN-EN-ISO-9001:2000. Conclusions: The ServiceBlueprint model is a service management concept that is also suitable to visualize medical service processes in routine clinical settings like in a radiology department and has a multifarious potential in process optimization, implementation of quality management systems, and human resources management.

A Validated Analytical Model for Availability Prediction of IPTV Services in VANETs

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Bernd E. Wolfinger

2014-12-01

Full Text Available In vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs, besides the original applications typically related to traffic safety, we nowadays can observe an increasing trend toward infotainment applications, such as IPTV services. Quality of experience (QoE, as observed by the end users of IPTV, is highly important to guarantee adequate user acceptance for the service. In IPTV, QoE is mainly determined by the availability of TV channels for the users. This paper presents an efficient and rather generally applicable analytical model that allows one to predict the blocking probability of TV channels, both for channel-switching-induced, as well as for handover-induced blocking events. We present the successful validation of the model by means of simulation, and we introduce a new measure for QoE. Numerous case studies illustrate how the analytical model and our new QoE measure can be applied successfully for the dimensioning of IPTV systems, taking into account the QoE requirements of the IPTV service users in strongly diverse traffic scenarios.

GPCRM: a homology modeling web service with triple membrane-fitted quality assessment of GPCR models.

Science.gov (United States)

Miszta, Przemyslaw; Pasznik, Pawel; Jakowiecki, Jakub; Sztyler, Agnieszka; Latek, Dorota; Filipek, Slawomir

2018-05-21

Due to the involvement of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) in most of the physiological and pathological processes in humans they have been attracting a lot of attention from pharmaceutical industry as well as from scientific community. Therefore, the need for new, high quality structures of GPCRs is enormous. The updated homology modeling service GPCRM (http://gpcrm.biomodellab.eu/) meets those expectations by greatly reducing the execution time of submissions (from days to hours/minutes) with nearly the same average quality of obtained models. Additionally, due to three different scoring functions (Rosetta, Rosetta-MP, BCL::Score) it is possible to select accurate models for the required purposes: the structure of the binding site, the transmembrane domain or the overall shape of the receptor. Currently, no other web service for GPCR modeling provides this possibility. GPCRM is continually upgraded in a semi-automatic way and the number of template structures has increased from 20 in 2013 to over 90 including structures the same receptor with different ligands which can influence the structure not only in the on/off manner. Two types of protein viewers can be used for visual inspection of obtained models. The extended sortable tables with available templates provide links to external databases and display ligand-receptor interactions in visual form.

A Dynamic Defense Modeling and Simulation Methodology using Semantic Web Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kangsun Lee

2010-04-01

Full Text Available Defense Modeling and Simulations require interoperable and autonomous federates in order to fully simulate complex behavior of war-fighters and to dynamically adapt themselves to various war-game events, commands and controls. In this paper, we propose a semantic web service based methodology to develop war-game simulations. Our methodology encapsulates war-game logic into a set of web services with additional semantic information in WSDL (Web Service Description Language and OWL (Web Ontology Language. By utilizing dynamic discovery and binding power of semantic web services, we are able to dynamically reconfigure federates according to various simulation events. An ASuW (Anti-Surface Warfare simulator is constructed to demonstrate the methodology and successfully shows that the level of interoperability and autonomy can be greatly improved.

An Investigation of Mathematical Modeling with Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers

Science.gov (United States)

Thrasher, Emily Plunkett

2016-01-01

The goal of this thesis was to investigate and enhance our understanding of what occurs while pre-service mathematics teachers engage in a mathematical modeling unit that is broadly based upon mathematical modeling as defined by the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council…

Models and Tabu Search Metaheuristics for Service Network Design with Asset-Balance Requirements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, Michael Berliner; Crainic, T.G.; Madsen, Oli B.G.

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on a generic model for service network design, which includes asset positioning and utilization through constraints on asset availability at terminals. We denote these relations as "design-balance constraints" and focus on the design-balanced capacitated multicommodity network...... design model, a generalization of the capacitated multicommodity network design model generally used in service network design applications. Both arc-and cycle-based formulations for the new model are presented. The paper also proposes a tabu search metaheuristic framework for the arc-based formulation....... Results on a wide range of network design problem instances from the literature indicate the proposed method behaves very well in terms of computational efficiency and solution quality....

The Nordic welfare model and welfare services - Can we maintain acceptable standards?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Torben M.

used only by those who cannot afford better solutions. Can the Nordic welfare model meet this objective in the future? Increasing productivity and wealth challenge this. Services tend to have lower productivity growth and thus to become more expensive (Baumol’s cost disease), but also to have a high......A key feature of the Nordic welfare model is provision of welfare services like care, education and health. They are individual entitlements, and collectively financed. It is a prerequisite that contemporary standards of services are provided; thus the public solution is not a second rate solution...... income elasticity, and thus demands rise alongside improved material living standards (Wagner effects). The same implies to leisure, implying that tax bases may be eroded. In short, expenditures are on an upward drift and revenues on a downward trend, challenging the financial viability of the welfare...

A stepped-care model of post-disaster child and adolescent mental health service provision

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brett M. McDermott

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Background: From a global perspective, natural disasters are common events. Published research highlights that a significant minority of exposed children and adolescents develop disaster-related mental health syndromes and associated functional impairment. Consistent with the considerable unmet need of children and adolescents with regard to psychopathology, there is strong evidence that many children and adolescents with post-disaster mental health presentations are not receiving adequate interventions. Objective: To critique existing child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS models of care and the capacity of such models to deal with any post-disaster surge in clinical demand. Further, to detail an innovative service response; a child and adolescent stepped-care service provision model. Method: A narrative review of traditional CAMHS is presented. Important elements of a disaster response – individual versus community recovery, public health approaches, capacity for promotion and prevention and service reach are discussed and compared with the CAMHS approach. Results: Difficulties with traditional models of care are highlighted across all levels of intervention; from the ability to provide preventative initiatives to the capacity to provide intense specialised posttraumatic stress disorder interventions. In response, our over-arching stepped-care model is advocated. The general response is discussed and details of the three tiers of the model are provided: Tier 1 communication strategy, Tier 2 parent effectiveness and teacher training, and Tier 3 screening linked to trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy. Conclusion: In this paper, we argue that traditional CAMHS are not an appropriate model of care to meet the clinical needs of this group in the post-disaster setting. We conclude with suggestions how improved post-disaster child and adolescent mental health outcomes can be achieved by applying an innovative service approach.

High Technology Service Value Maximization through an MCDM-Based Innovative e-Business Model

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Chi-Yo; Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung; Ho, Wen-Rong; Chuang, Hsiu-Tyan; Lue, Yeou-Feng

The emergence of the Internet has changed the high technology marketing channels thoroughly in the past decade while E-commerce has already become one of the most efficient channels which high technology firms may skip the intermediaries and reach end customers directly. However, defining appropriate e-business models for commercializing new high technology products or services through Internet are not that easy. To overcome the above mentioned problems, a novel analytic framework based on the concept of high technology customers’ competence set expansion by leveraging high technology service firms’ capabilities and resources as well as novel multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques, will be proposed in order to define an appropriate e-business model. An empirical example study of a silicon intellectual property (SIP) commercialization e-business model based on MCDM techniques will be provided for verifying the effectiveness of this novel analytic framework. The analysis successful assisted a Taiwanese IC design service firm to define an e-business model for maximizing its customer’s SIP transactions. In the future, the novel MCDM framework can be applied successful to novel business model definitions in the high technology industry.

Research-Based Program Development: Refining the Service Model for a Geographic Alliance

Science.gov (United States)

Rutherford, David J.; Lovorn, Carley

2018-01-01

Research conducted in 2013 identified the perceptions that K-12 teachers and administrators hold with respect to: (1) the perceived needs in education, (2) the professional audiences that are most important to reach, and (3) the service models that are most effective. The specific purpose of the research was to refine and improve the services that…

Numerical Study of the Working Process in the Reducing Gas Generator of the Upper Stage Oxygen - Methane Engine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

D. M. Yagodnikov

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This article deals with the problems of creating a reducing gas generator of the liquid rocket engine (LRE of upper stage using advanced fuel components, namely oxygen + liquid natural gas. Relevance of the work is justified by the need to create and develop of environmentally friendly missile systems for space applications using methane-based fuel (liquid natural gas. As compared to the currently used unsymmetrical dimethyl-hydrazine and kerosene, this fuel is environmentally safe, passive to corrosion, has better cooling properties and high energy characteristics in the re-generatively cooled chambers, as well as is advantageous for LRE of multiple start and use.The purpose of this work is a mathematical modeling, calculation of the working process efficiency, as well as study of gas-dynamic structure of the flow in the gas generator flow path. The object of study is the upper stage LRE gas generator, which uses the reducing scheme on the liquid propellants: oxygen + liquid methane. Research methods are based on numerical simulation.Computational studies allowed us to receive the velocity, temperatures, and concentrations of reactants and combustion products in the longitudinal section of gas generator. Analysis of the gas-dynamic structure of flow shows a complete equalization of the velocity field by 2/3 of the gas generator length. Thus, the same distance is not enough to equalize the temperature distribution of the gasification products and their concentrations in radius. Increasing the total excess oxidant ratio from 0.15 to 0.25 leads to a greater spread of the parameters at the exit of the gas generator by ~ 13 ÷ 17%. As a recommendation to reduce the size of the working area, is proposed a dual-zone gas generator-mixing scheme with fuel separately supplied to the first and second zones.

Modeling the consumer's perception of experiential marketing in the Romanian private ophthalmologic services.

Science.gov (United States)

Gheorghe, Consuela-Mădălina; Gheorghe, Iuliana-Raluca; Purcărea, Victor Lorin

2017-01-01

Introduction. The importance of experience in marketing grew, as the concept itself is very personal and difficult to measure. Experience turns out to be complicated but once placed in a context it gets significant features. As the health care competitive environment increases, marketers are looking for new and effective methods of engaging consumers by using experiential marketing strategies. Moreover, little is known about the consumers' perceptions related to ophthalmologic services. Aim. The objective of this paper was to measure the consumer's perception of experiential marketing in the Romanian private ophthalmologic services by using structural equation modeling. Materials and Methods. The Experiential Marketing model consisted of the following components: Sense Experience, Feel Experience, Think Experience, Act Experience and Relate Experience as well as the consequences of applying Experiential Marketing in the form of willingness to purchase a service, generating word-of-mouth communication and building consumer loyalty. The sampling method was non-probabilistic, using the snowball technique and the sample was made up of 190 people who wore eyeglasses for more than 3 years. The instrument for data collection was a self-administered questionnaire, which consisted of 2 parts: the first section contained several demographic questions and the second section encompassed closed end questions related to the perception of private ophthalmologic services from an experiential marketing perspective. All the second section questions were measured on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 with Strongly Disagree to 5 to Strongly Agree. The data analysis was conducted in SPSS and the structural equation modeling was performed in WarpPLS version 6.0. Findings. There were 71.05% respondents, who appreciated the application of experiential marketing in private ophthalmologic services, followed by 18.95%, who were confused. The demographic profile of respondents encompassed

Virtual age model for equipment aging plant based on operation environment and service state

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Liming; Cai Qi; Zhao Xinwen; Chen Ling

2010-01-01

The accelerated life model based on the operation environment and service state was established by taking the virtual age as the equipment aging indices. The effect of different operation environments and service states on the reliability and virtual age under the continuum operation conditions and cycle operation conditions were analyzed, and the sensitivities of virtual age on operational environments and service states were studied. The results of the example application show that the effect of NPP equipment lifetime and the key parameters related to the reliability can be quantified by this model, and the result is in accordance with the reality.(authors)

Bundling into the future - Structural conditions for business model design in new ICT services

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Henten, Anders; Godø, Helge

of services in terms of structural conditions market-wise and in regulatory terms. As the two service categories are relatively new on the market, dominating business model designs have not yet settled and the strategic choices of companies are still open. Being on the market, the discussion on the business......Based on a case study of multi-play and mobile voice over IP (MVoIP) in primarily Denmark and Norway, the paper presents an analysis of the structural conditions for the design of business models regarding new information and communication services. Multi-play and MVoIP represent different kinds...

Linezolid-resistant enterococci in Polish hospitals: species, clonality and determinants of linezolid resistance.

Science.gov (United States)

Gawryszewska, I; Żabicka, D; Hryniewicz, W; Sadowy, E

2017-07-01

The significant increase of the linezolid-resistant enterococci (LRE) has been observed in Polish hospitals since 2012 and our study aimed at elucidating the possible reasons for this phenomenon. Polish LRE isolates were analysed by multilocus-sequence typing (MLST) and multiple locus variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) to establish clonal relatedness and mechanism of linezolid resistance, respectively. Fifty analysed LRE (2008-2015) included mostly Enterococcus faecium (82%) and Enterococcus faecalis (16%). Enterococcus faecium belonged to the hospital-adapted lineages 17/18 and 78, while E. faecalis isolates represented ST6, a hospital-associated type, and ST116, found in both humans and food-production animals. The G2576T 23S rRNA mutation was the most frequent (94%) mechanism of linezolid/tedizolid resistance of LRE. None of the isolates carried the plasmid-associated gene of Cfr methyltransferase, whereas optrA, encoding the ABC-type drug transporter, was identified in two E. faecalis isolates. In these isolates, optrA was located on a plasmid, transferable to both E. faecium and E. faecalis, whose partial (36.3 kb) sequence was 100% identical to the pE394 plasmid, identified previously in China in both clinical and farm animal isolates. The optrA-E. faecium transconjugant displayed a significant growth deficiency, in contrast to the optrA-E. faecalis. Our study indicates the role of mutation acquisition by hospital-adapted clones of enterococci as a major driver of increasing resistance to linezolid and tedizolid. Transferability and apparent lack of a biological cost of resistance suggest that E. faecalis may be a natural reservoir of optrA, an emerging mechanism of oxazolidinone resistance.

Effect of Micro-Teaching Practices with Concrete Models on Pre-Service Mathematics Teachers' Self-Efficacy Beliefs about Using Concrete Models

Science.gov (United States)

Ünlü, Melihan

2018-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of micro-teaching practices with concrete models on the pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about using concrete models and to determine the opinions of the pre-service teachers about this issue. In the current study, one of the mixed methods, the convergent design (embedded)…

IRI related data and model services at NSSDC

Science.gov (United States)

Bilitza, D.; Papitashvili, N.; King, J.

NASA's National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) provides internet access to a large number of space physics data sets and models. We will review and explain the different products and services that might be of interest to the IRI community. Data can be obtained directly through anonymous ftp or through the SPyCAT WWW interface to a large volume of space physics data on juke-box type mass storage devices. A newly developed WWW system, the ATMOWeb, provides browse and sub-setting capabilities for selected atmospheric and thermospheric data. NSSDC maintains an archive of space physics models that includes a subset of ionospheric models. The model software can be retrieved via anonymous ftp. A selection of the most frequently requested models can be run on-line through special WWW interfaces. Currently supported models include the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI), the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) atmospheric model, the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) and the AE-8/AP-8 radiation belt models. In this article special emphasis will be given to the IRI interface and its various input/output options. Several new options and a Java-based plotting capability were recently added to the Web interface.

Using Coupled Simulation Models to Link Pastoral Decision Making and Ecosystem Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Randall B. Boone

2011-06-01

Full Text Available Historically, pastoral people were able to more freely use the services their semi-arid and arid ecosystems provide, and they adapted to changes in ways that improved their well-being. More recently, their ability to adapt has been constrained due to changes from within and from outside their communities. To compare possible responses by pastoral communities, we modeled ecosystem services and tied those services to decisions that people make at the household level. We created an agent-based household model called DECUMA, joined that model with the ecosystem model SAVANNA, and applied the linked models to southeastern Kajiado District, Kenya. The structure of the new agent-based model and linkages between the models are described, and then we demonstrate the model results using a scenario that shows changes in Maasai well-being in response to drought. We then explore two additional but related scenarios, quantifying household well-being if access to a grazing reserve is lost and if access is lost but those most affected are compensated. In the second scenario, households in group ranches abutting the grazing reserve that lost access had large declines in livestock populations, less food energy from animal sources, increased livestock sales and grain purchases, and increased need for supplemental foods. Households in more distant areas showed no changes or had increases in livestock populations because their herds had fewer animals with which to compete for forage. When households neighboring the grazing reserve were compensated for the lease of the lands they had used, they prospered. We describe some benefits and limitations of the agent-based approach.

Defining a 21st Century Air Force (Services) Business Model

Science.gov (United States)

2014-05-10

activity business model. The benefit of sequestration drives efficiencies. However, the Services, Manpower, and Personnel career field has... benefits of the PPV model is government investment costs are very low. While there are times when the host organization may "chip in" a small amount...with a desired concept or brand. The bulk of the funding (usually 75 percent or more) is provided by the brand operator, franchisee or parent

Family planning services for incarcerated women: models for filling an unmet need.

Science.gov (United States)

Sufrin, Carolyn; Baird, Sara; Clarke, Jennifer; Feldman, Elizabeth

2017-03-13

Purpose Incarcerated women around the globe are predominantly of reproductive age. Most of these women have been pregnant before, and many want to be sexually active and avoid pregnancy upon release. Yet few of these women are on a regular method of contraception. Providing contraceptive services for women in custody benefits individual and public health goals of reducing unintended pregnancy. This policy briefing reviews evidence for an unmet need for family planning in the correctional setting, and policy implications for expanding services. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors describe four model programs in the USA with established contraceptive services on site, highlighting practical steps other facilities can implement. Findings Correctional facilities health administrators, providers, advocates, and legislators should advance policies which should counsel women on family planning and should make a range of contraceptive methods available before release, while remaining sensitive to the potential pressure these women may feel to use birth control in this unique environment. Practical implications Family planning services for incarcerated women benefits individuals, facilities, and the community. Social implications Policies which enable correctional facilities to provide comprehensive family planning to incarcerated women - including reproductive life goals counseling and contraceptive method provision - promote equity in access to critical reproductive health services and also provide broad scale population level benefits in preventing unintended pregnancy or enabling counseling for healthy pregnancies for a group of women who often have limited access to such services. Originality/value This policy briefing highlights an area of health care in prisons and jails which gets little attention in research and in policy circles: family planning services for incarcerated women. In addition to reviewing the importance of

Information sharing model in supporting implementation of e-procurement service: Case of Bandung city

Science.gov (United States)

Ramantoko, Gadang; Irawan, Herry

2017-10-01

This research examines the factors influencing the Information Sharing Model in Supporting Implementation of e-Procurement Services: Case of Bandung City in its early maturity stage. The early maturity of information sharing stage was determined using e-Government Maturity Stage Conceptual Framework from Estevez. Bandung City e-Procurement Information Sharing system was categorized at stage 1 in Estevez' model where the concern was mainly on assessing the benefit and risk of implementing the system. The Authors were using DeLone & McLean (D&M) Information System Success model to study benefit and risk of implementing the system in Bandung city. The model was then empirically tested by employing survey data that was collected from the available 40 listed supplier firms. D&M's model adjusted by Klischewski's description was introducing Information Quality, System Quality, and Service Quality as independent variable; Usability and User Satisfaction as intermediate dependent variable; and Perceived Net Benefit as final dependent variable. The findings suggested that, all of the predictors in D&M's model significantly influenced the net perceived benefit of implementing the e-Procurement system in the early maturity stage. The theoretical contribution of this research suggested that D&M's model might find useful in modeling complex information technology successfulness such as the one used in e-Procurement service. This research could also have implications for policy makers (LPSE) and system providers (LKPP) following the introduction of the service. However, the small number of respondent might be considered limitation of the study. The model needs to be further tested using larger number of respondents by involving the population of the firms in extended boundary/municipality area around Bandung.

Technical Note: Harmonizing met-ocean model data via standard web services within small research groups

Science.gov (United States)

Signell, Richard; Camossi, E.

2016-01-01

Work over the last decade has resulted in standardised web services and tools that can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of working with meteorological and ocean model data. While many operational modelling centres have enabled query and access to data via common web services, most small research groups have not. The penetration of this approach into the research community, where IT resources are limited, can be dramatically improved by (1) making it simple for providers to enable web service access to existing output files; (2) using free technologies that are easy to deploy and configure; and (3) providing standardised, service-based tools that work in existing research environments. We present a simple, local brokering approach that lets modellers continue to use their existing files and tools, while serving virtual data sets that can be used with standardised tools. The goal of this paper is to convince modellers that a standardised framework is not only useful but can be implemented with modest effort using free software components. We use NetCDF Markup language for data aggregation and standardisation, the THREDDS Data Server for data delivery, pycsw for data search, NCTOOLBOX (MATLAB®) and Iris (Python) for data access, and Open Geospatial Consortium Web Map Service for data preview. We illustrate the effectiveness of this approach with two use cases involving small research modelling groups at NATO and USGS.