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Sample records for streamlining student billing

  1. An integrated billing application to streamline clinician workflow.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vawdrey, David K; Walsh, Colin; Stetson, Peter D

    2014-01-01

    Between 2008 and 2010, our academic medical center transitioned to electronic provider documentation using a commercial electronic health record system. For attending physicians, one of the most frustrating aspects of this experience was the system's failure to support their existing electronic billing workflow. Because of poor system integration, it was difficult to verify the supporting documentation for each bill and impractical to track whether billable notes had corresponding charges. We developed and deployed in 2011 an integrated billing application called "iCharge" that streamlines clinicians' documentation and billing workflow, and simultaneously populates the inpatient problem list using billing diagnosis codes. Each month, over 550 physicians use iCharge to submit approximately 23,000 professional service charges for over 4,200 patients. On average, about 2.5 new problems are added to each patient's problem list. This paper describes the challenges and benefits of workflow integration across disparate applications and presents an example of innovative software development within a commercial EHR framework.

  2. Saving billions of dollars--and physicians' time--by streamlining billing practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchfield, Bonnie B; Heffernan, James L; Osgood, Bradford; Sheehan, Rosemary R; Meyer, Gregg S

    2010-06-01

    The U.S. system of billing third parties for health care services is complex, expensive, and inefficient. Physicians end up using nearly 12 percent of their net patient service revenue to cover the costs of excessive administrative complexity. A single transparent set of payment rules for multiple payers, a single claim form, and standard rules of submission, among other innovations, would reduce the burden on the billing offices of physician organizations. On a national scale, our hypothetical modeling of these changes would translate into $7 billion of savings annually for physician and clinical services. Four hours of professional time per physician and five hours of practice support staff time could be saved each week.

  3. Teaching Billing and Coding to Medical Students: A Pilot Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jiaxin Tran

    2013-08-01

    Full Text Available Complex billing practices cost the US healthcare system billions of dollars annually. Coding for outpatient office visits [known as Evaluation & Management (E&M services] is commonly particularly fraught with errors. The best way to insure proper billing and coding by practicing physicians is to teach this as part of the medical school curriculum. Here, in a pilot study, we show that medical students can learn well the basic principles from lectures. This approach is easy to implement into a medical school curriculum.

  4. Knowledge and Attitude of Saudi Health Professions’ Students Regarding Patient’s Bill of Rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Salwa B. El-Sobkey

    2014-08-01

    Full Text Available Background Patient’s rights are worldwide considerations. Saudi Patient’s Bill of Rights (PBR which was established in 2006 contained 12 items. Lack of knowledge regarding the Saudi PBR limits its implementation in health facilities. This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of health professions’ students at College of Applied Medical Sciences (CAMS Riyadh Saudi Arabia regarding the existence and content of Saudi PBR as well as their attitude toward its ineffectiveness. Method A 3-parts survey was used to collect data from 239 volunteer students participated in the study. Data were analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics using SPSS. Results Results showed that although the majority of students (96.7% believe in the ineffectiveness of patient’s rights, half (52.3% of them had perceptual knowledge regarding the existence of Saudi PBR and only 7.9% of them were knowledgeable about some items (1–4 items of the bill. Privacy and confidentiality of patient was the most common known patient’s rights. Students’ academic level was not correlated to neither their knowledge regarding the bill existence or its content nor to their attitude toward the bill. The majority of the students (93% reported that only one course within their curriculum was patient’s rights-course related. About one quarter (23.4% of the students reported that teaching staff used to mention patient’s rights in their teaching sessions. Conclusion The Saudi health professions students at CAMS have positive attitude toward the ineffectiveness of patient’s rights nevertheless they showed limited knowledge regarding the existence of Saudi PBR and its contents. CAMS curriculums do not support the subject of patient’s rights.

  5. Automating payroll, billing, and medical records. Using technology to do more with less.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vetter, E

    1995-08-01

    As home care agencies grow, so does the need to streamline the paperwork involved in running an agency. One agency found a way to reduce its payroll, billing, and medical records paperwork by implementing an automated, image-based data collection system that saves time, money, and paper.

  6. A Descriptive Study of Students with Disabilities at Montana State University Billings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dell, Thomas Francis

    2013-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to describe and analyze how the characteristics of age, major and type of disabilities for students who received services through Disability Support Services at Montana State University-Billings have changed from 1999 to 2011. Furthermore, this analysis contrasted local trends for types of disabilities with national…

  7. Timing of Clinical Billing Reimbursement for a Local Health Department.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCullough, J Mac

    2016-01-01

    A major responsibility of a local health department (LHD) is to assure public health service availability throughout its jurisdiction. Many LHDs face expanded service needs and declining budgets, making billing for services an increasingly important strategy for sustaining public health service provision. Yet, little practice-based data exist to guide practitioners on what to expect financially, especially regarding timing of reimbursement receipt. This study provides results from one LHD on the lag from service delivery to reimbursement receipt. Reimbursement records for all transactions at Maricopa County Department of Public Health immunization clinics from January 2013 through June 2014 were compiled and analyzed to determine the duration between service and reimbursement. Outcomes included daily and cumulative revenues received. Time to reimbursement for Medicaid and private payers was also compared. Reimbursement for immunization services was received a median of 68 days after service. Payments were sometimes taken back by payers through credit transactions that occurred a median of 333 days from service. No differences in time to reimbursement between Medicaid and private payers were found. Billing represents an important financial opportunity for LHDs to continue to sustainably assure population health. Yet, the lag from service provision to reimbursement may complicate budgeting, especially in initial years of new billing activities. Special consideration may be necessary to establish flexibility in the budget-setting processes for services with clinical billing revenues, because funds for services delivered in one budget period may not be received in the same period. LHDs may also benefit from exploring strategies used by other delivery organizations to streamline billing processes.

  8. Planning and Implementing Immunization Billing Programs at State and Local Health Departments: Barriers and Possible Solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corriero, Rosemary; Redmon, Ginger

    Before participating in a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, most state and local health departments (LHDs) were not seeking reimbursement or being fully reimbursed by insurance plans for the cost of immunization services (including vaccine costs and administration fees) they provided to insured patients. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Billables Project was designed to enable state and LHDs to bill public and private insurance plans for immunization services provided to insured patients. Identify and describe key barriers state and LHDs may encounter while planning and implementing a billing program, as well as possible solutions for overcoming those barriers. This study used reports from Billables Project participants to explore barriers they encountered when planning and implementing a billing program and steps taken to address those barriers. Thirty-eight state immunization programs. Based on project participants' reports, barriers were noted in 7 categories: (1) funding and costs, (2) staff, (3) health department characteristics, (4) third-party payers and insurance plans, (5) software, (6) patient insurance status, and (7) other barriers. Possible solutions for overcoming those barriers included hiring or seeking external help, creating billing guides and training modules, streamlining workflows, and modifying existing software systems. Overcoming barriers during planning and implementation of a billing program can be challenging for state and LHDs, but the experiences and suggestions of past Billables Project participants can help guide future billing program efforts.

  9. Impact assessment: Eroding benefits through streamlining?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bond, Alan, E-mail: alan.bond@uea.ac.uk [School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia (United Kingdom); School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University (South Africa); Pope, Jenny, E-mail: jenny@integral-sustainability.net [Integral Sustainability (Australia); Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (Australia); Morrison-Saunders, Angus, E-mail: A.Morrison-Saunders@murdoch.edu.au [School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University (South Africa); Environmental Science, Murdoch University (Australia); Retief, Francois, E-mail: francois.retief@nwu.ac.za [School of Geo and Spatial Sciences, North-West University (South Africa); Gunn, Jill A.E., E-mail: jill.gunn@usask.ca [Department of Geography and Planning and School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan (Canada)

    2014-02-15

    This paper argues that Governments have sought to streamline impact assessment in recent years (defined as the last five years) to counter concerns over the costs and potential for delays to economic development. We hypothesise that this has had some adverse consequences on the benefits that subsequently accrue from the assessments. This hypothesis is tested using a framework developed from arguments for the benefits brought by Environmental Impact Assessment made in 1982 in the face of the UK Government opposition to its implementation in a time of economic recession. The particular benefits investigated are ‘consistency and fairness’, ‘early warning’, ‘environment and development’, and ‘public involvement’. Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Western Australia are the jurisdictions tested using this framework. The conclusions indicate that significant streamlining has been undertaken which has had direct adverse effects on some of the benefits that impact assessment should deliver, particularly in Canada and the UK. The research has not examined whether streamlining has had implications for the effectiveness of impact assessment, but the causal link between streamlining and benefits does sound warning bells that merit further investigation. -- Highlights: • Investigation of the extent to which government has streamlined IA. • Evaluation framework was developed based on benefits of impact assessment. • Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Western Australia were examined. • Trajectory in last five years is attrition of benefits of impact assessment.

  10. Impact assessment: Eroding benefits through streamlining?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bond, Alan; Pope, Jenny; Morrison-Saunders, Angus; Retief, Francois; Gunn, Jill A.E.

    2014-01-01

    This paper argues that Governments have sought to streamline impact assessment in recent years (defined as the last five years) to counter concerns over the costs and potential for delays to economic development. We hypothesise that this has had some adverse consequences on the benefits that subsequently accrue from the assessments. This hypothesis is tested using a framework developed from arguments for the benefits brought by Environmental Impact Assessment made in 1982 in the face of the UK Government opposition to its implementation in a time of economic recession. The particular benefits investigated are ‘consistency and fairness’, ‘early warning’, ‘environment and development’, and ‘public involvement’. Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Western Australia are the jurisdictions tested using this framework. The conclusions indicate that significant streamlining has been undertaken which has had direct adverse effects on some of the benefits that impact assessment should deliver, particularly in Canada and the UK. The research has not examined whether streamlining has had implications for the effectiveness of impact assessment, but the causal link between streamlining and benefits does sound warning bells that merit further investigation. -- Highlights: • Investigation of the extent to which government has streamlined IA. • Evaluation framework was developed based on benefits of impact assessment. • Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Western Australia were examined. • Trajectory in last five years is attrition of benefits of impact assessment

  11. SU-A-210-00: AAPM Medical Physics Student Meeting: Medical Billing and Regulations: Everything You Always Wanted To Know, But Were Too Afraid To Ask

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2015-06-15

    The purpose of this student annual meeting is to address topics that are becoming more relevant to medical physicists, but are not frequently addressed, especially for students and trainees just entering the field. The talk is divided into two parts: medical billing and regulations. Hsinshun Wu – Why should we learn radiation oncology billing? Many medical physicists do not like to be involved with medical billing or coding during their career. They believe billing is not their responsibility and sometimes they even refuse to participate in the billing process if given the chance. This presentation will talk about a physicist’s long career and share his own experience that knowing medical billing is not only important and necessary for every young medical physicist, but that good billing knowledge could provide a valuable contribution to his/her medical physics development. Learning Objectives: The audience will learn the basic definition of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes performed in a Radiation Oncology Department. Understand the differences between hospital coding and physician-based or freestanding coding. Apply proper CPT coding for each Radiation Oncology procedure. Each procedure with its specific CPT code will be discussed in detail. The talk will focus on the process of care and use of actual workflow to understand each CPT code. Example coding of a typical Radiation Oncology procedure. Special procedure coding such as brachytherapy, proton therapy, radiosurgery, and SBRT. Maryann Abogunde – Medical physics opportunities at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) The NRC’s responsibilities include the regulation of medical uses of byproduct (radioactive) materials and oversight of medical use end-users (licensees) through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing, safety oversight including inspection and enforcement, operational experience evaluation, and regulatory support activities. This presentation will explore the

  12. SU-A-210-00: AAPM Medical Physics Student Meeting: Medical Billing and Regulations: Everything You Always Wanted To Know, But Were Too Afraid To Ask

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this student annual meeting is to address topics that are becoming more relevant to medical physicists, but are not frequently addressed, especially for students and trainees just entering the field. The talk is divided into two parts: medical billing and regulations. Hsinshun Wu – Why should we learn radiation oncology billing? Many medical physicists do not like to be involved with medical billing or coding during their career. They believe billing is not their responsibility and sometimes they even refuse to participate in the billing process if given the chance. This presentation will talk about a physicist’s long career and share his own experience that knowing medical billing is not only important and necessary for every young medical physicist, but that good billing knowledge could provide a valuable contribution to his/her medical physics development. Learning Objectives: The audience will learn the basic definition of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes performed in a Radiation Oncology Department. Understand the differences between hospital coding and physician-based or freestanding coding. Apply proper CPT coding for each Radiation Oncology procedure. Each procedure with its specific CPT code will be discussed in detail. The talk will focus on the process of care and use of actual workflow to understand each CPT code. Example coding of a typical Radiation Oncology procedure. Special procedure coding such as brachytherapy, proton therapy, radiosurgery, and SBRT. Maryann Abogunde – Medical physics opportunities at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) The NRC’s responsibilities include the regulation of medical uses of byproduct (radioactive) materials and oversight of medical use end-users (licensees) through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing, safety oversight including inspection and enforcement, operational experience evaluation, and regulatory support activities. This presentation will explore the

  13. ACHP | News | ACHP Issues Program Comment to Streamline Communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Program Comment to Streamline Communication Facilities Construction and Modification ACHP Issues Program Comment to Streamline Communication Facilities Construction and Modification The Advisory Council on

  14. Utopian dream: a new farm bill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nestle, Marion

    2012-01-01

    In the fall of 2011, I taught a graduate food studies course at New York University devoted to the farm bill, a massive and massively opaque piece of legislation passed most recently in 2008 and up for renewal in 2012. The farm bill supports farmers, of course, but also specifies how the United States deals with such matters as conservation, forestry, energy policy, organic food production, international food aid, and domestic food assistance. My students came from programs in nutrition, food studies, public health, public policy, and law, all united in the belief that a smaller scale, more regionalized, and more sustainable food system would be healthier for people and the planet.

  15. Grantee Spotlight: Bill Nelson, M.D., Ph.D.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dr. William (Bill) Nelson is playing an integral role in advancing our understanding of cancer health disparities and helping to foster the interests of young students from underrepresented backgrounds in cancer/cancer health disparities research.

  16. SU-A-210-01: Why Should We Learn Radiation Oncology Billing?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu, H.

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this student annual meeting is to address topics that are becoming more relevant to medical physicists, but are not frequently addressed, especially for students and trainees just entering the field. The talk is divided into two parts: medical billing and regulations. Hsinshun Wu – Why should we learn radiation oncology billing? Many medical physicists do not like to be involved with medical billing or coding during their career. They believe billing is not their responsibility and sometimes they even refuse to participate in the billing process if given the chance. This presentation will talk about a physicist’s long career and share his own experience that knowing medical billing is not only important and necessary for every young medical physicist, but that good billing knowledge could provide a valuable contribution to his/her medical physics development. Learning Objectives: The audience will learn the basic definition of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes performed in a Radiation Oncology Department. Understand the differences between hospital coding and physician-based or freestanding coding. Apply proper CPT coding for each Radiation Oncology procedure. Each procedure with its specific CPT code will be discussed in detail. The talk will focus on the process of care and use of actual workflow to understand each CPT code. Example coding of a typical Radiation Oncology procedure. Special procedure coding such as brachytherapy, proton therapy, radiosurgery, and SBRT. Maryann Abogunde – Medical physics opportunities at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) The NRC’s responsibilities include the regulation of medical uses of byproduct (radioactive) materials and oversight of medical use end-users (licensees) through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing, safety oversight including inspection and enforcement, operational experience evaluation, and regulatory support activities. This presentation will explore the

  17. SU-A-210-01: Why Should We Learn Radiation Oncology Billing?

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Wu, H. [Willis-Knighton Medical Center (United States)

    2015-06-15

    The purpose of this student annual meeting is to address topics that are becoming more relevant to medical physicists, but are not frequently addressed, especially for students and trainees just entering the field. The talk is divided into two parts: medical billing and regulations. Hsinshun Wu – Why should we learn radiation oncology billing? Many medical physicists do not like to be involved with medical billing or coding during their career. They believe billing is not their responsibility and sometimes they even refuse to participate in the billing process if given the chance. This presentation will talk about a physicist’s long career and share his own experience that knowing medical billing is not only important and necessary for every young medical physicist, but that good billing knowledge could provide a valuable contribution to his/her medical physics development. Learning Objectives: The audience will learn the basic definition of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes performed in a Radiation Oncology Department. Understand the differences between hospital coding and physician-based or freestanding coding. Apply proper CPT coding for each Radiation Oncology procedure. Each procedure with its specific CPT code will be discussed in detail. The talk will focus on the process of care and use of actual workflow to understand each CPT code. Example coding of a typical Radiation Oncology procedure. Special procedure coding such as brachytherapy, proton therapy, radiosurgery, and SBRT. Maryann Abogunde – Medical physics opportunities at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) The NRC’s responsibilities include the regulation of medical uses of byproduct (radioactive) materials and oversight of medical use end-users (licensees) through a combination of regulatory requirements, licensing, safety oversight including inspection and enforcement, operational experience evaluation, and regulatory support activities. This presentation will explore the

  18. Creating customer value by streamlining business processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vantrappen, H

    1992-02-01

    Much of the strategic preoccupation of senior managers in the 1990s is focusing on the creation of customer value. Companies are seeking competitive advantage by streamlining the three processes through which they interact with their customers: product creation, order handling and service assurance. 'Micro-strategy' is a term which has been coined for the trade-offs and decisions on where and how to streamline these three processes. The article discusses micro-strategies applied by successful companies.

  19. Hydrodynamic Drag on Streamlined Projectiles and Cavities

    KAUST Repository

    Jetly, Aditya

    2016-04-19

    The air cavity formation resulting from the water-entry of solid objects has been the subject of extensive research due to its application in various fields such as biology, marine vehicles, sports and oil and gas industries. Recently we demonstrated that at certain conditions following the closing of the air cavity formed by the initial impact of a superhydrophobic sphere on a free water surface a stable streamlined shape air cavity can remain attached to the sphere. The formation of superhydrophobic sphere and attached air cavity reaches a steady state during the free fall. In this thesis we further explore this novel phenomenon to quantify the drag on streamlined shape cavities. The drag on the sphere-cavity formation is then compared with the drag on solid projectile which were designed to have self-similar shape to that of the cavity. The solid projectiles of adjustable weight were produced using 3D printing technique. In a set of experiments on the free fall of projectile we determined the variation of projectiles drag coefficient as a function of the projectiles length to diameter ratio and the projectiles specific weight, covering a range of intermediate Reynolds number, Re ~ 104 – 105 which are characteristic for our streamlined cavity experiments. Parallel free fall experiment with sphere attached streamlined air cavity and projectile of the same shape and effective weight clearly demonstrated the drag reduction effect due to the stress-free boundary condition at cavity liquid interface. The streamlined cavity experiments can be used as the upper bound estimate of the drag reduction by air layers naturally sustained on superhydrophobic surfaces in contact with water. In the final part of the thesis we design an experiment to test the drag reduction capacity of robust superhydrophobic coatings deposited on the surface of various model vessels.

  20. Boundary-Layer Control: In Memory of Bill Reynolds

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, John

    2004-11-01

    Professor Bill Reynolds (1933-2004) inspired many students and colleagues with his never-ending curiosity and thought-provoking ideas. Bill's relentless energy, together with his hallmark can-do character and do-it-yourself attitude, led to many seminal contributions to mechanical engineering in general, and fluid mechanics in particular. He has left a lasting impact on many of us, especially for those who had the privilege of working closely with him. Some of my current work on boundary-layer control, the use of neural networks in particular, were inspired by many discussions with Bill. He was among the first to see the potential of control-theoretic approaches for flow control, which has become the main thrust of my current research. Without his continued encouragement, I would not have been deeply involved in this line of research; and perhaps, we would not have seen the current flurry of research activities in applying modern control theories to flow control. In memory of Bill Reynolds, who himself has contributed much to flow control, an analysis of boundary-layer control from a linear system perspective will be presented.

  1. Billing Trends

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    First page Back Continue Last page Overview Graphics. Billing Trends. Internet access: Bandwidth becoming analogous to electric power. Only maximum capacity (load) is fixed; Charges based on usage (units). Leased line bandwidth: Billing analogous to phone calls. But bandwidth is variable.

  2. Streamline segment statistics of premixed flames with nonunity Lewis numbers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chakraborty, Nilanjan; Wang, Lipo; Klein, Markus

    2014-03-01

    The interaction of flame and surrounding fluid motion is of central importance in the fundamental understanding of turbulent combustion. It is demonstrated here that this interaction can be represented using streamline segment analysis, which was previously applied in nonreactive turbulence. The present work focuses on the effects of the global Lewis number (Le) on streamline segment statistics in premixed flames in the thin-reaction-zones regime. A direct numerical simulation database of freely propagating thin-reaction-zones regime flames with Le ranging from 0.34 to 1.2 is used to demonstrate that Le has significant influences on the characteristic features of the streamline segment, such as the curve length, the difference in the velocity magnitude at two extremal points, and their correlations with the local flame curvature. The strengthenings of the dilatation rate, flame normal acceleration, and flame-generated turbulence with decreasing Le are principally responsible for these observed effects. An expression for the probability density function (pdf) of the streamline segment length, originally developed for nonreacting turbulent flows, captures the qualitative behavior for turbulent premixed flames in the thin-reaction-zones regime for a wide range of Le values. The joint pdfs between the streamline length and the difference in the velocity magnitude at two extremal points for both unweighted and density-weighted velocity vectors are analyzed and compared. Detailed explanations are provided for the observed differences in the topological behaviors of the streamline segment in response to the global Le.

  3. Nuon integrates fragmented IT environment with Converge 'meter-to-bill' enterprise system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Johnston, J.; Richmond, P. [Siemens Metering, Inc (Netherlands)

    2002-10-01

    Integration of the IT services of three large utility companies that merged into one is described. Prior to the merger each company owned its own data acquisition and billing applications and followed its own information processing and business rules. The newly formed company had the unenviable task of integrating these disparate applications into one streamlined and efficient company-wide system. A complicating factor was the earlier deregulation of the Dutch energy market which already forced vertically structured utilities to split into separate functional companies, with the result that meter and other system and logistic information was widely dispersed across multiple systems and locations. To bring order out of this chaos and to create a single company-wide integrated system Nuon partnered with Siemens to evaluate the existing system and to design a new one that would improve the situation. The new system that emerged is a cohesive, robust IT environment with many benefits. Some of these are: consolidated metering data in one open architecture environment; a fully automated interface to the SAP billing system; fully flexible and automated data reporting and validation functionality; data distribution capability throughout the organization and to energy consumers via the Internet; and fully automated data exchange capability with other market players and the System Operator.

  4. Easy XMM-Newton Data Analysis with the Streamlined ABC Guide!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Valencic, Lynne A.; Snowden, Steven L.; Pence, William D.

    2016-01-01

    The US XMM-Newton GOF has streamlined the time-honored XMM-Newton ABC Guide, making it easier to find and use what users may need to analyze their data. It takes into account what type of data a user might have, if they want to reduce the data on their own machine or over the internet with Web Hera, and if they prefer to use the command window or a GUI. The GOF has also included an introduction to analyzing EPIC and RGS spectra, and PN Timing mode data. The guide is provided for free to students, educators, and researchers for educational and research purposes. Try it out at: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm/sl/intro.html

  5. Industrial Compositional Streamline Simulation for Efficient and Accurate Prediction of Gas Injection and WAG Processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Margot Gerritsen

    2008-10-31

    Gas-injection processes are widely and increasingly used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In the United States, for example, EOR production by gas injection accounts for approximately 45% of total EOR production and has tripled since 1986. The understanding of the multiphase, multicomponent flow taking place in any displacement process is essential for successful design of gas-injection projects. Due to complex reservoir geometry, reservoir fluid properties and phase behavior, the design of accurate and efficient numerical simulations for the multiphase, multicomponent flow governing these processes is nontrivial. In this work, we developed, implemented and tested a streamline based solver for gas injection processes that is computationally very attractive: as compared to traditional Eulerian solvers in use by industry it computes solutions with a computational speed orders of magnitude higher and a comparable accuracy provided that cross-flow effects do not dominate. We contributed to the development of compositional streamline solvers in three significant ways: improvement of the overall framework allowing improved streamline coverage and partial streamline tracing, amongst others; parallelization of the streamline code, which significantly improves wall clock time; and development of new compositional solvers that can be implemented along streamlines as well as in existing Eulerian codes used by industry. We designed several novel ideas in the streamline framework. First, we developed an adaptive streamline coverage algorithm. Adding streamlines locally can reduce computational costs by concentrating computational efforts where needed, and reduce mapping errors. Adapting streamline coverage effectively controls mass balance errors that mostly result from the mapping from streamlines to pressure grid. We also introduced the concept of partial streamlines: streamlines that do not necessarily start and/or end at wells. This allows more efficient coverage and avoids

  6. Dividing Streamline Formation Channel Confluences by Physical Modeling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Minarni Nur Trilita

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available Confluence channels are often found in open channel network system and is the most important element. The incoming flow from the branch channel to the main cause various forms and cause vortex flow. Phenomenon can cause erosion of the side wall of the channel, the bed channel scour and sedimentation in the downstream confluence channel. To control these problems needed research into the current width of the branch channel. The incoming flow from the branch channel to the main channel flow bounded by a line distributors (dividing streamline. In this paper, the wide dividing streamline observed in the laboratory using a physical model of two open channels, a square that formed an angle of 30º. Observations were made with a variety of flow coming from each channel. The results obtained in the laboratory observation that the width of dividing streamline flow is influenced by the discharge ratio between the channel branch with the main channel. While the results of a comparison with previous studies showing that the observation in the laboratory is smaller than the results of previous research.

  7. Teaching Undergraduate Money and Banking: T-Bill Auctions and Stock Market Models

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saros, Daniel E.

    2009-01-01

    The author offers innovative approaches to 3 topics that are typically only briefly mentioned (if at all) in money and banking courses. The first topic is a Treasury bill auction experiment in which students have an opportunity to participate directly. The results from a class of 14 money and banking students are used to explain how an instructor…

  8. Stream-lined Gating Systems with Improved Yield - Dimensioning and Experimental Validation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tiedje, Niels Skat; Skov-Hansen, Søren Peter

    the two types of lay-outs are cast in production. It is shown that flow in the stream-lined lay-out is well controlled and that the quality of the castings is as at least equal to that of castings produced with a traditional lay-out. Further, the yield is improved by 4 % relative to a traditional lay-out.......The paper describes how a stream-lined gating system where the melt is confined and controlled during filling can be designed. Commercial numerical modelling software has been used to compare the stream-lined design with a traditional gating system. These results are confirmed by experiments where...

  9. Ontario electricity bill review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    O'Neill, G.

    2003-01-01

    Findings of an independent review of charges to electricity bills and recommendations to assist in the development of a standard, province-wide residential electricity bill for Ontario are discussed. The review was requested by the province's Minister of Energy in an effort to dispel growing confusion about the variations in customer billing practices used by the province's 90+ local distribution companies. Key recommendations and findings were as follows: (1)Consumer bill formats issued by local distribution companies should be more consumer-friendly, adhere to minimum design standards, adapt uniform terminology and common line charges; (2) charges on customer bills should be grouped into four standard line items, with full details available to customers: the four line items should be a basic service charge, a charge for delivering electricity to the customer, a charge for the electricity itself, and a separate charge for retiring the outstanding debt of the former Ontario Hydro; (3) bills should take advantage of opportunities for promoting province-wide energy conservation, such as encouraging the long-term use of interval meters, presenting historical consumption data on residential bills on a period-to-period basis, and education and communications initiatives. Details of the recommendations, including the calculation of the fixed and variable components of usage charges, an explanation of the concept of electricity system loss adjustments, a method for phasing in the recommendations, and the anticipated benefits to consumers are provided

  10. Joint statistics and conditional mean strain rates of streamline segments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schaefer, P; Gampert, M; Peters, N

    2013-01-01

    Based on four different direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows with Taylor-based Reynolds numbers ranging from Re λ = 50 to 300 among which are two homogeneous isotropic decaying, one forced and one homogeneous shear flow, streamlines are identified and the obtained space curves are parameterized with the pseudo-time as well as the arclength. Based on local extrema of the absolute value of the velocity along the streamlines, the latter are partitioned into segments following Wang (2010 J. Fluid Mech. 648 183–203). Streamline segments are then statistically analyzed based on both parameterizations using the joint probability density function of the pseudo-time lag τ (arclength l, respectively) between and the velocity difference Δu at the extrema: P(τ,Δu), (P(l,Δu)). We distinguish positive and negative streamline segments depending on the sign of the velocity difference Δu. Differences as well as similarities in the statistical description for both parameterizations are discussed. In particular, it turns out that the normalized probability distribution functions (pdfs) (of both parameterizations) of the length of positive, negative and all segments assume a universal shape for all Reynolds numbers and flow types and are well described by a model derived in Schaefer P et al (2012 Phys. Fluids 24 045104). Particular attention is given to the conditional mean velocity difference at the ending points of the segments, which can be understood as a first-order structure function in the context of streamline segment analysis. It determines to a large extent the stretching (compression) of positive (negative) streamline segments and corresponds to the convective velocity in phase space in the transport model equation for the pdf. While based on the random sweeping hypothesis a scaling ∝ (u rms ετ) 1/3 is found for the parameterization based on the pseudo-time, the parameterization with the arclength l yields a much larger than expected l 1/3 scaling. A

  11. Application-Tailored I/O with Streamline

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Bruijn, W.J.; Bos, H.J.; Bal, H.E.

    2011-01-01

    Streamline is a stream-based OS communication subsystem that spans from peripheral hardware to userspace processes. It improves performance of I/O-bound applications (such as webservers and streaming media applications) by constructing tailor-made I/O paths through the operating system for each

  12. The Interpretation of Dreams: Ladson-Billings, Freud, and Derrida

    Science.gov (United States)

    Greenwalt, Kyle

    2010-01-01

    This study provides a critical and close reading of "The Dreamkeepers" (1994), by Gloria Ladson-Billings. The paper focuses primarily on the gendered nature of "being a teacher" and "being a student" as revealed in the dreamkeeper text, while maintaining its engagement with race and culture as it is manifested in the United States context. It…

  13. Accelerated Logistics: Streamlining the Army's Supply Chain

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Wang, Mark

    2000-01-01

    ...) initiative, the Army has dramatically streamlined its supply chain, cutting order and ship times for repair parts by nearly two-thirds nationwide and over 75 percent at several of the major Forces Command (FORSCOM) installations...

  14. 25 CFR 175.30 - Billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... provided in the customer's special contract. (c) Service fee billing. The utility shall render service fee... 25 Indians 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Billing. 175.30 Section 175.30 Indians BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR LAND AND WATER INDIAN ELECTRIC POWER UTILITIES Billing, Payments, and...

  15. Streamline-based microfluidic device

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tai, Yu-Chong (Inventor); Zheng, Siyang (Inventor); Kasdan, Harvey (Inventor)

    2013-01-01

    The present invention provides a streamline-based device and a method for using the device for continuous separation of particles including cells in biological fluids. The device includes a main microchannel and an array of side microchannels disposed on a substrate. The main microchannel has a plurality of stagnation points with a predetermined geometric design, for example, each of the stagnation points has a predetermined distance from the upstream edge of each of the side microchannels. The particles are separated and collected in the side microchannels.

  16. Streamlining: Reducing costs and increasing STS operations effectiveness

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petersburg, R. K.

    1985-01-01

    The development of streamlining as a concept, its inclusion in the space transportation system engineering and operations support (STSEOS) contract, and how it serves as an incentive to management and technical support personnel is discussed. The mechanics of encouraging and processing streamlining suggestions, reviews, feedback to submitters, recognition, and how individual employee performance evaluations are used to motivation are discussed. Several items that were implemented are mentioned. Information reported and the methodology of determining estimated dollar savings are outlined. The overall effect of this activity on the ability of the McDonnell Douglas flight preparation and mission operations team to support a rapidly increasing flight rate without a proportional increase in cost is illustrated.

  17. Badali recommends simplified bills

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon

    2003-04-01

    A report on the variety of retail electricity bills across the province, authored by Salvatore Badali of Deloitte Consulting, was recently released by the Ontario Government. The report was commissioned by the Government to examine the underlying reasons for the significant format differences and the wide variation of fixed and variable charges among the approximately 95 local electricity distribution companies across the province. Regarding the appropriateness of the charges the report recommends common definitions for local distribution company (LDC) fixed and variable costs, and consideration of options for reducing LDC charges, mainly by consolidating the sector and sharing such services as customer billing, accounting and out sourcing operations. Seven recommendations deal with bill simplification. These include bills that are clear and easy to read and provide sufficient information for consumers to verify charges; promote energy conservation, e.g. by including historical information; allow comparisons between retail suppliers and distributors; accommodate revenue collection, marketing needs and other billing services. The report also recommends clearly defined and consistently used terminology for standardized line items, suggests ways to provide consumer information in a form useful for making energy conservation decisions, development of an LDC scorecard to enable stake holders to compare their own LDCs with LDCs around the province, creation of a conservation and bill calculation website, consideration of further use of shared services, and solutions to address the removal of line losses from invoices.

  18. Badali recommends simplified bills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon

    2003-01-01

    A report on the variety of retail electricity bills across the province, authored by Salvatore Badali of Deloitte Consulting, was recently released by the Ontario Government. The report was commissioned by the Government to examine the underlying reasons for the significant format differences and the wide variation of fixed and variable charges among the approximately 95 local electricity distribution companies across the province. Regarding the appropriateness of the charges the report recommends common definitions for local distribution company (LDC) fixed and variable costs, and consideration of options for reducing LDC charges, mainly by consolidating the sector and sharing such services as customer billing, accounting and out sourcing operations. Seven recommendations deal with bill simplification. These include bills that are clear and easy to read and provide sufficient information for consumers to verify charges; promote energy conservation, e.g. by including historical information; allow comparisons between retail suppliers and distributors; accommodate revenue collection, marketing needs and other billing services. The report also recommends clearly defined and consistently used terminology for standardized line items, suggests ways to provide consumer information in a form useful for making energy conservation decisions, development of an LDC scorecard to enable stake holders to compare their own LDCs with LDCs around the province, creation of a conservation and bill calculation website, consideration of further use of shared services, and solutions to address the removal of line losses from invoices

  19. Errors in energy bills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kop, L.

    2001-01-01

    On request, the Dutch Association for Energy, Environment and Water (VEMW) checks the energy bills for her customers. It appeared that in the year 2000 many small, but also big errors were discovered in the bills of 42 businesses

  20. School-located influenza vaccination with third-party billing: outcomes, cost, and reimbursement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kempe, Allison; Daley, Matthew F; Pyrzanowski, Jennifer; Vogt, Tara; Fang, Hai; Rinehart, Deborah J; Morgan, Nicole; Riis, Mette; Rodgers, Sarah; McCormick, Emily; Hammer, Anne; Campagna, Elizabeth J; Kile, Deidre; Dickinson, Miriam; Hambidge, Simon J; Shlay, Judith C

    2014-01-01

    To assess rates of immunization; costs of conducting clinics; and reimbursements for a school-located influenza vaccination (SLIV) program that billed third-party payers. SLIV clinics were conducted in 19 elementary schools in the Denver Public School district (September 2010 to February 2011). School personnel obtained parental consent, and a community vaccinator conducted clinics and performed billing. Vaccines For Children vaccine was available for eligible students. Parents were not billed for any fees. Data were collected regarding implementation costs and vaccine cost was calculated using published private sector prices. Reimbursement amounts were compared to costs. Overall, 30% of students (2784 of 9295) received ≥1 influenza vaccine; 39% (1079 of 2784) needed 2 doses and 80% received both. Excluding vaccine costs, implementation costs were $24.69 per vaccination. The percentage of vaccine costs reimbursed was 62% overall (82% from State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), 50% from private insurance). The percentage of implementation costs reimbursed was 19% overall (23% from private, 27% from Medicaid, 29% from SCHIP and 0% among uninsured). Overall, 25% of total costs (implementation plus vaccine) were reimbursed. A SLIV program resulted in vaccination of nearly one third of elementary students. Reimbursement rates were limited by 1) school restrictions on charging parents fees, 2) low payments for vaccine administration from public payers and 3) high rates of denials from private insurers. Some of these problems might be reduced by provisions in the Affordable Care Act. Copyright © 2014 Academic Pediatric Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Missouri Public School Administrators' Perceived Effectiveness of Senate Bill No. 75

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steele, Joby B.

    2016-01-01

    In this quantitative study, the perceptions of safety and preparedness of Missouri's high school administrators after participating in active shooter training as mandated by Missouri's Senate Bill No. 75 were analyzed. As school shootings continue, states have passed legislation to prepare schools to provide safety for students and faculty members…

  2. Effectiveness of and obstacles to antibiotic streamlining to amoxicillin monotherapy in bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blot, Mathieu; Pivot, Diane; Bourredjem, Abderrahmane; Salmon-Rousseau, Arnaud; de Curraize, Claire; Croisier, Delphine; Chavanet, Pascal; Binquet, Christine; Piroth, Lionel

    2017-09-01

    Antibiotic streamlining is pivotal to reduce the emergence of resistant bacteria. However, whether streamlining is frequently performed and safe in difficult situations, such as bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia (BPP), has still to be assessed. All adult patients admitted to Dijon Hospital (France) from 2005 to 2013 who had BPP without complications, and were alive on the third day were enrolled. Clinical, biological, radiological, microbiological and therapeutic data were recorded. A first analysis was conducted to assess factors associated with being on amoxicillin on the third day. A second analysis, adjusting for a propensity score, was performed to determine whether 30-day mortality was associated with streamlining to amoxicillin monotherapy. Of the 196 patients hospitalized for BPP, 161 were still alive on the third day and were included in the study. Treatment was streamlined to amoxicillin in 60 patients (37%). Factors associated with not streamlining were severe pneumonia (OR 3.11, 95%CI [1.23-7.87]) and a first-line antibiotic combination (OR 3.08, 95%CI [1.34-7.09]). By contrast, starting with amoxicillin monotherapy correlated inversely with the risk of subsequent treatment with antibiotics other than amoxicillin (OR 0.06, 95%CI [0.01-0.30]). The Cox model adjusted for the propensity-score analysis showed that streamlining to amoxicillin during BPP was not significantly associated with a higher risk of 30-day mortality (HR 0.38, 95%CI [0.08-1.87]). Streamlining to amoxicillin is insufficiently implemented during BPP. This strategy is safe and potentially associated with ecological and economic benefits; therefore, it should be further encouraged, particularly when antibiotic combinations are started for severe pneumonia. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  3. Killing the bill online? Pathways to young people's protest engagement via social media.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macafee, Timothy; De Simone, J J

    2012-11-01

    In spring 2011, thousands of Wisconsin residents protested a controversial bill spearheaded by Governor Scott Walker. Protest engagement via social media was popular, especially among young people. The current study examines the relationship between young people's informational and expressive uses of four social media-Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Blogs-and their offline protest engagement. Survey results reveal that although college students used these social media to obtain information about the budget repair bill protests, only expressive uses related to offline protest engagement. We move research forward by examining the implications of multiple uses of political social media surrounding a compelling case study.

  4. Streamlined approach to waste management at CRL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Adams, L.; Campbell, B.

    2011-01-01

    Radioactive, mixed, hazardous and non-hazardous wastes have been and continue to be generated at Chalk River Laboratories (CRL) as a result of research and development activities and operations since the 1940s. Over the years, the wastes produced as a byproduct of activities delivering the core missions of the CRL site have been of many types, and today, over thirty distinct waste streams have been identified, all requiring efficient management. With the commencement of decommissioning of the legacy created as part of the development of the Canadian nuclear industry, the volumes and range of wastes to be managed have been increasing in the near term, and this trend will continue into the future. The development of a streamlined approach to waste management is a key to successful waste management at CRL. Waste management guidelines that address all of the requirements have become complex, and so have the various waste management groups receiving waste, with their many different processes and capabilities. This has led to difficulties for waste generators in understanding all of the requirements to be satisfied for the various CRL waste receivers, whose primary concerns are to be safe and in compliance with their acceptance criteria and license conditions. As a result, waste movement on site can often be very slow, especially for non-routine waste types. Recognizing an opportunity for improvement, the Waste Management organization at CRL has implemented a more streamlined approach with emphasis on early identification of waste type and possible disposition path. This paper presents a streamlined approach to waste identification and waste management at CRL, the implementation methodology applied and the early results achieved from this process improvement. (author)

  5. 48 CFR 942.704 - Billing rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... ADMINISTRATION AND AUDIT SERVICES Indirect Cost Rates 942.704 Billing rates. (b) When the contracting officer or auditor responsible for establishing billing rates, in accordance with 48 CFR 42.704, has not established... 48 Federal Acquisition Regulations System 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Billing rates. 942.704...

  6. Atomic Weapons Establishment Bill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, Alan; Dalyell, Tam; Haynes, Frank

    1990-01-01

    The Bill debated concerns the government's proposal for the future organisations of the atomic weapons establishment in the United Kingdom. The proposals arise from a full review carried out in 1989 and include points raised by the Select Committee on the Trident programme. Studies of productivity, pay and conditions, information systems and long term manufacturing strategy have been started to enable recommendations of the reorganisation of the establishments to be made. The details of the Bill were debated for just over two hours. The debate is reported verbatim. The main issues were over the principle of contractorisation, possible staff redundancies, conditions of employment, safety and security. The proposal that the Bill be read a second time was carried. (UK)

  7. Streamlining the Bankability Process using International Standards

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Repins, Ingrid L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kelly, George [Sunset Technology, Mount Airy, MD; Ramu, Govind [SunPower, San Jose, California; Heinz, Matthias [TUV Rheinland, Cologne, Germany; Chen, Yingnan [CGC (China General Certification Center), Beijing; Wohlgemuth, John [PowerMark, Union Hall, VA; Lokanath, Sumanth [First Solar, Tempe, Arizona; Daniels, Eric [Suncycle USA, Frederick MD; Hsi, Edward [Swiss RE, Zurich, Switzerland; Yamamichi, Masaaki [RTS, Trumbull, CT

    2017-09-27

    NREL has supported the international efforts to create a streamlined process for documenting bankability and/or completion of each step of a PV project plan. IECRE was created for this purpose in 2014. This poster describes the goals, current status of this effort, and how individuals and companies can become involved.

  8. Streamline-concentration balance model for in-situ uranium leaching and site restoration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bommer, P.M.; Schechter, R.S.; Humenick, M.J.

    1981-03-01

    This work presents two computer models. One describes in-situ uranium leaching and the other describes post leaching site restoration. Both models use a streamline generator to set up the flow field over the reservoir. The leaching model then uses the flow data in a concentration balance along each streamline coupled with the appropriate reaction kinetics to calculate uranium production. The restoration model uses the same procedure except that binary cation exchange is used as the restoring mechanism along each streamline and leaching cation clean up is simulated. The mathematical basis for each model is shown in detail along with the computational schemes used. Finally, the two models have been used with several data sets to point out their capabilities and to illustrate important leaching and restoration parameters and schemes

  9. Streamline-concentration balance model for in situ uranium leaching and site restoration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bommer, P.M.

    1979-01-01

    This work presents two computer models. One describes in situ uranium leaching and the other describes post leaching site restoration. Both models use a streamline generator to set up the flow field over the reservoir. The leaching model then uses the flow data in a concentration balance along each streamline coupled with the appropriate reaction kinetics to calculate uranium production. The restoration model uses the same procedure ecept that binary cation exchange is used as the restoring mechanism along each streamline and leaching cation clean up is stimulated. The mathematical basis for each model is shown in detail along with the computational schemes used. Finally, the two models have been used with several data sets to point out their capabilities and to illustrate important leaching and restoration parameters and schemes

  10. Atomic Weapons Establishment Bill [Money

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bennett, A.F.; Cryer, Bob; Carlisle, Kenneth; Dean, Paul.

    1990-01-01

    The debate concerns the authorisation of payment of the money required to reorganise the atomic weapons establishment in the United Kingdom provided for in the Atomic Weapons Establishment Bill in progress through Parliament. In the Bill the contractorisation of the establishment is recommended and some sort of Government owned company operated scheme set up. The debate lasted about half an hour and is reported verbatim. The issues raised concerned the actual sums likely to be incurred in the formation of a Company to carry out the designated activities of the Bill. These are connected with the research, development, production or maintenance of nuclear devices and the premises needed. The government spokesman suggested the sums required to support the Bill would not be large and the resolution was agreed to without a vote. (UK)

  11. Streamlining Research by Using Existing Tools

    OpenAIRE

    Greene, Sarah M.; Baldwin, Laura-Mae; Dolor, Rowena J.; Thompson, Ella; Neale, Anne Victoria

    2011-01-01

    Over the past two decades, the health research enterprise has matured rapidly, and many recognize an urgent need to translate pertinent research results into practice, to help improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of U.S. health care. Streamlining research operations would speed translation, particularly for multi-site collaborations. However, the culture of research discourages reusing or adapting existing resources or study materials. Too often, researchers start studies and...

  12. 48 CFR 12.602 - Streamlined evaluation of offers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... offers. 12.602 Section 12.602 Federal Acquisition Regulations System FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION... for Commercial Items 12.602 Streamlined evaluation of offers. (a) When evaluation factors are used... evaluation factors. (b) Offers shall be evaluated in accordance with the criteria contained in the...

  13. Electricity Bill [Part 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parkinson, C.; Hogg, N.; Salmond, A.

    1988-01-01

    The paper presents the first part of the Parliamentary debate on the second reading of the Electricity Bill, House of Commons, London 1988. The Bill sets out the government's proposals for the restructuring and privatisation of the electricity supply industry throughout Great Britain. Customers and suppliers, choice for the consumer, competition promotion, security of supply, nuclear power stations, and cost, are all discussed. (U.K.)

  14. The design of the Comet streamliner: An electric land speed record motorcycle

    Science.gov (United States)

    McMillan, Ethan Alexander

    The development of the land speed record electric motorcycle streamliner, the Comet, is discussed herein. Its design process includes a detailed literary review of past and current motorcycle streamliners in an effort to highlight the main components of such a vehicle's design, while providing baseline data for performance comparisons. A new approach to balancing a streamliner at low speeds is also addressed, a system henceforth referred to as landing gear, which has proven an effective means for allowing the driver to control the low speed instabilities of the vehicle with relative ease compared to tradition designs. This is accompanied by a dynamic stability analysis conducted on a test chassis that was developed for the primary purpose of understanding the handling dynamics of streamliners, while also providing a test bed for the implementation of the landing gear system and a means to familiarize the driver to the operation and handling of such a vehicle. Data gathered through the use of GPS based velocity tracking, accelerometers, and a linear potentiometer provided a means to validate a dynamic stability analysis of the weave and wobble modes of the vehicle through linearization of a streamliner model developed in the BikeSIM software suite. Results indicate agreement between the experimental data and the simulation, indicating that the conventional recumbent design of a streamliner chassis is in fact highly stable throughout the performance envelope beyond extremely low speeds. A computational fluid dynamics study was also performed, utilized in the development of the body of the Comet to which a series of tests were conducted in order to develop a shape that was both practical to transport and highly efficient. By creating a hybrid airfoil from a NACA 0018 and NACA 66-018, a drag coefficient of 0.1 and frontal area of 0.44 m2 has been found for the final design. Utilizing a performance model based on the proposed vehicle's motor, its rolling resistance, and

  15. Billing for outpatient transplant pharmacy services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maldonado, Angela Q; Seiger, Todd C; Urann, Christina L; McCleary, Jo Ann; Goroski, Angela L; Ojogho, Okechukwu N

    2012-01-15

    The economic impact of out-patient pharmacy services in a transplant program was evaluated. Full-time kidney transplant pharmacy services were implemented at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center (PSHMC) in the fall of 2008, with two pharmacists combining hours to provide one full-time-equivalent position. At PSHMC, posttransplantation patients are seen three times per week. The number of patient visits with pharmacists for 2010 was compared with the total number of patient visits. The face-to-face time spent with the patient was translated to a level of billing that was associated with a set reimbursement schedule. For each patient encounter in which a pharmacist was involved, the incremental difference between the nursing and pharmacy levels of billing was examined, as were the levels most often billed by pharmacists. The difference in billing levels between pharmacists and nurses for the same patient encounter was also evaluated. Overall, pharmacist visits accounted for 208 (22%) of the 994 out-patient kidney transplant visits in 2010, with pharmacists billing at a higher level of acuity compared with nursing for the same patient encounter 48% of the time. This translated to an approximate increase of $100 per patient visit. For the one-year study period, pharmacists utilizing facility- fee billing increased out-patient reimbursement by approximately $10,000. By utilizing outpatient facility-fee billing for pharmacy services, the transplant program at PSHMC increased reimbursement in the outpatient setting.

  16. Case studies in geographic information systems for environmental streamlining

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-05-31

    This 2012 summary report addresses the current use of geographic information systems (GIS) and related technologies by State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) for environmental streamlining and stewardship, particularly in relation to the National...

  17. Clinical laboratory billing: superfluous requirements without justification?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stadler, Stephen

    2004-01-01

    Congress occasionally passes new laws that affect how clinical laboratories handle test orders from physicians and, subsequently, process the billing for tests. Once a bill is signed into law, it is forwarded to administrative agencies, which draft regulations and administrative procedures, under which the intentions of Congress are carried out. In the case of laboratory test ordering and billing, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has the greatest influence over how these regulations and procedures are defined. Unfortunately, in many cases, billing rules have been promulgated in ways that create the need for hospitals and commercial laboratories to expend huge sums of money to bill within the confines of the administrative rules; cause clinical laboratories to suffer from omissions and mistakes of other parties who are part of the patient care process but are not accountable for the billing information they provide to laboratories; and, frankly, in some respects, simply defy common sense.

  18. Mean streamline analysis for performance prediction of cross-flow fans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Jae Won; Oh, Hyoung Woo

    2004-01-01

    This paper presents the mean streamline analysis using the empirical loss correlations for performance prediction of cross-flow fans. Comparison of overall performance predictions with test data of a cross-flow fan system with a simplified vortex wall scroll casing and with the published experimental characteristics for a cross-flow fan has been carried out to demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed method. Predicted performance curves by the present mean streamline analysis agree well with experimental data for two different cross-flow fans over the normal operating conditions. The prediction method presented herein can be used efficiently as a tool for the preliminary design and performance analysis of general-purpose cross-flow fans

  19. 46 CFR 9.16 - Billing for services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 46 Shipping 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Billing for services. 9.16 Section 9.16 Shipping COAST GUARD, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY PROCEDURES APPLICABLE TO THE PUBLIC EXTRA COMPENSATION FOR OVERTIME SERVICES § 9.16 Billing for services. Overtime services shall be billed to the steamship companies...

  20. An Evaluation of the Acquisition Streamlining Methods at the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Pearl Harbor Hawaii

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Henry, Mark

    1999-01-01

    ...) Pearl Harbor's implementation of acquisition streamlining initiatives and recommends viable methods of streamlining the acquisition process at FISC Pearl Harbor and other Naval Supply Systems Command...

  1. 14 CFR 1215.115 - Payment and billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... is applicable toward TDRSS operational services. (b) The procedure for billing and payment of... billings as the actual service time is tabulated. Amounts due to the user will be credited to the next... 14 Aeronautics and Space 5 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Payment and billing. 1215.115 Section 1215...

  2. A concise evaluation and management curriculum for physicians in training improved billing at an outpatient academic rheumatology clinic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsh, Joel M; Collier, David H; Boyle, Dennis J; Gardner, Edward M

    2010-04-01

    To study whether providing house staff with a brief lecture and handout about proper documentation could improve billing at an academic rheumatology clinic. The authors created an educational sheet about documentation and billing after a review of the common documentation omissions responsible for down coding (Appendix, Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at: http://links.lww.com/RHU/A8). Beginning in November of 2006, the house staff were provided with this sheet and a brief lecture regarding how outpatient evaluation and management levels of service are coded. The results of clinic billing from January 1, 2006 to October 31, 2006 and November 1, 2006 to August 31, 2007 were obtained from the physician billing office. The authors compared the average level of service, by appointment type, in the prepost comparison periods using the student t test. There was a significant improvement in the level of service billed for new visits (P < 0.001), consults (P < 0.001), and return visits (P < 0.001) after November 1, 2006. The percentage of patients evaluated for the first time who were billed as consults improved from 15% to 78% (P < 0.001 by chi2). These changes resulted in $34,342 of additional billing during the postintervention period. A simple strategy for educating the house staff about proper documentation of the history, physical examination, and clinical decision making resulted in a significant improvement in an academic rheumatology division's outpatient billing.

  3. Analysis of Streamline Separation at Infinity Using Time-Discrete Markov Chains.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reich, W; Scheuermann, G

    2012-12-01

    Existing methods for analyzing separation of streamlines are often restricted to a finite time or a local area. In our paper we introduce a new method that complements them by allowing an infinite-time-evaluation of steady planar vector fields. Our algorithm unifies combinatorial and probabilistic methods and introduces the concept of separation in time-discrete Markov-Chains. We compute particle distributions instead of the streamlines of single particles. We encode the flow into a map and then into a transition matrix for each time direction. Finally, we compare the results of our grid-independent algorithm to the popular Finite-Time-Lyapunov-Exponents and discuss the discrepancies.

  4. An Investigation of Telecom Mobile Data Billing Plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yi-Bing Lin

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available In the recent years, mobile operators have provided many billing alternatives such as limited and unlimited billing plans, and shared and non-shared data plans for the users with different needs. A non-shared data plan is designed for a single user with a limited monthly data allowance. On the other hand, the monthly data allowance of a shared data plan is shared by a group of users with multiple devices. The mobile operators often conduct the primary price study to compare their billing plans, which shows the relationship between the prices of the billing plans against the fixed amounts of data usage. Although the primary price study can easily and quickly draw the conclusions, it only provides rough billing plan suggestions. In reality, the amounts of data usage are not fixed, and therefore should be measured from commercial mobile networks to reflect the user behaviors on data usage. This paper proposes an analytical approach by using the measured data of Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. (CHT, the largest telecommunications company in Taiwan, to derive the expected payments of various billing plans. The results of the analytical model are more accurate than those of the primary price study, and therefore provide better suggestions for billing plan selection. Other mobile operators can easily use our model to analyze the billing alternatives with their measured data.

  5. 46 CFR 296.40 - Billing procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... OPERATORS MARITIME SECURITY PROGRAM (MSP) Billing and Payment Procedures § 296.40 Billing procedures. Submission of voucher. For contractors operating under more than one MSP Operating Agreement, the contractor may submit a single monthly voucher applicable to all its MSP Operating Agreements. Each voucher...

  6. 48 CFR 42.704 - Billing rates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... officer (or cognizant Federal agency official) or auditor responsible under 42.705 for establishing the... contracting officer (or cognizant Federal agency official) or auditor shall establish billing rates on the... officer (or cognizant Federal agency official) or auditor should ensure that the billing rates are as...

  7. The Effects of Propulsive Jetting on Drag of a Streamlined body

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krieg, Michael; Mohseni, Kamran

    2017-11-01

    Recently an abundance of bioinspired underwater vehicles have emerged to leverage eons of evolution. Our group has developed a propulsion technique inspired by jellyfish and squid. Propulsive jets are generated by ingesting and expelling water from a flexible internal cavity. We have demonstrated thruster capabilities for maneuvering on AUV platforms, where the internal thruster geometry minimized forward drag; however, such a setup cannot characterize propulsive efficiency. Therefore, we created a new streamlined vehicle platform that produces unsteady jets for forward propulsion rather than maneuvering. The streamlined jetting body is placed in a water tunnel and held stationary while jetting frequency and background flow velocity are varied. For each frequency/velocity pair the flow field is measured around the surface and in the wake using PIV. Using the zero jetting frequency as a baseline for each background velocity, the passive body drag is related to the velocity distribution. For cases with active jetting the drag and jetting forces are estimated from the velocity field and compared to the passive case. For this streamlined body, the entrainment of surrounding flow into the propulsive jet can reduce drag forces in addition to the momentum transfer of the jet itself. Office of Naval Research.

  8. Streamline Patterns and their Bifurcations near a wall with Navier slip Boundary Conditions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tophøj, Laust; Møller, Søren; Brøns, Morten

    2006-01-01

    We consider the two-dimensional topology of streamlines near a surface where the Navier slip boundary condition applies. Using transformations to bring the streamfunction in a simple normal form, we obtain bifurcation diagrams of streamline patterns under variation of one or two external parameters....... Topologically, these are identical with the ones previously found for no-slip surfaces. We use the theory to analyze the Stokes flow inside a circle, and show how it can be used to predict new bifurcation phenomena. ©2006 American Institute of Physics...

  9. 42 CFR 408.82 - Conditions for group billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Conditions for group billing. 408.82 Section 408.82 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES MEDICARE... for group billing. CMS agrees to a group billing arrangement only if the following conditions are met...

  10. France's energy bill in 2007

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2008-01-01

    This article comments the slight decrease of the French energy bill in 2007 and its evolution since 1970, as well as the energy price fluctuations during 2007. While noticing the importance of the dollar fall, the authors discuss the evolution of oil product prices and its different indicators (crude oil annual average quotation, Brent annual average quotation, and imported oil annual average price), the evolution of natural gas prices, of coal prices, of electricity prices. The global decrease of energy imports is then discussed, including quantities of imported crude oil from various origins, refined products, gas from various origins as well, solid mineral fuels. The balance between exports and imports is commented as a whole, and with some particular countries, enabling an assessment of energy independence. The bill evolution for oil and for gas is briefly discussed, and the global value is assessed with respect to the French GDP or as an amount of work days for French inhabitants. Several graphs and tables are given, gathering several data which have been discussed: energy trade (imports, exports, and bill), comparison of bill with other economic aggregates, average prices of imported energy expressed in dollars and in euros, average price of imported crude oil, etc

  11. Reading and Calculating Billing Through Mobile Devices

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pilar Alexandra Moreno

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available This article broadly describes the analysis, design and development of the system utilitarian, called “Reading and billing calculation site through mobile devices.” The application is oriented Public Services Companies, first water services, to perform part of the billing process “in place” through phones or any mobile devices compatible with Android. Will enable you to take readings of service consumption, recording new gauging, online update and control the information for users and turnover. This technology is considered as such one site billing method as through Internet is connected with the database of the company, sending and receiving date information, which makes the calculation of the billing for the reading period, bringing benefits to the client and the service generating company.

  12. Evaluation of two streamlined life cycle assessment methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hochschomer, Elisabeth; Finnveden, Goeran; Johansson, Jessica

    2002-02-01

    Two different methods for streamlined life cycle assessment (LCA) are described: the MECO-method and SLCA. Both methods are tested on an already made case-study on cars fuelled with petrol or ethanol, and electric cars with electricity produced from hydro power or coal. The report also contains some background information on LCA and streamlined LCA, and a deschption of the case study used. The evaluation of the MECO and SLCA-methods are based on a comparison of the results from the case study as well as practical aspects. One conclusion is that the SLCA-method has some limitations. Among the limitations are that the whole life-cycle is not covered, it requires quite a lot of information and there is room for arbitrariness. It is not very flexible instead it difficult to develop further. We are therefore not recommending the SLCA-method. The MECO-method does in comparison show several attractive features. It is also interesting to note that the MECO-method produces information that is complementary compared to a more traditional quantitative LCA. We suggest that the MECO method needs some further development and adjustment to Swedish conditions

  13. Study of streamline flow in the portal system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Atkins, H.L.; Deitch, J.S.; Oster, Z.H.; Perkes, E.A.

    1985-01-01

    The study was undertaken to determine if streamline flow occurs in the portal vein, thus separating inflow from the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and the inferior mesenteric artery. Previously published data on this subject is inconsistent. Patients undergoing abdominal angiography received two administrations of Tc-99m sulfur colloid, first via the SMA during angiography and, after completion of the angiographic procedure, via a peripheral vein (IV). Anterior images of the liver were recorded over a three minute acquisition before and after the IV injection without moving the patient. The image from the SMA injection was subtracted from the SMA and IV image to provide a pure IV image. Analysis of R to L ratios for selected regions of interest as well as whole lobes was carried out and the shift of R to L (SMA to IV) determined. Six patients had liver metastases from the colon, four had cirrhosis and four had no known liver disease. The shift in the ratio was highly variable without a consistent pattern. Large changes in some patients could be attributed to hepatic artery flow directed to metastases. No consistent evidence for streamlining of portal flow was discerned

  14. 9 CFR 590.130 - Basis of billing plants.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 9 Animals and Animal Products 2 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Basis of billing plants. 590.130... of Service § 590.130 Basis of billing plants. Overtime and/or holiday services shall be billed to the official plant on the basis of each 15 minutes of overtime and/or holiday service performed by each...

  15. Streamlining environmental product declarations: a stage model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lefebvre, Elisabeth; Lefebvre, Louis A.; Talbot, Stephane; Le Hen, Gael

    2001-02-01

    General public environmental awareness and education is increasing, therefore stimulating the demand for reliable, objective and comparable information about products' environmental performances. The recently published standard series ISO 14040 and ISO 14025 are normalizing the preparation of Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) containing comprehensive information relevant to a product's environmental impact during its life cycle. So far, only a few environmentally leading manufacturing organizations have experimented the preparation of EPDs (mostly from Europe), demonstrating its great potential as a marketing weapon. However the preparation of EPDs is a complex process, requiring collection and analysis of massive amounts of information coming from disparate sources (suppliers, sub-contractors, etc.). In a foreseeable future, the streamlining of the EPD preparation process will require product manufacturers to adapt their information systems (ERP, MES, SCADA) in order to make them capable of gathering, and transmitting the appropriate environmental information. It also requires strong functional integration all along the product supply chain in order to ensure that all the information is made available in a standardized and timely manner. The goal of the present paper is two fold: first to propose a transitional model towards green supply chain management and EPD preparation; second to identify key technologies and methodologies allowing to streamline the EPD process and subsequently the transition toward sustainable product development

  16. Defense bill: Earmarking as usual

    Science.gov (United States)

    Earmarked funds in the $268 billion defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 1991 stirred congressional debate in late October. Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged that the defense bill contains questionable projects totaling tens of millions of dollars. AGU opposes legislative earmarking of money for particular institutions, maintaining that the practice prevents the best use of federal funding by circumventing competitive review. Nunn noted on the Senate floor that the appropriations bill provided specific funds for cited institutions—contravening a federal law promoting competition. “ If these programs have merit, they will succeed in a fair and competent review in competition,” Nunn said. “If no other institution in the country is able to compete, there should be no fear whatever of competition… But no one else in the world is allowed to compete to work on these projects.”

  17. Workshop on Coherent Structure of Turbulent Boundary Layers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1978-11-01

    that one observes streak- lines rather than pathlines or mean streamlines in unsteady flows. Streaklines are not well- adapted to the formation of...will recur. I also want to show a very short film clip of pairing taken recently by Gene Bouchard, a current doctoral student of Bill Reynolds’ at...the elephant change her spots, so to speak, become, say, a leopard for a short time at some stage like ’bursting’, and then retransform to an elephant

  18. Performance improvement planning : developing effective billing and collection practices

    OpenAIRE

    anonymous

    2008-01-01

    Effective billing and collection systems are a critical component for ensuring the viability of a service provider. Improving billing and collection activities has an immediate impact on the revenue streams of a service provider that can, in turn, help the service provider in improving services. However, while effective billing and collection practices depend on many internal factors (including customer databases, the extent of metered and unmetered service provision, tariff and billing struc...

  19. The development of application for billing of services

    OpenAIRE

    Šinko, Žiga

    2013-01-01

    Diploma is a description of a programming solution for preparing billing invoices of Mikrocop services. Developed system can easily manage billing invoices specifications for all customers and set schedules for generating invoices. These settings are than used by the service module generating invoices on schedule. Generated invoices can be seen and managed with help of Windows Reporting Services technology. First chapter describes services billing in general. Second chapter shortly de...

  20. THE BILL OF EXCHANGE AS A MEANS OF PAYMENT AND SECURITY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vojo Belovski

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available The bill of exchange is a kind of paper in order that its holder shall entitle the debtor named in the document to pay a certain amount of payments. The bill of exchange represents a means of payment and an instrument of providing the payment. It is an unconditional order given by the drawer to the drawee to pay a certain amount to the payee listed on the bill of exchange. The bill of exchange is generally a paper on the orders but it can be issued as value paper to a name. It is such promissory notes where the issuer becomes a clause not by order. The bill of exchange though it appears as a means of payment and an instrument for securing the payment it also appears as a means of international payment, because the bill of exchange can become a modern instrument of crediting and payment. With the development of the credit market and the bill of exchange becomes a means for the drawer and the drawee. This means that instead of the bill of exchange to be paid after the expiry of a certain deadline for submission of the bill of exchange the holder may sell or discount, or to pay before the deadline for submission. With this the bill of exchange becomes a toll for discount. Based on this we can conclude that the bill of exchange has the following roles: -bill of exchange serves as a means of credit; -bill of exchange serves as means of payment; -bill of exchange serves as a means for discount by.

  1. 47 CFR 76.981 - Negative option billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 47 Telecommunication 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Negative option billing. 76.981 Section 76.981 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) BROADCAST RADIO SERVICES MULTICHANNEL VIDEO AND CABLE TELEVISION SERVICE Cable Rate Regulation § 76.981 Negative option billing. (a) A cable operator...

  2. Southern Ocean overturning across streamlines in an eddying simulation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. M. Treguier

    2007-12-01

    Full Text Available An eddying global model is used to study the characteristics of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC in a streamline-following framework. Previous model-based estimates of the meridional circulation were calculated using zonal averages: this method leads to a counter-intuitive poleward circulation of the less dense waters, and underestimates the eddy effects. We show that on the contrary, the upper ocean circulation across streamlines agrees with the theoretical view: an equatorward mean flow partially cancelled by a poleward eddy mass flux. Two model simulations, in which the buoyancy forcing above the ACC changes from positive to negative, suggest that the relationship between the residual meridional circulation and the surface buoyancy flux is not as straightforward as assumed by the simplest theoretical models: the sign of the residual circulation cannot be inferred from the surface buoyancy forcing only. Among the other processes that likely play a part in setting the meridional circulation, our model results emphasize the complex three-dimensional structure of the ACC (probably not well accounted for in streamline-averaged, two-dimensional models and the distinct role of temperature and salinity in the definition of the density field. Heat and salt transports by the time-mean flow are important even across time-mean streamlines. Heat and salt are balanced in the ACC, the model drift being small, but the nonlinearity of the equation of state cannot be ignored in the density balance.

  3. Streamlining genomes: toward the generation of simplified and stabilized microbial systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Leprince, A.; Passel, van M.W.J.; Martins Dos Santos, V.A.P.

    2012-01-01

    At the junction between systems and synthetic biology, genome streamlining provides a solid foundation both for increased understanding of cellular circuitry, and for the tailoring of microbial chassis towards innovative biotechnological applications. Iterative genomic deletions (targeted and

  4. The Voluntary Euthanasia (Legalization) Bill (1936) revisited.

    OpenAIRE

    Helme, T

    1991-01-01

    In view of the continuing debate on euthanasia, the restrictions and safeguards which were introduced into the Voluntary Euthanasia (Legislation) Bill 1936 are discussed. Proposals for a new Terminal Care and Euthanasia Bill are suggested, based on some of the principles of the Mental Health Act 1983.

  5. Unique encoding for streamline topologies of incompressible and inviscid flows in multiply connected domains

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sakajo, T [Department of Mathematics, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa Oiwake-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502 (Japan); Sawamura, Y; Yokoyama, T, E-mail: sakajo@math.kyoto-u.ac.jp [JST CREST, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012 (Japan)

    2014-06-01

    This study considers the flow of incompressible and inviscid fluid in two-dimensional multiply connected domains. For such flows, encoding algorithms to assign a unique sequence of words to any structurally stable streamline topology based on the theory presented by Yokoyama and Sakajo (2013 Proc. R. Soc. A 469 20120558) are proposed. As an application, we utilize the algorithms to characterize the evolution of an incompressible and viscid flow around a flat plate inclined to the uniform flow in terms of the change of the word representations for their instantaneous streamline topologies. (papers)

  6. West Virginia peer exchange : streamlining highway safety improvement program project delivery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    The West Virginia Division of Highways (WV DOH) hosted a Peer Exchange to share information and experiences : for streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) project delivery. The event was held September : 22 to 23, 2014 in Charleston, We...

  7. Lightroom 5 streamlining your digital photography process

    CERN Document Server

    Sylvan, Rob

    2014-01-01

    Manage your images with Lightroom and this beautifully illustrated guide Image management can soak up huge amounts of a photographer's time, but help is on hand. This complete guides teaches you how to use Adobe Lightroom 5 to import, manage, edit, and showcase large quantities of images with impressive results. The authors, both professional photographers and Lightroom experts, walk you through step by step, demonstrating real-world techniques as well as a variety of practical tips, tricks, and shortcuts that save you time. Streamline image management tasks like a pro, and get back to doing

  8. Novel diffusion tensor imaging technique reveals developmental streamline volume changes in the corticospinal tract associated with leg motor control.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kamson, David O; Juhász, Csaba; Chugani, Harry T; Jeong, Jeong-Won

    2015-04-01

    Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has expanded our knowledge of corticospinal tract (CST) anatomy and development. However, previous developmental DTI studies assessed the CST as a whole, overlooking potential differences in development of its components related to control of the upper and lower extremities. The present cross-sectional study investigated age-related changes, side and gender differences in streamline volume of the leg- and hand-related segments of the CST in children. DTI data of 31 children (1-14 years; mean age: 6±4 years; 17 girls) with normal conventional MRI were analyzed. Leg- and hand-related CST streamline volumes were quantified separately, using a recently validated novel tractography approach. CST streamline volumes on both sides were compared between genders and correlated with age. Higher absolute streamline volumes were found in the left leg-related CST compared to the right (p=0.001) without a gender effect (p=0.4), whereas no differences were found in the absolute hand-related CST volumes (p>0.4). CST leg-related streamline volumes, normalized to hemispheric white matter volumes, declined with age in the right hemisphere only (R=-.51; p=0.004). Absolute leg-related CST streamline volumes showed similar, but slightly weaker correlations. Hand-related absolute or normalized CST streamline volumes showed no age-related variations on either side. These results suggest differential development of CST segments controlling hand vs. leg movements. Asymmetric volume changes in the lower limb motor pathway may be secondary to gradually strengthening left hemispheric dominance and is consistent with previous data suggesting that footedness is a better predictor of hemispheric lateralization than handedness. Copyright © 2014 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. The Voluntary Euthanasia (Legalization) Bill (1936) revisited.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helme, T

    1991-01-01

    In view of the continuing debate on euthanasia, the restrictions and safeguards which were introduced into the Voluntary Euthanasia (Legislation) Bill 1936 are discussed. Proposals for a new Terminal Care and Euthanasia Bill are suggested, based on some of the principles of the Mental Health Act 1983. PMID:2033626

  10. The consumer pays the energy bill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Meulmeester, P.; Haffner, R.C.G.

    2005-01-01

    The liberalization of the energy market for small-scale consumers in the Netherlands coincides with a period in which consumers have to pay high energy bills. However, the cause of this is not the liberalization, but the high oil prices and raised taxes. In this article an overview is given of the total energy bill n the Netherlands, its components and the first effects of the liberalization process [nl

  11. Public submissions on the Uganda national biotechnology and biosafety bill, 2012 reveal consensus for Uganda legislators to pass the bill

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clet Wandui Masiga

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity is an internationally binding instrument addressing issues of biosafety. Biosafety refers to the need to protect human health and the environment from the possible adverse effects of the products of modern biotechnology. Accordingly all countries to the convention are required to put in place regulatory mechanisms to enhance the safety of biotechnology in the context of the Convention’s overall goal of reducing all potential threats to biological diversity, while taking into account the risks to human health. Therefore each country party to the convention has its own procedures to enact laws to guide the safe use of biotechnology. In Uganda the process involves the drafting of the bill by the first parliamentary counsel, approval by cabinet, first reading at the parliament, committal to the responsible parliamentary sessional committee, tabling of the bill for public hearing, consultations, and final approval. In Uganda, the Committee on Science and Technology is responsible for the Biosafety Bill. In March 2013, the Committee tabled the bill for public hearing and submissions from public institutions. There were comments supporting the passage of the Bill and comments in objection.The reasons for objection are mainly due to precaution, speculation, lack of knowledge about biotechnology and biosafety, and alleged influence from biosafety entrepreneurs. This article reviews these public views, revealing controversy and possible consensus to pass the bill.

  12. Ilmumised ja mediteerimised / Bill Viola ; interv. Harry Liivrand

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Viola, Bill

    1998-01-01

    Bill Viola videoretrospektiiv Stedelijk Museumis, Rijksmuseumis, New Metropolises jm. Amsterdamis 29. novembrini. H. Liivrand Bill Violast ja tema loomingust. B. Viola oma videokunstist praegu ja 25 aastat tagasi, mil tema alustas, mõjutustest loomingule.

  13. Damage Detection with Streamlined Structural Health Monitoring Data

    OpenAIRE

    Li, Jian; Deng, Jun; Xie, Weizhi

    2015-01-01

    The huge amounts of sensor data generated by large scale sensor networks in on-line structural health monitoring (SHM) systems often overwhelms the systems’ capacity for data transmission and analysis. This paper presents a new concept for an integrated SHM system in which a streamlined data flow is used as a unifying thread to integrate the individual components of on-line SHM systems. Such an integrated SHM system has a few desirable functionalities including embedded sensor data compressio...

  14. Zephyr: A secure Internet process to streamline engineering

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jordan, C.W.; Niven, W.A.; Cavitt, R.E. [and others

    1998-05-12

    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is implementing an Internet-based process pilot called `Zephyr` to streamline engineering and commerce using the Internet. Major benefits have accrued by using Zephyr in facilitating industrial collaboration, speeding the engineering development cycle, reducing procurement time, and lowering overall costs. Programs at LLNL are potentializing the efficiencies introduced since implementing Zephyr. Zephyr`s pilot functionality is undergoing full integration with Business Systems, Finance, and Vendors to support major programs at the Laboratory.

  15. 42 CFR 71.11 - Bills of health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Bills of health. 71.11 Section 71.11 Public Health PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES QUARANTINE, INSPECTION, LICENSING FOREIGN QUARANTINE Measures at Foreign Ports § 71.11 Bills of health. A carrier at any foreign port clearing or...

  16. 16 CFR 308.7 - Billing and collection for pay-per-call services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... responsibility for receiving and responding to billing error complaints or inquiries. (2) Billing error means any... or other toll free telephone number. (v) The failure to reflect properly on a billing statement a... billing error complaint or inquiry. (6) Telephone-billed purchase means any purchase that is completed...

  17. Streamlining the license renewal review process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dozier, J.; Lee, S.; Kuo, P.T.

    2001-01-01

    The staff of the NRC has been developing three regulatory guidance documents for license renewal: the Generic Aging Lessons Learned (GALL) report, Standard Review Plan for License Renewal (SRP-LR), and Regulatory Guide (RG) for Standard Format and Content for Applications to Renew Nuclear Power Plant Operating Licenses. These documents are designed to streamline the license renewal review process by providing clear guidance for license renewal applicants and the NRC staff in preparing and reviewing license renewal applications. The GALL report systematically catalogs aging effects on structures and components; identifies the relevant existing plant programs; and evaluates the existing programs against the attributes considered necessary for an aging management program to be acceptable for license renewal. The GALL report also provides guidance for the augmentation of existing plant programs for license renewal. The revised SRP-LR allows an applicant to reference the GALL report to preclude further NRC staff evaluation if the plant's existing programs meet the criteria described in the GALL report. During the review process, the NRC staff will focus primarily on existing programs that should be augmented or new programs developed specifically for license renewal. The Regulatory Guide is expected to endorse the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) guideline, NEI 95-10, Revision 2, entitled 'Industry Guideline for Implementing the Requirements of 10 CFR Part 54 - The License Renewal Rule', which provides guidance for preparing a license renewal application. This paper will provide an introduction to the GALL report, SRP-LR, Regulatory Guide, and NEI 95-10 to show how these documents are interrelated and how they will be used to streamline the license renewal review process. This topic will be of interest to domestic power utilities considering license renewal and international ICONE participants seeking state-of-the-art information about license renewal in the United States

  18. Atomic Energy Authority Bill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gray, J.H.N.; Stoddart, D.L.; Sinclair, R.M.; Ezra, D.

    1985-01-01

    The House, in Committee, discussed the following matters in relation to the Atomic Energy Authority Bill; financing; trading; personnel conditions of employment; public relations; organization; research programmes; fuels; energy sources; information dissemination. (U.K.)

  19. Electricity Bill [second reading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hooper, G.; Williams, C.C.P.; Ezra, D.

    1989-01-01

    The Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department of Energy introduced the second reading of the Electricity Bill which provides for the restructuring and privatisation of the electricity supply industry throughout Great Britain. Three features at the heart of the Government's proposals are mentioned - first that the proposals will promote competition in electricity generation and supply of electricity so there will be a downward pressure on costs and prices, second is a new deal for customers and third is the security of electricity supply which will be ensured by the diversity of suppliers. The benefits of the scheme are outlined and then specific details of the Bill are considered. The debate which followed lasted six hours and is reported verbatim. The issues raised included environmental effects, efficiency, energy conservation, research and development and investment. (UK)

  20. A streamlined failure mode and effects analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ford, Eric C.; Smith, Koren; Terezakis, Stephanie; Croog, Victoria; Gollamudi, Smitha; Gage, Irene; Keck, Jordie; DeWeese, Theodore; Sibley, Greg

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: Explore the feasibility and impact of a streamlined failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) using a structured process that is designed to minimize staff effort. Methods: FMEA for the external beam process was conducted at an affiliate radiation oncology center that treats approximately 60 patients per day. A structured FMEA process was developed which included clearly defined roles and goals for each phase. A core group of seven people was identified and a facilitator was chosen to lead the effort. Failure modes were identified and scored according to the FMEA formalism. A risk priority number,RPN, was calculated and used to rank failure modes. Failure modes with RPN > 150 received safety improvement interventions. Staff effort was carefully tracked throughout the project. Results: Fifty-two failure modes were identified, 22 collected during meetings, and 30 from take-home worksheets. The four top-ranked failure modes were: delay in film check, missing pacemaker protocol/consent, critical structures not contoured, and pregnant patient simulated without the team's knowledge of the pregnancy. These four failure modes hadRPN > 150 and received safety interventions. The FMEA was completed in one month in four 1-h meetings. A total of 55 staff hours were required and, additionally, 20 h by the facilitator. Conclusions: Streamlined FMEA provides a means of accomplishing a relatively large-scale analysis with modest effort. One potential value of FMEA is that it potentially provides a means of measuring the impact of quality improvement efforts through a reduction in risk scores. Future study of this possibility is needed

  1. A streamlined failure mode and effects analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ford, Eric C; Smith, Koren; Terezakis, Stephanie; Croog, Victoria; Gollamudi, Smitha; Gage, Irene; Keck, Jordie; DeWeese, Theodore; Sibley, Greg

    2014-06-01

    Explore the feasibility and impact of a streamlined failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) using a structured process that is designed to minimize staff effort. FMEA for the external beam process was conducted at an affiliate radiation oncology center that treats approximately 60 patients per day. A structured FMEA process was developed which included clearly defined roles and goals for each phase. A core group of seven people was identified and a facilitator was chosen to lead the effort. Failure modes were identified and scored according to the FMEA formalism. A risk priority number,RPN, was calculated and used to rank failure modes. Failure modes with RPN > 150 received safety improvement interventions. Staff effort was carefully tracked throughout the project. Fifty-two failure modes were identified, 22 collected during meetings, and 30 from take-home worksheets. The four top-ranked failure modes were: delay in film check, missing pacemaker protocol/consent, critical structures not contoured, and pregnant patient simulated without the team's knowledge of the pregnancy. These four failure modes had RPN > 150 and received safety interventions. The FMEA was completed in one month in four 1-h meetings. A total of 55 staff hours were required and, additionally, 20 h by the facilitator. Streamlined FMEA provides a means of accomplishing a relatively large-scale analysis with modest effort. One potential value of FMEA is that it potentially provides a means of measuring the impact of quality improvement efforts through a reduction in risk scores. Future study of this possibility is needed.

  2. A streamlined failure mode and effects analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ford, Eric C., E-mail: eford@uw.edu; Smith, Koren; Terezakis, Stephanie; Croog, Victoria; Gollamudi, Smitha; Gage, Irene; Keck, Jordie; DeWeese, Theodore; Sibley, Greg [Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21287 (United States)

    2014-06-15

    Purpose: Explore the feasibility and impact of a streamlined failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) using a structured process that is designed to minimize staff effort. Methods: FMEA for the external beam process was conducted at an affiliate radiation oncology center that treats approximately 60 patients per day. A structured FMEA process was developed which included clearly defined roles and goals for each phase. A core group of seven people was identified and a facilitator was chosen to lead the effort. Failure modes were identified and scored according to the FMEA formalism. A risk priority number,RPN, was calculated and used to rank failure modes. Failure modes with RPN > 150 received safety improvement interventions. Staff effort was carefully tracked throughout the project. Results: Fifty-two failure modes were identified, 22 collected during meetings, and 30 from take-home worksheets. The four top-ranked failure modes were: delay in film check, missing pacemaker protocol/consent, critical structures not contoured, and pregnant patient simulated without the team's knowledge of the pregnancy. These four failure modes hadRPN > 150 and received safety interventions. The FMEA was completed in one month in four 1-h meetings. A total of 55 staff hours were required and, additionally, 20 h by the facilitator. Conclusions: Streamlined FMEA provides a means of accomplishing a relatively large-scale analysis with modest effort. One potential value of FMEA is that it potentially provides a means of measuring the impact of quality improvement efforts through a reduction in risk scores. Future study of this possibility is needed.

  3. Draft Surrogacy (Regulation Bill 2016: Rhetoric or Surrogate-centric?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rituparna Bhattacharyya

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Chaired by honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Damodar Modi, the Union Cabinet on 24 August 2016 introduced and approved the draft bill on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART in India, known popularly as the Surrogacy (Regulation Bill, 2016. The bill aims at regulating the ever-proliferating unregulated surrogacy industry interalia banning commercial surrogacy services for single parents, homosexuals, cohabiting partners in addition to foreigners and overseas citizens of India. The key aim of this commentary is to make a nuanced examination of the draft bill aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the practice of surrogacy and address gaps (if any that require interventions.

  4. The Effects of Bill 4330/2004 on Union Relations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Felipe Prata Mendes

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This work aims to analyze in which way the bill 4330/2004 affects the union representativeness of outsourced workers. In order to accomplish the settled purpose, it is necessary firstly to frame the outsourcing phenomena in the context of the evolution of capitalism. In relation to the main problem of the work, it’s necessary to investigate if the bill 4330/2004 implies an offense to the union representativeness of outsourced workers. The conclusions obtained show that bill 4330/2004 compounds the representativeness trouble, since this bill proposes the agglutination of workers pertained to very different realities, what stunts the collective protection of interests.

  5. Streamlining Smart Meter Data Analytics

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Xiufeng; Nielsen, Per Sieverts

    2015-01-01

    of the so-called big data possible. This can improve energy management, e.g., help utilities improve the management of energy and services, and help customers save money. As this regard, the paper focuses on building an innovative software solution to streamline smart meter data analytic, aiming at dealing......Today smart meters are increasingly used in worldwide. Smart meters are the advanced meters capable of measuring customer energy consumption at a fine-grained time interval, e.g., every 15 minutes. The data are very sizable, and might be from different sources, along with the other social......-economic metrics such as the geographic information of meters, the information about users and their property, geographic location and others, which make the data management very complex. On the other hand, data-mining and the emerging cloud computing technologies make the collection, management, and analysis...

  6. Comparison groups on bills: Automated, personalized energy information

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iyer, Maithili; Kempton, Willett; Payne, Christopher

    2006-07-01

    A program called ``Innovative Billing?? has been developed to provide individualized energy information for a mass audience?the entireresidential customer base of an electric or gas utility. Customers receive a graph on the bill that compares that customer?s consumption with othersimilar customers for the same month. The program aims to stimulate customers to make ef?ciency improvements. To group as many as severalmillion customers into small ``comparison groups??, an automated method must be developed drawing solely from the data available to the utility.This paper develops and applies methods to compare the quality of resulting comparison groups.A data base of 114,000 customers from a utility billing system was used to evaluate Innovative Billing comparison groups, comparing fouralternative criteria: house characteristics (?oor area, housing type, and heating fuel); street; meter read route; billing cycle. Also, customers wereinterviewed to see what forms of comparison graphs made most sense and led to fewest errors of interpretation. We ?nd that good qualitycomparison groups result from using street name, meter book, or multiple house characteristics. Other criteria we tested, such as entire cycle, entiremeter book, or single house characteristics such as ?oor area, resulted in poor quality comparison groups. This analysis provides a basis forchoosing comparison groups based on extensive user testing and statistical analysis. The result is a practical set of guidelines that can be used toimplement realistic, inexpensive innovative billing for the entire customer base of an electric or gas utility.

  7. Go8 Note: Student Visas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Group of Eight (NJ1), 2012

    2012-01-01

    An independent review of the Australian student visa program was completed in 2011. Several of the recommendations from the review have been implemented by the Australian government, including the introduction of streamlined visa processing for applicants enrolled at an Australian university and increased flexibility in working conditions for…

  8. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment Bill, 2016: A Critical Analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suman Singh

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available On 11 August 2016, amending the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, the new bill, The Maternity Benefit (Amendment Bill, 2016 was introduced and passed in the Rajya Sabha (or Council of States, the upper house of the Parliament of India. Central aim of this article is to critically review the amendments to the bill regarding geographies of maternity leave and its associated facilities.

  9. The impact of groundwater velocity fields on streamlines in an aquifer system with a discontinuous aquitard (Inner Mongolia, China)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wu, Qiang; Zhao, Yingwang; Xu, Hua

    2018-04-01

    Many numerical methods that simulate groundwater flow, particularly the continuous Galerkin finite element method, do not produce velocity information directly. Many algorithms have been proposed to improve the accuracy of velocity fields computed from hydraulic potentials. The differences in the streamlines generated from velocity fields obtained using different algorithms are presented in this report. The superconvergence method employed by FEFLOW, a popular commercial code, and some dual-mesh methods proposed in recent years are selected for comparison. The applications to depict hydrogeologic conditions using streamlines are used, and errors in streamlines are shown to lead to notable errors in boundary conditions, the locations of material interfaces, fluxes and conductivities. Furthermore, the effects of the procedures used in these two types of methods, including velocity integration and local conservation, are analyzed. The method of interpolating velocities across edges using fluxes is shown to be able to eliminate errors associated with refraction points that are not located along material interfaces and streamline ends at no-flow boundaries. Local conservation is shown to be a crucial property of velocity fields and can result in more accurate streamline densities. A case study involving both three-dimensional and two-dimensional cross-sectional models of a coal mine in Inner Mongolia, China, are used to support the conclusions presented.

  10. 40 CFR 81.88 - Billings Intrastate Air Quality Control Region.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... Quality Control Regions § 81.88 Billings Intrastate Air Quality Control Region. The Metropolitan Billings Intrastate Air Quality Control Region (Montana) has been renamed the Billings Intrastate Air Quality Control... to by Montana authorities as follows: Sec. 481.168Great Falls Intrastate Air Quality Control Region...

  11. Senate Republican leadership releases revised ACA repeal and replace bill

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Moore NS

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available No abstract available. Article truncated after first 150 words. Today, the Senate Republican leadership released a revised version of a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA. The new bill draft includes an amendment sponsored by Sen. Cruz (R-TX that permits insurers to offer health insurance plans on the ACA exchanges that do not cover the ACA’s 10 essential health benefits (EHB as long as they offer at least one other plan that provides full coverage of EHB’s. The bill also includes more funding for opioid addiction and for state initiatives to reduce insurance premiums and additionally, some flexibility for state Medicaid funding in the event of a public health crisis. The bill must still receive a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO, which will include the impact of the bill on insurance coverage levels, expected out Monday. The ATS remains deeply concerned about the bill because under the Cruz proposal, insurance coverage costs …

  12. Pediatric Hospitalist Comanagement Survey of Clinical and Billing Practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Connor, Katherine M; Zipes, David G; Schaffzin, Joshua K; Rosenberg, Rebecca

    2017-10-01

    Surgical comanagement is an increasingly common practice in pediatric hospital medicine. Information about the structure and financing of such care is limited. The aim of the researchers for this study was to investigate pediatric hospitalist surgical comanagement models and to assess pediatric hospitalist familiarity with and patterns of billing for surgical patients. We conducted a cross-sectional cohort web-based survey of pediatric hospitalists using the American Academy of Pediatrics' Section on Hospital Medicine listserv. In our study ( N = 133), we found wide variation in our cohort in surgical patient practice management, including program structure, individual billing practices, and knowledge regarding billing practices. Even for pediatric hospitalists with comanagement service agreements between surgeons and pediatric hospitalists, there was no increased awareness or knowledge about reimbursement or billing for surgical patients. This global lack of knowledge in our small but diverse sample suggests that billing resources and training for pediatric hospitalists practicing comanagement of surgical patients are needed. Copyright © 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  13. Atomic Energy Authority Bill (Lords)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Eadie, A.; Goodlad, A.; Fisher, M.; Griffiths, P.; Coombs, S.

    1986-01-30

    The discussions of one of the standing committees of the House of Lords on the Atomic Energy Authority Bill are reported verbatim. Clauses 6, 9 and new clauses 3, 2 and 4 were discussed. The amendments to the clauses were put and debated. The safety requirements of the nuclear industry and the money necessary for these are discussed. At the end of the debate on each clause (and amendments if any), the decision of the House as to its agreement or otherwise is recorded. It was agreed that the Bill, as amended by the committee, should be reported to the (full) House of Lords. The debate lasted 1 3/4 hours.

  14. Self streamlining wind tunnel: Further low speed testing and final design studies for the transonic facility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wolf, S. W. D.

    1978-01-01

    Work was continued with the low speed self streamlining wind tunnel (SSWT) using the NACA 0012-64 airfoil in an effort to explain the discrepancies between the NASA Langley low turbulence pressure tunnel (LTPT) and SSWT results obtained with the airfoil stalled. Conventional wind tunnel corrections were applied to straight wall SSWT airfoil data, to illustrate the inadequacy of standard correction techniques in circumstances of high blockage. Also one SSWT test was re-run at different air speeds to investigate the effects of such changes (perhaps through changes in Reynold's number and freestream turbulence levels) on airfoil data and wall contours. Mechanical design analyses for the transonic self-streamlining wind tunnel (TSWT) were completed by the application of theoretical airfoil flow field data to the elastic beam and streamline analysis. The control system for the transonic facility, which will eventually allow on-line computer operation of the wind tunnel, was outlined.

  15. 47 CFR 64.2401 - Truth-in-Billing Requirements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 64.2401 Telecommunication FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED) COMMON CARRIER SERVICES... provider. (3) The telephone bill must clearly and conspicuously identify any change in service provider... content so that customers can accurately assess that the services for which they are billed correspond to...

  16. Who'll pay the electricity bill?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roche, P.

    1989-01-01

    Nuclear power will be protected from the vagaries of the free market by requiring the 12 privatised distribution companies to take around 15-20% of their power from non-fossil (i.e. nuclear) sources. The Electricity Bill also requires producers of fossil-fuelled electricity to charge a compulsory levy which will be used to finance the non-fossil quota. The extra cost of generating electricity by nuclear means compared with the alternatives will be recouped via the 'levy' after the new PWRs have come into operation. Producers of power which is neither nuclear nor fossil will not be required to make this levy, so renewable energies may gain a small competitive advantage. The financial implications of privatisation have not been fully clarified, especially regarding nuclear power with its associated expenses of radioactive waste disposal and decommissioning. Energy efficiency may be encouraged by the Bill, but competition may not result from the Bill. (author)

  17. Understanding Your Water Bill

    Science.gov (United States)

    An easy to way to understand individual water use is to look at your water bill—not just the amount due, but how much water you used. Pull out your water bill and follow our steps to learn more about it.

  18. Marketer consolidated billing : realizing the value of customer relationships

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schiratti, A. [Sunoco, Toronto, ON (Canada)

    2001-07-01

    This presentation focused on timely issues regarding marketer consolidated billing (MCB). MCB allows energy marketers to directly bill customers for both gas and electric commodities and distribution services. MCB is mandated by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) in the electricity sector through the Retail Settlements Task Force and is proposed by the OEB in the Gas Distributor Access Rule. The main topics discussed in this paper were the new relationship under MCB, benefits for customers and challenges for marketers. The major obstacles for a successful MCB model were also proposed. The new MCB approach strengthens the relationship between the marketer and the customer. The MCB will allow both electricity and natural gas customers to choose marketers who bill for both delivery and gas on one bill.

  19. Marketer consolidated billing : realizing the value of customer relationships

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schiratti, A.

    2001-01-01

    This presentation focused on timely issues regarding marketer consolidated billing (MCB). MCB allows energy marketers to directly bill customers for both gas and electric commodities and distribution services. MCB is mandated by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) in the electricity sector through the Retail Settlements Task Force and is proposed by the OEB in the Gas Distributor Access Rule. The main topics discussed in this paper were the new relationship under MCB, benefits for customers and challenges for marketers. The major obstacles for a successful MCB model were also proposed. The new MCB approach strengthens the relationship between the marketer and the customer. The MCB will allow both electricity and natural gas customers to choose marketers who bill for both delivery and gas on one bill

  20. Heat loss may explain bill size differences between birds occupying different habitats.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Russell Greenberg

    Full Text Available Research on variation in bill morphology has focused on the role of diet. Bills have other functions, however, including a role in heat and water balance. The role of the bill in heat loss may be particularly important in birds where water is limiting. Song sparrows localized in coastal dunes and salt marsh edge (Melospiza melodia atlantica are similar in size to, but have bills with a 17% greater surface area than, those that live in mesic habitats (M. m. melodia, a pattern shared with other coastal sparrows. We tested the hypotheses that sparrows can use their bills to dissipate "dry" heat, and that heat loss from the bill is higher in M. m. atlantica than M. m. melodia, which would indicate a role of heat loss and water conservation in selection for bill size.Bill, tarsus, and body surface temperatures were measured using thermal imaging of sparrows exposed to temperatures from 15-37°C and combined with surface area and physical modeling to estimate the contribution of each body part to total heat loss. Song sparrow bills averaged 5-10°C hotter than ambient. The bill of M. m atlantica dissipated up to 33% more heat and 38% greater proportion of total heat than that of M. m. melodia. This could potentially reduce water loss requirements by approximately 7.7%.This >30% higher heat loss in the bill of M. m. atlantica is independent of evaporative water loss and thus could play an important role in the water balance of sparrows occupying the hot and exposed dune/salt marsh environments during the summer. Heat loss capacity and water conservation could play an important role in the selection for bill size differences between bird populations and should be considered along with trophic adaptations when studying variation in bill size.

  1. An Enterprise Model for Real-Time Inter-domain Billing of Services

    OpenAIRE

    Le, V.M.; van Beijnum, Bernhard J.F.; Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; Huitema, G.B.

    2008-01-01

    The technological developments in networking solutions, information and communication services create the basis for the provisioning of complex, realtime services. This paper addresses the charging and billing of such advanced services. Advanced services will be composed of services provided by various 3rd party providers residing in different domains. Hence, charging and billing of advanced services requires a billing system capable of composing charging and billing information from provider...

  2. Rights of the Accused: Criminal Amendments in the Bill of Rights. A Compilation of Lessons by Minnesota Teachers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bloom, Jennifer, Ed.

    The 36 lessons collected in this publication are designed to introduce students to the rights of the accused and provide a scholarly study of these rights, exploring historical development as well as current application. Lessons are provided for all grade levels. The topics covered include the Bill of Rights, criminal rights amendments, juvenile…

  3. Streamline topology: Patterns in fluid flows and their bifurcations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brøns, Morten

    2007-01-01

    Using dynamical systems theory, we consider structures such as vortices and separation in the streamline patterns of fluid flows. Bifurcation of patterns under variation of external parameters is studied using simplifying normal form transformations. Flows away from boundaries, flows close to fix...... walls, and axisymmetric flows are analyzed in detail. We show how to apply the ideas from the theory to analyze numerical simulations of the vortex breakdown in a closed cylindrical container....

  4. Variable billing for services: new fiscal direction for nursing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higgerson, N J; Van Slyck, A

    1982-06-01

    The advantages of variable billing for nursing care that: It identifies revenue nursing cost centers. It facilitates systematic control of revenue and expenses, improving budget planning and management. It generates a tremendous amount of data that can be used in administrative planning and decision making. It is more equitable than past billing practices for the patient, the third-party payer, and the hospital, making it a public relations asset. The disadvantages of variable billing are that: Charges at one hospital are not easily compared with those at another. The mix of patients at varying classification levels has a significant effect on revenue, thus increasing the possibility of lower revenue. More accountability and in some cases more work is required of nursing administrators. In this article, the practical application of variable billing in acute care settings has been discussed. It is hoped that the information provided here will stimulate nursing administrators to assess the feasibility of implementing varible billing for nursing services as a fiscal practice in their own institutions.

  5. Human-Centered Design Bill of Rights for Educators.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sugar, William A.

    This paper presents a potential solution to encourage technology adoption and integration within schools by proposing a human-centered technology "bill of rights" for educators. The intention of this bill of rights it to influence educators' beliefs towards technology and to enable educators to confront with confidence the seemingly…

  6. THE NIGERIA DATA PROTECTION BILL: APPRAISAL, ISSUES, AND CHALLENGES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abubakar Sanni Aliyu

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Nigeria has absolutely no privacy and personal information laws. This lacuna is even more material in an internet world where information published on the web is open to a global audience. It is in this regard that the Data Protection Bill was sponsored by Hon. Yakubu Dogara, member of the Federal House of Representatives, representing Bogoro/Dass/Tafawa Balewa Bauchi State, Nigeria. This paper has two key aims, firstly to find out the major issues address by the proposed Data Protection Bill 2010, secondly, to determine the significance and the challenges of the Bill to Nigeria environment. The study utilized secondary source of data from the Data Protection Bill, 2010 and other documentary sources for analysis. The study finds out that the Bill protect parties in regard to publication of market survey details and information, ensure that unauthorised processing of personal information is reduce, and use of personal data and information without the prior consent of the data is subjected to scrutiny. The paper recommends that the Federal Government of Nigeria and the policy makers should hasten the process of passing the Bill into law in order to strengthen the activities of ecommerce in Nigeria through the following benefits: Improved customer relations; Improved ability to market lawfully; Improved data quality; Improved data security among others.

  7. Streamlining the Online Course Development Process by Using Project Management Tools

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdous, M'hammed; He, Wu

    2008-01-01

    Managing the design and production of online courses is challenging. Insufficient instructional design and inefficient management often lead to issues such as poor course quality and course delivery delays. In an effort to facilitate, streamline, and improve the overall design and production of online courses, this article discusses how we…

  8. 42 CFR 408.84 - Billing and payment procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Billing and payment procedures. 408.84 Section 408.84 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES... Billing and payment procedures. (a) Initial premium notice. (1) CMS or its agent always sends the initial...

  9. Bill Barbour : mõned ideed kasvavatele firmadele / Bill Barbour ; interv. Taivo Paju

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Barbour, Bill

    2005-01-01

    Suurbritannia üks kogenumaid ärikonsultante firmade ärikasvumudelist, mis aitab ettevõttel järgmisesse etappi üle minna. Mida peaks ettevõtja enne äri alustamist läbi mõtlema ning millised eesmärgid ja ülesanded enda jaoks paika panema. Lisad: Bill Barbour; Universaalne kriisimudel

  10. Blended Learning: The Student Viewpoint

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Student perceptions were assessed using Mann–Whitney. U‑test and ... Keywords: Blended learning, Online learning, Students' perceptions. Access this article online ..... performance, EC: Educational counseling, MIB: Medical insurance billing, MT: .... distance in education at the harvard business school. Educ. Technol ...

  11. Bill Maurer

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lauren Tooker

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Professor Bill Maurer is a renowned cultural anthropologist who conducts research on law, property, money and finance, focusing on the technological infrastructures and social relations of exchange and payment. Professor Maurer graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a PhD in Anthropology. He moved to UC Irvine in 1996 as Assistant Professor, going on to become Chair of UC Irvine’s Department of Anthropology (2005-2011 and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies in the Social Sciences (2011-2013. In July 2013 he assumed his current role as Dean of UC Irvine’s School of Social Sciences. Professor Maurer has published on topics ranging from offshore financial services to mobile phone-enabled money transfers, Islamic finance, alternative currencies, and the future of money. He is founding director of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and was the founding co-director of the Intel Science and Technology Center in Social Computing. He is the editor of six collections, as well as the author of Recharting the Caribbean: Land, Law and Citizenship in the British Virgin Islands (1997, Pious Property: Islamic Mortgages in the United States (2006, and Mutual Life, Limited: Islamic Banking, Alternative Currencies, Lateral Reason (2005. The latter received the Victor Turner Prize in 2005. Professor Maurer visited the University of Warwick in September 2014 under the auspices of Warwick’s Global Governance GRP.

  12. The formation method of the feature space for the identification of fatigued bills

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Dongshik; Oshiro, Ayumu; Ozawa, Kenji; Mitsui, Ikugo

    2014-10-01

    Fatigued bills make a trouble such as the paper jam in a bill handling machine. In the discrimination of fatigued bills using an acoustic signal, the variation of an observed bill sound is considered to be one of causes in misclassification. Therefore a technique has demanded in order to make the classification of fatigued bills more efficient. In this paper, we proposed the algorithm that extracted feature quantity of bill sound from acoustic signal using the frequency difference, and carried out discrimination experiment of fatigued bill money by Support Vector Machine(SVM). The feature quantity of frequency difference can represent the frequency components of an acoustic signal is varied by the fatigued degree of bill money. The generalization performance of SVM does not depend on the size of dimensions of the feature space, even in a high dimensional feature space such as bill-acoustic signals. Furthermore, SVM can induce an optimal classifier which considers the combination of features by the virtue of polynomial kernel functions.

  13. 47 CFR 64.1201 - Restrictions on billing name and address disclosure.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... interstate telecommunications services. (3) The term authorized billing agent means a third party hired by a telecommunications service provider to perform billing and collection services for the telecommunications service... billing name and address information to any party other than a telecommunications service provider or an...

  14. Evidence Suggesting that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers (Campephilus principalis Exist in Florida

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel J. Mennill

    2006-12-01

    Full Text Available The Ivory-billed Woodpecker (Campephilus principalis disappeared from the forests of southeastern North America in the early 20th Century and for more than 50 years has been widely considered extinct. On 21 May 2005, we detected a bird that we identified as an Ivory-billed Woodpecker in the mature swamp forest along the Choctawhatchee River in the panhandle of Florida. During a subsequent year of research, members of our small search team observed birds that we identified as Ivory-billed Woodpeckers on 14 occasions. We heard sounds that matched descriptions of Ivory-billed Woodpecker acoustic signals on 41 occasions. We recorded 99 putative double knocks and 210 putative kent calls. We located cavities in the size range reported for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers and larger than those of Pileated Woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus that have been reported in the literature or that we measured in Alabama. We documented unique foraging signs consistent with the feeding behavior of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. Our evidence suggests that Ivory-billed Woodpeckers may be present in the forests along the Choctawhatchee River and warrants an expanded search of this bottomland forest habitat.

  15. 7 CFR 91.42 - Billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... of the month. The applicant will be billed by the National Finance Center (NFC) using the Foundation... voluntary laboratory services and other services were rendered at a particular Science and Technology...

  16. The role of streamline curvature in sand dune dynamics: evidence from field and wind tunnel measurements

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiggs, Giles F. S.; Livingstone, Ian; Warren, Andrew

    1996-09-01

    Field measurements on an unvegetated, 10 m high barchan dune in Oman are compared with measurements over a 1:200 scale fixed model in a wind tunnel. Both the field and wind tunnel data demonstrate similar patterns of wind and shear velocity over the dune, confirming significant flow deceleration upwind of and at the toe of the dune, acceleration of flow up the windward slope, and deceleration between the crest and brink. This pattern, including the widely reported upwind reduction in shear velocity, reflects observations of previous studies. Such a reduction in shear velocity upwind of the dune should result in a reduction in sand transport and subsequent sand deposition. This is not observed in the field. Wind tunnel modelling using a near-surface pulse-wire probe suggests that the field method of shear velocity derivation is inadequate. The wind tunnel results exhibit no reduction in shear velocity upwind of or at the toe of the dune. Evidence provided by Reynolds stress profiles and turbulence intensities measured in the wind tunnel suggest that this maintenance of upwind shear stress may be a result of concave (unstable) streamline curvature. These additional surface stresses are not recorded by the techniques used in the field measurements. Using the occurrence of streamline curvature as a starting point, a new 2-D model of dune dynamics is deduced. This model relies on the establishment of an equilibrium between windward slope morphology, surface stresses induced by streamline curvature, and streamwise acceleration. Adopting the criteria that concave streamline curvature and streamwise acceleration both increase surface shear stress, whereas convex streamline curvature and deceleration have the opposite effect, the relationships between form and process are investigated in each of three morphologically distinct zones: the upwind interdune and concave toe region of the dune, the convex portion of the windward slope, and the crest-brink region. The

  17. Stable–streamlined and helical cavities following the impact of Leidenfrost spheres

    KAUST Repository

    Mansoor, Mohammad M.

    2017-06-23

    We report results from an experimental study on the formation of stable–streamlined and helical cavity wakes following the free-surface impact of Leidenfrost spheres. Similar to the observations of Mansoor et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 743, 2014, pp. 295–326), we show that acoustic ripples form along the interface of elongated cavities entrained in the presence of wall effects as soon as the primary cavity pinch-off takes place. The crests of these ripples can act as favourable points for closure, producing multiple acoustic pinch-offs, which are found to occur in an acoustic pinch-off cascade. We show that these ripples pacify with time in the absence of physical contact between the sphere and the liquid, leading to extremely smooth cavity wake profiles. More importantly, the downward-facing jet at the apex of the cavity is continually suppressed due to a skin-friction drag effect at the colliding cavity-wall junction, which ultimately produces a stable–streamlined cavity wake. This streamlined configuration is found to experience drag coefficients an order of a magnitude lower than those acting on room-temperature spheres. A striking observation is the formation of helical cavities which occur for impact Reynolds numbers and are characterized by multiple interfacial ridges, stemming from and rotating synchronously about an evident contact line around the sphere equator. The contact line is shown to result from the degeneration of Kelvin–Helmholtz billows into turbulence which are observed forming along the liquid–vapour interface around the bottom hemisphere of the sphere. Using sphere trajectory measurements, we show that this helical cavity wake configuration has 40 %–55 % smaller force coefficients than those obtained in the formation of stable cavity wakes.

  18. Stable–streamlined and helical cavities following the impact of Leidenfrost spheres

    KAUST Repository

    Mansoor, Mohammad M.; Vakarelski, Ivan Uriev; Marston, J. O.; Truscott, T. T.; Thoroddsen, Sigurdur T

    2017-01-01

    We report results from an experimental study on the formation of stable–streamlined and helical cavity wakes following the free-surface impact of Leidenfrost spheres. Similar to the observations of Mansoor et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 743, 2014, pp. 295–326), we show that acoustic ripples form along the interface of elongated cavities entrained in the presence of wall effects as soon as the primary cavity pinch-off takes place. The crests of these ripples can act as favourable points for closure, producing multiple acoustic pinch-offs, which are found to occur in an acoustic pinch-off cascade. We show that these ripples pacify with time in the absence of physical contact between the sphere and the liquid, leading to extremely smooth cavity wake profiles. More importantly, the downward-facing jet at the apex of the cavity is continually suppressed due to a skin-friction drag effect at the colliding cavity-wall junction, which ultimately produces a stable–streamlined cavity wake. This streamlined configuration is found to experience drag coefficients an order of a magnitude lower than those acting on room-temperature spheres. A striking observation is the formation of helical cavities which occur for impact Reynolds numbers and are characterized by multiple interfacial ridges, stemming from and rotating synchronously about an evident contact line around the sphere equator. The contact line is shown to result from the degeneration of Kelvin–Helmholtz billows into turbulence which are observed forming along the liquid–vapour interface around the bottom hemisphere of the sphere. Using sphere trajectory measurements, we show that this helical cavity wake configuration has 40 %–55 % smaller force coefficients than those obtained in the formation of stable cavity wakes.

  19. Decoding incident-to and provider-based billing: ensuring payment and avoiding liability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofstra, Patricia S; Hart, Elinor L

    2012-01-01

    In this increasingly complex world of Medicare reimbursement, physicians must constantly review their billing practices to ensure compliance with all Medicare requirements. "Incident-to" billing and provider-based billing are two areas that present unique challenges for providers, especially those practicing in hospital-owned practices such as hospital outpatient departments. Both incident-to and provider-based billing limit providers' abilities to bill for and receive reimbursement in those practice settings. The Office of Inspector General's 2012 Work Plan Report identified both incident-to billing and place-of-service errors as two of the many areas for investigation and compliance efforts in 2012. This article focuses on identifying the unique point-of-service challenges presented by physicians practicing in hospital outpatient departments or hospital-owned clinics.

  20. Acid rain: What the final bill looks like

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burkhardt, D.A.

    1990-01-01

    This article examines the possible financial impacts of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. Topics include an overview of the bill, impact on utility companies, and implications for utility investors. The author feels the bill has important implications for investors who own utility stocks, particularly the stocks of coal-burning utilities in the Midwest and Appalachia

  1. The billing process at a teaching hospital specialized in cardiology and pulmonology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gabriela Favaro Faria Guerrer

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this exploratory study was to describe and map out the billing process in a public tertiary-level university hospital specialized in cardiology and pulmonology. In the period between May and June of 2012, we identified and documented the steps in the process validated by the professionals involved in the hospital bill audit service. We found that during billing pre-analysis, auditors make corrections to justify the billing of procedures and to avoid unwarranted billing and loss of revenue. Mapping out the process allowed us to propose strategies to minimize the time for presenting bills to payment sources. By bringing visibility to this process, which is fundamental for the economic-financial balance of the studied hospital, we bring such knowledge to the public domain. Thus, it is accessible to other health organizations that wish to increment their revenue and reduce divergences between patient charts and the patient’s hospital bill. doi: 10.5216/ree.v16i3.23487.

  2. Bill project on a new organisation of the electricity market

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    A first text discusses the motivations of this bill project: to guarantee French supply security, to contribute to France economical competitiveness, to protect the environment, to give everybody access to energy, and to comply with the European energy market. It also comments the bill project content, the objectives aimed at through the different bill articles. These articles settle a regulated access to electricity and a regulatory frame for pricing, define provider responsibilities, deal with installation dismantling expenses. This presentation is followed by the bill text and by the report of an impact study of the implementation of a regulated access to electricity, of a capacity obligation, and of the evolution of regulated selling prices

  3. A Streamlined Artificial Variable Free Version of Simplex Method

    OpenAIRE

    Inayatullah, Syed; Touheed, Nasir; Imtiaz, Muhammad

    2015-01-01

    This paper proposes a streamlined form of simplex method which provides some great benefits over traditional simplex method. For instance, it does not need any kind of artificial variables or artificial constraints; it could start with any feasible or infeasible basis of an LP. This method follows the same pivoting sequence as of simplex phase 1 without showing any explicit description of artificial variables which also makes it space efficient. Later in this paper, a dual version of the new ...

  4. Fatigue Level Estimation of Bill Based on Acoustic Signal Feature by Supervised SOM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teranishi, Masaru; Omatu, Sigeru; Kosaka, Toshihisa

    Fatigued bills have harmful influence on daily operation of Automated Teller Machine(ATM). To make the fatigued bills classification more efficient, development of an automatic fatigued bill classification method is desired. We propose a new method to estimate bending rigidity of bill from acoustic signal feature of banking machines. The estimated bending rigidities are used as continuous fatigue level for classification of fatigued bill. By using the supervised Self-Organizing Map(supervised SOM), we estimate the bending rigidity from only the acoustic energy pattern effectively. The experimental result with real bill samples shows the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  5. Ways of implementation of fatf recommendations on combating criminal incomes at bills market

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Анатолій Іванович Гулей

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available In this article the measures directed on counteraction to laundering of criminal incomes are considered about the financial transaction with using bills of exchange and promissory notes. A study and analysis of the development process of bills of exchange and promissory notes in different countries of the world, the nature of bills as payment document, securities, commercial and bank credit, and process of immobilization of bills. Also, the problems of the legal framework relating to bill circulation in Ukraine are investigated and some recommendations for reduce the risks of bill circulation are given

  6. Patients Bill of Rights Data

    Data.gov (United States)

    U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Reducing Costs, Protecting Consumers - The Affordable Care Act on the One Year Anniversary of the Patients Bill of Rights For too long, too many hard working...

  7. Value-Based Billing in a 3G IP Services Environment

    OpenAIRE

    Ryan, Conor; Donnelly, William; de Leastar, Eamonn; Cloney, James

    2002-01-01

    The proliferation of IP-based services has resulted in a paradigm shift away from traditional flat-rat, single service billing to content and usage based billing for composed service sets. The Information Societies Technology (IST) FORM project has prototyped an accounting and billing solution for IP-based telecommunications services. A key element of the solution is the IPDR Network Data Management - Usage specification. This paper presents the FORM development of a federated accounting and ...

  8. Audit and account billing process in a private general hospital: a case study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Raquel Silva Bicalho Zunta

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Our study aimed to map, describe and, validate the audit, account billing and billing reports processes in a large, private general hospital.  An exploratory, descriptive, case report study. We conducted non-participatory observation moments in Internal Audit Sectors and  Billing Reports from the hospital, aiming to map the processes which were the study objects. The data obtained was validated by internal and external audit specialists in hospital bills. The described and illustrated processes in three flow-charts favor professionals to rationalize their activities and the time spent in hospital billing, avoiding or minimizing the occurrence of flaws and, generating more effective financial results. The mapping, the description and the audit validation process and billing and, the billing reports propitiated more visibility and legitimacy to actions developed by auditor nurses.

  9. What Makes a Good Teacher? The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Digs for Answers with Its Measures of Effective Teaching Project

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsh, Stephanie

    2011-01-01

    Vicki Phillips from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation talks with Learning Forward about the foundation's investment in effective teaching and the role of professional learning. Phillips said great teachers are the most important school-based ingredient for student success. So they are committed to ensuring teachers have the supports and tools…

  10. Refusal to pay electricity bill is illegal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hermann, H.P.

    1979-01-01

    Pursuant to a judgement passed by the Lower Court of Hamburg, the author discusses probable legal arguments justifying the refusal to pay one's electricity bill, the so-called electricity bill boycott. Following an analysis of the power supply contract and of the content and the limits of the fundamental right of freedom of conscience, as well as of the concept of free enterprise and of the legal effect of licenses under the nuclear law, his point of view stated in the article is to agree with the decision of the court saying that the operation of a nuclear power plant licensed under the nuclear law does not mean an infringement of the right of freedom of conscience. It can further not be accepted to let people refuse to pay their electricity bill by referring to the right of freedom of speech, by alleging conduct against public policy on the part of the public utilities, or by referring to the right of opposition. (HSCH) [de

  11. Portable XRF and principal component analysis for bill characterization in forensic science

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Appoloni, C.R.; Melquiades, F.L.

    2014-01-01

    Several modern techniques have been applied to prevent counterfeiting of money bills. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the potential of Portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) technique and the multivariate analysis method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for classification of bills in order to use it in forensic science. Bills of Dollar, Euro and Real (Brazilian currency) were measured directly at different colored regions, without any previous preparation. Spectra interpretation allowed the identification of Ca, Ti, Fe, Cu, Sr, Y, Zr and Pb. PCA analysis separated the bills in three groups and subgroups among Brazilian currency. In conclusion, the samples were classified according to its origin identifying the elements responsible for differentiation and basic pigment composition. PXRF allied to multivariate discriminate methods is a promising technique for rapid and no destructive identification of false bills in forensic science. - Highlights: • The paper is about a direct method for bills discrimination by EDXRF and principal component analysis. • The bills are analyzed directly, without sample preparation and non destructively. • The results demonstrates that the methodology is feasible and could be applied in forensic science for identification of origin and false banknotes. • The novelty is that portable EDXRF is very fast and efficient for bills characterization

  12. Liberty through limits: The bill of rights as limited government provisions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Patrick M. Garry

    2013-04-01

    Full Text Available Under the modern view, individual autonomy has become the primary if not exclusive focus of the Bill of Rights. But the Bill of Rights came about not because of a desire to preserve individual autonomy, nor to insulate the individual from the democratic community. The impetus for the Bill of Rights arose from the same set of concerns that motivated the original Constitution. These concerns involved creating the appropriate structures so as to keep the new central government in check. The Bill of Rights sought to further ensure that the federal government would have limited power and operate in a limited role. Not only does this limited government model coincide with the original intent underlying the Bill of Rights, but it also provides for a more objective and manageable application. Under an individual autonomy view of the Bill of Rights, courts must define the ingredients necessary for such autonomy. However, this endeavor is fraught with ambiguity, and courts must constantly pit the individual against democratic society. But under the limited government model, the judicial role is more objective. Instead of trying to define an ambiguous individual autonomy, courts simply need to focus on whether a particular right is needed so as to maintain limited government. In addition, the limited government model does not put the Bill of Rights in conflict with democratic society. Instead, it just uses the Bill of Rights to maintain a check on government, just as the original Constitution seeks to do.

  13. An electricity billing model | Adetona | Journal of Applied Science ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Linear regression analysis has been employed to develop a model for predicting accurately the electricity billing for commercial consumers in Ogun State (Nigeria) at faster rate. The electricity billing model was implement-ed, executed and tested using embedded MATLAB function blocks. The correlations between the ...

  14. Accounting, Charging and Billing for Dynamic Service Composition Chains

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rumph, F. J.; Kruithof, G. H.; Huitema, G. B.

    Services delivered to an end user can be composed of numerous subservices and form chains of composed services. These service composition chains traditionally consist of a static set of business entities. However, in order to increase business agility, dynamic service composition chains can be used by leveraging techniques of service publishing and discovery, and consist of more short-lived relations between the various business entities. This chapter focuses on issues concerning accounting, charging and billing of such dynamic service composition chains. In this type of service delivery, several traditional settlement models are not applicable since existing architectures lack support of automated negotiation of settlement parameters. Examples of such parameters are what the service consumer will be charged for and how much, how and when the consumer will be billed. In this chapter, the requirements that have to be fulfilled with respect to accounting, charging and billing in dynamic service composition chains are explored. Based on these requirements, a framework architecture for accounting charging and billing is described.

  15. Tobacco company campaign contributions and congressional support of the cigar bill

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Robbins RA

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Although it is widely held that campaign contributions influence support for legislation, the impact of contributions is unclear. Despite lack of a tobacco growing or manufacturing constituency, many members of Congress (MOC in the Southwest support the pro-tobacco Traditional Cigar Manufacturing and Small Business Jobs Preservation Act of 2015 (HR 662/S 441, aka the "Cigar Bill". The association between campaign contributions from tobacco companies (2006-16 with cosponsor for the Cigar Bill were examined. There was a highly significant correlation with 92% of Southwest MOC who cosponsored the Cigar Bill having received campaign contributions. In contrast, 31% of those who did not cosponsoring the bill had received tobacco company campaign contributions (p<0.001 by Fisher's Exact Test. These data demonstrates a highly significant correlation between campaign contributions and legislative support for the "Cigar Bill".

  16. 42 CFR 424.540 - Deactivation of Medicare billing privileges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... change in practice location, a change of any managing employee, and a change in billing services. A... 42 Public Health 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Deactivation of Medicare billing privileges. 424.540 Section 424.540 Public Health CENTERS FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND...

  17. 19 CFR 142.14 - Delinquent payment of Customs bills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Delinquent payment of Customs bills. 142.14 Section 142.14 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... of Customs bills. The following procedure shall be followed if an importer is substantially or...

  18. 19 CFR 142.26 - Delinquent payment of Customs bills.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Delinquent payment of Customs bills. 142.26 Section 142.26 Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY... Delinquent payment of Customs bills. The following procedures shall be followed if an importer is...

  19. Insurance billing and coding.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Napier, Rebecca H; Bruelheide, Lori S; Demann, Eric T K; Haug, Richard H

    2008-07-01

    The purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of understanding various numeric and alpha-numeric codes for accurately billing dental and medically related services to private pay or third-party insurance carriers. In the United States, common dental terminology (CDT) codes are most commonly used by dentists to submit claims, whereas current procedural terminology (CPT) and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD.9.CM) codes are more commonly used by physicians to bill for their services. The CPT and ICD.9.CM coding systems complement each other in that CPT codes provide the procedure and service information and ICD.9.CM codes provide the reason or rationale for a particular procedure or service. These codes are more commonly used for "medical necessity" determinations, and general dentists and specialists who routinely perform care, including trauma-related care, biopsies, and dental treatment as a result of or in anticipation of a cancer-related treatment, are likely to use these codes. Claim submissions for care provided can be completed electronically or by means of paper forms.

  20. an assessment of billing electricity consumers via analogue meters

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DR. AMINU

    an online system and window driven and can be used for the purpose of e- billing (Advalorem, 2009). ... Source: Billing Operation Unit, Customer Services Department KED Plc, (2002). Kilowatt hour is equal to the amount of energy ..... but reaction of the respondent confirmed the conclusion of poor consumers' response to ...

  1. Michigan Senate Bill 826: Replace Common Core with pre-2011 Massachusetts Standards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sandra Stotsky

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Interested in academic standards and assessments proven to raise student achievement? You won’t get that from the Common Core Standards and their associated consortium tests, PARCC and SBAC. Despite the boisterous hype of higher, deeper, richer, more rigorous, and so on, there exists no valid evidence to support their claims of higher quality, achievement, or college readiness. There is a set of state standards and assessments, however, proven through actual experience to have raised academic achievement for students at all levels and in all curricular pathways: those used in Massachusetts from 2000 to 2011. So, why not use them? Such a proposal was recently proposed, and passed, by the Michigan Senate Education Policy Committee. Here, we provide links to Sandra Stotsky’s testimony before that committee, along with other relevant links. - See more at: http://nonpartisaneducation.org/Review/Resources/MichiganBill.htm

  2. Hackers ring up big phone bills for hospitals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gardner, E

    1992-11-02

    A big telephone bill--possibly in six figures--can be a painful way for a hospital to find out its phone system isn't secure. When unusually large long-distance bills start to show up, chances are a professional telephone hacker has broken in. According to experts, one in 15 businesses has been victimized by long-distance toll fraud, and loss estimates range from $900 million to $4 billion a year.

  3. Streamlined bioreactor-based production of human cartilage tissues.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tonnarelli, B; Santoro, R; Adelaide Asnaghi, M; Wendt, D

    2016-05-27

    Engineered tissue grafts have been manufactured using methods based predominantly on traditional labour-intensive manual benchtop techniques. These methods impart significant regulatory and economic challenges, hindering the successful translation of engineered tissue products to the clinic. Alternatively, bioreactor-based production systems have the potential to overcome such limitations. In this work, we present an innovative manufacturing approach to engineer cartilage tissue within a single bioreactor system, starting from freshly isolated human primary chondrocytes, through the generation of cartilaginous tissue grafts. The limited number of primary chondrocytes that can be isolated from a small clinically-sized cartilage biopsy could be seeded and extensively expanded directly within a 3D scaffold in our perfusion bioreactor (5.4 ± 0.9 doublings in 2 weeks), bypassing conventional 2D expansion in flasks. Chondrocytes expanded in 3D scaffolds better maintained a chondrogenic phenotype than chondrocytes expanded on plastic flasks (collagen type II mRNA, 18-fold; Sox-9, 11-fold). After this "3D expansion" phase, bioreactor culture conditions were changed to subsequently support chondrogenic differentiation for two weeks. Engineered tissues based on 3D-expanded chondrocytes were more cartilaginous than tissues generated from chondrocytes previously expanded in flasks. We then demonstrated that this streamlined bioreactor-based process could be adapted to effectively generate up-scaled cartilage grafts in a size with clinical relevance (50 mm diameter). Streamlined and robust tissue engineering processes, as the one described here, may be key for the future manufacturing of grafts for clinical applications, as they facilitate the establishment of compact and closed bioreactor-based production systems, with minimal automation requirements, lower operating costs, and increased compliance to regulatory guidelines.

  4. Bill Gates eyes healthcare market.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunbar, C

    1995-02-01

    The entrepreneurial spirit is still top in Bill Gates' mind as he look toward healthcare and other growth industries. Microsoft's CEO has not intention of going the way of other large technology companies that became obsolete before they could compete today.

  5. Maximizing collections from patient services billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Orenstein, Gil C; Kaye, Alan David; Fox, Charles J; Urman, Richard D

    2014-01-01

    The field of medical billing and collections continues to evolve along with current developments in U.S. healthcare reform. Although there has been a significant shift of payment responsibility from third-party payers to patients, many practices are not equipped to handle this change. As patients' financial obligations increase, the physician's ability to collect from patients will become increasingly important. Inability to collect bills receivable can adversely affect the revenue cycle of the practice. Solutions include improvement of the point-of-service collection processes, properly trained office staff, written financial policies, and the use of technology to facilitate online payments. Patients should fully understand their financial responsibilities and options available to them for payment of services rendered.

  6. 49 CFR Appendix A to Part 1035 - Uniform Straight Bill of Lading

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Uniform Straight Bill of Lading A Appendix A to Part 1035 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) SURFACE... Appendix A to Part 1035—Uniform Straight Bill of Lading Uniform Straight Bill of Lading Original—Not...

  7. 41 CFR 109-40.5003 - Commercial bills of lading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... shipments for the account of DOE shall include the following statement on all commercial bills of lading: This shipment is for the account of the U.S. Government which will assume the freight charges and is... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Commercial bills of...

  8. 9 CFR 381.39 - Basis of billing for overtime and holiday services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... holiday services. 381.39 Section 381.39 Animals and Animal Products FOOD SAFETY AND INSPECTION SERVICE... Inspection; Overtime and Holiday Service; Billing Establishments § 381.39 Basis of billing for overtime and holiday services. (a) Each recipient of overtime or holiday inspection service, or both, shall be billed...

  9. From Mesopotamia through Carroll Quigley to Bill Clinton: World Historical Systems, the Civilizationist, and the President

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Wilkinson

    1995-08-01

    Full Text Available The noted comparative civilizationist and world-historical systems analyst Carroll Quigley, whose theorizing rested on the whole historical span from Mesopotamia to the 1960's, was a teacher well-remembered by his student Bill Clinton.  Quigley, by an intensive process of reduction, or rather idealization, of masses of historical data, derived a procedure for the diagnosis and therapy of ailing civilizations/world-systems, especially the one which he inhabited.  The coherent, persistent and personal motifs of the policy discourse and variant initiatives of his student, the President, bear more than a passing resemblance to the hopeful, idealistic, voluntaristic, intellectual, scientific, economistic, demi-materialistic propensities of the civilizationist and teacher.

  10. Guessing right for the next war: streamlining, pooling, and right-timing force design decisions for an environment of uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-05-25

    key ingredients for not only how the Army fought World War II, but also how it continues to organize today. In essence , streamlining pares down every...Germans.1 The Battle of Mortain reflected the US Army in World War II at its best.2 It defined US Army success in the European theater of operations...continues to organize today.5 In essence , streamlining pared down every unit to its essentials based around a critical capability it provided to

  11. Jamaica National Net-Billing Pilot Program Evaluation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Doris, Elizabeth [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Stout, Sherry [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Peterson, Kimberly [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2015-12-18

    This technical report discusses the effectiveness of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited Net-Billing Pilot Program. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collected and analyzed data from a wide range of stakeholders, conducted in-country research, and compared program elements to common interconnection practices to form programmatic recommendations for the Jamaica context. NREL finds that the net-billing pilot program has successfully contributed to the support of the emerging solar market in Jamaica with the interconnection of 80 systems under the program for a total of 1.38 megawatts (MW) at the time of original analysis.

  12. The Zig-zag Instability of Streamlined Bodies

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guillet, Thibault; Coux, Martin; Quere, David; Clanet, Christophe

    2017-11-01

    When a floating bluff body, like a sphere, impacts water with a vertical velocity, its trajectory is straight and the depth of its dive increases with its initial velocity. Even though we observe the same phenomenon at low impact speed for axisymmetric streamlined bodies, the trajectory is found to deviate from the vertical when the velocity overcomes a critical value. This instability results from a competition between the destabilizing torque of the lift and the stabilizing torque of the Archimede's force. Balancing these torques yields a prediction on the critical velocity above which the instability appears. This theoretical value is found to depend on the position of the gravity center of the projectile and predicts with a full agreement the behaviour observed in our different experiments. Project funded by DGA.

  13. The Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: content, commentary, controversy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelly, B D

    2015-03-01

    Ireland's Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill (2013) aims to reform the law relating to persons who require assistance exercising their decision-making capacity. When finalised, the Bill will replace Ireland's outdated Ward of Court system which has an all-or-nothing approach to capacity; does not adequately define capacity; is poorly responsive to change; makes unwieldy provision for appointing decision-makers; and has insufficient provision for review. To explore the content and implications of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill. Review of the content of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill and related literature. The new Bill includes a presumption of capacity and defines lack of capacity. All interventions must minimise restriction of rights and freedom, and have due regard for "dignity, bodily integrity, privacy and autonomy". The Bill proposes legal frameworks for "assisted decision-making" (where an individual voluntarily appoints someone to assist with specific decisions relating to personal welfare or property and affairs, by, among other measures, assisting the individual to communicate his or her "will and preferences"); "co-decision-making" (where the Circuit Court declares the individual's capacity is reduced but he or she can make specific decisions with a co-decision-maker to share authority); "decision-making representatives" (substitute decision-making); "enduring power of attorney"; and "informal decision-making on personal welfare matters" (without apparent oversight). These measures, if implemented, will shift Ireland's capacity laws away from an approach based on "best interests" to one based on "will and preferences", and increase compliance with the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

  14. A streamlined ribosome profiling protocol for the characterization of microorganisms

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Latif, Haythem; Szubin, Richard; Tan, Justin

    2015-01-01

    Ribosome profiling is a powerful tool for characterizing in vivo protein translation at the genome scale, with multiple applications ranging from detailed molecular mechanisms to systems-level predictive modeling. Though highly effective, this intricate technique has yet to become widely used...... in the microbial research community. Here we present a streamlined ribosome profiling protocol with reduced barriers to entry for microbial characterization studies. Our approach provides simplified alternatives during harvest, lysis, and recovery of monosomes and also eliminates several time-consuming steps...

  15. Streamlining digital signal processing a tricks of the trade guidebook

    CERN Document Server

    2012-01-01

    Streamlining Digital Signal Processing, Second Edition, presents recent advances in DSP that simplify or increase the computational speed of common signal processing operations and provides practical, real-world tips and tricks not covered in conventional DSP textbooks. It offers new implementations of digital filter design, spectrum analysis, signal generation, high-speed function approximation, and various other DSP functions. It provides:Great tips, tricks of the trade, secrets, practical shortcuts, and clever engineering solutions from seasoned signal processing professionalsAn assortment.

  16. Towards an inter-domain billing system to support dynamic service provisioning

    OpenAIRE

    Le, V.M.

    2009-01-01

    Today, billing is a big challenge for service providers. With a growing number of rich services such as music, mobile TV, Video-on-Demand and eHealth delivered to the mass market, service providers are missing business opportunities because current billing solutions are not fully capable. In particular, the delivery of on-the-fly composite services, composed of many service components provided by different service providers causes many complexities. This book proposes a billing system that de...

  17. Missed surgical intensive care unit billing: potential financial impact of 24/7 faculty presence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hendershot, Kimberly M; Bollins, John P; Armen, Scott B; Thomas, Yalaunda M; Steinberg, Steven M; Cook, Charles H

    2009-07-01

    To efficiently capture evaluation and management (E&M) and procedural billing in our surgical intensive care unit (SICU), we have developed an electronic billing system that links to the electronic medical record (EMR). In this system, only notes electronically signed and coded by an attending generate billing charges. We hypothesized that capture of missed billing during nighttime and weekends might be sufficient to subsidize 24/7 in-house attending coverage. A retrospective chart EMR review was performed of the EMRs for all SICU patients during a 2-month period. Note type, date, time, attending signature, and coding were analyzed. Notes without attending signature, diagnosis, or current procedural terminology (CPT) code were considered incomplete and identified as "missed billing." Four hundred and forty-three patients had 465 admissions generating 2,896 notes. Overall, 76% of notes were signed and coded by an attending and billed. Incomplete (not billed) notes represented an overall missed billing opportunity of $159,138 for the 2-month time period (approximately $954,000 annually). Unbilled E&M encounters during weekdays totaled $54,758, whereas unbilled E&M and procedures from weeknights and weekends totaled $88,408 ($44,566 and $43,842, respectively). Missed billing after-hours thus represents approximately $530K annually, extrapolating to approximately $220K in collections from our payer mix. Surprisingly, missed E&M and procedural billing during weekdays totaled $70,730 (approximately $425K billing, approximately $170K collections annually), and typically represented patients seen, but transferred from the SICU before attending documentation was completed. Capture of nighttime and weekend ICU collections alone may be insufficient to add faculty or incentivize in-house coverage, but could certainly complement other in-house derived revenues to such ends. In addition, missed daytime billing in busy modern ICUs can be substantial, and use of an EMR to identify

  18. Education in medical billing benefits both neurology trainees and academic departments.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waugh, Jeff L

    2014-11-11

    The objective of residency training is to produce physicians who can function independently within their chosen subspecialty and practice environment. Skills in the business of medicine, such as clinical billing, are widely applicable in academic and private practices but are not commonly addressed during formal medical education. Residency and fellowship training include limited exposure to medical billing, but our academic department's performance of these skills was inadequate: in 56% of trainee-generated outpatient notes, documentation was insufficient to sustain the chosen billing level. We developed a curriculum to improve the accuracy of documentation and coding and introduced practice changes to address our largest sources of error. In parallel, we developed tools that increased the speed and efficiency of documentation. Over 15 months, we progressively eliminated note devaluation, increased the mean level billed by trainees to nearly match that of attending physicians, and increased outpatient revenue by $34,313/trainee/year. Our experience suggests that inclusion of billing education topics into the formal medical curriculum benefits both academic medical centers and trainees. © 2014 American Academy of Neurology.

  19. Measuring public understanding on Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) electricity bills using ordered probit model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zainudin, WNRA; Ramli, NA

    2017-09-01

    In 2016, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) had introduced an upgrade in its Billing and Customer Relationship Management (BCRM) as part of its long-term initiative to provide its customers with greater access to billing information. This includes information on real and suggested power consumption by the customers and further details in their billing charges. This information is useful to help TNB customers to gain better understanding on their electricity usage patterns and items involved in their billing charges. Up to date, there are not many studies done to measure public understanding on current electricity bills and whether this understanding could contribute towards positive impacts. The purpose of this paper is to measure public understanding on current TNB electricity bills and whether their satisfaction towards energy-related services, electricity utility services, and their awareness on the amount of electricity consumed by various appliances and equipment in their home could improve this understanding on the electricity bills. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used to achieve these objectives. A total of 160 respondents from local universities in Malaysia participated in a survey used to collect relevant information. Using Ordered Probit model, this paper finds respondents that are highly satisfied with the electricity utility services tend to understand their electricity bills better. The electric utility services include management of electricity bills and the information obtained from utility or non-utility supplier to help consumers manage their energy usage or bills. Based on the results, this paper concludes that the probability to understand the components in the monthly electricity bill increases as respondents are more satisfied with their electric utility services and are more capable to value the energy-related services.

  20. InterviewStreamliner, a minimalist, free, open source, relational approach to computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    H.D. Pruijt (Hans)

    2010-01-01

    textabstractInterviewStreamliner is a free, open source, minimalist alternative to complex computer-assisted qualitative data analysis packages. It builds on the flexibility of relational database management technology.

  1. Acute pain management efficiency improves with point-of-care handheld electronic billing system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fahy, Brenda G

    2009-02-01

    Technology advances continue to impact patient care and physician workflow. To enable more efficient performance of billing activities, a point-of-care (POC) handheld computer technology replaced a paper-based system on an acute pain management service. Using a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) and software from MDeverywhere (MDe, MDeverywhere, Long Island, NY), we performed a 1-yr prospective observational study of an anesthesiology acute pain management service billings and collections. Seventeen anesthesiologists providing billable acute pain services were trained and entered their charges on a PDA. Twelve months of data, just before electronic implementation (pre-elec), were compared to a 12-m period after implementation (post-elec). The total charges were 4883 for 890 patients pre-elec and 5368 for 1128 patients post-elec. With adoption of handheld billing, the charge lag days decreased from 29.3 to 7.0 (P billing using PDAs to replace a paper-based billing system improved the collection rate and decreased the number of charge lag days with a positive return on investment. The handheld PDA billing system provided POC support for physicians during their daily clinical (e.g., patient locations, rounding lists) and billing activities, improving workflow.

  2. Current issues in billing and coding in interventional pain medicine.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Manchikanti, L

    2000-10-01

    Interventional pain management is a dynamic field with changes occurring on a daily basis, not only with technology but also with regulations that have a substantial financial impact on practices. Regulations are imposed not only by the federal government and other regulatory agencies, and also by a multitude of other payors, state governments and medical boards. Documentation of medical necessity with coding that correlates with multiple components of the patient's medical record, operative report, and billing statement is extremely important. Numerous changes which have occurred in the practice of interventional pain management in the new millennium continue to impact the financial viability of interventional pain practices along with patient access to these services. Thus, while complying with regulations of billing, coding and proper, effective, and ethical practice of pain management, it is also essential for physicians to understand financial aspects and the impact of various practice patterns. This article provides guidelines which are meant to provide practical considerations for billing and coding of interventional techniques in the management of chronic pain based on the current state of the art and science of interventional pain management. Hence, these guidelines do not constitute inflexible treatment, coding, billing or documentation recommendations. It is expected that a provider will establish a plan of care on a case-by-case basis taking into account an individual patient's medical condition, personal needs, and preferences, along with physician's experience and in a similar manner, billing and coding practices will be developed. Based on an individual patient's needs, treatment, billing and coding, different from what is outlined here is not only warranted but essential.

  3. Portable XRF and principal component analysis for bill characterization in forensic science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Appoloni, C R; Melquiades, F L

    2014-02-01

    Several modern techniques have been applied to prevent counterfeiting of money bills. The objective of this study was to demonstrate the potential of Portable X-ray Fluorescence (PXRF) technique and the multivariate analysis method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for classification of bills in order to use it in forensic science. Bills of Dollar, Euro and Real (Brazilian currency) were measured directly at different colored regions, without any previous preparation. Spectra interpretation allowed the identification of Ca, Ti, Fe, Cu, Sr, Y, Zr and Pb. PCA analysis separated the bills in three groups and subgroups among Brazilian currency. In conclusion, the samples were classified according to its origin identifying the elements responsible for differentiation and basic pigment composition. PXRF allied to multivariate discriminate methods is a promising technique for rapid and no destructive identification of false bills in forensic science. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. Utility Bill Insert for Wastewater Services

    Science.gov (United States)

    Intended for use by wastewater and water supply utilities, one side of the utility bill insert has information for customers that discharge to sanitary sewer systems; the other side is for customers with septic systems.

  5. How to Bill Your Computer Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dooskin, Herbert P.

    1981-01-01

    A computer facility billing procedure should be designed so that the full costs of a computer center operation are equitably charged to the users. Design criteria, costing methods, and management's role are discussed. (Author/MLF)

  6. Quantum mechanical streamlines. I - Square potential barrier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirschfelder, J. O.; Christoph, A. C.; Palke, W. E.

    1974-01-01

    Exact numerical calculations are made for scattering of quantum mechanical particles hitting a square two-dimensional potential barrier (an exact analog of the Goos-Haenchen optical experiments). Quantum mechanical streamlines are plotted and found to be smooth and continuous, to have continuous first derivatives even through the classical forbidden region, and to form quantized vortices around each of the nodal points. A comparison is made between the present numerical calculations and the stationary wave approximation, and good agreement is found between both the Goos-Haenchen shifts and the reflection coefficients. The time-independent Schroedinger equation for real wavefunctions is reduced to solving a nonlinear first-order partial differential equation, leading to a generalization of the Prager-Hirschfelder perturbation scheme. Implications of the hydrodynamical formulation of quantum mechanics are discussed, and cases are cited where quantum and classical mechanical motions are identical.

  7. Streamline topologies near simple degenerate critical points in two-dimensional flow away from boundaries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brøns, Morten; Hartnack, Johan Nicolai

    1998-01-01

    Streamline patterns and their bifurcations in two-dimensional incompressible flow are investigated from a topological point of view. The velocity field is expanded at a point in the fluid, and the expansion coefficients are considered as bifurcation parameters. A series of non-linear coordinate c...

  8. Streamline topologies near simple degenerate critical points in two-dimensional flow away from boundaries

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Brøns, Morten; Hartnack, Johan Nicolai

    1999-01-01

    Streamline patterns and their bifurcations in two-dimensional incompressible flow are investigated from a topological point of view. The velocity field is expanded at a point in the fluid, and the expansion coefficients are considered as bifurcation parameters. A series of nonlinear coordinate ch...

  9. 77 FR 50691 - Request for Information (RFI): Guidance on Data Streamlining and Reducing Undue Reporting Burden...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2012-08-22

    .... Attention: HIV Data Streamlining. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew D. Forsyth Ph.D. or Vera... of HIV/AIDS programs that vary in their specifications (e.g., numerators, denominators, time frames...

  10. From Bill Shankly to the Huffington Post: How to Increase Critical Thinking in Experimental Psychology Course?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilie eLacot

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Although critical thinking and source checking are basic prerequisites to become a psychologist, or a scientist, it is usually difficult to have students interested in experimental methods courses. Most first year students are tempted not to attend these courses. Such behaviors are reinforced by arguments that everybody is different and people are not numbers. Consequently, students have difficulties to develop source and evidence checking skills, and may be more prone to believe in any supposed expert. This paper presents two ways to involve students during lectures and seminars. The first method consists in presenting, during the initial lecture of the year, a fake scientific concept which students will believe as true. This phenomenon is called the Bill Shankly syndrome and it only exists if someone believes that the information is given by a serious lecturer, presenting oneself as a world-class researcher. The second method consists in training students to become reviewers using evidence checking of a mainstream media article which promises scientifically proven ways to be happy. The use of these methods may stimulate students’ interest in research methods and its practical applications from week one.

  11. Cut Electric Bills by Controlling Demand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Grumman, David L.

    1974-01-01

    Electric bills can be reduced by lowering electric consumption and by controlling demand -- the amount of electricity used at a certain point in time. Gives tips to help reduce electric demand at peak power periods. (Author/DN)

  12. Energy bill of France in 2002

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2003-01-01

    The energy situation in France is presented. Data and charts illustrate the prices evolution at the import for the petroleum and the other energies, the exchanged energies volume and the bill for each energy sector. (A.L.B.)

  13. Streamlining the process: A strategy for making NEPA work better and cost less

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hansen, R.P.; Hansen, J.D. [Hansen Environmental Consultants, Englewood, CO (United States); Wolff, T.A. [Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    1998-05-01

    When the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was enacted in 1969, neither Congress nor the Federal Agencies affected anticipated that implementation of the NEPA process would result in the intolerable delays, inefficiencies, duplication of effort, commitments of excessive financial and personnel resources, and bureaucratic gridlock that have become institutionalized. The 1975 Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations, which were intended to make the NEPA process more efficient and more useful to decision makers and the public, have either been largely ignored or unintentionally subverted. Agency policy mandates, like those of former Secretary of Energy Hazel R. O`Leary, to ``make NEPA work better and cost less`` have, so far, been disappointingly ineffectual. Federal Agencies have reached the point where almost every constituent of the NEPA process must be subjected to crisis management. This paper focuses on a ten-point strategy for streamlining the NEPA process in order to achieve the Act`s objectives while easing the considerable burden on agencies, the public, and the judicial system. How the ten points are timed and implemented is critical to any successful streamlining.

  14. House passes energy bill with one-step plant licensing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    The US House of Representatives which has traditionally been wary of measures that would allow nuclear power to expand, came down strongly on the side of nuclear when it approved a much-amended omnibus energy bill on May 27 by a vote of 381 to 37. The key for the nuclear industry is the presence in the bill (H.R. 776) of language on one-step power plant licensing that was taken directly from the Senate energy bill (S. 2166) that passed in February. This means that when the House and Senate work out a compromise version of the legislation, one-step licensing is almost certain to be carried through--and become law once the final bill is signed by President George Bush, which is expected later this year. The House's endorsement of nuclear power--both as it exists now, and as it could be with the introduction of new plant designs and an end to the long hiatus in plant orders by utilities--went beyond one-step licensing. Debate on the House floor prior to Memorial Day totally transformed the nuclear-related part of the energy bill. H.R. 776 was reported to the floor by the Rules Committee with language by the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee that would have created a nominal one-step system, with a full evidentiary hearing prior to plant construction but also allowing an intervenor who later presents new information on the plant to get another full evidentiary hearing after construction but before operation. This would effectively duplicate the two-step process that existed for all plants now in service, and which utilities no longer want to endure

  15. Streamlining cardiovascular clinical trials to improve efficiency and generalisability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zannad, Faiez; Pfeffer, Marc A; Bhatt, Deepak L; Bonds, Denise E; Borer, Jeffrey S; Calvo-Rojas, Gonzalo; Fiore, Louis; Lund, Lars H; Madigan, David; Maggioni, Aldo Pietro; Meyers, Catherine M; Rosenberg, Yves; Simon, Tabassome; Stough, Wendy Gattis; Zalewski, Andrew; Zariffa, Nevine; Temple, Robert

    2017-08-01

    Controlled trials provide the most valid determination of the efficacy and safety of an intervention, but large cardiovascular clinical trials have become extremely costly and complex, making it difficult to study many important clinical questions. A critical question, and the main objective of this review, is how trials might be simplified while maintaining randomisation to preserve scientific integrity and unbiased efficacy assessments. Experience with alternative approaches is accumulating, specifically with registry-based randomised controlled trials that make use of data already collected. This approach addresses bias concerns while still capitalising on the benefits and efficiencies of a registry. Several completed or ongoing trials illustrate the feasibility of using registry-based controlled trials to answer important questions relevant to daily clinical practice. Randomised trials within healthcare organisation databases may also represent streamlined solutions for some types of investigations, although data quality (endpoint assessment) is likely to be a greater concern in those settings. These approaches are not without challenges, and issues pertaining to informed consent, blinding, data quality and regulatory standards remain to be fully explored. Collaboration among stakeholders is necessary to achieve standards for data management and analysis, to validate large data sources for use in randomised trials, and to re-evaluate ethical standards to encourage research while also ensuring that patients are protected. The rapidly evolving efforts to streamline cardiovascular clinical trials have the potential to lead to major advances in promoting better care and outcomes for patients with cardiovascular disease. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

  16. Streamlined library programming how to improve services and cut costs

    CERN Document Server

    Porter-Reynolds, Daisy

    2014-01-01

    In their roles as community centers, public libraries offer many innovative and appealing programs; but under current budget cuts, library resources are stretched thin. With slashed budgets and limited staff hours, what can libraries do to best serve their publics? This how-to guide provides strategies for streamlining library programming in public libraries while simultaneously maintaining-or even improving-quality delivery. The wide variety of principles and techniques described can be applied on a selective basis to libraries of all sizes. Based upon the author's own extensive experience as

  17. West Virginia Peer Exchange : Streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program Project Delivery - An RSPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-09-01

    The West Virginia Division of Highways (WV DOH) hosted a Peer Exchange to share information and experiences for streamlining Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) project delivery. The event was held September 23 to 24, 2014 in Charleston, West V...

  18. 19 CFR 24.34 - Vouchers; vendors' bills of sale; invoices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... that the above bill is correct and just and that payment has not been received. Vouchers, vendors... employee, in which case the voucher may be in the name of the officer or employee who made the payment. (c... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Vouchers; vendors' bills of sale; invoices. 24.34...

  19. Use of Vortex Generators to Reduce Distortion for Mach 1.6 Streamline-Traced Supersonic Inlets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baydar, Ezgihan; Lu, Frank; Slater, John W.; Trefny, Chuck

    2016-01-01

    Reduce the total pressure distortion at the engine-fan face due to low-momentum flow caused by the interaction of an external terminal shock at the turbulent boundary layer along a streamline-traced external-compression (STEX) inlet for Mach 1.6.

  20. Bill (declared urgency) asserting the national commitment for the environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2009-01-01

    The bill asserting the French national commitment for the environment (also named 'Grenelle 2') is considered as the juridical tool-box of the French environmental policy. It confirms, strengthens, and concretizes the objectives defined by the Grenelle 1 law. The main dispositions of the bill concern the following domains: settlement and urbanism with the improvement of the energy efficiency, energy conservation and life-cycle of buildings; transports with the development of sustainable transportation systems; energy with the creation of regional climate, air and energy schemes with the aim of developing renewable energies (with some restrictions concerning wind power) and reducing CO 2 emissions; biodiversity with the creation of ecological pathways between protected areas for the migration of flora and fauna species; environment and waste management with the reinforcement of measures for the abatement of environmental pollutant effects. Among the numerous dispositions involving more than 20 codes (urbanism, environment, buildings etc..) one concerns the progressive implementation of a 'carbon price' index taking into account the greenhouse gas emission costs during the whole life cycle of a product, another one concerns the monitoring of indoor air quality in public buildings. This document is made of three parts. Part 1 is the exposition of the intentions of each article of the bill, part 2 is the bill itself and part 3 is the impact study of the bill in terms of economical, social and environmental impact. (J.S.)

  1. Educational Quality Bill of Rights

    Science.gov (United States)

    Center for Law and Education (NJ3), 2009

    2009-01-01

    This paper presents two forms of the Educational Quality Bill of Rights (EQBR). The first is a "one-page version", with a very brief single sentence identification of a key element of quality education in response to each of the key questions about the school (covering standards/learning goals, curriculum, instruction, etc.). The second is a "much…

  2. Endine FBI agent õpetab eestlasi allilma imbuma / Bill Moschella ; interv. Rasmus Kagge

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Moschella, Bill

    2004-01-01

    Ameerika Föderaalse Juurdlusbüroo (FBI) endine eriagent Bill Moschella hakkab treenima siinseid kriminaalpolitseinikke, õpetab, kuidas paremini tööd organiseerida ja kurjategijate paljastamiseks varioperatsioone korraldada. Lisa: Bill Moschella

  3. 41 CFR 102-118.45 - How does a transportation service provider (TSP) bill my agency for transportation and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... (b) Billing method (1)(i) Government issued agency charge card, (1) Bill from charge card company (may be electronic). (ii) Centrally billed travel account citation. (2)(i) Purchase order, (2) Bill from TSP (may be electronic). (ii) Bill of lading, (iii) Government Bill of Lading, (iv) Government...

  4. Ending commercial surrogacy in India: significance of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timms, Olinda

    2018-01-01

    The introduction of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 into Parliament, in August 2016, was a much-awaited response to citizen voices and human rights groups calling for action in the unregulated area of commercial surrogacy arrangements. Both houses of Parliament have reviewed the Bill, and its fate was to be decided in the Winter Session of Parliament, 2017. It is still unclear whether the Bill will come up for decision in the Budget Session that will reconvene on March 5, 2018. The market for infertility treatments has attracted to India global clients seeking access to surrogates and procedures at lower costs. The Bill seeks to protect the rights of women and children at risk of exploitation and commodification as third parties in infertility treatments that use assisted reproductive technologies. Can commercial surrogacy be allowed in a country where injustice, inequalities, and poorly implemented laws place vulnerable women and children at risk? The proposed Bill could shut the door on commercial surrogacy arrangements in India and bring regulation into this sector of medical services.

  5. Hospital billing for blood processing and transfusion for inpatient stays.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCue, Michael J; Nayar, Preethy

    2009-07-01

    Medicare, an important payer for hospitals, reimburses hospitals for inpatient stays using Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs). Many private insurers also use the DRG methodology to reimburse hospitals for their services. Therefore, those blood service organizations that bill Medicare directly require an understanding of the DRG system of payment to enable them to bill Medicare correctly, and in order to be certain they are adequately reimbursed. Blood centers that do not bill Medicare directly need to understand how hospitals are reimbursed for blood and blood components as this affects a hospital's ability to pay service fees related to these products. This review presents a detailed explanation of how hospitals are reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for Medicare inpatient services, including blood services.

  6. Towards an inter-domain billing system to support dynamic service provisioning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Le, V.M.

    2009-01-01

    Today, billing is a big challenge for service providers. With a growing number of rich services such as music, mobile TV, Video-on-Demand and eHealth delivered to the mass market, service providers are missing business opportunities because current billing solutions are not fully capable. In

  7. 41 CFR 102-118.65 - Can my agency receive electronic billing for payment of transportation services?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... electronic billing for payment of transportation services? 102-118.65 Section 102-118.65 Public Contracts and... Transportation Services § 102-118.65 Can my agency receive electronic billing for payment of transportation... to use electronic billing for the procurement and billing of transportation services. ...

  8. The Status of Billing and Reimbursement in Pediatric Obesity Treatment Programs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Jane Simpson; Filigno, Stephanie Spear; Santos, Melissa; Ward, Wendy L.; Davis, Ann M.

    2014-01-01

    Pediatric psychologists provide behavioral health services to children and adolescents diagnosed with medical conditions. Billing and reimbursement have been problematic throughout the history of pediatric psychology, and pediatric obesity is no exception. The challenges and practices of pediatric psychologists working with obesity are not well understood. Health and behavior codes were developed as one potential solution to aid in the reimbursement of pediatric psychologists who treat the behavioral health needs of children with medical conditions. This commentary discusses the current state of billing and reimbursement in pediatric obesity treatment programs and presents themes that have emerged from discussions with colleagues. These themes include variability in billing practices from program to program, challenges with specific billing codes, variability in reimbursement from state to state and insurance plan to insurance plan, and a general lack of practitioner awareness of code issues or reimbursement rates. Implications and future directions are discussed in terms of research, training, and clinical service. PMID:23224661

  9. The status of billing and reimbursement in pediatric obesity treatment programs.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gray, Jane Simpson; Spear Filigno, Stephanie; Santos, Melissa; Ward, Wendy L; Davis, Ann M

    2013-07-01

    Pediatric psychologists provide behavioral health services to children and adolescents diagnosed with medical conditions. Billing and reimbursement have been problematic throughout the history of pediatric psychology, and pediatric obesity is no exception. The challenges and practices of pediatric psychologists working with obesity are not well understood. Health and behavior codes were developed as one potential solution to aid in the reimbursement of pediatric psychologists who treat the behavioral health needs of children with medical conditions. This commentary discusses the current state of billing and reimbursement in pediatric obesity treatment programs and presents themes that have emerged from discussions with colleagues. These themes include variability in billing practices from program to program, challenges with specific billing codes, variability in reimbursement from state to state and insurance plan to insurance plan, and a general lack of practitioner awareness of code issues or reimbursement rates. Implications and future directions are discussed in terms of research, training, and clinical service.

  10. Concordance of chart and billing data with direct observation in dental practice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Demko, Catherine A; Victoroff, Kristin Zakariasen; Wotman, Stephen

    2008-10-01

    The commonly used methods of chart review, billing data summaries and practitioner self-reporting have not been examined for their ability to validly and reliably represent time use and service delivery in routine dental practice. A more thorough investigation of these data sources would provide insight into the appropriateness of each approach for measuring various clinical behaviors. The aim of this study was to assess the validity of commonly used methods such as dental chart review, billing data, or practitioner self-report compared with a 'gold standard' of information derived from direct observation of routine dental visits. A team of trained dental hygienists directly observed 3751 patient visits in 120 dental practices and recorded the behaviors and procedures performed by dentists and hygienists during patient contact time. Following each visit, charts and billing records were reviewed for the performed and billed procedures. Dental providers characterized their frequency of preventive service delivery through self-administered surveys. We standardized the observation and abstraction methods to obtain optimal measures from each of the multiple data sources. Multi-rater kappa coefficients were computed to monitor standardization, while sensitivity, specificity, and kappa coefficients were calculated to compare the various data sources with direct observation. Chart audits were more sensitive than billing data for all observed procedures and demonstrated higher agreement with directly observed data. Chart and billing records were not sensitive for several prevention-related tasks (oral cancer screening and oral hygiene instruction). Provider self-reports of preventive behaviors were always over-estimated compared with direct observation. Inter-method reliability kappa coefficients for 13 procedures ranged from 0.197 to 0.952. These concordance findings suggest that strengths and weaknesses of data collection sources should be considered when investigating

  11. Organizational Contexts and Texts: The Redesign of the Midwest Bell Telephone Bill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller-Cohen, Deborah

    1987-01-01

    Offers a retrospective view of organizational factors affecting the redesign of the Midwest Bell Telephone Bill. Shows how financial considerations, organizational time frame, and employee training and experience influenced the bill's development process. (MM)

  12. The SOURCE Demonstration Project: Helping Disadvantaged High School Students Enroll in College

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bos, Johannes; Berman, Jacqueline

    2009-01-01

    The primary research question for this project was whether a streamlined, relatively inexpensive, counseling-based program that assists low-income high school students with the college and financial application processes can significantly increase college enrollment rates. The intervention was designed to test the hypothesis that lack of…

  13. Bill Gates vil redde Folkeskolen

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fejerskov, Adam Moe

    2014-01-01

    Det amerikanske uddannelsessystem bliver for tiden udsat for hård kritik, ledt an af Microsoft stifteren Bill Gates. Gates har indtil videre brugt 3 mia. kroner på at skabe opbakning til tiltag som præstationslønning af lærere og strømlining af pensum på tværs af alle skoler i landet...

  14. A new method for calculating volumetric sweeps efficiency using streamline simulation concepts

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hidrobo, E A

    2000-01-01

    One of the purposes of reservoir engineering is to quantify the volumetric sweep efficiency for optimizing reservoir management decisions. The estimation of this parameter has always been a difficult task. Until now, sweep efficiency correlations and calculations have been limited to mostly homogeneous 2-D cases. Calculating volumetric sweep efficiency in a 3-D heterogeneous reservoir becomes difficult due to inherent complexity of multiple layers and arbitrary well configurations. In this paper, a new method for computing volumetric sweep efficiency for any arbitrary heterogeneity and well configuration is presented. The proposed method is based on Datta-Gupta and King's formulation of streamline time-of-flight (1995). Given the fact that the time-of-flight reflects the fluid front propagation at various times, then the connectivity in the time-of-flight represents a direct measure of the volumetric sweep efficiency. The proposed approach has been applied to synthetic as well as field examples. Synthetic examples are used to validate the volumetric sweep efficiency calculations using the streamline time-of-flight connectivity criterion by comparison with analytic solutions and published correlations. The field example, which illustrates the feasibility of the approach for large-scale field applications, is from the north Robertson unit, a low permeability carbonate reservoir in west Texas

  15. 47 CFR 76.985 - Subscriber bill itemization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ...) The amount of the total bill assessed as a franchise fee and the identity of the franchising authority... fees and costs itemized pursuant to this section. (c) Local franchising authorities may adopt...

  16. Topology of streamlines and vorticity contours for two - dimensional flows

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Morten

    on the vortex filament by the localised induction approximation the stream function is slightly modified and an extra parameter is introduced. In this setting two new flow topologies arise, but not more than two critical points occur for any combination of the parameters. The analysis of the closed form show...... by a point vortex above a wall in inviscid fluid. There is no reason to a priori expect equivalent results of the three vortex definitions. However, the study is mainly motivated by the findings of Kudela & Malecha (Fluid Dyn. Res. 41, 2009) who find good agreement between the vorticity and streamlines...

  17. 41 CFR 101-26.607 - Billings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 41 Public Contracts and Property Management 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Billings. 101-26.607 Section 101-26.607 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Property Management Regulations System FEDERAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT REGULATIONS SUPPLY AND PROCUREMENT 26-PROCUREMENT SOURCES AND PROGRAM 26.6...

  18. Identifying western yellow-billed cuckoo breeding habitat with a dual modelling approach

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Matthew J.; Hatten, James R.; Holmes, Jennifer A.; Shafroth, Patrick B.

    2017-01-01

    The western population of the yellow-billed cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) was recently listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Yellow-billed cuckoo conservation efforts require the identification of features and area requirements associated with high quality, riparian forest habitat at spatial scales that range from nest microhabitat to landscape, as well as lower-suitability areas that can be enhanced or restored. Spatially explicit models inform conservation efforts by increasing ecological understanding of a target species, especially at landscape scales. Previous yellow-billed cuckoo modelling efforts derived plant-community maps from aerial photography, an expensive and oftentimes inconsistent approach. Satellite models can remotely map vegetation features (e.g., vegetation density, heterogeneity in vegetation density or structure) across large areas with near perfect repeatability, but they usually cannot identify plant communities. We used aerial photos and satellite imagery, and a hierarchical spatial scale approach, to identify yellow-billed cuckoo breeding habitat along the Lower Colorado River and its tributaries. Aerial-photo and satellite models identified several key features associated with yellow-billed cuckoo breeding locations: (1) a 4.5 ha core area of dense cottonwood-willow vegetation, (2) a large native, heterogeneously dense forest (72 ha) around the core area, and (3) moderately rough topography. The odds of yellow-billed cuckoo occurrence decreased rapidly as the amount of tamarisk cover increased or when cottonwood-willow vegetation was limited. We achieved model accuracies of 75–80% in the project area the following year after updating the imagery and location data. The two model types had very similar probability maps, largely predicting the same areas as high quality habitat. While each model provided unique information, a dual-modelling approach provided a more complete picture of yellow-billed cuckoo habitat

  19. Thoughts on the Roots and Evolution of the Bill of Rights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robinson, Donald; And Others

    1991-01-01

    Considers how the Bill of Rights originated and has evolved. Reviews the political views of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and the nature of their support for the Bill of Rights. Explains nineteenth-century classical liberalism and its revolutionary view that political power inhered in the individual rather than in property ownership. (CH)

  20. Less is More : Better Compliance and Increased Revenues by Streamlining Business Registration in Uganda

    OpenAIRE

    Sander, Cerstin

    2003-01-01

    A pilot of a streamlined business registration system in Entebbe, Uganda, reduced compliance costs for enterprises by 75 percent, raised registration numbers and fee revenue by 40 percent and reduced the cost of administering the system. It also reduced opportunities for corruption, improved relations between businesses and the local authorities and resulted in better compliance.

  1. 34 CFR 674.48 - Use of contractors to perform billing and collection or other program activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... all funds collected by its employees and contractors. (c) If an institution uses a billing service to carry out billing procedures under § 674.43, the institution shall ensure that the service— (1) Provides... paragraph (f) of this section. (e) If an institution uses a billing service to carry out § 674.43 (billing...

  2. The bill project on energy transition: what will happen to renewable energies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Darson, Alice

    2015-01-01

    The author comments and discusses the content of the French bill project on energy transition, and the controversies on this bill project within the French Parliament. She addresses the objectives of the bill project (share of renewable energies, case of overseas territories), the issue of building construction and renovation, the issue of transports (fleet size, electric vehicles, use of renewable energy), the development of renewable energies (notably for overseas territories, issue of mandatory purchase, issue of connection), the simplification and clarification of procedures, and the possibility for citizen, enterprises, territories and State to act together

  3. Student Rights and Responsibilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Today's Education, 1972

    1972-01-01

    Article summarizes National Education Association pamphlet. As citizens, students should have full protection of Bill of Rights, due process, protection from illegal search or seizure. As clients of institution, should have substantial influence on how institutions affect their lives. Proper disciplinary procedures for minor and major infractions…

  4. Rising Billing for Intermediate Intensive Care among Hospitalized Medicare Beneficiaries between 1996 and 2010.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sjoding, Michael W; Valley, Thomas S; Prescott, Hallie C; Wunsch, Hannah; Iwashyna, Theodore J; Cooke, Colin R

    2016-01-15

    Intermediate care (i.e., step-down or progressive care) is an alternative to the intensive care unit (ICU) for patients with moderate severity of illness. The adoption and current use of intermediate care is unknown. To characterize trends in intermediate care use among U.S. hospitals. We examined 135 million acute care hospitalizations among elderly individuals (≥65 yr) enrolled in fee-for-service Medicare (U.S. federal health insurance program) from 1996 to 2010. We identified patients receiving intermediate care as those with intensive care or coronary care room and board charges labeled intermediate ICU. In 1996, a total of 960 of the 3,425 hospitals providing critical care billed for intermediate care (28%), and this increased to 1,643 of 2,783 hospitals (59%) in 2010 (P billed for intermediate care, but billing steadily increased to 22.8% by 2010 (P billed for ICU care and ward-only care declined. Patients billed for intermediate care had more acute organ failures diagnoses codes compared with general ward patients (22.4% vs. 15.8%). When compared with patients billed for ICU care, those billed for intermediate care had fewer organ failures (22.4% vs. 43.4%), less mechanical ventilation (0.9% vs. 16.7%), lower mean Medicare spending ($8,514 vs. $18,150), and lower 30-day mortality (5.6% vs. 16.5%) (P billing increased markedly between 1996 and 2010. These findings highlight the need to better define the value, specific practices, and effective use of intermediate care for patients and hospitals.

  5. First Red-billed Quelea breeding record in the winter rainfall region ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    This note documents the first breeding of Red-billed Quelea in the winter rainfall region of South Africa. A colony of 350–600 nests was found, with evidence of recent breeding. Red-billed Quelea numbers were low in this region, but if numbers increase in the future in the Western Cape, winter crops could be under threat.

  6. A critical analysis of the End of Life Choice Bill 2013.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Richmond, David E

    2014-07-04

    This paper aims to alert medical practitioners to the legal and ethical problems that passage of the End of Life Choice Bill (which seeks to legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide) would have for them in New Zealand. Although sponsor MP Maryan Street withdrew the Bill on political grounds in October 2013, she has pledged to reintroduce the Bill after the next Parliamentary elections and remains committed to its objectives. A clause by clause analysis of the Bill was undertaken from a clinical perspective, following the sequence of requesting, validating, providing and reporting episodes of euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide rather than following the administrative sequence in which the Bill has been drawn up for Parliamentary debate. Where possible, the experience of other jurisdictions where these end of life options are legal has been drawn upon to enable inferences to be drawn as to the likely effects of the legislation. The analysis supporting this paper reveals that the legislation would: make it possible for virtually any person over the age of 18 to request and receive euthanasia provided they took care in the way they phrased the request, expose medical practitioners who attempted to deter applicants too vigorously to the possibility of legal action on the grounds of attempting to frustrate the applicant's wishes, compromise the ability of practitioners to opt out on conscience grounds, allow the easy circumvention of reporting requirements for each event, provide minimal protection against some people suffering euthanasia without consent or request, and exempt medical practitioners providing euthanasia services from prosecution for any action in the provision of such services, even if they were negligent. The branch of medical practice that specialises in killing people would be the least regulated of all. If passed into legislation, the End of Life Choice Bill will create the most momentous changes to clinical practice and the regulation

  7. Streamlining air import operations by trade facilitation measures

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuri da Cunha Ferreira

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Global operations are subject to considerable uncertainties. Due to the Trade Facilitation Agreement that became effective in February 2017, the study of measures to streamline customs controls is urgent. This study aims to assess the impact of trade facilitation measures on import flows. An experimental study was performed in the largest cargo airport in South America through discrete-event simulation and design of experiments. Operation impacts of three trade facilitation measures are assessed on import flow by air. We shed light in the following trade facilitation measures: the use of X-ray equipment for physical inspection; increase of the number of qualified companies in the trade facilitation program; performance targets for customs officials. All trade facilitation measures used indicated potential to provide more predictability, cost savings, time reduction, and increase in security in international supply chain.

  8. Dynamic Salience with Intermittent Billing: Evidence from Smart Electricity Meters

    OpenAIRE

    Ben Gilbert; Joshua S. Graff Zivin

    2013-01-01

    Digital tracking and the proliferation of automated payments have made intermittent billing more commonplace, and the frequency at which consumers receive price, quantity, or total expenditure signals may distort their choices. This category of goods has expanded from household utilities, toll road access and software downloads to standard consumption goods paid by credit card or other "bill-me-later"-type systems. Yet we know surprisingly little about how these payment patterns affect decisi...

  9. The Partnership Bill 2003: unnecessary tinkering or much-needed reform?

    OpenAIRE

    Berry, E

    2005-01-01

    Purpose - To examine the nature and merits of the proposed changes to partnership law contained in the draft Partnership Bill published in the Law Commission's Partnership Law Report (2003). Design/methodology/approach - Sets out how the proposed Bill differs from the current law of partnership (contained in the Partnership Act 1890 and the Limited Partnerships Act 1907), looking at the definition of 'partnership', the introduction of separate legal personality, the provisions governing partn...

  10. An Introduction to Collaboration with SharePoint for First-Year Business Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atkins, Laura; Cole, Carey

    2010-01-01

    The need for collaboration skills in today's market is increasing, with more businesses looking for ways to streamline communication, improve innovation, and share corporate knowledge. Students at the beginning of their college careers have had numerous opportunities to work in groups, but very few opportunities to engage in true collaboration.…

  11. 42 CFR 405.515 - Reimbursement for clinical laboratory services billed by physicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Reimbursement for clinical laboratory services... Criteria for Determining Reasonable Charges § 405.515 Reimbursement for clinical laboratory services billed... limitation on reimbursement for markups on clinical laboratory services billed by physicians. If a physician...

  12. 2004 energy bill of the France

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    This document analyzes the energy bill in France (28,35 milliards of euros), which increased of 24,1 % in 2004. This increase is due to the net imports and especially the fossil fuels. Statistical data and the presentation of Patrick Devedjian, delegated ministry for the Industry, illustrate this economic analysis. (A.L.B.)

  13. Calculation of heat transfer in transversely stream-lined tube bundles with chess arrangement

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Migaj, V.K.

    1978-01-01

    A semiempirical theory of heat transfer in transversely stream-lined chess-board tube bundles has been developed. The theory is based on a single cylinder model and involves external flow parameter evaluation on the basis of the solidification principle of a vortex zone. The effect of turbulence is estimated according to experimental results. The method is extended to both average and local heat transfer coefficients. Comparison with experiment shows satisfactory agreement

  14. Meeting the Needs of Students with Dyslexia and Dyscalculia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witzel, Bradley; Mize, Minnie

    2018-01-01

    Understanding dyslexia and dyscalculia is not only important to helping students achieve, it has also been recently legislated in one southeastern state. The purpose of the North Carolina House Bill 149 is to ensure that students identified with learning disabilities, including dyslexia and dyscalculia, receive the appropriate assessment and…

  15. Impact of Rate Design Alternatives on Residential Solar Customer Bills. Increased Fixed Charges, Minimum Bills and Demand-based Rates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bird, Lori [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Davidson, Carolyn [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); McLaren, Joyce [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Miller, John [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2015-09-01

    With rapid growth in energy efficiency and distributed generation, electric utilities are anticipating stagnant or decreasing electricity sales, particularly in the residential sector. Utilities are increasingly considering alternative rates structures that are designed to recover fixed costs from residential solar photovoltaic (PV) customers with low net electricity consumption. Proposed structures have included fixed charge increases, minimum bills, and increasingly, demand rates - for net metered customers and all customers. This study examines the electricity bill implications of various residential rate alternatives for multiple locations within the United States. For the locations analyzed, the results suggest that residential PV customers offset, on average, between 60% and 99% of their annual load. However, roughly 65% of a typical customer's electricity demand is non-coincidental with PV generation, so the typical PV customer is generally highly reliant on the grid for pooling services.

  16. Nr 150 - Private bill introducing a progressive energy tariff

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Brottes, Francois; Le Roux, Bruno

    2012-01-01

    This document presents a private bill which, by introducing a progressive energy tariff, aims at speeding up energy transition (by inciting households to reduce their consumption, notably by insulating their housing), and at addressing the ineluctable issue of energy price increase. This private bill notably applies a bonus-malus concept by defining an energy consumption threshold which is to be determined by means of several parameters related to climate, housing occupancy, heating mode. This raises several issues concerning for example housing insulation of rented housing. All these aspects lead to a rather complex process to define and implement such a progressive pricing approach

  17. Christian Librarians and the Ethics of the Library Bill of Rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Scott Kaihoi

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This study is the follow up to a pilot study entitled “Christian Librarians and the Library Bill of Rights: a survey of opinions and professional practice” published in the Spring 2014 issue of The Christian Librarian.  Using an online survey, it sought to discover how librarians working in a variety of contexts who self-identified as Christians responded to the ALA’s ethical standards as embodied in the Library Bill of Rights.  The results showed general support for the Library Bill of Rights and its ethics, though a majority of respondents had at least some way in which they adhered to the Library Bill of Rights less than fully, and a significant minority (around 40% had areas in which they differed with its ethics, usually in the form of feeling that certain types of content (e.g., pornography, harmful materials, etc. could or should be limited.  The responses in this survey would seem to support the notion that many Christian librarians do sometimes perceive a need to place the value of defending what they perceive to be true and right above the call to remain professionally impartial about certain kinds of content.

  18. 47 CFR 64.1510 - Billing and collection of pay-per-call and similar service charges.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... Pay-Per-Call and Other Information Services § 64.1510 Billing and collection of pay-per-call and... pay-per-call services and offering billing and collection services to such provider shall: (1) Ensure... 47 Telecommunication 3 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Billing and collection of pay-per-call and...

  19. Streamlined islands and the English Channel megaflood hypothesis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collier, J. S.; Oggioni, F.; Gupta, S.; García-Moreno, D.; Trentesaux, A.; De Batist, M.

    2015-12-01

    Recognising ice-age catastrophic megafloods is important because they had significant impact on large-scale drainage evolution and patterns of water and sediment movement to the oceans, and likely induced very rapid, short-term effects on climate. It has been previously proposed that a drainage system on the floor of the English Channel was initiated by catastrophic flooding in the Pleistocene but this suggestion has remained controversial. Here we examine this hypothesis through an analysis of key landform features. We use a new compilation of multi- and single-beam bathymetry together with sub-bottom profiler data to establish the internal structure, planform geometry and hence origin of a set of 36 mid-channel islands. Whilst there is evidence of modern-day surficial sediment processes, the majority of the islands can be clearly demonstrated to be formed of bedrock, and are hence erosional remnants rather than depositional features. The islands display classic lemniscate or tear-drop outlines, with elongated tips pointing downstream, typical of streamlined islands formed during high-magnitude water flow. The length-to-width ratio for the entire island population is 3.4 ± 1.3 and the degree-of-elongation or k-value is 3.7 ± 1.4. These values are comparable to streamlined islands in other proven Pleistocene catastrophic flood terrains and are distinctly different to values found in modern-day rivers. The island geometries show a correlation with bedrock type: with those carved from Upper Cretaceous chalk having larger length-to-width ratios (3.2 ± 1.3) than those carved into more mixed Paleogene terrigenous sandstones, siltstones and mudstones (3.0 ± 1.5). We attribute these differences to the former rock unit having a lower skin friction which allowed longer island growth to achieve minimum drag. The Paleogene islands, although less numerous than the Chalk islands, also assume more perfect lemniscate shapes. These lithologies therefore reached island

  20. 基于互联网票据理财谈商业银行票据资管%Commercial Bank's Bill Asset Management Based on Internet Bill Financing

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    艾瑶

    2015-01-01

    本文运用比较分析的方法对当前主要的互联网票据理财平台的运作模式归纳总结,并以阿里招财宝为例详细分析银行角色和风险,最后从票据电子化、发挥银行票源优势、组建银行系票据理财平台等方面提出建议,以期对商业银行的票据资产管理业务提供启发.%In this paper, we use the method of comparative analysis to summarize the operation mode of the main Internet bills financing platforms, and analyze the role and risk of the bank in detail by taking Ali trick treasure as an example. Finally, the paper puts forward suggestions on Commercial bank's bill asset management from the aspects of the electronic bills, the bank's ticket source and the formation of Bank bill financing platform.

  1. A Lifetime of Geodesy and Geophysics: In Rememberence of Bill Kaula

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, David E.

    2000-01-01

    In the early 1960's the secrets that knowledge of the Earth's gravity field would eventually reveal about the processes that govern our planet were yet to be appreciated. It was the beginning of a new science known as space geodesy, which arose at a time when most efforts were devoted to understanding how to extract precise measurements of Earth structure and motions from an orbiting spacecraft. Bill Kaula was central to that beginning and showed the way for many who were to follow, both in time and in the development of approaches most likely to yield results. Bill laid out the theory, analyzed the data, and argued strenuously for a spacecraft mission devoted to measuring gravity to make it all come true in the way he knew it really could. That mission, GRACE, was a long time coming and Bill would not see its final staging, but his influence in making it happen was everywhere. With time, the concepts for measuring the static gravity field of the Earth and terrestrial planets became well advanced, although not universally agreed upon, and certainly not by Bill, who was always eager to argue and challenge traditional methods and thinking. The extension of space geodetic techniques to the planets and the development of new techniques to measure time variations in gravity have recently brought geodesy even closer to the geophysical processes that Bill sought to understand. This presentation will contain a little geodesy, a little history, and a little reminiscing about the leader in our field.

  2. Debate on the Draft--Helping Students Decide Where They Stand.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Victory, James

    1981-01-01

    Presents four exercises to help secondary school social studies students understand the complex issues of the draft. Students participate in a mock draft lottery, analyze Phil Och's Draft Dodger Rag, examine how individual experiences affect attitudes, and compare writings by Bill Mauldin and Ron Kovic. (KC)

  3. Chart Smart: A Need for Documentation and Billing Education Among Emergency Medicine Residents?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Brian Dawson, MD

    2010-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective: The healthcare chart is becoming ever more complex, serving clinicians, patients, third party payers, regulators, and even medicolegal parties. The purpose of this study was to identify our emergency medicine (EM resident and attending physicians’ current knowledge and attitudes about billing and documentation practices. We hypothesized that resident and attending physicians would identify billing and documentation as an area in which residents need further education.Methods: We gave a 15-question Likert survey to resident and attending physicians regarding charting practices, knowledge of billing and documentation, and opinions regarding need for further education.Results: We achieved a 100% response rate, with 47% (16/34 of resident physicians disagreeing or strongly disagreeing that they have adequate training in billing and documentation, while 91% (31/34 of residents and 95% (21/22 of attending physicians identified this skill as important to a resident’s future practice. Eighty-two percent (28/34 of resident physicians and 100% of attending physicians recommended further education for residents.Conclusion: Residents in this academic EM department identified a need for further education in billing and documentation practices. [West J Emerg Med. 2010;11(2: 116-119.

  4. Report: Follow-Up Report: EPA Proposes to Streamline the Review, Management and Disposal of Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Report #15-P-0260, August 19, 2015. EPA states that it intends to issue a proposed rule, Management Standards for Hazardous Waste, which will attempt to streamline the approach to managing and disposing of hazardous and nonhazardous pharmaceutical waste.

  5. What Drives Bird Vision? Bill Control and Predator Detection Overshadow Flight

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Graham R. Martin

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Although flight is regarded as a key behavior of birds this review argues that the perceptual demands for its control are met within constraints set by the perceptual demands of two other key tasks: the control of bill (or feet position, and the detection of food items/predators. Control of bill position, or of the feet when used in foraging, and timing of their arrival at a target, are based upon information derived from the optic flow-field in the binocular region that encompasses the bill. Flow-fields use information extracted from close to the bird using vision of relatively low spatial resolution. The detection of food items and predators is based upon information detected at a greater distance and depends upon regions in the retina with relatively high spatial resolution. The tasks of detecting predators and of placing the bill (or feet accurately, make contradictory demands upon vision and these have resulted in trade-offs in the form of visual fields and in the topography of retinal regions in which spatial resolution is enhanced, indicated by foveas, areas, and high ganglion cell densities. The informational function of binocular vision in birds does not lie in binocularity per se (i.e., two eyes receiving slightly different information simultaneously about the same objects but in the contralateral projection of the visual field of each eye. This ensures that each eye receives information from a symmetrically expanding optic flow-field centered close to the direction of the bill, and from this the crucial information of direction of travel and time-to-contact can be extracted, almost instantaneously. Interspecific comparisons of visual fields between closely related species have shown that small differences in foraging techniques can give rise to different perceptual challenges and these have resulted in differences in visual fields even within the same genus. This suggests that vision is subject to continuing and relatively rapid

  6. A Survey of Texas HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, Tuberculosis, and Viral Hepatitis Providers' Billing and Reimbursement Capabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Flynn, Matthew B; Atwood, Robin; Greenberg, Jennifer B; Ray, Tara; Harris, Karol Kaye

    2015-11-01

    The Affordable Care Act presents financial challenges and opportunities for publicly funded service providers. We assessed billing practices and anticipated barriers to third-party billing among organizations in Texas that provide publicly funded HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis services. One third to one half of the organizations did not bill for medical services. The most common barrier to third-party billing was lack of staff knowledge about billing and coding. Future research must evaluate options for organizations and communities to maintain access to infectious disease services for vulnerable populations.

  7. A Survey of Texas HIV, Sexually Transmitted Disease, Tuberculosis, and Viral Hepatitis Providers’ Billing and Reimbursement Capabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Atwood, Robin; Greenberg, Jennifer B.; Ray, Tara; Harris, Karol Kaye

    2015-01-01

    The Affordable Care Act presents financial challenges and opportunities for publicly funded service providers. We assessed billing practices and anticipated barriers to third-party billing among organizations in Texas that provide publicly funded HIV, sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis services. One third to one half of the organizations did not bill for medical services. The most common barrier to third-party billing was lack of staff knowledge about billing and coding. Future research must evaluate options for organizations and communities to maintain access to infectious disease services for vulnerable populations. PMID:26447911

  8. Patient and physician attitudes regarding risk and benefit in streamlined development programmes for antibacterial drugs: a qualitative analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holland, Thomas L; Mikita, Stephen; Bloom, Diane; Roberts, Jamie; McCall, Jonathan; Collyar, Deborah; Santiago, Jonas; Tiernan, Rosemary; Toerner, Joseph

    2016-11-10

    To explore patient, caregiver and physician perceptions and attitudes regarding the balance of benefit and risk in using antibacterial drugs developed through streamlined development processes. Semistructured focus groups and in-depth interviews were conducted to elicit perceptions and attitudes about the use of antibacterial drugs to treat multidrug-resistant infections. Participants were given background information about antibiotic resistance, streamlined drug development programmes and FDA drug approval processes. Audio recordings of focus groups/interviews were reviewed and quotes excerpted and categorised to identify key themes. Two primary stakeholder groups were engaged: one comprising caregivers, healthy persons and patients who had recovered from or were at risk of resistant infection (N=67; 11 focus groups); and one comprising physicians who treat resistant infections (N=23). Responses from focus groups/interviews indicated widespread awareness among patients/caregivers and physicians of the seriousness of the problem of antibacterial resistance. Both groups were willing to accept a degree of uncertainty regarding the balance of risk and benefit in a new therapy where a serious unmet need exists, but also expressed a desire for rigorous monitoring and rapid, transparent reporting of safety/effectiveness data. Both groups wanted to ensure that >1 physician had input on whether to treat patients with antibiotics developed through a streamlined process. Some patients/caregivers unfamiliar with exigencies of critical care suggested a relatively large multidisciplinary team, while physicians believed individual expert consultations would be preferable. Both groups agreed that careful oversight and stewardship of antibacterial drugs are needed to ensure patient safety, preserve efficacy and prevent abuse. Groups comprising patients/caregivers and physicians were aware of serious issues posed by resistant infections and the lack of effective antibacterial drug

  9. Plümtoonia Bill - nagu orkester / Tiit Tuumalu

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Tuumalu, Tiit, 1971-

    2008-01-01

    19.-23. nov. toimuvast animafilmide festivalist "Animated Dreams". Pikemalt USA tuntuimast sõltumatust animaatorist Bill Plymtonist, kes näitab festivalil oma täispikka joonisfilmi "Idioodid ja inglid" ("Idiots and Angels")

  10. Streamlining of the Decontamination and Demolition Document Preparation Process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Durand, Nick; Meincke, Carol; Peek, Georgianne

    1999-01-01

    During the past five years, the Sandia National Labo- ratories Decontamination, Decommissioning, Demolition, and Reuse (D3R) Program has evolved and become more focused and efficient. Historical approaches to project documentation, requirements, and drivers are discussed detailing key assumptions, oversight authority, and proj- ect approvals. Discussion of efforts to streamline the D3R project planning and preparation process include the in- corporation of the principles of graded approach, Total Quality Management, and the Observational Method (CH2MHILL April 1989).1 Process improvements were realized by clearly defining regulatory requirements for each phase of a project, establishing general guidance for the program and combining project-specific documents to eliminate redundant and unneeded information. Proc- ess improvements to cost, schedule, and quality are dis- cussed in detail for several projects

  11. Aplikasi Billing Client/Server Dengan Mengunakan Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

    OpenAIRE

    Sinukaban, Eva Solida

    2010-01-01

    Kajian ini bertujuan untuk membangun Billing Server yang gratis dalam jaringan Local dengan media transmisi berupa kabel UTP atau Wifi, Jaringan LAN yang dibangun ini merupakan jaringan client server yang memiliki server dengan sistem operasi yang dipakai adalah windows XP Service Pack 2. Tujuan pembuatan Aplikasi Billing Server ini adalah untuk dapat melakukan sharing data dan komunikasi antar komputer sehingga komputer-komputer tersebut dapat dimanfaatkan seoptimal mungkin baik dari sisi Se...

  12. Impact of Alternative Rate Structures on Distributed Solar Customer Electricity Bills

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McLaren, Joyce A [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2018-03-02

    Electric utilities are increasingly proposing changes to residential rate structures, in order to address concerns about their inability to recover fixed system costs from customers with grid connected distributed generation. The most common proposals have been to increase fixed charges, set minimum bills or instigate residential demand charges. This presentation provides results of an analysis to explore how these rate design alternatives impact electricity bills for PV and non-PV customers.

  13. Bill Gates køber sig til positive historier om udviklingsbistanden

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fejerskov, Adam Moe

    2014-01-01

    Flere store og velansete medier får penge af Bill Gates' fond for at at bringe positive historier om udviklingsbistanden. Men det medfører en risiko for at journalistikken bliver ukritisk og overfladisk......Flere store og velansete medier får penge af Bill Gates' fond for at at bringe positive historier om udviklingsbistanden. Men det medfører en risiko for at journalistikken bliver ukritisk og overfladisk...

  14. A Barking Dog That Never Bites? The British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Meulder, Maartje

    2015-01-01

    This article describes and analyses the pathway to the British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill and the strategies used to reach it. Data collection has been done by means of interviews with key players, analysis of official documents, and participant observation. The article discusses the bill in relation to the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005…

  15. Utility bill comprehension in the commercial and industrialsector: results of field research

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Payne, Christopher T.

    2000-06-02

    This paper presents the results of interviews conducted with 44 business people in 10 states to examine the use of the utility bill as an information mechanism for providing businesses with the relationship between energy consumption and cost. Our results indicate that there are significant barriers to the use of the utility bill as an information tool for energy consumers. Furthermore, we found significant variations among respondents in the information desired from the bill, and differences in decision-making criteria for investments aimed at reducing energy consumption and for those aimed at other forms of waste minimization. These results call into question the applicability of standard market theories in the purchase of energy by most businesses.

  16. Typical electric bills, January 1, 1981

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1981-01-01

    The Typical Electric Bills report is prepared by the Electric Power Division; Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels; Energy Information Administration; Department of Energy. The publication is geared to a variety of applications by electric utilities, industry, consumes, educational institutions, and government in recognition of the growing importance of energy planning in contemporary society. 19 figs., 18 tabs

  17. THE UGANDA COPYRIGHT AND NEIGHBOURING RIGHTS BILL ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The paper discusses the concept and philosophy of copyright. It also discusses copyright infringement with special reference to ICT. Furthermore, the paper examines international provisions related to copyright and reviews the Copyright Law Model. The paper also identifies gaps in the Uganda Copyright Bill, 2002 and ...

  18. A Critical Discussion of "The Ethical Presuppositions behind the Library Bill of Rights."

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyle, Tony

    2002-01-01

    Discussion of the Library Bill of Rights focuses on paternalism and the dangers of Internet filtering, in response to a previous article that advocated revision of the Bill of Rights. Topics include ethical presuppositions; censorship; philosophical foundations; access; social contract theory; and utilitarianism. (LRW)

  19. A bill for the renaissance of nuclear power in Italy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    2009-01-01

    Today Italy is the only G8 member to have no nuclear power plants in operation. In 1987 as a consequence of a referendum Italy decided to shut down its nuclear power plants and to forbid the construction of new ones. Italy relies on oil and gas imports for 80% of its energy needs. The Italian parliament has recently passed a bill for a renaissance of nuclear power. The bill gives 6 months to the government to set the rules and conditions for the come-back of nuclear energy. (A.C.)

  20. Long-billed curlews on the Yakima Training Center: Information for base realignment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hand, K.D.; Cadwell, L.L.; Eberhardt, L.E.

    1994-02-01

    This report summarizes and discusses the results obtained during 1992 from the study of long-billed curlews on the Yakima Training Center (YTC), which Pacific Northwest Laboratory conducted for the US Department of the Army. This study was initiated to provide basic ecological information on YTC long-billed curlews (Numenius americanus). The long-billed curlew is a relatively common spring and summer resident on the YTC. However, other than casual observations, very little is known about the distribution, density, reproductive success, and habitat requirements for this species on the YTC. Until recently the long-billed curlew was a US Fish and Wildlife Service candidate for listing as threatened or endangered; however, on November 21, 1991 it was down-listed to Class IIIc. The Washington Department of Wildlife lists the long-billed curlew as a ``species of special concern.`` Specific objectives of this study were to (1) locate nesting areas, (2) locate brood-rearing areas, (3) evaluate habitat requirements, (4) determine diet, (5) evaluate response to troop activities, (6) evaluate the impact of livestock grazing, (7) estimate the population size, and (8) estimate recruitment rates. Six curlews (four females and two males) were captured and fitted with radio transmitters. These birds were relocated to obtain nesting, habitat use, and feeding information. Road surveys conducted over most of the YTC provided information on the bird`s general distribution, habitat requirements, and nesting and brood-rearing areas.

  1. Utilization of genetic tests: analysis of gene-specific billing in Medicare claims data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynch, Julie A; Berse, Brygida; Dotson, W David; Khoury, Muin J; Coomer, Nicole; Kautter, John

    2017-08-01

    We examined the utilization of precision medicine tests among Medicare beneficiaries through analysis of gene-specific tier 1 and 2 billing codes developed by the American Medical Association in 2012. We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study. The primary source of data was 2013 Medicare 100% fee-for-service claims. We identified claims billed for each laboratory test, the number of patients tested, expenditures, and the diagnostic codes indicated for testing. We analyzed variations in testing by patient demographics and region of the country. Pharmacogenetic tests were billed most frequently, accounting for 48% of the expenditures for new codes. The most common indications for testing were breast cancer, long-term use of medications, and disorders of lipid metabolism. There was underutilization of guideline-recommended tumor mutation tests (e.g., epidermal growth factor receptor) and substantial overutilization of a test discouraged by guidelines (methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase). Methodology-based tier 2 codes represented 15% of all claims billed with the new codes. The highest rate of testing per beneficiary was in Mississippi and the lowest rate was in Alaska. Gene-specific billing codes significantly improved our ability to conduct population-level research of precision medicine. Analysis of these data in conjunction with clinical records should be conducted to validate findings.Genet Med advance online publication 26 January 2017.

  2. Reimagining Financial Aid to Improve Student Access and Outcomes. Executive Summary

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NJ1), 2013

    2013-01-01

    As the student aid programs rapidly approach reauthorization in 2014, they continue to face severe funding and efficiency problems. With grant assistance from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through their "Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery" (RADD) project, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) examined…

  3. Risk bearing and use of fee-for-service billing among accountable care organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhlestein, David B; Croshaw, Andrew A; Merrill, Thomas P

    2013-07-01

    To determine the willingness of accountable care organizations (ACOs) to bear financial risk for the healthcare they provide. Structured interviews conducted between January and June 2012 with 57 ACOs led by hospitals and physician groups located throughout the United States. Findings are based on the 38 ACOs that were actively providing care under an ACO payment arrangement at the time of the interview. Among these ACOs, 71% cover a portion of their ACO population with contracts that put the ACOs at some financial risk, while 45% have risk-based contracts for their entire ACO population. Payments based on fee-for-service (FFS) billing still dominate, as 92% of ACOs use FFS-based billing for at least a portion of their ACO population and 71% are fully reimbursed using FFS-based billing. Under the auspices of an ACO, providers are accepting some financial risk for their accountable care patient population. There is still strong reliance on FFS-based billing methods as providers experiment with different payment models.

  4. CFD Prediction on the Pressure Distribution and Streamlines around an Isolated Single-Storey House Considering the Effect of Topographic Characteristics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdullah, J.; Zaini, S. S.; Aziz, M. S. A.; Majid, T. A.; Deraman, S. N. C.; Yahya, W. N. W.

    2018-04-01

    Single-storey houses are classified as low rise building and vulnerable to damages under windstorm event. This study was carried out with the aim to investigate the pressure distribution and streamlines around an isolated house by considering the effect of terrain characteristics. The topographic features such as flat, depression, ridge, and valley, are considered in this study. This simulation were analysed with Ansys FLUENT 14.0 software package. The result showed the topography characteristics influence the value of pressure coefficient and streamlines especially when the house was located at ridge terrain. The findings strongly suggested that wind analysis should include all topographic features in the analysis in order to establish the true wind force exerted on any structure.

  5. Improving the Emergency Department's Processes of Coding and Billing at Brooke Army Medical Center

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Lehning, Peter

    2003-01-01

    .... Beginning in October 2002, outpatient itemized billing was mandated for use in the AMEDD. This system shifted the process of billing for outpatient services from an allinclusive rate to one based on the actual care provided...

  6. Zephyr: A secure Internet-based process to streamline engineering procurements using the World Wide Web

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Jordan, C.W.; Cavitt, R.E.; Niven, W.A.; Warren, F.E.; Taylor, S.S.; Sharick, T.M.; Vickers, D.L.; Mitschkowetz, N.; Weaver, R.L.

    1996-08-13

    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is piloting an Internet- based paperless process called `Zephyr` to streamline engineering procurements. Major benefits have accrued by using Zephyr in reducing procurement time, speeding the engineering development cycle, facilitating industrial collaboration, and reducing overall costs. Programs at LLNL are benefiting by the efficiencies introduced since implementing Zephyr`s engineering and commerce on the Internet.

  7. Robust Preconditioning Estimates for Convection-Dominated Elliptic Problems via a Streamline Poincaré--Friedrichs Inequality

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Axelsson, Owe; Karátson, J.; Kovács, B.

    2014-01-01

    Roč. 52, č. 6 (2014), s. 2957-2976 ISSN 0036-1429 R&D Projects: GA MŠk ED1.1.00/02.0070 Institutional support: RVO:68145535 Keywords : streamline diffusion finite element method * solving convection-dominated elliptic problems * convergence is robust Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics Impact factor: 1.788, year: 2014 http://epubs.siam.org/doi/abs/10.1137/130940268

  8. From Camouflage to Classroom: Designing a Transition Curriculum for New Student Veterans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osborne, Nicholas J.

    2016-01-01

    The landscape of higher education necessitates that strategies be in place to meet the needs of an ever changing student population. Since 2009, the Post-9/11 GI Bill has spurred an increased enrollment of student veterans that is forecasted to rise. Students who are veterans have unique experiences related to their service, age, and work-life…

  9. Mitochondria-targeted molecules determine the redness of the zebra finch bill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cantarero, Alejandro; Alonso-Alvarez, Carlos

    2017-10-01

    The evolution and production mechanisms of red carotenoid-based ornaments in animals are poorly understood. Recently, it has been suggested that enzymes transforming yellow carotenoids to red pigments (ketolases) in animal cells may be positioned in the inner mitochondrial membrane (IMM) intimately linked to the electron transport chain. These enzymes may mostly synthesize coenzyme Q 10 (coQ 10 ), a key redox-cycler antioxidant molecularly similar to yellow carotenoids. It has been hypothesized that this shared pathway favours the evolution of red traits as sexually selected individual quality indices by revealing a well-adjusted oxidative metabolism. We administered mitochondria-targeted molecules to male zebra finches ( Taeniopygia guttata ) measuring their bill redness, a trait produced by transforming yellow carotenoids. One molecule included coQ 10 (mitoquinone mesylate, MitoQ) and the other one (decyl-triphenylphosphonium; dTPP) has the same structure without the coQ 10 aromatic ring. At the highest dose, the bill colour of MitoQ and dTPP birds strongly differed: MitoQ birds' bills were redder and dTPP birds showed paler bills even compared to birds injected with saline only. These results suggest that ketolases are indeed placed at the IMM and that coQ 10 antioxidant properties may improve their efficiency. The implications for evolutionary theories of sexual signalling are discussed. © 2017 The Author(s).

  10. Brownfields Assessing Contractor Capabilities for Streamlined Site Investigation: Additional Information Regarding All Appropriate Inquiries and Hiring an Environmental Professional

    Science.gov (United States)

    This document assists Brownfields grantees and other decision makers as they assess the capabilities of contractors and consultants to determine their qualifications to provide streamlined and innovative strategies for the assessment and and cleanup.

  11. Large-scale renewable energy project barriers: Environmental impact assessment streamlining efforts in Japan and the EU

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schumacher, Kim

    2017-01-01

    Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedures have been identified as a major barrier to renewable energy (RE) development with regards to large-scale projects (LS-RE). However EIA laws have also been neglected by many decision-makers who have been underestimating its impact on RE development and the stifling potential they possess. As a consequence, apart from acknowledging the shortcomings of the systems currently in place, few governments momentarily have concrete plans to reform their EIA laws. By looking at recent EIA streamlining efforts in two industrialized regions that underwent major transformations in their energy sectors, this paper attempts to assess how such reform efforts can act as a means to support the balancing of environmental protection and climate change mitigation with socio-economic challenges. Thereby this paper fills this intellectual void by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the Japanese EIA law by contrasting it with the recently revised EIA Directive of the European Union (EU). This enables the identification of the regulatory provisions that impact RE development the most and the determination of how structured EIA law reforms would affect domestic RE project development. The main focus lies on the evaluation of regulatory streamlining efforts in the Japanese and EU contexts through the application of a mixed-methods approach, consisting of in-depth literary and legal reviews, followed by a comparative analysis and a series of semi-structured interviews. Highlighting several legal inconsistencies in combination with the views of EIA professionals, academics and law- and policymakers, allowed for a more comprehensive assessment of what streamlining elements of the reformed EU EIA Directive and the proposed Japanese EIA framework modifications could either promote or stifle further RE deployment. - Highlights: •Performs an in-depth review of EIA reforms in OECD territories •First paper to compare Japan and the European

  12. Billing for pharmacists' cognitive services in physicians' offices: multiple methods of reimbursement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Scott, Mollie Ashe; Hitch, William J; Wilson, Courtenay Gilmore; Lugo, Amy M

    2012-01-01

    To evaluate the charges and reimbursement for pharmacist services using multiple methods of billing and determine the number of patients that must be managed by a pharmacist to cover the cost of salary and fringe benefits. Large teaching ambulatory clinic in North Carolina. Annual charges and reimbursement, patient no-show rate, clinic capacity, number of patients seen monthly and annually, and number of patients that must be seen to pay for a pharmacist's salary and benefits. A total of 6,930 patient encounters were documented during the study period. Four different clinics were managed by the pharmacists, including anticoagulation, pharmacotherapy, osteoporosis, and wellness clinics. "Incident to" level 1 billing was used for the anticoagulation and pharmacotherapy clinics, whereas level 4 codes were used for the osteoporosis clinic. The wellness clinic utilized a negotiated fee-for-service model. Mean annual charges were $65,022, and the mean reimbursement rate was 47%. The mean charge and collection per encounter were $41 and $19, respectively. Eleven encounters per day were necessary to generate enough charges to pay for the cost of the pharmacist. Considering actual reimbursement rates, the number of patient encounters necessary increased to 24 per day. "What if" sensitivity analysis indicated that billing at the level of service provided instead of level 1 decreased the number of patients needed to be seen daily. Billing a level 4 visit necessitated that five patients would need to be seen daily to generate adequate charges. Taking into account the 47% reimbursement rate, 10 level 4 encounters per day were necessary to generate appropriate reimbursement to pay for the pharmacist. Unique opportunities for pharmacists to provide direct patient care in the ambulatory setting continue to develop. Use of a combination of billing methods resulted in sustainable reimbursement. The ability to bill at the level of service provided instead of a level 1 visit would

  13. Occupancy of yellow-billed and Pacific loons: evidence for interspecific competition and habitat mediated co-occurrence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haynes, Trevor B.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Lindberg, Mark S.; Wright, Kenneth G.; Uher-Koch, Brian D.; Rosenberger, Amanda E.

    2014-01-01

    Interspecific competition is an important process structuring ecological communities, however, it is difficult to observe in nature. We used an occupancy modelling approach to evaluate evidence of competition between yellow-billed (Gavia adamsii) and Pacific (G. pacifica) loons for nesting lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska. With multiple years of data and survey platforms, we estimated dynamic occupancy states (e.g. rates of colonization or extinction from individual lakes) and controlled for detection differences among aircraft platforms and ground survey crews. Results indicated that yellow-billed loons were strong competitors and negatively influenced the occupancy of Pacific loons by excluding them from potential breeding lakes. Pacific loon occupancy was conditional on the presence of yellow-billed loons, with Pacific loons having almost a tenfold decrease in occupancy probability when yellow-billed loons were present and a threefold decrease in colonization probability when yellow-billed loons were present in the current or previous year. Yellow-billed and Pacific loons co-occurred less than expected by chance except on very large lakes or lakes with convoluted shorelines; variables which may decrease the cost of maintaining a territory in the presence of the other species. These results imply the existence of interspecific competition between yellow-billed and Pacific loons for nesting lakes; however, habitat characteristics which facilitate visual and spatial separation of territories can reduce competitive interactions and promote species co-occurrence.

  14. Principles of the Energy Conservation Bill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zeman, J.

    1995-01-01

    The paper describes 21 principles of the draft Energy Conservation Bill. The principles lay down fundamental responsibilities of the government, the municipalities, business entities, citizens and power plants in the field of economical energy management. Included are principles to minimize energy consumption and to stimulate a reasonable energy management, the role of the energy distribution network, responsibilities of the central load dispatching center, and power plant output regulation schemes. (J.B.)

  15. Bill Gates : Miljardärist nohik / Martin Hanson

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Hanson, Martin, 1984-

    2008-01-01

    Bill Gates loobub Microsofti juhi kohast ning jätkab vaid nõustajana. Vt. samas: Elulugu; Tasub teada; Miljardär, kes hoiab oma eraelu kiivalt saladuses. Kommenteerivad Microsoft Eesti esinduse juht Rain Laane ja IBM Eesti juht Valdo Randpere

  16. Status assessment and conservation plan for the yellow-billed loon (Gavia adamsii)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Earnst, Susan L.

    2004-01-01

    Because of its restricted range, small population size, specific habitat requirements, and perceived threats to its breeding habitat, the Yellow-billed Loon (Gavia adamsii) is a species of conservation concern to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the subject of a petition for listing under the Endangered Species Act. This Status Assessment synthesizes current information on population size, trends, and potential threats to Yellow-billed Loons, and the Conservation Plan identifies research and monitoring activities that would contribute to the conservation of this species. The preparation of this report was requested and funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nongame Bird Office, Region 7.The Status Assessment and Conservation Plan for the Yellow-billed Loon can be summarized as follows:? Northern Alaska breeding grounds support an average of 3,369 individuals, including change), but interpretation of surveys is complicated by changes in observers and high annual variation, and the 95% confidence interval is large (-3.6% to +1.8% annual change). The low reproductive potential of Yellow-billed Loons suggests that recovery from a substantial decline would not occur rapidly. There are no systematic surveys of Canadian and Russian breeding populations (Section 6-F).? The expansion of the oil industry into prime Yellow-billed Loon breeding habitat is a recent occurrence and we lack the necessary information to accurately predict its effect on the population. Most of northern Alaska?s Yellow-billed Loons (91%) occur on the National Petroleum Reserve?Alaska, virtually all of which is open or proposed to be opened to development and where there is no permanent or legal protection of Yellow-billed Loon habitat (Section 7-A).? Other potential factors affecting the population are also addressed, such as contaminants, subsistence hunting, by catch in subsistence and commercial fisheries on the breeding and wintering grounds, and health of the marine ecosystem off

  17. Fatigue level estimation of monetary bills based on frequency band acoustic signals with feature selection by supervised SOM

    Science.gov (United States)

    Teranishi, Masaru; Omatu, Sigeru; Kosaka, Toshihisa

    Fatigued monetary bills adversely affect the daily operation of automated teller machines (ATMs). In order to make the classification of fatigued bills more efficient, the development of an automatic fatigued monetary bill classification method is desirable. We propose a new method by which to estimate the fatigue level of monetary bills from the feature-selected frequency band acoustic energy pattern of banking machines. By using a supervised self-organizing map (SOM), we effectively estimate the fatigue level using only the feature-selected frequency band acoustic energy pattern. Furthermore, the feature-selected frequency band acoustic energy pattern improves the estimation accuracy of the fatigue level of monetary bills by adding frequency domain information to the acoustic energy pattern. The experimental results with real monetary bill samples reveal the effectiveness of the proposed method.

  18. Psychological distress and streamlined BreastScreen follow-up assessment versus standard assessment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sherman, Kerry A; Winch, Caleb J; Borecky, Natacha; Boyages, John

    2013-11-04

    To establish whether altered protocol characteristics of streamlined StepDown breast assessment clinics heightened or reduced the psychological distress of women in attendance compared with standard assessment. Willingness to attend future screening was also compared between the assessment groups. Observational, prospective study of women attending either a mammogram-only StepDown or a standard breast assessment clinic. Women completed questionnaires on the day of assessment and 1 month later. Women attending StepDown (136 women) or standard assessment clinics (148 women) at a BreastScreen centre between 10 November 2009 and 7 August 2010. Breast cancer worries; positive and negative psychological consequences of assessment (Psychological Consequences Questionnaire); breast cancer-related intrusion and avoidance (Impact of Event Scale); and willingness to attend, and uneasiness about, future screening. At 1-month follow-up, no group differences were evident between those attending standard and StepDown clinics on breast cancer worries (P= 0.44), positive (P= 0.88) and negative (P = 0.65) consequences, intrusion (P = 0.64), and avoidance (P = 0.87). Willingness to return for future mammograms was high, and did not differ between groups (P = 0.16), although higher levels of unease were associated with lessened willingness to rescreen (P = 0.04). There was no evidence that attending streamlined StepDown assessments had different outcomes in terms of distress than attending standard assessment clinics for women with a BreastScreen-detected abnormality. However, unease about attending future screening was generally associated with less willingness to do so in both groups; thus, there is a role for psycho-educational intervention to address these concerns.

  19. Highlights of Bill C-14, the proposed new Nuclear Control Act

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1978-01-01

    If the bill is passed, the name of the regulatory body will be changed from the Atomic Energy Control Board to the Nuclear Control Board. It is intended to make the board more independent and removed from any involvement in the promotional and commercial aspects of the nuclear industry. The board will no longer answer to the same minister as AECL. Licensing applications will generally be published, except proprietary information. Public hearings will be a compulsory part of licensing major facilities. Various provisions of the bill are explained section by section. ''Prescribed substances'' under the act will definitely include all radionuclides and deuterium. A fund for decontamination will be endowed by licensees. The board will be able to make regulations for obsolete or abandoned sites, or for waste disposal sites. The part of the bill which deals with the responsibility of the Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources for A.E.C.L. generally remains unchanged from the previous act

  20. PS2-56: Building the Virtual Data Warehouse Using Data from a Healthcare Billing System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krajenta, Rick; Lamerato, Lois; Wells, Karen

    2012-01-01

    Background Healthcare utilization data, specifically diagnoses and procedures, can be processed through different administrative systems. Billing data are generated by the care provider while claims data are generated by the payer. These two sources can represent the data content differently and incorporating the data from these systems into the VDW has presented a unique set of challenges. We present options for reconciling these two data sources to create a VDW that includes all patients including those outside of the HMO member realm. Methods Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) captures patients, care providers, procedures, diagnoses and medical supply information through a proprietary system. Outpatient billing information is entered by clinic staff using an optical scanning device and clinic-specific forms. Other additional procedures and/or supplies are entered into the system using a transaction capture application. Ancillary services such as imaging and pathology are imported into the billing system from their proprietary information systems. The main function of this system is to generate bills for services performed. The data elements are standardized to contain required justification for reimbursement from all payer types. Standard codes sets, ICD9, HCPCS and CPT4, are required. The data can also be used to evaluate workload and staffing levels, project future needs and characterize trends in service demands. HFHS uses this data source to build VDW files. Results Major differences between claims and billing data exist. Claims data are based on health plan contract with bundled procedures, coverage exclusions and deductibles affecting content. Billing data are based solely on services provided. The potential for overwhelming amounts of data in billing sources is possible due to the level of detail; however, this same level of detail is a rich source for specific care components that would not otherwise be present in claims records. Conclusion Billing data are

  1. The taxation of the petroleum products in the appropriation bill for 2001 and the correcting appropriation bill for 2000

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2000-01-01

    This document provides information on the petroleum products taxation in the framework of the appropriation bills. The following aspects are presented : the utilization of fuels more respectful of the environment, the taxation lightening measures, measures in favor of the transportation sector, the juridical references and elements for the economic situation. (A.L.B.)

  2. Streamline processing of discrete nuclear spectra by means of authoregularized iteration process (the KOLOBOK code)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gadzhokov, V.; Penev, I.; Aleksandrov, L.

    1979-01-01

    A brief description of the KOLOBOK computer code designed for streamline processing of discrete nuclear spectra with symmetric Gaussian shape of the single line on computers of the ES series, models 1020 and above, is given. The program solves the stream of discrete-spectrometry generated nonlinear problems by means of authoregularized iteration process. The Fortran-4 text of the code is reported in an Appendix

  3. Sharing China's Bank Restructuring Bill

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Guonan Ma

    2006-01-01

    This paper addresses the questions related to the cost of China's bank restructuring and how it has been financed. We first propose a framework for recognizing losses. Then, we examine the recent major moves by the Chinese Government to repair the country's bank balance sheets. Finally, we explore the implications of the Chinese Government's methods of funding bank restructuring. We find that the Chinese Government has been decisive in confronting the costly task of bank restructuring. So far, Chinese taxpayers have paid most of the bill for bank restructuring.

  4. 78 FR 69878 - AT&T Corporation, a Subsidiary of AT&T Inc., Business Billing Customer Care, Pittsburgh...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-21

    ... Subsidiary of AT&T Inc., Business Billing Customer Care, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Notice of Affirmative... workers and former workers of AT&T Corporation, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc., Business Billing Customer Care... supplied by Business Billing Customer Care to other locations within the United States. With respect to...

  5. 76 FR 59265 - Medicare Program; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled Nursing...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-09-26

    ... [CMS-1351-CN] RIN 0938-AQ29 Medicare Program; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for... rule entitled ``Medicare Program; Prospective Payment System and Consolidated Billing for Skilled... Payment System (PPS) final rule (76 FR 48486, 48540) inadvertently included several technical errors in...

  6. Aligning High School and College Instruction: Preparing Students for Success in College Level Mathematics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alexander, Julie

    2013-01-01

    Across the United States, students are entering college with a need for improvement in basic mathematics and communication skills. In 2008, the Florida Legislature passed Senate Bill 1908 which changed the expectations for the senior year of high school for many students. Students who score within certain levels on the mandatory high school…

  7. 48 CFR 801.670-1 - Issuing bills of lading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... with only micro-purchase authority may not issue bills of lading or otherwise procure transportation... for goods only shall comply with the Education, Experience, and Training requirements, if any, in Part...

  8. an assessment of billing electricity consumers via analogue meters

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DR. AMINU

    Keywords: Electricity Distribution, Consumers, Analogue Meter, Billing, Nigeria. INTRODUCTION. Electricity ... the energy usage of a typical electricity consumer in one month is several ..... improve on distribution network. In addition it should.

  9. Evolution of sexual dimorphism in bill size and shape of hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornithinae): a role for ecological causation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Temeles, Ethan J; Miller, Jill S; Rifkin, Joanna L

    2010-04-12

    Unambiguous examples of ecological causation of sexual dimorphism are rare, and the best evidence involves sexual differences in trophic morphology. We show that moderate female-biased sexual dimorphism in bill curvature is the ancestral condition in hermit hummingbirds (Phaethornithinae), and that it is greatly amplified in species such as Glaucis hirsutus and Phaethornis guy, where bills of females are 60 per cent more curved than bills of males. In contrast, bill curvature dimorphism is lost or reduced in a lineage of short-billed hermit species and in specialist Eutoxeres sicklebill hermits. In the hermits, males tend to be larger than females in the majority of species, although size dimorphism is typically small. Consistent with earlier studies of hummingbird feeding performance, both raw regressions of traits and phylogenetic independent contrasts supported the prediction that dimorphism in bill curvature of hermits is associated with longer bills. Some evidence indicates that differences between sexes of hermit hummingbirds are associated with differences in the use of food plants. We suggest that some hermit hummingbirds provide model organisms for studies of ecological causation of sexual dimorphism because their sexual dimorphism in bill curvature provides a diagnostic clue for the food plants that need to be monitored for studies of sexual differences in resource use.

  10. I Agree, but Do I Know? Privacy and Student Data

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abilock, Rigele; Abilock, Debbie

    2016-01-01

    In April 2015, U.S. House Representatives Luke Messer and Jared Polis introduced the bipartisan Student Digital Privacy and Parental Rights Act of 2015, designed to significantly restrict how online education vendors can exploit the personal data of students who use their products. For some, the bill does not go far enough. It is evident that…

  11. State Models to Incentivize and Streamline Small Hydropower Development

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Curtis, Taylor [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Levine, Aaron [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Johnson, Kurt [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2017-10-31

    In 2016, the hydropower fleet in the United States produced more than 6 percent (approximately 265,829 gigawatt-hours [GWh]) of the total net electricity generation. The median-size hydroelectric facility in the United States is 1.6 MW and 75 percent of total facilities have a nameplate capacity of 10 MW or less. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Energy's Hydropower Vision study identified approximately 79 GW hydroelectric potential beyond what is already developed. Much of the potential identified is at low-impact new stream-reaches, existing conduits, and non-powered dams with a median project size of 10 MW or less. To optimize the potential and value of small hydropower development, state governments are crafting policies that provide financial assistance and expedite state and federal review processes for small hydroelectric projects. This report analyzes state-led initiatives and programs that incentivize and streamline small hydroelectric development.

  12. The impact of a standardized consultation form for facial trauma on billing and evaluation and management levels.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levesque, Andre Y; Tauber, David M; Lee, Johnson C; Rodriguez-Feliz, Jose R; Chao, Jerome D

    2014-02-01

    Facial trauma is among the most frequent consultations encountered by plastic surgeons. Unfortunately, the reimbursement from these consultations can be low, and qualified plastic surgeons may exclude facial trauma from their practice. An audit of our records found insufficient documentation to justify higher evaluation and management (EM) levels of service resulting in lower reimbursement. Utilizing a standardized consultation form can improve documentation resulting in higher billing and EM levels. A facial trauma consultation form was developed in conjunction with the billing department. Three plastic surgery residents completed 30 consultations without the aid of the consult form followed by 30 consultations with the aid of the form. The EM levels and billing data for each consultation were obtained from the billing department for analysis. The 2 groups were compared using χ2 analysis and t tests to determine statistical significance. Using our standardized consultation form, the mean EM level increased from 2.97 to 3.60 (P = 0.002). In addition, the mean billed amount increased from $391 to $501 per consult (P = 0.051) representing a 28% increase in billing. In our institution, the development and implementation of a facial trauma consultation form has resulted in more complete documentation and a subsequent increase in EM level and billed services.

  13. 26 CFR 301.6312-1 - Treasury certificates of indebtedness, Treasury notes, and Treasury bills acceptable in payment...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... certificates, notes, or bills, according to the express terms of their issue, are made acceptable in payment of... at the value specified in the terms under which such certificates, notes, or bills were issued. All... or stamps, as specified in the terms under which such certificate, note, or bill was issued, shall...

  14. Bill concerning the national commitment for the environment (final text)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    The French house of commons has adopted this bill which allows to adapt the French legislation to the new requirements defined by the program law relative to the implementation of the French road-mad in favor of ecology and sustainable development ('Grenelle de l'environnement'). The bill covers 6 main domains: settlement and urbanism, transports, energy, biodiversity, environment and waste management, and governance and information. Its aim is to encourage the development of renewable energy sources, to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, and to protect the environment thanks to new legal and technical means at the disposal of actors with practical experience, in particular the local authorities. (J.S.)

  15. The Application of Six Sigma Methodologies to University Processes: The Use of Student Teams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pryor, Mildred Golden; Alexander, Christine; Taneja, Sonia; Tirumalasetty, Sowmya; Chadalavada, Deepthi

    2012-01-01

    The first student Six Sigma team (activated under a QEP Process Sub-team) evaluated the course and curriculum approval process. The goal was to streamline the process and thereby shorten process cycle time and reduce confusion about how the process works. Members of this team developed flowcharts on how the process is supposed to work (by…

  16. Homophobia as a barrier to comprehensive media coverage of the Ugandan anti-homosexual bill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strand, Cecilia

    2012-01-01

    The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of October 2009 caused an international outcry and sparked intense debate in the local media. This article explores to what degree a discriminatory social environment manifests itself in the Ugandan print media and discusses the potential implications for media's coverage of contentious policy options such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. A content analysis of 115 items from two daily newspapers (the government-owned New Vision and the privately owned the Daily Monitor, between October and December 2009) indicates the existence of two separate house styles; this is in spite of the fact that both newspapers reproduce the surrounding society's homophobia, albeit with different frequency. Unlike the New Vision, the Daily Monitor includes coverage on homophobia and discrimination, as well as provides space for criticism of the Bill. By acknowledging discrimination and its negative impact, the newspaper de-legitimizes homophobia and problematizes the proposed Anti-homosexuality Bill for their readers.

  17. VISMASHUP: streamlining the creation of custom visualization applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ahrens, James P [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Santos, Emanuele [UNIV OF UTAH; Lins, Lauro [UNIV OF UTAH; Freire, Juliana [UNIV OF UTAH; Silva, Cl' audio T [UNIV OF UTAH

    2010-01-01

    Visualization is essential for understanding the increasing volumes of digital data. However, the process required to create insightful visualizations is involved and time consuming. Although several visualization tools are available, including tools with sophisticated visual interfaces, they are out of reach for users who have little or no knowledge of visualization techniques and/or who do not have programming expertise. In this paper, we propose VISMASHUP, a new framework for streamlining the creation of customized visualization applications. Because these applications can be customized for very specific tasks, they can hide much of the complexity in a visualization specification and make it easier for users to explore visualizations by manipulating a small set of parameters. We describe the framework and how it supports the various tasks a designer needs to carry out to develop an application, from mining and exploring a set of visualization specifications (pipelines), to the creation of simplified views of the pipelines, and the automatic generation of the application and its interface. We also describe the implementation of the system and demonstrate its use in two real application scenarios.

  18. an assessment of billing electricity consumers via analogue meters

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    DR. AMINU

    ABSTRACT. This paper assesses the perception of billing consumers via analogue meter in Kano Electricity ... the successor companies of Power Holding Company ... Nassarawa computer center was established in 1991. .... The value 7.2 is.

  19. 42 CFR 1001.1701 - Billing for services of assistant at surgery during cataract operations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Billing for services of assistant at surgery during..., DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES OIG AUTHORITIES PROGRAM INTEGRITY-MEDICARE AND STATE HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS Permissive Exclusions § 1001.1701 Billing for services of assistant at surgery during cataract...

  20. 31 CFR 206.3 - Billing policy and procedures.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Billing policy and procedures. 206.3 Section 206.3 Money and Finance: Treasury Regulations Relating to Money and Finance (Continued) FISCAL SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT SERVICE MANAGEMENT OF FEDERAL AGENCY RECEIPTS...

  1. Wild mallards have more "goose-like" bills than their ancestors: a case of anthropogenic influence?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pär Söderquist

    Full Text Available Wild populations of the world's most common dabbling duck, the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos, run the risk of genetic introgression by farmed conspecifics released for hunting purposes. We tested whether bill morphology of free-living birds has changed since large-scale releases of farmed mallards started. Three groups of mallards from Sweden, Norway and Finland were compared: historical wild (before large-scale releases started, present-day wild, and present-day farmed. Higher density of bill lamellae was observed in historical wild mallards (only males. Farmed mallards had wider bills than present-day and historical wild ones. Present-day wild and farmed mallards also had higher and shorter bills than historical wild mallards. Present-day mallards thus tend to have more "goose-like" bills (wider, higher, and shorter than their ancestors. Our study suggests that surviving released mallards affect morphological traits in wild population by introgression. We discuss how such anthropogenic impact may lead to a maladapted and genetically compromised wild mallard population. Our study system has bearing on other taxa where large-scale releases of conspecifics with 'alien genes' may cause a cryptic invasive process that nevertheless has fitness consequences for individual birds.

  2. Preparation of the House Bill 3624 report : final report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-03-01

    Senate Bill 1080 (2008 Special Session) tightened documentation and identity verification requirements for the issuance, replacement and renewal of Oregon driver licenses, driver permits and identification cards. The law was signed by the Governor on...

  3. Energy bill of the municipal utilities at Heerlen: part of the customers' information system

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Poell, W A.G.

    1980-11-01

    A new invoice form now being sent to customers of the combined municipal utilities in Heerlen, Netherlands, provides customers with information that will encourage them to conserve energy. Changes in the invoice involve the utilities' internal operating procedure as well as the annual energy bill and the monthly installment invoice. To make the customer energy-conscious and aware of the effect of conservation measures, the bill states for purposes of comparison the annual consumption of the preceding period. The gas-consumption-related figures appearing on the bill have been modified to account for the calorific value and the ambient temperature in the corresponding period.

  4. The devil we know: the implications of bill C-38 for assisted human reproduction in Canada.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cattapan, Alana; Cohen, Sara R

    2013-07-01

    In June 2012, the Canadian House of Commons passed the so-called omnibus budget bill, making several important changes to the governance of assisted reproduction in Canada. The bill (Bill C-38) was widely criticized for its unwieldy size and rapid passage through Parliament, preventing adequate parliamentary debate and public scrutiny. Given the substantive nature of the amendments to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act made by Bill C-38, and the lack of relevant discussion about these changes both before and following its passage, this commentary is intended to identify how Bill C-38 may alter the governance of reproductive technologies in Canada. In this commentary, we address some of the more significant changes made by Bill C-38 to the regulation of reproductive medicine in Canada. We identify the benefits and challenges of closing Assisted Human Reproduction Canada, noting that doing so eliminates a much-needed forum for stakeholder consultation in this field. Further, we explore the implications of moving the regulation of donor semen from the Food and Drugs Act to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act; these include increased liability for physicians, and opportunities to expand the existing regulations to account for the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer Canadians using donor gametes and recent advances in reproductive technologies. Overall, we argue that although the implementation of a policy framework in this field remains highly dependent on yet-to-be written regulations, the changes to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act enabled by Bill C-38 may significantly alter how Canadians interact with reproductive technologies.

  5. Turning whine into wine: the fiscal impact of comprehensive documentation and billing for nonoperative pediatric surgical services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gollin, Gerald; Moores, Donald

    2006-06-01

    Some pediatric surgeons rarely document nonoperative services, believing that the reimbursement provided for such care is negligible. We evaluated the impact of comprehensive documentation and billing for nonoperative, pediatric surgical care. All bills submitted for inpatient, nonoperative care for 1 year were reviewed. Total receipts for documented admissions, consultations, critical care, and daily care were determined. The Evaluation and Management code billed for each service was recorded, and the total and average payments attributable to each Evaluation and Management code were calculated. Fifty-six percent of services were covered by Medicaid and 26% by a commercial insurer. There were 607 billed admission history and physical exams for which reimbursement totaled 43,493 dollars. Critical care services were provided to 49 patients and yielded 8964 dollars in payments. Six hundred thirty-nine inpatient consultations were performed with a reimbursement of 42,830 dollars. Daily care services were billed 1044 times and produced 71,579 dollars in payments. Overall reimbursement for documented, nonoperative services was 166,866 dollars. This represented 16.2% of total, noncontracted income for the practice. Despite a payer mix heavily weighted toward Medicaid, comprehensive documentation and billing for nonoperative services increased total, noncontracted reimbursement by almost 20% over what it would have been had only operative services been billed. The yield from properly documented, nonoperative care can be substantial.

  6. Coding and Billing in Surgical Education: A Systems-Based Practice Education Program.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ghaderi, Kimeya F; Schmidt, Scott T; Drolet, Brian C

    Despite increased emphasis on systems-based practice through the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies, few studies have examined what surgical residents know about coding and billing. We sought to create and measure the effectiveness of a multifaceted approach to improving resident knowledge and performance of documenting and coding outpatient encounters. We identified knowledge gaps and barriers to documentation and coding in the outpatient setting. We implemented a series of educational and workflow interventions with a group of 12 residents in a surgical clinic at a tertiary care center. To measure the effect of this program, we compared billing codes for 1 year before intervention (FY2012) to prospectively collected data from the postintervention period (FY2013). All related documentation and coding were verified by study-blinded auditors. Interventions took place at the outpatient surgical clinic at Rhode Island Hospital, a tertiary-care center. A cohort of 12 plastic surgery residents ranging from postgraduate year 2 through postgraduate year 6 participated in the interventional sequence. A total of 1285 patient encounters in the preintervention group were compared with 1170 encounters in the postintervention group. Using evaluation and management codes (E&M) as a measure of documentation and coding, we demonstrated a significant and durable increase in billing with supporting clinical documentation after the intervention. For established patient visits, the monthly average E&M code level increased from 2.14 to 3.05 (p coding and billing of outpatient clinic encounters. Using externally audited coding data, we demonstrate significantly increased rates of higher complexity E&M coding in a stable patient population based on improved documentation and billing awareness by the residents. Copyright © 2017 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  7. Proposed Model for a Streamlined, Cohesive, and Optimized K-12 STEM Curriculum with a Focus on Engineering

    Science.gov (United States)

    Locke, Edward

    2009-01-01

    This article presents a proposed model for a clear description of K-12 age-possible engineering knowledge content, in terms of the selection of analytic principles and predictive skills for various grades, based on the mastery of mathematics and science pre-requisites, as mandated by national or state performance standards; and a streamlined,…

  8. 78 FR 45517 - Agency Information Collection Activities; Comment Request; Student Assistance General Provisions...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-29

    ...; Comment Request; Student Assistance General Provisions--Subpart K--Cash Management AGENCY: Federal Student...--Subpart K--Cash Management. OMB Control Number: 1845-0106. Type of Review: An extension of an existing... Records Management Services, Office of Management. [FR Doc. 2013-18034 Filed 7-26-13; 8:45 am] BILLING...

  9. Microdiversification in genome-streamlined ubiquitous freshwater Actinobacteria.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neuenschwander, Stefan M; Ghai, Rohit; Pernthaler, Jakob; Salcher, Michaela M

    2018-01-01

    Actinobacteria of the acI lineage are the most abundant microbes in freshwater systems, but there are so far no pure living cultures of these organisms, possibly because of metabolic dependencies on other microbes. This, in turn, has hampered an in-depth assessment of the genomic basis for their success in the environment. Here we present genomes from 16 axenic cultures of acI Actinobacteria. The isolates were not only of minute cell size, but also among the most streamlined free-living microbes, with extremely small genome sizes (1.2-1.4 Mbp) and low genomic GC content. Genome reduction in these bacteria might have led to auxotrophy for various vitamins, amino acids and reduced sulphur sources, thus creating dependencies to co-occurring organisms (the 'Black Queen' hypothesis). Genome analyses, moreover, revealed a surprising degree of inter- and intraspecific diversity in metabolic pathways, especially of carbohydrate transport and metabolism, and mainly encoded in genomic islands. The striking genotype microdiversification of acI Actinobacteria might explain their global success in highly dynamic freshwater environments with complex seasonal patterns of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon sources. We propose a new order within Actinobacteria ('Candidatus Nanopelagicales') with two new genera ('Candidatus Nanopelagicus' and 'Candidatus Planktophila') and nine new species.

  10. 42 CFR 414.50 - Physician or other supplier billing for diagnostic tests performed or interpreted by a physician...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... HEALTH SERVICES Physicians and Other Practitioners § 414.50 Physician or other supplier billing for... services through such billing physician or other supplier. The “substantially all” requirement will be satisfied if, at the time the billing physician or other supplier submits a claim for a service furnished by...

  11. Transmission policy in Alberta and Bill 50

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Church, J.; Rosehart, W.; MacCormack, J.

    2009-01-01

    Plans developed by the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO) have determined that Alberta's electrical transmission system needs to be expanded. However, there are complex issues that must be considered in order to assess the nature and extent of the needed expansion. Various new amendments to the system were proposed in the Alberta government's Bill 50, including the construction of new transmission lines; the installation of a double circuit 500 kV alternating current line between Edmonton and the Gibbons-Redwater region; the construction of a new 240 kV substation in southeast Calgary; and the installation of 2 single circuit 500 kV alternating current lines between Edmonton and Fort McMurray. This study provided a review of the institutional framework instituted by the government's transmission policy and compared the costs and benefits of 2 large capacity high voltage DC (HVDC) transmission lines proposed for the Edmonton-Calgary corridor relative to the various other transmission system amendment suggestions. An evaluation of Alberta's proposed regulatory process under Bill 50 was also conducted. Results of the study indicated that the addition of the HVDC lines is an inefficient response to concerns over adequate supply and reliability. 72 refs., 18 tabs.

  12. Evolution of bill size in relation to body size in toucans and hornbills (Aves: Piciformes and Bucerotiformes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Austin L. Hughes

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available Evidence that the bill of the Toco Toucan, Ramphastos toco Statius Muller, 1776, has a specialized role in heat dissipation suggests a new function for the large and light-weight bill of the toucan family (Piciformes: Ramphastidae. A prediction of this hypothesis is that bill length in toucans will increase with body mass at a rate greater than the isometric expectation. This hypothesis was tested in a phylogenetic context with measurements of skeletal elements in adult males of 21 toucan species. In these species, 64.3% of variance in relative skeletal measurements was accounted for by the contrast between bill and body size. Maxilla length and depth increased with body mass at a greater than isometric rate relative to both body mass and other linear skeletal measures. By contrast, no such trend was seen in a parallel analysis of 24 hornbill species (Bucerotiformes, sometimes considered ecological equivalents of toucans. The unique relationship between bill size and body mass in toucans supports the hypothesis that the evolution of a heat dissipation function has been a persistent theme of bill evolution in toucans.

  13. HEALTH INFO Information from the CHISBoard and Personnel Division: ABOUT BILLS FROM HOPITAL DE LA TOUR

    CERN Multimedia

    1999-01-01

    The tariff agreement signed by CERN (and other international organisations) with Hôpital de La Tour specifies that all bills paid within 30 days of the date of the invoice will enjoy a discount, to be deducted by the payer. The bills are labelled with a message to this effect.Physicians' fees, personal expenses as well as services from outside providers (e.g. ambulance companies or external laboratories) are however not part of the discount agreement. Bills for hospitalisation (i.e. with a stay in hospital longer than 28h) are normally directly paid by AUSTRIA, acting as a third-party payer.In May this year, Hôpital de La Tour introduced a new (Y2K compliant) accounting and invoicing system. This implementation did not go as smoothly as planned and delayed the issuing of bills by two months. During the summer period, a special team of temporary staff was put in place to catch up on the delay. As a result of this, some bills were produced that contained errors and the sticky label mentionin...

  14. 78 FR 52824 - Proposed Information Collection (Bowel and Bladder Care Billing Form) Activity: Comment Request

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-08-26

    ... and Bladder Care Billing Form) Activity: Comment Request AGENCY: Veterans Health Administration.... This notice solicits comments on the information needed to evaluate the Bowel and Bladder Care Billing Form used by caregivers of eligible Veterans to document time spent providing services related...

  15. Effects of the 2013 Psychiatric Current Procedural Terminology Codes Revision on Psychotherapy in Psychiatric Billing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mark, Tami L; Olesiuk, William J; Sherman, Laura J; Ali, Mir M; Mutter, Ryan; Teich, Judith L

    2017-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether the changes to the psychiatric Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes implemented in 2013 were associated with changes in types of services for which psychiatrists billed. Analyses were conducted using paid private insurance claims from a large commercial database. The participant cohort comprised psychiatrists with at least one psychiatry visit reported in the database in each calendar year studied: 2012 (N of visits=778,445), 2013 (N=748,317), and 2014 (N=754,760). The percentage of visits in which psychiatrists billed for psychotherapy declined from 51.4% in 2012 to 42.1% in 2014. The decline held after the analyses adjusted for patient characteristics, plan type, and region. The update to CPT codes resulted in a decrease in visits for which psychiatrists billed for psychotherapy. Further research should explore whether the change in billing corresponds to changes in service delivery.

  16. Commentary Proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill in Malawi ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Induced abortion has been a universal phenomenon in the history of humanity. The first recorded evidence was found in an Egyptian papyrus from 1550 BC. The debate on the proposed Termination of Pregnancy Bill is mired in misconception. Many, including the Christian doctors' group, make the assumption that the ...

  17. Report on the bill project on a new electricity market organisation in France (n. 2451)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    This document reports the works of the Economic Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly on a bill project dealing with a new organisation of the electricity market. It reports the hearings of the Energy regulation commission Chairman and of the EDF Chairman, the general discussion of the Commission, and the discussion on the different bill articles. These articles are dealing with the access of electricity providers to the electricity produced by EDF, capacities required for electricity providers, power reservation contracts, and other regulatory aspects. A table compares the present situation, the content of the bill project, and the Commission's propositions

  18. Analysis of operating model of electronic invoice colombian Colombian electronic billing analysis of the operational model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sérgio Roberto da Silva

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available Colombia has been one of the first countries to introduce electronic billing process on a voluntary basis, from a traditional to a digital version. In this context, the article analyzes the electronic billing process implemented in Colombia and the advantages. Methodological research is applied, qualitative, descriptive and documentary; where the regulatory framework and the conceptualization of the model is identified; the process of adoption of electronic billing is analyzed, and finally the advantages and disadvantages of its implementation is analyzed. The findings indicate that the model applied in Colombia to issue an electronic billing in sending and receiving process, is not complex, but it requires a small adequate infrastructure and trained personnel to reach all sectors, especially the micro and business which is the largest business network in the country.

  19. Brownfields Assessing Contractor Capabilities for Streamlined Site Investigations -- Additional Information Regarding All Appropriate Inquiries and Hiring an Environmental Professional (November 2006)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guidance for Brownfields grantees and other decision makers to assess the capabilities of contractors and consultants to determine their qualifications to provide streamlined and innovative strategies for the assessment and cleanup of brownfields.

  20. Theoretical Calculations on Sediment Transport on Titan, and the Possible Production of Streamlined Forms

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burr, D. M.; Emery, J. P.; Lorenz, R. D.

    2005-01-01

    The Cassini Imaging Science System (ISS) has been returning images of Titan, along with other Saturnian satellites. Images taken through the 938 nm methane window see down to Titan's surface. One of the purposes of the Cassini mission is to investigate possible fluid cycling on Titan. Lemniscate features shown recently and radar evidence of surface flow prompted us to consider theoretically the creation by methane fluid flow of streamlined forms on Titan. This follows work by other groups in theoretical consideration of fluid motion on Titan's surface.

  1. [Reviewing the shared strategy health bill: further measures to meet the structural challenges of the health system].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lombrail, Pierre

    2014-01-01

    This article reviews the draft health bill entitled "Federate health professionals around a shared strategy", currently submitted for consultation in the context of the national health strategy in France. This bill comprises innovative measures for prevention and health care in France. In particular, it is designed to develop, strengthen and structure the prevention sector, especially in children and young people. It is also designed to organize health care trajectories and acquire the necessary tools to promote their development. However, the bill sometimes presents limited ambitions in terms of objectives and means. In particular, the project comprises almost none of the necessary actions on the social determinants of health. Overall, the orientations of this bill represent a first major step towards a health policy in France beyond the field of health care. However, we must remain vigilant concerning application of these orientations in the process of elaboration of the bill and its related regulations, and implementation of the national health strategy.

  2. Agent-Based Framework for Building Efficient Postpaid Billing ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The postpaid and prepaid billing systems currently in operation in Telecommunications have some problems that show a win-loss situation. In postpaid the problem is mostly due to fraudulent activities by some employees that costs a telecommunications company a loss of between 5% and 15% of its total revenue as shown ...

  3. Scope of physician procedures independently billed by mid-level providers in the office setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coldiron, Brett; Ratnarathorn, Mondhipa

    2014-11-01

    Mid-level providers (nurse practitioners and physician assistants) were originally envisioned to provide primary care services in underserved areas. This study details the current scope of independent procedural billing to Medicare of difficult, invasive, and surgical procedures by medical mid-level providers. To understand the scope of independent billing to Medicare for procedures performed by mid-level providers in an outpatient office setting for a calendar year. Analyses of the 2012 Medicare Physician/Supplier Procedure Summary Master File, which reflects fee-for-service claims that were paid by Medicare, for Current Procedural Terminology procedures independently billed by mid-level providers. Outpatient office setting among health care providers. The scope of independent billing to Medicare for procedures performed by mid-level providers. In 2012, nurse practitioners and physician assistants billed independently for more than 4 million procedures at our cutoff of 5000 paid claims per procedure. Most (54.8%) of these procedures were performed in the specialty area of dermatology. The findings of this study are relevant to safety and quality of care. Recently, the shortage of primary care clinicians has prompted discussion of widening the scope of practice for mid-level providers. It would be prudent to temper widening the scope of practice of mid-level providers by recognizing that mid-level providers are not solely limited to primary care, and may involve procedures for which they may not have formal training.

  4. Student Data Privacy: Going beyond Compliance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeide, Elana

    2016-01-01

    Since 2013, most states have considered one or more bills to protect student data, with many giving state boards of education more authority in this arena. The best of this legislation goes beyond compliance to better address stakeholders' fears. States that take this approach have adopted two key practices in implementation of new state laws:…

  5. 78 FR 70580 - Apria Healthcare LLC, Billing Department, Overland Park, Kansas; Notice of Negative Determination...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-11-26

    ... responsibilities, and the assertion that the worker's separation was due to outsourcing to ``Emdeon and India... Reconsideration By application dated September 19, 2013, a former worker of Apria Healthcare LLC, Billing...), applicable to workers and former workers of Apria Healthcare LLC, Billing Department, Overland Park, Kansas...

  6. Soul / Randy Becker, Bill Evans, Evelin Samuel ; interv. Sven Sapelson

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Becker, Randy

    2007-01-01

    The Soulbop Bandi rajajad Randy Becker ja Bill Evans ning meie Evelin Samuel gospeli ja rhytmblues'i juurtega soulist. Lk. 72-73 Inessa Josingu ja Ande Kaalepi souliteemaline fotolavastusega ruumikujundus

  7. Bill project on energy transition for a green growth - Nr 2188. Impact study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valls, Manuel; Royal, Segolene

    2014-01-01

    This document first proposes a statement by the Minister on Ecology on the motivations of the French bill project on energy transition which notably addresses the development of new energies, expresses a strong political commitment on energy, addresses the big issue of energy saving (with objectives of job creation and price reduction in the building sector), promotes a development of renewable energies based on local resources, aims at the emergence of citizen participation in energy choices and issues. The content of the bill project is then commented. The main addressed issues are: to define common objectives for a successful energy transition, an energy independence and for the struggle against climate change, a better renovation of buildings to save energy, to reduce prices and to create jobs, to develop clean transports to improve air quality and to protect health, to struggle against energy wastes and to promote circular economy, to promote renewable energies, to strengthen nuclear safety and citizen information, to simplify and clarify procedures, to enable citizens, local communities and the State to act together. The document then proposes the text of the bill project. A second part is a report of an impact study of these different issues and objectives addressed in the bill project

  8. Preliminary investigations of the winter ecology of Long-billed Curlews in coastal Texas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodin, Marc C.; Skoruppa, Mary Kay; Edwardson, Jeremy W.; Austin, Jane E.

    2012-01-01

    Since the early 1900s, the distribution of the Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus) has contracted dramatically in the eastern one-half of its historic range. The species has been designated as a "Bird of Conservation Concern" and focal species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a species of concern by several states, and a "Highly Imperiled" species in the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan. The uncertain outlook for this species has contributed to a plethora of research on Long-billed Curlews, most of which have focused on breeding and nesting ecology of the species. Gaps remain in information about factors affecting population dynamics on the winter grounds and the linkages between Long-billed Curlew populations on the breeding range, migration routes, and winter range. To begin filling those gaps, a pilot study was done to evaluate (1) curlew use of nocturnal roost sites, (2) use of public outreach to locate curlews and contribute to preliminary assessment of foraging habitat use, (3) six different methods to capture curlews, and (4) movements by curlews on wintering areas. The study area includes the lower Texas coast, which harbors the eastern-most dense populations of Long-billed Curlews in North America.

  9. Multiple Reversals of Bill Length over 1.7 Million Years in a Hawaiian Bird Lineage.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Freed, Leonard A; Medeiros, Matthew C I; Cann, Rebecca L

    2016-03-01

    Evolutionary change has been documented over geological time, but reversals in morphology, from an ancestral state to a derived state and back again, tend to be rare. Multiple reversals along the same lineage are even rarer. We use the chronology of the Hawaiian Islands and an avian example, the Hawaiian honeycreeper 'amakihi (Hemignathus spp.) lineage, which originated on the oldest main island of Kaua'i 1.7 million years ago, to examine the process of sequential reversals in bill length. We document three single and two multiple reversals of bill length on six main islands from oldest to youngest, consistent with the phylogeny of the lineage. Longer bills occur on islands with endemic species, including phylogenetically relevant outgroups, that may compete with or dominate the 'amakihi. On islands without those species, the 'amakihi had shorter bills of similar length. Both types of reversals in morphology in this lineage integrate microevolutionary processes with macroevolution in the adaptive radiation of Hawaiian honeycreepers.

  10. Algorithmic acquisition of diagnostic patterns in district heating billing system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kiluk, Sebastian

    2012-01-01

    An application of algorithmic exploration of billing data is examined for fault detection, diagnosis (FDD) based on evaluation of present state and detection of unexpected changes in energy efficiency of buildings. Large data sets from district heating (DH) billing systems are used for construction of feature space, diagnostic rules and classification of the buildings according to their energy efficiency properties. The algorithmic approach automates discovering knowledge about common, thus accepted changes in buildings’ properties, in equipment and in habitants’ behavior reflecting progress in technology and life style. In this article implementation of Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery (DMKD) method in supervision system with exemplary results based on real data is presented. Crucial steps of data processing influencing diagnostic results are described in details.

  11. Health providers' compliance with pregnant women's Bill of Rights in labor and delivery in Iran

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vajihesadat Mirlohi

    2015-01-01

    Conclusions: The results showed that the health providers' compliance with the pregnant women's Bill of Rights was not acceptable in the labor room. Therefore, necessary actions are needed to remove the barriers against pregnant women's compliance of Bill of Rights and to facilitate the compliance with it in hospitals.

  12. 49 CFR 373.101 - Motor carrier bills of lading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Motor carrier bills of lading. 373.101 Section 373.101 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL MOTOR CARRIER SAFETY REGULATIONS RECEIPTS AND...

  13. Neither got a good bill of musculoskeletal health: a comparative study among medical and dental students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coskun Benlidayi, Ilke; Al-Bayati, Zainb; Guzel, Rengin; Sarpel, Tunay

    2018-06-06

    It has been well established that musculoskeletal complaints are common among dentistry students. However, data regarding the comparison of overall musculoskeletal health between dental and medical students is scarce. The objective of the current study was to compare musculoskeletal health between medical and dental students. The population of the current study was comprised of fourth- and fifth-year students from medical and dental faculties of the same university who were at least three months in clinical training. Self-administered multi-item questionnaires regarding the musculoskeletal complaints were distributed to these students. A comparative analysis was carried out on the responses derived from the medical and dental students. A total of 219 students completed the questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 81.1%. Almost four fifth (80.4%) of the students reported musculoskeletal pain, with frequencies of 85.9 and 75.8% in dental and medical students, respectively (p > 0.05). Total, upper extremity and neck VAS scores were significantly higher in dental students than those in medical students (p < 0.01, p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively). The rate of mild-severe pain sufferers in the upper extremity was also higher among dental students (p < 0.001). Musculoskeletal pain is frequent in both medical and dental students. However, the intensity of pain - particularly for the upper extremity and neck - is higher among dental students. The findings of the current study might be attributed to the fact that dental education requires more physical burden during routine clinical training than medical education.

  14. The Real Cutting Edge in Education: Changing Misbehaving Students in the Classroom and School.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rancifer, Jesse L.

    This paper examines techniques for dealing with behavior problems in students. The Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment protect individuals' rights and must be considered in developing effective punitive consequences to control misbehaving students. Due process must be practiced in handling disciplinary sanctions. Principals and teachers can use…

  15. 78 FR 46425 - Sale and Issue of Marketable Book-Entry Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-31

    ... a simple-interest money market yield computed on an actual/360 basis, subject to an appropriate... 13-week Treasury bill auction High Rate (stop out rate) converted into a simple actual/360 interest...-week Treasury bill auction High Rate that has been translated into a simple-interest money market yield...

  16. La Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates | IDRC - International ...

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

    La Fondation Bill et Melinda Gates. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ · What we do · Funding · Resources · About IDRC. Knowledge. Innovation. Solutions. Careers · Contact Us · Site map. Sign up now for IDRC news and views sent directly to your inbox each month. Subscribe · Copyright · Open access policy · Privacy policy ...

  17. 78 FR 76719 - Bill of Rights Day, 2013

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-12-18

    ... questions of citizenship and human rights, driving progress in the American mind. We learned that our Nation... anniversary of the Bill of Rights, let us reach for a day when we all may enjoy the basic truths of liberty... of Rights Day, 2013 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation When America's...

  18. 47 CFR 36.380 - Other billing and collecting expense.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ..., REVENUES, EXPENSES, TAXES AND RESERVES FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES 1 Operating Expenses and Taxes... statistical work, controlling record work and the preparation of revenue reports. (b) Local exchange carriers... balance of Account 6620-Services to the Other billing and collecting expense classification based on the...

  19. 78 FR 39763 - Recovery Plan Addendum; Thick-Billed Parrot

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-07-02

    ... particular species. Species' History Historically the thick-billed parrot's range extended from Mexico into... and the Secretary of the Interior. This species is currently found in Mexico but has not been detected... included southern Arizona and possibly southwestern New Mexico. The recovery plan addendum includes...

  20. Student Veteran perceptions of facilitators and barriers to achieving academic goals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Norman, Sonya B; Rosen, Jay; Himmerich, Sara; Myers, Ursula S; Davis, Brittany; Browne, Kendall C; Piland, Neill

    2015-01-01

    According to recent estimates, over 1 million Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) Veterans are utilizing the post-9/11 GI Bill to pursue higher education. Data collected by the Department of Defense suggests that greater than 17% of returning Veterans may suffer from mental and physical health disorders, which can negatively affect school performance. The current study explored student Veterans' perceived facilitators and barriers to achieving academic goals. Thirty-one student Veterans completed self-report measures and interviews. Results suggested that Veterans that were reporting problems or symptoms in one mental or physical health domain were likely to be reporting symptoms or problems in others as well. The interview data were coded, and three overarching themes related to barriers and facilitators emerged: person features (e.g., discipline and determination, symptoms and stressors), institutional structure (i.e., what schools and the Department of Veterans Affairs do that was perceived to help or hinder student Veteran success), and policy concerns (i.e., how the structure of the GI Bill affects student Veteran school experience). Results from this research indicate the need for larger studies and program development efforts aimed at enhancing academic outcomes for Veterans.

  1. 19 CFR 24.3a - CBP bills; interest assessment; delinquency; notice to principal and surety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 19 Customs Duties 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false CBP bills; interest assessment; delinquency; notice to principal and surety. 24.3a Section 24.3a Customs Duties U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION....3a CBP bills; interest assessment; delinquency; notice to principal and surety. (a) Due date of CBP...

  2. HEALTH INFO Information from the CHIS Board and Personnel Division: ABOUT BILLS FROM HOPITAL DE LA TOUR

    CERN Multimedia

    Personnel Division + CHISB

    1999-01-01

    The tariff agreement signed by CERN (and other international organisations) with Hospital de La Tour specifies that all bills paid within 30 days of the date of the invoice will enjoy a discount, to be deducted by the payer. The bills are labelled with a message to this effect.Physicians' fees, personal expenses as well as services from outside providers (e.g. ambulance companies or external laboratories) are however not part of the discount agreement. Bills for hospitalisation (i.e. with a stay in hospital longer than 28h) are normally directly paid by AUSTRIA, acting as a third-party payer.In May this year, Hospital de La Tour introduced a new (Y2K compliant) accounting and invoicing system. This implementation did not go as smoothly as planned and delayed the issuing of bills by two months. During the summer period, a special team of temporary staff was put in place to catch up on the delay. As a result of this, some bills were produced that contained errors and the sticky label mentioning the discount agr...

  3. Implementasi Iso 8583 Untuk Billing Online Mahasiswa Universitas Diponegoro Melalui Channel SMS Banking Bank Rakyat Indonesia Berbasis Aix

    OpenAIRE

    Ridwan, Mohammad; Riyanto, Djalal Er; Sarwoko, Eko Adi

    2013-01-01

    Universitas Diponegoro (UNDIP) merupakan salah satu perguruan tinggi negeri di Indonesia, yang bekerja sama dengan Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) untuk menangani Billing Online mahasiswa. Sejauh ini BRI telah menyediakan dua channel transaksi untuk menangani Billing Online UNDIP, yaitu Teller dan ATM. Pengembangan channel transaksi lain dapat meningkatkan layanan transaksi Billing Online Mahasiswa UNDIP. Pada tugas akhir ini, dilakukan pengembangan channel SMS Banking dengan implementasi ISO 858...

  4. 75 FR 43557 - TA-W-73,682, Hartford Financial Services Group, Incorporated, Medical Bill Processing and...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-26

    ... Leased Workers From Beeline: Aurora, IL; TA-W-73,682A, Hartford Financial Services Group, Incorporated..., applicable to workers of Hartford Financial Services Group, Incorporated, Medical Bill Processing and Production Center Support, Aurora, Illinois and Hartford Financial Services Group, Incorporated, Medical Bill...

  5. Streamlining of the RELAP5-3D Code

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mesina, George L; Hykes, Joshua; Guillen, Donna Post

    2007-01-01

    RELAP5-3D is widely used by the nuclear community to simulate general thermal hydraulic systems and has proven to be so versatile that the spectrum of transient two-phase problems that can be analyzed has increased substantially over time. To accommodate the many new types of problems that are analyzed by RELAP5-3D, both the physics and numerical methods of the code have been continuously improved. In the area of computational methods and mathematical techniques, many upgrades and improvements have been made decrease code run time and increase solution accuracy. These include vectorization, parallelization, use of improved equation solvers for thermal hydraulics and neutron kinetics, and incorporation of improved library utilities. In the area of applied nuclear engineering, expanded capabilities include boron and level tracking models, radiation/conduction enclosure model, feedwater heater and compressor components, fluids and corresponding correlations for modeling Generation IV reactor designs, and coupling to computational fluid dynamics solvers. Ongoing and proposed future developments include improvements to the two-phase pump model, conversion to FORTRAN 90, and coupling to more computer programs. This paper summarizes the general improvements made to RELAP5-3D, with an emphasis on streamlining the code infrastructure for improved maintenance and development. With all these past, present and planned developments, it is necessary to modify the code infrastructure to incorporate modifications in a consistent and maintainable manner. Modifying a complex code such as RELAP5-3D to incorporate new models, upgrade numerics, and optimize existing code becomes more difficult as the code grows larger. The difficulty of this as well as the chance of introducing errors is significantly reduced when the code is structured. To streamline the code into a structured program, a commercial restructuring tool, FOR( ) STRUCT, was applied to the RELAP5-3D source files. The

  6. Environmental liabilities in Billings reservoir and its impacts on hydropower generation Plant Henry Borden; Os passivos ambientais no reservatorio Billings e os seus impactos na geracao hidroenergetica da Usina Henry Borden

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Almeida, Daniel Ladeira [Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC), Santo Andre, SP (Brazil)

    2010-07-01

    The primary assertion is that this article argues that the recovery in production of hydropower in Henry Borden (UHB) is the reduction of environmental liabilities in the Billings reservoir. In this context, the aim of this paper is to provide a first consideration of the possibility of recovery of production Henry Borden hydropower plant of recovering the multiple uses of the reservoir. From this perspective, we interviewed representatives of CETESB (Sanitation Environmental Technology Company) and EMAE (Metropolitan Water and Energy Company SA) for consideration of actions that include environmental policies aimed at increasing the production of electricity in Henry Borden in order to obtain results that may contribute to the multiple uses of the Billings reservoir. Noting that the range of laws aimed at protecting the water sources was limited to disjointed public policy that has reduced the resilience of the Billings reservoir. (author)

  7. Geologic storage of carbon dioxide and enhanced oil recovery. I. Uncertainty quantification employing a streamline based proxy for reservoir flow simulation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovscek, A.R.; Wang, Y.

    2005-01-01

    Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is already injected into a limited class of reservoirs for oil recovery purposes; however, the engineering design question for simultaneous oil recovery and storage of anthropogenic CO 2 is significantly different from that of oil recovery alone. Currently, the volumes of CO 2 injected solely for oil recovery are minimized due to the purchase cost of CO 2 . If and when CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere are managed, it will be necessary to maximize simultaneously both economic oil recovery and the volumes of CO 2 emplaced in oil reservoirs. This process is coined 'cooptimization'. This paper proposes a work flow for cooptimization of oil recovery and geologic CO 2 storage. An important component of the work flow is the assessment of uncertainty in predictions of performance. Typical methods for quantifying uncertainty employ exhaustive flow simulation of multiple stochastic realizations of the geologic architecture of a reservoir. Such approaches are computationally intensive and thereby time consuming. An analytic streamline based proxy for full reservoir simulation is proposed and tested. Streamline trajectories represent the three-dimensional velocity field during multiphase flow in porous media and so are useful for quantifying the similarity and differences among various reservoir models. The proxy allows rational selection of a representative subset of equi-probable reservoir models that encompass uncertainty with respect to true reservoir geology. The streamline approach is demonstrated to be thorough and rapid

  8. Breeding ecology of the pink-billed lark, Spizocorys conirostris , in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Breeding ecology of the pink-billed lark, Spizocorys conirostris , in an agricultural landscape in South Africa. ... Open Access DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ... The results are compared with data in Birdlife South Africa's Nest Record Card Scheme.

  9. A Timely Idea: Third Party Billing for Related Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spaller, Kathy Dye; Thomas, Stephen B.

    1994-01-01

    Federal allocations for special education programs are below 10% whereas the federal contribution to state medicaid programs ranges from 50-80%. Third-party billing provides a more equitable distribution of the costs among federal, state, and local governments, in addition to including private-sector contributions. (MLF)

  10. A streamlined artificial variable free version of simplex method.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Syed Inayatullah

    Full Text Available This paper proposes a streamlined form of simplex method which provides some great benefits over traditional simplex method. For instance, it does not need any kind of artificial variables or artificial constraints; it could start with any feasible or infeasible basis of an LP. This method follows the same pivoting sequence as of simplex phase 1 without showing any explicit description of artificial variables which also makes it space efficient. Later in this paper, a dual version of the new method has also been presented which provides a way to easily implement the phase 1 of traditional dual simplex method. For a problem having an initial basis which is both primal and dual infeasible, our methods provide full freedom to the user, that whether to start with primal artificial free version or dual artificial free version without making any reformulation to the LP structure. Last but not the least, it provides a teaching aid for the teachers who want to teach feasibility achievement as a separate topic before teaching optimality achievement.

  11. A streamlined artificial variable free version of simplex method.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Inayatullah, Syed; Touheed, Nasir; Imtiaz, Muhammad

    2015-01-01

    This paper proposes a streamlined form of simplex method which provides some great benefits over traditional simplex method. For instance, it does not need any kind of artificial variables or artificial constraints; it could start with any feasible or infeasible basis of an LP. This method follows the same pivoting sequence as of simplex phase 1 without showing any explicit description of artificial variables which also makes it space efficient. Later in this paper, a dual version of the new method has also been presented which provides a way to easily implement the phase 1 of traditional dual simplex method. For a problem having an initial basis which is both primal and dual infeasible, our methods provide full freedom to the user, that whether to start with primal artificial free version or dual artificial free version without making any reformulation to the LP structure. Last but not the least, it provides a teaching aid for the teachers who want to teach feasibility achievement as a separate topic before teaching optimality achievement.

  12. Sensitivity of Billing Claims for Cardiovascular Disease Events among Kidney Transplant Recipients

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lentine, Krista L.; Schnitzler, Mark A.; Abbott, Kevin C.; Bramesfeld, Kosha; Buchanan, Paula M.; Brennan, Daniel C.

    2009-01-01

    Background and objectives: Billing claims are increasingly examined beyond administrative functions as outcomes measures in observational research. Few studies have described the performance of billing claims as surrogate measures of clinical events among kidney transplant recipients. Design, setting, participants, & measurements: We investigated the sensitivity of Medicare billing claims for clinically verified cardiovascular diagnoses (five categories) and procedures (four categories) in a novel database linking Medicare claims to electronic medical records of one transplant program. Cardiovascular events identified in medical records for 571 Medicare-insured transplant recipients in 1991 through 2002 served as reference measures. Results: Within a claims-ascertainment period spanning ±30 d of clinically recorded dates, aggregate sensitivity of single claims was higher for case definitions incorporating Medicare Parts A and B for diagnoses and procedures (90.9%) compared with either Part A (82.3%) or Part B (84.6%) alone. Perfect capture of the four procedures was possible within ±30 d or with short claims window expansion, but sensitivity for the diagnoses trended lower with all study algorithms (91.2% with window up to ±90 d). Requirement for additional confirmatory diagnosis claims did not appreciably reduce sensitivity. Sensitivity patterns were similar in the early compared with late periods of the study. Conclusions: Combined use of Medicare Parts A and B billing claims composes a sensitive measure of cardiovascular events after kidney transplant. Further research is needed to define algorithms that maximize specificity as well as sensitivity of claims from Medicare and other insurers as research measures in this population. PMID:19541817

  13. Water Label to Improve Water Billing in Spanish Households

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Castillo-Martinez

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available A significant decrease in water consumption has been achieved in recent years thanks to different campaigns run by different institutions in Spain. However, most citizens do not have a very clear idea about whether or not they are efficiently using water. To solve this situation, this paper aims is to develop two water labels in order to improve the current water billing. These water labels evaluate the total water consumption and the domestic hot water consumption. To make the tags, several research studies were tackled for establishing consumer trends and behavior patterns. Furthermore, a survey and data collection were conducted to obtain updated values to validate information obtained from previous studies. The result are two water labels that establish six different levels to graphically show the efficiency, and they also include a comparison with the average consumption by customers of the same province. To ensure that the benefits of this evaluation are available to citizens, its inclusion on the water bill is proposed.

  14. Can social policy influence socioeconomic disparities? Korean War GI Bill eligibility and markers of depression.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vable, Anusha M; Canning, David; Glymour, M Maria; Kawachi, Ichiro; Jimenez, Marcia P; Subramanian, Subu V

    2016-02-01

    The Korean War GI Bill provided socioeconomic benefits to veterans; however, its association with health is unclear; we hypothesize GI Bill eligibility is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and smaller disparities. Data from 246 Korean War GI Bill eligible veterans and 240 nonveterans from the Health and Retirement Study were matched on birth year, southern birth, race, height, and childhood health using coarsened exact matching. Number of depressive symptoms in 2010 (average age = 78 years) was assessed using a modified, validated Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale, dichotomized to reflect elevated depressive symptoms. Regression analyses were stratified into low (at least one parent markers. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  15. Administrative Costs Associated With Physician Billing and Insurance-Related Activities at an Academic Health Care System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tseng, Phillip; Kaplan, Robert S; Richman, Barak D; Shah, Mahek A; Schulman, Kevin A

    2018-02-20

    Administrative costs in the US health care system are an important component of total health care spending, and a substantial proportion of these costs are attributable to billing and insurance-related activities. To examine and estimate the administrative costs associated with physician billing activities in a large academic health care system with a certified electronic health record system. This study used time-driven activity-based costing. Interviews were conducted with 27 health system administrators and 34 physicians in 2016 and 2017 to construct a process map charting the path of an insurance claim through the revenue cycle management process. These data were used to calculate the cost for each major billing and insurance-related activity and were aggregated to estimate the health system's total cost of processing an insurance claim. Estimated time required to perform billing and insurance-related activities, based on interviews with management personnel and physicians. Estimated billing and insurance-related costs for 5 types of patient encounters: primary care visits, discharged emergency department visits, general medicine inpatient stays, ambulatory surgical procedures, and inpatient surgical procedures. Estimated processing time and total costs for billing and insurance-related activities were 13 minutes and $20.49 for a primary care visit, 32 minutes and $61.54 for a discharged emergency department visit, 73 minutes and $124.26 for a general inpatient stay, 75 minutes and $170.40 for an ambulatory surgical procedure, and 100 minutes and $215.10 for an inpatient surgical procedure. Of these totals, time and costs for activities carried out by physicians were estimated at a median of 3 minutes or $6.36 for a primary care visit, 3 minutes or $10.97 for an emergency department visit, 5 minutes or $13.29 for a general inpatient stay, 15 minutes or $51.20 for an ambulatory surgical procedure, and 15 minutes or $51.20 for an inpatient surgical procedure. Of

  16. Essential grammar for today's writers, students, and teachers

    CERN Document Server

    Sullivan, Nancy

    2014-01-01

    This innovative grammar text is an ideal resource for writers, language students, and current and future classroom teachers who need an accessible "refresher" in a step-by-step guide to essential grammar. Rather than becoming mired in overly detailed linguistic definitions, Nancy Sullivan helps writers and students understand and apply grammatical concepts and develop the skills they need to enhance their own writing. Along with engaging discussions of both contemporary and traditional terminology, Sullivan's text provides clear explanations of the basics of English grammar and a highly practical, hands-on approach to mastering the use of language. Complementing the focus on constructing excellent sentences, every example and exercise set is contextually grounded in language themes. Teachers, students, and writers will appreciate the streamlined, easy-to-understand coverage of essential grammar, as well as the affordable price. This is an ideal textbook for future teachers enrolled in an upper-level grammar c...

  17. Atomic Energy Authority Bill (Lords) - second reading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1986-01-01

    In the debate in the House of Commons on the second reading of the Atomic Energy Bill, the objective of which is to put the finances of the Authority on to a trading fund basis, the discussion included the following: proposed changes in method of financing the Authority; safety; underlying research; customer relations; accountability; personnel; public relations; radioactive waste management; energy research; parliamentary scrutiny; energy policy; nuclear power; fast reactors; fusion research; government policy. (U.K.)

  18. Bill redness is positively associated with reproduction and survival in male and female zebra finches.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirre J P Simons

    Full Text Available Sexual traits can serve as honest indicators of phenotypic quality when they are costly. Brightly coloured yellow to red traits, which are pigmented by carotenoids, are relatively common in birds, and feature in sexual selection. Carotenoids have been linked to immune and antioxidant function, and the trade-off between ornamentation and these physiological functions provides a potential mechanism rendering carotenoid based signals costly. Mutual ornamentation is also common in birds and can be maintained by mutual mate choice for this ornament or by a correlated response in one sex to selection on the other sex. When selection pressures differ between the sexes this can cause intralocus sexual conflict. Sexually antagonistic selection pressures have been demonstrated for few sexual traits, and for carotenoid-dependent traits there is a single example: bill redness was found to be positively associated with survival and reproductive output in male zebra finches, but negatively so in females. We retested these associations in our captive zebra finch population without two possible limitations of this earlier study. Contrary to the earlier findings, we found no evidence for sexually antagonistic selection. In both sexes, individuals with redder bills showed higher survival. This association disappeared among the females with the reddest bills. Furthermore, females with redder bills achieved higher reproductive output. We conclude that bill redness of male and female zebra finches honestly signals phenotypic quality, and discuss the possible causes of the differences between our results and earlier findings.

  19. Challenges and Obstacles of e-Government Streamlining: A Case Study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anupam K. Nath

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available e-Government streamlining has been a challenge since its inception in the domain of e-business. Business organizations face challenges while trying to collaborate with partners through the use of information technology in order to ensure efficient delivery of services. One of the major reasons for these inefficient services has been political bureaucracies among government organizations. To meet this challenge, a transparent and networked environment is required where government organizations can effectively partner with other relevant organizations. Using a case study analysis, we intend to identify not just the challenges in government organizations while providing services which require collaborative effort, but also the obstacles in adopting new technology for collaboration. We believe that the outcome of our research could provide a generalized guideline for government agencies where there is need for digital collaboration. Our findings will thus help government organizations to address the challenges in digital collaboration, and also help them implement new technology successfully to ensure efficient delivery of services.

  20. PBF: A New Privacy-Aware Billing Framework for Online Electric Vehicles with Bidirectional Auditability

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rasheed Hussain

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Recently an online electric vehicle (OLEV concept has been introduced, where vehicles are propelled by the wirelessly transmitted electrical power from the infrastructure installed under the road while moving. The absence of secure-and-fair billing is one of the main hurdles to widely adopt this promising technology. This paper introduces a new secure and privacy-aware fair billing framework for OLEV on the move through the charging plates installed under the road. We first propose two extreme lightweight mutual authentication mechanisms, a direct authentication and a hash chain-based authentication between vehicles and the charging plates that can be used for different vehicular speeds on the road. Second, we propose a secure and privacy-aware wireless power transfer on move for the vehicles with bidirectional auditability guarantee by leveraging game theoretic approach. Each charging plate transfers a fixed amount of energy to the vehicle and bills the vehicle in a privacy-aware way accordingly. Our protocol guarantees secure, privacy-aware, and fair billing mechanism for the OLEVs while receiving electric power from the infrastructure installed under the road. Moreover, our proposed framework can play a vital role in eliminating the security and privacy challenges in the deployment of power transfer technology to the OLEVs.

  1. Student Loan Marketing Association Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1991. 102d Congress, 1st Session. Report To Accompany S. 1915.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

    This document is a favorable report to the U.S. Senate on a bill that provides for the financial security of the Student Loan Marketing Association, an act which amends the Higher Education Act of 1965. The report urges the passage of this bill which sets forth various capital levels that safeguard the government from the possibility of loss…

  2. Billing third party payers for pharmaceutical care services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Poirier, S; Buffington, D E; Memoli, G A

    1999-01-01

    To describe the steps pharmacists must complete when seeking compensation from third party payers for pharmaceutical care services. Government publications; professional publications, including manuals and newsletters; authors' personal experience. Pharmacists in increasing numbers are meeting with success in getting reimbursed by third party payers for patient care activities. However, many pharmacists remain reluctant to seek compensation because they do not understand the steps involved. Preparatory steps include obtaining a provider/supplier number, procuring appropriate claim forms, developing data collection and documentation systems, establishing professional fees, creating a marketing plan, and developing an accounting system. To bill for specific patient care services, pharmacists need to collect the patient's insurance information, obtain a statement of medical necessity from the patient's physician, complete the appropriate claim form accurately, and submit the claim with supporting documentation to the insurer. Although many claims from pharmacists are rejected initially, pharmacists who work with third party payers to understand the reasons for denial of payment often receive compensation when claims are resubmitted. Pharmacists who follow these guidelines for billing third party payers for pharmaceutical care services should notice an increase in the number of paid claims.

  3. Financial Viability of Emergency Department Observation Unit Billing Models.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Baugh, Christopher W; Suri, Pawan; Caspers, Christopher G; Granovsky, Michael A; Neal, Keith; Ross, Michael A

    2018-05-16

    Outpatients receive observation services to determine the need for inpatient admission. These services are usually provided without the use of condition-specific protocols and in an unstructured manner, scattered throughout a hospital in areas typically designated for inpatient care. Emergency department observation units (EDOUs) use protocolized care to offer an efficient alternative with shorter lengths of stay, lower costs and higher patient satisfaction. EDOU growth is limited by existing policy barriers that prevent a "two-service" model of separate professional billing for both emergency and observation services. The majority of EDOUs use the "one-service" model, where a single composite professional fee is billed for both emergency and observation services. The financial implications of these models are not well understood. We created a Monte Carlo simulation by building a model that reflects current clinical practice in the United States and uses inputs gathered from the most recently available peer-reviewed literature, national survey and payer data. Using this simulation, we modeled annual staffing costs and payments for professional services under two common models of care in an EDOU. We also modeled cash flows over a continuous range of daily EDOU patient encounters to illustrate the dynamic relationship between costs and revenue over various staffing levels. We estimate the mean (±SD) annual net cash flow to be a net loss of $315,382 ±$89,635 in the one-service model and a net profit of $37,569 ±$359,583 in the two-service model. The two-service model is financially sustainable at daily billable encounters above 20 while in the one-service model, costs exceed revenue regardless of encounter count. Physician cost per hour and daily patient encounters had the most significant impact on model estimates. In the one-service model, EDOU staffing costs exceed payments at all levels of patient encounters, making a hospital subsidy necessary to create a

  4. The Irish Theme in the Writings of Bill Naughton

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    David Pierce

    2005-03-01

    Full Text Available The student interested in cultural assimilation, hybridity, and naturalization, in masculinity, authorship, and identity, in what happened to the Irish in Britain in the twentieth century, will turn at some point to the Mayo-born, Lancashire writer Bill Naughton (1910-1992, author of a classic children’s story collection The Goalkeeper’s Revenge and Other Stories (1961, ofAlfie (1965, the film which helped define 1960s London, and of a series of autobiographies largely centering on his Irish childhood and upbringing in Bolton. It has been the historic role of Irish writers from Richard Brinsley Sheridan to Oscar Wilde, from Elizabeth Bowen to William Trevor, to give the English back to themselves in a gallery of portraits. Naughton is part of this tradition, but, unlike these other writers, his subject is the English working class, which he writes about from within, with both sympathy and knowledge. It can be readily conceded that his work is not at the forefront of modern English or Irish writing, but it does deserve to be better known and appreciated. Here in this discursive essay, with an eye on his Irish background, I move back and forth across his writing to reflect on his contribution not so to much the cultural greening of Britain as to the mass observation of the English and of the Irish in Britain.

  5. Billings for Centrex Autovon Terminations in the Department of the Army

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1990-01-01

    The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Bell Operating Companies have properly billed DoD telecommunications users for CENTREX AUTOVON termination service and for special assemblies...

  6. Using Marking Criteria to Improve Learning: An Evaluation of Student Perceptions

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Swapna Koshy

    2009-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper is an exploratory study on the use of Marking Criteria in the offshore campus of an Australian University in the Middle East. The purpose of the study is to analyse student attitudes to the use of Marking Criteria with a view to maximizing its use. Most educators agree that assessment plays a key role in education and the use of Marking Criteria helps to streamline assessment. The study notes that most students were aware of the benefits of reviewing criteria before they worked on an assessment but few actually used it. The paper offers ways to help students internalise criteria to make learning effective. It also proposes the use of Marking Criteria as a tool that aids teachers in giving feedback in large classes.

  7. Damage Detection with Streamlined Structural Health Monitoring Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jian Li

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The huge amounts of sensor data generated by large scale sensor networks in on-line structural health monitoring (SHM systems often overwhelms the systems’ capacity for data transmission and analysis. This paper presents a new concept for an integrated SHM system in which a streamlined data flow is used as a unifying thread to integrate the individual components of on-line SHM systems. Such an integrated SHM system has a few desirable functionalities including embedded sensor data compression, interactive sensor data retrieval, and structural knowledge discovery, which aim to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and robustness of on-line SHM systems. Adoption of this new concept will enable the design of an on-line SHM system with more uniform data generation and data handling capacity for its subsystems. To examine this concept in the context of vibration-based SHM systems, real sensor data from an on-line SHM system comprising a scaled steel bridge structure and an on-line data acquisition system with remote data access was used in this study. Vibration test results clearly demonstrated the prominent performance characteristics of the proposed integrated SHM system including rapid data access, interactive data retrieval and knowledge discovery of structural conditions on a global level.

  8. Damage detection with streamlined structural health monitoring data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Jian; Deng, Jun; Xie, Weizhi

    2015-04-15

    The huge amounts of sensor data generated by large scale sensor networks in on-line structural health monitoring (SHM) systems often overwhelms the systems' capacity for data transmission and analysis. This paper presents a new concept for an integrated SHM system in which a streamlined data flow is used as a unifying thread to integrate the individual components of on-line SHM systems. Such an integrated SHM system has a few desirable functionalities including embedded sensor data compression, interactive sensor data retrieval, and structural knowledge discovery, which aim to enhance the reliability, efficiency, and robustness of on-line SHM systems. Adoption of this new concept will enable the design of an on-line SHM system with more uniform data generation and data handling capacity for its subsystems. To examine this concept in the context of vibration-based SHM systems, real sensor data from an on-line SHM system comprising a scaled steel bridge structure and an on-line data acquisition system with remote data access was used in this study. Vibration test results clearly demonstrated the prominent performance characteristics of the proposed integrated SHM system including rapid data access, interactive data retrieval and knowledge discovery of structural conditions on a global level.

  9. Billing and accounts receivable: fundamentals for improvement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bizon, M M

    1993-07-01

    If a healthcare facility's accounts receivable operation is experiencing problems, the patient accounts manager should survey all areas of his or her responsibility to determine the best method of resolving the difficulties. One effective technique to reduce billing problems is to take a proactive--not reactive--approach. If mistakes can be corrected before they get out of control, and if the patient accounts manager can ensure that claims will not be denied, a healthcare facility's accounts receivable should remain in good condition.

  10. France's energy bill in 2008; La facture energetique de la France en 2008

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-06-15

    This article comments the important increase of France's energy bill in relationship with oil prices and dollar value fluctuations during 2008. It discusses the explosion in oil prices before the financial crisis and their subsequent evolution, and the evolutions of other energies' prices (natural gas, coal, electricity). Tables and graphs are given on various indicators: average monthly oil price expressed in euros and in dollars, gas spot price, annual average quotations for different crude oil prices, annual average imported oil price, and annual average imported and exported energy prices. It comments the global decrease of energy imports, their evolutions since 2006 with respect to the supplying country. It analyses the energy bill's evolution for oil and gas, discusses its importance with respect to France's GDP, and assesses it in terms of worked days for each inhabitant. Tables contain data indicating, for 2007 and 2008, the levels of imports, exports, and of the resulting bill for the different products (mineral fuels, crude oil, refined oil products, gas), and also give a comparison between the energy bill and other economic aggregates.

  11. TEORÍA DE BILL MUNDY EN EL MECANIZADO DE COBRE CON BROCAS Y MACHOS ESPECIALES BILL MUNDY THEORY. SPECIAL DRILLS AND TAPS TOOLS IN COPPER MACHINING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandro Colque C

    2008-06-01

    Full Text Available El mecanizado del cobre, debido a su fluidez, produce una viruta plástica y continua que afecta la calidad superficial de las piezas mecanizadas. El método desarrollado por el ingeniero norteamericano Bill Mundy permite obtener el mejor ángulo de corte para mecanizar un material. El taladrado y el roscado con machos son dos procesos de mecanizado que tienen aspectos en común. Diseños de nuevas herramientas, nuevos materiales y técnicas de mecanizado, mejorías en la lubricación, diferentes velocidades de corte y avances, son variables que se deben estudiar para obtener una menor potencia, mayor duración de la herramienta y buen acabado superficial. En este trabajo probetas de cobre fueron ensayadas a tracción y se determinó experimentalmente el ángulo efectivo de corte, de acuerdo con la teoría de Bill Mundy. Posteriormente se fabricaron nuevas probetas que fueron perforadas con brocas tipo H, N y W, con refrigeración externa, refrigeración interna y en seco. Se usaron machos de máquina de dos y tres hélices. En cada perforación se midió la velocidad de rotación, avance, fuerza de corte, momento torsor y potencia necesaria. Se verificó que en el taladrado de cobre un ángulo mayor de la hélice favorece el desmenuzado de la viruta y disminuye el momento torsor. Brocas con refrigeración interna pueden ser utilizadas con mayores velocidades y muestran una mejor calidad superficial del perforado. Las brocas y machos con un ángulo de ataque próximo al ángulo calculado experimentalmente por la teoría de Bill Mundy muestran un buen comportamiento en el mecanizado y menor consumo de potencia.Copper drilling produces plastic and continuous chip. Bill Mundy a North American engineer developed a method who allows determines experimentally the best cutting angle material machining. Drilling and threading processes has several aspects in common. New tools design, new materials, new techniques, new lubrication and cooling improvement

  12. 41 CFR 102-118.80 - Who is responsible for keeping my agency's electronic commerce transportation billing records?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... keeping my agency's electronic commerce transportation billing records? 102-118.80 Section 102-118.80... Transportation and Transportation Services § 102-118.80 Who is responsible for keeping my agency's electronic commerce transportation billing records? Your agency's internal financial regulations will identify...

  13. THE ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR OF THE LONG BILLED CURLEW (NUMENIUS AMERICANUS) IN SOUTHEASTERN WASHINGTON

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Julia N. Fitzner

    1978-06-01

    The primary objective of this study was to examine in depth the nesting ecology and behavior of the Long-billed Curlew on a breeding area relatively free of disruptive human activity. Two surruners of field work were devoted to that end; a post-breeding season survey in 1976 of the major National Wildlife Refuges in Washington, Southern Idaho, Utah, Nevada California, and Oregon enlarged the scope by including unpublished records of Long-billed Curlews in these areas.

  14. An Overview Of The Nigerian National Health Bill | Saka | Savannah ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The National Health Bill was developed in 2004 as an instrument for correcting ... in the 1999 constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as it relates to the health sector. ... Its provisions have effects on all three levels of care and subsystems ...

  15. The impact of rate design and net metering on the bill savings from distributed PV for residential customers in California

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Darghouth, Naim R.; Barbose, Galen; Wiser, Ryan

    2011-01-01

    Net metering has become a widespread mechanism in the U.S. for supporting customer adoption of distributed photovoltaics (PV), but has faced challenges as PV installations grow to a larger share of generation in a number of states. This paper examines the value of the bill savings that customers receive under net metering, and the associated role of retail rate design, based on a sample of approximately two hundred residential customers of California's two largest electric utilities. We find that the bill savings per kWh of PV electricity generated varies by more than a factor of four across the customers in the sample, which is largely attributable to the inclining block structure of the utilities' residential retail rates. We also compare the bill savings under net metering to that received under three potential alternative compensation mechanisms, based on California's Market Price Referent (MPR). We find that net metering provides significantly greater bill savings than a full MPR-based feed-in tariff, but only modestly greater savings than alternative mechanisms under which hourly or monthly net excess generation is compensated at the MPR rate. - Highlights: → We examine the value of bill savings under net metering to PV owners in California. → Bill savings per kWh of PV generation varies by a factor of four with net metering. The variation is attributable to rate design, the unique inclining block structure. → The median value of bill savings is reduced by 40-67% with MPR feed-in tariff. → The median value of bill savings is reduced by 6-12% with hourly netting.

  16. The Complexity Of Billing And Paying For Physician Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gottlieb, Joshua D; Shapiro, Adam Hale; Dunn, Abe

    2018-04-01

    The administrative costs of providing health insurance in the US are very high, but their determinants are poorly understood. We advance the nascent literature in this field by developing new measures of billing complexity for physician care across insurers and over time, and by estimating them using a large sample of detailed insurance "remittance data" for the period 2013-15. We found dramatic variation across different types of insurance. Fee-for-service Medicaid is the most challenging type of insurer to bill, with a claim denial rate that is 17.8 percentage points higher than that for fee-for-service Medicare. The denial rate for Medicaid managed care was 6 percentage points higher than that for fee-for-service Medicare, while the rate for private insurance appeared similar to that of Medicare Advantage. Based on conservative assumptions, we estimated that the health care sector deals with $11 billion in challenged revenue annually, but this number could be as high as $54 billion. These costs have significant implications for analyses of health insurance reforms.

  17. The Role of Non-Governmental Organization (NGO in Advocating the National Security Bill

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yusa Djuyandi

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available The role run by a coalition of NGOs in advocating the National Security Bill aimed at encouraging the birth of national security policy to appropriate to the purpose of reform. However, until now the role of NGOs in advocating National Security Bill has not been able to encourage the authorities to reconstruct the draft of national security policy that is consistent with the objectives of security sector reform. This study is conducted to analyze the role of NGOs in the security sector reform in Indonesia, particularly through the advocacy of the National Security Bill. The method used in this study is a qualitative method. The result shows that NGOs, which are members of the KMSRK, have been running the multiple roles, such as: popularly involved in policy making, providing political education to the community, promoting or encouraging reform, and promoting the interests of the community. The study also suggests the existence of new findings of the role of NGOs, which is forming a coherent unity of interests.

  18. MODELING BILL-OF-MATERIAL WITH TREE DATA STRUCTURE: CASE STUDY IN FURNITURE MANUFACTURER

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Toni Prahasto

    2012-02-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents a modeling of Bill-of-Material with tree data structure. The BOM represents wooden furniture products. The management of BOM is incorporated into an MRP software which is specially built for a furniture manufacturer. The tree data structure is approached with an object oriented programming to provide the creation and modification of the data. The tree object is designed so that a downstream programmer can create an application with high productivity, using the BOM object of course. Legality of the development is ensured by adapting open source resources, i.e. MySQL database engine, PHP server script, and client-side Javascript. The BOM object is used extensively in the MRP software that is being developed. A couple of screenshots are presented to demonstrate the ease of creation and manipulation of Bill-of-Material. The proper approach of modeling BOM with tree structure allows the programmer to reach high productivity during the development of the aforementioned MRP customized software. Keyword : Modeling, Bill of Material, Tree Data Structure

  19. Teachers Know Best: Making Data Work for Teachers and Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 2015

    2015-01-01

    As part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's broader efforts to improve educational opportunities for all students, the "Teachers Know Best" research project seeks to encourage innovation in K-12 education by helping product developers and those who procure resources for teachers better understand teachers' views. The original…

  20. Effects of implementing electronic medical records on primary care billings and payments: a before-after study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaakkimainen, R Liisa; Shultz, Susan E; Tu, Karen

    2013-09-01

    Several barriers to the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) by family physicians have been discussed, including the costs of implementation, impact on work flow and loss of productivity. We examined billings and payments received before and after implementation of EMRs among primary care physicians in the province of Ontario. We also examined billings and payments before and after switching from a fee-for-service to a capitation payment model, because EMR implementation coincided with primary care reform in the province. We used information from the Electronic Medical Record Administrative Data Linked Database (EMRALD) to conduct a retrospective before-after study. The EMRALD database includes EMR data extracted from 183 community-based family physicians in Ontario. We included EMRALD physicians who were eligible to bill the Ontario Health Insurance Plan at least 18 months before and after the date they started using EMRs and had completed a full 18-month period before Mar. 31, 2011, when the study stopped. The main outcome measures were physicians' monthly billings and payments for office visits and total annual payments received from all government sources. Two index dates were examined: the date physicians started using EMRs and were in a stable payment model (n = 64) and the date physicians switched from a fee-for-service to a capitation payment model (n = 42). Monthly billings and payments for office visits did not decrease after the implementation of EMRs. The overall weighted mean annual payment from all government sources increased by 27.7% after the start of EMRs among EMRALD physicians; an increase was also observed among all other primary care physicians in Ontario, but it was not as great (14.4%). There was a decline in monthly billings and payments for office visits after physicians changed payment models, but an increase in their overall annual government payments. Implementation of EMRs by primary care physicians did not result in decreased

  1. Effects of implementing electronic medical records on primary care billings and payments: a before–after study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shultz, Susan E.; Tu, Karen

    2013-01-01

    Background Several barriers to the adoption of electronic medical records (EMRs) by family physicians have been discussed, including the costs of implementation, impact on work flow and loss of productivity. We examined billings and payments received before and after implementation of EMRs among primary care physicians in the province of Ontario. We also examined billings and payments before and after switching from a fee-for-service to a capitation payment model, because EMR implementation coincided with primary care reform in the province. Methods We used information from the Electronic Medical Record Administrative Data Linked Database (EMRALD) to conduct a retrospective before–after study. The EMRALD database includes EMR data extracted from 183 community-based family physicians in Ontario. We included EMRALD physicians who were eligible to bill the Ontario Health Insurance Plan at least 18 months before and after the date they started using EMRs and had completed a full 18-month period before Mar. 31, 2011, when the study stopped. The main outcome measures were physicians’ monthly billings and payments for office visits and total annual payments received from all government sources. Two index dates were examined: the date physicians started using EMRs and were in a stable payment model (n = 64) and the date physicians switched from a fee-for-service to a capitation payment model (n = 42). Results Monthly billings and payments for office visits did not decrease after the implementation of EMRs. The overall weighted mean annual payment from all government sources increased by 27.7% after the start of EMRs among EMRALD physicians; an increase was also observed among all other primary care physicians in Ontario, but it was not as great (14.4%). There was a decline in monthly billings and payments for office visits after physicians changed payment models, but an increase in their overall annual government payments. Interpretation Implementation of EMRs by

  2. Roof Box Shape Streamline Adaptation and the Impact towards Fuel Consumption

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Abdul Latif M.F.

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available The fuel price hike is currently a sensational national issue in Malaysia. Since the rationalization of fuel subsidies many were affected especially the middle income family. Vehicle aerodynamic were directly related to the fuel consumption, were extra frontal area result a higher drag force hence higher fuel consumption. Roof box were among the largest contributor to the extra drag, thus the roof box shape rationalization were prominent to reduce the extra drag. The idea of adopting water drop shape to the roof box design shows prominent result. The roof box has been simulated using MIRA virtual wind tunnel modelling via commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD package. This streamline shape drastically reduce the drag force by 34% resulting to a 1.7% fuel saving compare to the conventional boxy roof box. This is an effort to reduce the carbon foot print for a sustainable green world.

  3. STREAMLINED APPROACH FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESTORATION PLAN FOR CORRECTIVE ACTION UNIT 116: AREA 25 TEST CELL C FACILITY NEVADA TEST SITE, NEVADA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2006-01-01

    This Streamlined Approach for Environmental Restoration Plan identifies the activities required for the closure of Corrective Action Unit 116, Area 25 Test Cell C Facility. The Test Cell C Facility is located in Area 25 of the Nevada Test Site approximately 25 miles northwest of Mercury, Nevada

  4. Rancang Bangun Perangkat Lunak Billing dan Implementasi Voice Over Internet Protocol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Honni Honni

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The rapidly evolving communication system enables applications for telephone communication to be carried over the data network known as VoIP (voice over internet protocol. SIP (session initiation protocol as the signaling protocol is text-based VoIP which can be implemented easily in comparison with other signalingprotocols. The purpose of this paper is designing and implementing VoIP billing up to the company to provide additional facilities for enterprise customers. The methods start with data collection, analysis, design, development, and implementation. The result achieved is a system of VoIP with SIP and Asterisk software which has functions of PBX to provide additional facilities such as VoIP which is a plus for the company and customers. After implemented, the VoIP system and billing features are found work well.

  5. Persons with disability bill 2002 and its implications to the provision ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Persons with disability bill 2002 and its implications to the provision of library and ... services to the visually handicapped persons in Kenyan learning institutions. ... to achieve their full potential and protect them from undue discrimination.

  6. War and Marriage: Assortative Mating and the World War II GI Bill.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Matthew F; McCarthy, T J; Moulton, Jeremy G; Page, Marianne E; Patel, Ankur J

    2015-10-01

    World War II and its subsequent GI Bill have been widely credited with playing a transformative role in American society, but there have been few quantitative analyses of these historical events' broad social effects. We exploit between-cohort variation in the probability of military service to investigate how WWII and the GI Bill altered the structure of marriage, and find that it had important spillover effects beyond its direct effect on men's educational attainment. Our results suggest that the additional education received by returning veterans caused them to "sort" into wives with significantly higher levels of education. This suggests an important mechanism by which socioeconomic status may be passed on to the next generation.

  7. Heat exchange from the toucan bill reveals a controllable vascular thermal radiator.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tattersall, Glenn J; Andrade, Denis V; Abe, Augusto S

    2009-07-24

    The toco toucan (Ramphastos toco), the largest member of the toucan family, possesses the largest beak relative to body size of all birds. This exaggerated feature has received various interpretations, from serving as a sexual ornament to being a refined adaptation for feeding. However, it is also a significant surface area for heat exchange. Here we show the remarkable capacity of the toco toucan to regulate heat distribution by modifying blood flow, using the bill as a transient thermal radiator. Our results indicate that the toucan's bill is, relative to its size, one of the largest thermal windows in the animal kingdom, rivaling elephants' ears in its ability to radiate body heat.

  8. Privacy-Preserving Billing Scheme against Free-Riders for Wireless Charging Electric Vehicles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xingwen Zhao

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Recently, scientists in South Korea developed on-line electric vehicle (OLEV, which is a kind of electric vehicle that can be charged wirelessly while it is moving on the road. The battery in the vehicle can absorb electric energy from the power transmitters buried under the road without any contact with them. Several billing schemes have been presented to offer privacy-preserving billing for OLEV owners. However, they did not consider the existence of free-riders. When some vehicles are being charged after showing the tokens, vehicles that are running ahead or behind can switch on their systems and drive closely for a free charging. We describe a billing scheme against free-riders by using several cryptographic tools. Each vehicle should authenticate with a compensation-prepaid token before it can drive on the wireless-charging-enabled road. The service provider can obtain compensation if it can prove that certain vehicle is a free-rider. Our scheme is privacy-preserving so the charging will not disclose the locations and routine routes of each vehicle. In fact, our scheme is a fast authentication scheme that anonymously authenticates each user on accessing a sequence of services. Thus, it can be applied to sequential data delivering services in future 5G systems.

  9. Evaluating the Instructional Sensitivity of Four States' Student Achievement Tests

    Science.gov (United States)

    Polikoff, Morgan S.

    2016-01-01

    As state tests of student achievement are used for an increasingly wide array of high- and low-stakes purposes, evaluating their instructional sensitivity is essential. This article uses data from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Project to examine the instructional sensitivity of 4 states' mathematics and English…

  10. The benefits of life cycle inventory parametric models in streamlining data collection. A case study in the wooden pallet sector

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Niero, Monia; Di Felice, F.; Ren, J.

    2014-01-01

    LCA methodology is time and resource consuming particularly when it comes to data collection and handling, therefore companies, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are inclined to use streamlined approaches to shorten the resource-consuming life cycle inventory (LCI) phase. An effec......LCA methodology is time and resource consuming particularly when it comes to data collection and handling, therefore companies, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), are inclined to use streamlined approaches to shorten the resource-consuming life cycle inventory (LCI) phase...... study of a SME in the wooden pallet sector, investigating to what extent the use of parametric LCI models can be beneficial both in evaluating the environmental impacts of similar products and in providing a preliminary assessment of the potential environmental impacts of new products. We developed...... an LCI parametric model describing the LCI of a range of wooden pallets and tested its effectiveness with a reference product, namely a non-reversible pallet with four-way blocks. The identified parameters refer to the technical characteristics of the product system, e.g. the number and dimension...

  11. Streamlining Collaboration for the Gravitational-wave Astronomy Community

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koranda, S.

    2016-12-01

    In the morning hours of September 14, 2015 the LaserInterferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) directlydetected gravitational waves from inspiraling and coalescingblack holes, confirming a major prediction of AlbertEinstein's general theory of relativity and beginning the eraof gravitational-wave astronomy. With the LIGO detectors in the United States, the Virgo andGEO detectors in Europe, and the KAGRA detector in Japan thegravitational-wave astrononmy community is opening a newwindow on our Universe. Realizing the full science potentialof LIGO and the other interferometers requires globalcollaboration not only within the gravitational-wave astronomycommunity but also with the astronomers and astrophysicists acrossmultipe disciplines working to realize and leverage the powerof multi-messenger astronomy. Enabling thousands of researchers from around the world andacross multiple projects to efficiently collaborate, share,and analyze data and provide streamlined access to services,computing, and tools requires new and scalable approaches toidentity and access management (IAM). We will discuss LIGO'sIAM journey that began in 2007 and how today LIGO leveragesinternal identity federations like InCommon and eduGAIN toprovide scalable and managed access for the gravitational-waveastronomy community. We will discuss the steps both largeand small research organizations and projects take as theirIAM infrastructure matures from ad-hoc silos of independent services to fully integrated and federated services thatstreamline collaboration so that scientists can focus onresearch and not managing passwords.

  12. Mehhiklane troonil: kas Bill Gatesi ajastu sai tõesti otsa? / Heiki Suurkask

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Suurkask, Heiki, 1972-

    2010-01-01

    Ajakirja Forbes koostatud maailma rikkaimate inimeste edetabelist, mille tipus on Mehhiko telekomi monopoli suuromanik Carlos Slim Helú, seniselt liidripositsioonilt on teisele kohale langenud Microsofti rajaja Bill Gates

  13. Lessons learned in streamlining the preparation of SNM standard solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, J.P.; Johnson, S.R.

    1986-01-01

    Improved safeguard measurements have produced a demand for greater quantities of reliable SNM solution standards. At the Savannah River Plant (SRP), the demand for these standards has been met by several innovations to improve the productivity and reliability of standards preparations. With the use of computer controlled balance, large batches of SNM stock solutions are prepared on a gravimetric basis. Accurately dispensed quantities of the stock solution are weighed and stored in bottles. When needed, they are quantitatively transferred to tared containers, matrix adjusted to target concentrations, weighed, and measured for density at 25 0 C. Concentrations of SNM are calculated both gravimetrically and volumetrically. Calculated values are confirmed analytically before the standards are used in measurement control program (MCP) activities. The lessons learned include: MCP goals include error identification and management. Strategy modifications are required to improve error management. Administrative controls can minimize certain types of errors. Automation can eliminate redundancy and streamline preparations. Prudence and simplicity enhance automation success. The effort expended to increase productivity has increased the reliability of standards and provided better documentation for quality assurance

  14. The Association Between the Use of the Education Benefits from the G.I. Bill and Veterans' Health.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rumery, Zachary R; Patel, Nilam; Richard, Patrick

    2018-05-01

    There is limited knowledge on the impact of education on veterans' health in the United States. This study specifically examines the relationship between the education benefits from the G.I. Bill and veterans' health. This study used data from the 2010 National Survey of Veterans. The subjects for this study were 5,052 veterans who were eligible to receive G.I. Bill benefits, representing a total of about 12.7 million non-institutionalized veterans in the United States in 2010. The dependent variables included self-reported health status and smoking behavior. The key independent variable was whether veterans used the education benefits from the G.I. Bill compared with those who were eligible but did not use them. Results from multivariate regression analyses showed that those who used the education benefits from the G.I. Bill were 4% less likely to report fair/poor health (p education benefits. Additional analyses showed that using the education benefits to attend college decreased the probability of being in fair/poor health by 4% (p benefits for non-college attainment such as business, technical, or vocational schools. More importantly, a larger association was found between the use of the education benefits from the G.I. Bill to obtain a college degree and fair/poor health (7%, p education also has important health benefits.

  15. Empty Promise: Black American Veterans and the New GI Bill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ottley, Alford H.

    2014-01-01

    The 2008 GI Bill offers college funds for veterans. Yet Black male vets are not taking advantage of these benefits. This chapter examines personal and societal problems that hinder access to higher education for Black vets, and suggests some ways adult educators can advocate for these young men.

  16. Search efforts for ivory-billed woodpecker in South Carolina

    Science.gov (United States)

    Matthew Moskwik; Theresa Thom; Laurel M. Barnhill; Craig Watson; Jennifer Koches; John Kilgo; Bill Hulslander; Colette Degarady; Gary. Peters

    2013-01-01

    Following the reported rediscovery of Campephilus principalis (Ivory-billed Woodpecker) in Arkansas, we initiated searches in South Carolina in February 2006, with additional searches in the winter and spring of 2006–2007 and 2007–2008, concentrating in the Congaree, Santee, and Pee Dee river basins. We accrued a cumulative total of 8893 survey hours...

  17. University First Year Advisors: A network approach for first year student transition and retention. A Practice Report.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Geraldine Box

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available Focussing expressly on student support and retention, improving the first year experience has been addressed by Murdoch University through the implementation of a School discipline-specific network of professional First Year Advisors (FYAs. FYA initiatives, both broad-based and varied, have been developed in alignment with the changing needs of students as identified throughout the semesters. A combination of outreach telephone campaigns and face-to-face student support enables FYAs to conduct a "just in time" approach to positively increase student engagement, and ultimately, retention. With a bespoke database, FYAs and academic staff have been able to streamline the process of reporting students in need of support, and gather data relating to student retention. The FYA program is yet to be formally evaluated although initial feedback and student consultation is promising. This paper outlines the program's development, current initiatives and expected outcomes.  

  18. Bill related to the struggle against proliferation of mass destruction weapons and their vectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    This bill indicates the modifications brought to different French laws and codes (penal code, defence code, custom code) and defines provisions and penalties within the frame of struggle against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (nuclear weapons, biological weapons and toxin-based weapons, chemical weapons), and against the proliferation of their vectors. These modifications, provisions and penalties also concern double-use products. The bill also defines the modifications brought to the French penal procedure code. It finally addresses offenses related to these proliferations which can be considered as an act of terrorism

  19. Industry wins, loses in House bill

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that the House of Representatives has approved a plan to limit U.S. gas prorationing by the states but rejected a move to require petroleum refiners and importers to place 1% of their oil or products volumes into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The oil industry lobbied heavily against the SPR provision, which went down 263-135. The House then passed its omnibus energy bill 381-37. It is designed to facilitate all types of energy production while promoting conservation. The legislation also imposes bans on offshore leasing but gives independent producers limited relief from the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and does not include a mandate for use of ethanol in gasoline

  20. An Enterprise Model for Real-Time Inter-domain Billing of Services

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Le, V.M.; van Beijnum, Bernhard J.F.; Nieuwenhuis, Lambertus Johannes Maria; Huitema, G.B.

    2008-01-01

    The technological developments in networking solutions, information and communication services create the basis for the provisioning of complex, realtime services. This paper addresses the charging and billing of such advanced services. Advanced services will be composed of services provided by

  1. Wound center facility billing: A retrospective analysis of time, wound size, and acuity scoring for determining facility level of service.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fife, Caroline E; Walker, David; Farrow, Wade; Otto, Gordon

    2007-01-01

    Outpatient wound center facility reimbursement for Medicare beneficiaries can be a challenge to determine and obtain. To compare methods of calculating facility service levels for outpatient wound centers and to demonstrate the advantages of an acuity-based billing system (one that incorporates components of facility work that is non-reimbursable by procedure codes and that represents an activity-based costing approach to medical billing), a retrospective study of 5,098 patient encounters contained in a wound care-specific electronic medical record database was conducted. Approximately 500 patient visits to the outpatient wound center of a Texas regional hospital between April 2003 and November 2004 were categorized by service level in documentation and facility management software. Visits previously billed using a time-based system were compared to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' proposed three-tiered wound size-based system. The time-based system also was compared to an acuity-based scoring system. The Pearson correlation coefficient between billed level of service by time and estimated level of service by acuity was 0.442 and the majority of follow-up visits were billed as Level 3 and above (on a time level of 1 to 5) , confirming that time is not a surrogate for actual work performed. Wound size also was found to be unrelated to service level (Pearson correlation = 0.017) and 97% of wound areas were billings than extremes; no other method produced this distribution. Hospital-based outpatient wound centers should develop, review, and refine acuity score-based models on which to determine billed level of service.

  2. New Commodity Services System increases gas bill for clients

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koevoet, H.

    2003-01-01

    The Dutch company Gasunie Trade and Supply will replace the Commodity Services System (CDS, abbreviated in Dutch) January 1, 2004. This will result in a higher gas bill for almost all their clients that are expected to use more than 1 million m 3 natural gas per year. An overview is given of the principles of the old and the new pricing system [nl

  3. Defense Authorization and Appropriations Bills: FY1970-FY2017

    Science.gov (United States)

    2017-01-18

    textbooks on legislative procedure. Tracking DOD authorization or appropriation bills can be confusing and time-consuming. This has been particularly...by the President through the White House Office of Management and Budget) to the defense authorizing and appropriations committees. Then, for...maintain operations . 3 This might be considered a “line of credit” against the enactment of the relevant appropriations for the new fiscal year

  4. Pricing and Billing of Technical Assistance Sold to Foreign Military Sales Customers

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    1990-01-01

    .... The audit also included a follow-up review of recommendations applicable to the issuance of specific guidance for pricing and billing CIP costs, depot maintenance costs, and missile target and range costs...

  5. At CES Paul Allen beaming about Hawks, wishing Bill Gates well

    CERN Multimedia

    2008-01-01

    when word came out that he and Bill Gates were supporting a spectacular new telescope with $30 million in donations. E-mail was apparently a little spotty on the yacht, but he responded last night to a few questions about the LSST project:

  6. A breeding site record of Long-billed Vulture Gyps indicus (Aves: Accipitriformes: Accipitridae from Bejjur Reserve Forest, Telangana, India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Swetha Stotrabhashyam

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available The Long-billed Vulture Gyps indicus is, Critically Endangered with few known breeding sites in peninsular India.  We present a previously undocumented Long-billed Vulture breeding site in Bejjur Reserve Forest, Adilabad District, northern Telangana.

  7. 49 CFR 1035.1 - Requirement for certain forms of bills of lading.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... Requirement for certain forms of bills of lading. (a) All common carriers, except express companies, engaged in the transportation of property other than livestock and wild animals, by rail or by water subject...

  8. Size & Flow: Adult Education Issues in the Senate Immigration Bill

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murphy, Garrett; Spangenberg, Gail

    2014-01-01

    In this essay Garrett Murphy and Gail Spangenberg report on the need for understanding better than in the past, the number of undocumented immigrants likely to need adult education services under provisions of Senate Immigration Bill S.744. The essay looks at why the issues of "size and flow" are important for planners, providers, and…

  9. Historic and contemporary mercury exposure and potential risk to yellow-billed loons (Gavia adamsii) breeding in Alaska and Canada

    Science.gov (United States)

    Evers, David C.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Basu, Niladri; DeSorbo, Christopher R.; Fair, Jeff; Gray, Carrie E.; Paruk, James D.; Perkins, Marie; Regan, Kevin; Uher-Koch, Brian D.; Wright, Kenneth G.

    2014-01-01

    The Yellow-billed Loon (Gavia adamsii) is one of the rarest breeding birds in North America. Because of the small population size and patchy distribution, any stressor to its population is of concern. To determine risks posed by environmental mercury (Hg) loads, we captured 115 Yellow-billed Loons between 2002 and 2012 in the North American Arctic and sampled their blood and/or feather tissues and collected nine eggs. Museum samples from Yellow-billed Loons also were analyzed to examine potential changes in Hg exposure over time. An extensive database of published Hg concentrations and associated adverse effects in Common Loons (G. immer) is highly informative and representative for Yellow-billed Loons. Blood Hg concentrations reflect dietary uptake of methylmercury (MeHg) from breeding areas and are generally considered near background levels if less than 1.0 µg/g wet weight (ww). Feather (grown at wintering sites) and egg Hg concentrations can represent a mix of breeding and wintering dietary uptake of MeHg. Based on Common Loon studies, significant risk of reduced reproductive success generally occurs when adult Hg concentrations exceed 2.0 µg/g ww in blood, 20.0 µg/g fresh weight (fw) in flight feathers and 1.0 µg/g ww in eggs. Contemporary mercury concentrations for 176 total samples (across all study sites for 115 Yellow-billed Loons) ranged from 0.08 to 1.45 µg/g ww in blood, 3.0 to 24.9 µg/g fw in feathers and 0.21 to 1.23 µg/g ww in eggs. Mercury concentrations in blood, feather and egg tissues indicate that some individual Yellow-billed Loons in breeding populations across North America are at risk of lowered productivity resulting from Hg exposure. Most Yellow-billed Loons breeding in Alaska overwinter in marine waters of eastern Asia. Although blood Hg concentrations from most breeding loons in Alaska are within background levels, some individuals exhibit elevated feather and egg Hg concentrations, which likely indicate the uptake of Me

  10. 9 CFR 73.6 - Placarding means of conveyance and marking billing of shipments of treated scabby cattle or...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... marking billing of shipments of treated scabby cattle or cattle exposed to scabies. 73.6 Section 73.6... INTERSTATE TRANSPORTATION OF ANIMALS (INCLUDING POULTRY) AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS SCABIES IN CATTLE § 73.6 Placarding means of conveyance and marking billing of shipments of treated scabby cattle or cattle exposed to...

  11. Bill Gates, If You're so Rich, How Come You're Not Smart? Point of View Essay

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bracey, Gerald

    2005-01-01

    Bill Gates and the governors were quite vague about what makes the schools obsolete or what to do about it. What is it, exactly, that schools are not teaching that they need to? Bill Gates also claimed that American kids were at the top in fourth grade, but at the bottom by 12th. The author congratulates Gates for focusing some attention on…

  12. Variation in haematozoan parasitism at local and landscape levels in the red-billed quelea Quelea quelea

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Durrant, Kate L.; Reed, Jennifer L.; Jones, Peter J.

    2007-01-01

    The red-billed quelea Quelea quelea, one of the most abundant birds in the world, presents two fundamental conundrums that we investigate here with a novel approach using blood parasite assemblages at two spatial scales, landscape and individual. The quelea of southern Africa Q. q. lathamii...... parasite. At a finer scale, the colourful and variable breeding plumage of male red-billed quelea has not previously shown a correlation with predictors of quality, as it does in many other bird species. The male's breeding plumage is partially based on carotenoid colouration, the quality of which has been...... to indicate quality. Finally, we recovered the greatest number of haematozoan lineages from any phylogenetic survey of a single host species to date. Understanding the reasons for the extreme diversity of parasite lineages in this species may assist in explaining the success of the red-billed quelea...

  13. Short Note A perceived local extinction of Red-billed Oxpeckers in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Short Note A perceived local extinction of Red-billed Oxpeckers in the Yabelo region, southern Ethiopia. Richard J Mellanby, Celia Broadhurst, Mengistu Wondafrash, Mihiret Ewnetu, Sandy Watt, Rob Critchlow, Aman Dadesa, Tom Deas, Chere Enawgaw, Berihun Gebremedhin, Ellie Graham, Sarah MacLean, Ben Ross ...

  14. BILL MUNDY THEORY, EFFECTIVE RAKE ANGLE CUTTING TOOLS IN COPPER ALLOYS TEORIA DE BILL MUNDY Y EL ANGULO EFECTIVO DE ATAQUE DE HERRAMIENTAS DE CORTE EN ALEACIONES DE COBRE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juan Miguel Godoy R

    2007-08-01

    Full Text Available Magazines like American Machinist and Manufacturing Engineering, have explained the Bill Mundy theory about the effective rake angle of cutting tools. These articles show the effective rake angle of cutting tools for carbon steel, steel , alloys, cast iron, aluminium and stainless steel. In the present work the theory is applied to cutting tools used in brass and bronze. The effective rake angle for these materials was obtained with the tensile stress test. The rake angles in the cutting tools were made in a Universal Grinding Machine Heiler. Finally, the power consumption was measured in a CNC Lathe. Tools with commercial rake angles from bibliography were compared with tools with the experimental effective rake angle obtained from the Bill Mundy Theory. The results show that the power consumption is about 10% lower for tools with the experimental effective rake angle.Revistas como American Machinist y Manufacturing Engineering, han explicado la Teoría de Bill Mundy y el ángulo efectivo de ataque en herramientas de corte utilizadas en aceros al carbono, aceros aleados, hierro fundido, aluminio y acero inoxidable. En este trabajo, esta teoría es aplicada a herramientas de corte usadas para latón y bronce y sus resultados son comparados con los ángulos de ataque recomendados por los fabricantes de herramientas de corte. El ángulo de ataque efectivo se obtiene del ensayo de tracción del material a ser mecanizado. Los ángulos de las herramientas fueron hechos en una máquina universal de afilar Heiler. El consumo de potencia fue medido en un torno CNC. El consumo de potencia con herramientas de corte comerciales con ángulos de corte recomendados por la bibliografía existente, fue comparado con las herramientas afiladas con el ángulo de corte efectivo obtenido a través de la teoría de Bill Mundy. Los resultados indican que el consumo de potencia es un 10% menor para las herramientas afiladas con el ángulo efectivo recomendado por la

  15. 2016 Personalized Learning & Student Success Summit: Summary from the NMC

    Science.gov (United States)

    New Media Consortium, 2016

    2016-01-01

    The New Media Consortium (NMC) hosted the Personalized Learning & Student Success Summit at SXSWedu on March 7-9 in Austin, Texas. The summit convened grantees and partners of the Postsecondary Strategy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and served as a call-to-action for education leaders to first imagine if and then commit to trying…

  16. Streamlining and Standardizing Due Diligence to Ensure Quality of PV Power Plants

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2017-11-28

    Those investing in PV power plants would like to have confidence that the plants will provide the anticipated return on investment. While due diligence is capably performed by independent engineers today, as PV systems mature, there will be benefit in standardization and streamlining of this process. The IECRE has defined technical information that is needed as a basis for each transaction step such as approving a design to begin construction, documenting readiness to operate, quantifying performance after a year of operation, and assessing the health of the plant in preparation for sale of the plant. The technical requirements have been defined by IEC Technical Committee 82 and have been designed to be both effective and efficient in completing the assessments. This workshop will describe these new tools that are now available to the community and will include a panel/audience discussion about how and when they can be most effectively used.

  17. 76 FR 11079 - Sale and Issue of Marketable Book-Entry Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds; Minimum Interest Rate

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-03-01

    ... Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds; Minimum Interest Rate AGENCY: Bureau of the Public Debt, Fiscal Service... rules to establish a minimum interest rate of \\1/8\\ of one percent for all new Treasury note and bond... Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds \\1\\ (``UOC'' or ``Auction Rules'') to establish a minimum interest rate of...

  18. Bill Lang's contributions to acoustics at the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) and to IBM in general

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nobile, Matthew A.; Chu, Richard C.

    2005-09-01

    Although Bill Lang's accomplishments and key roles in national and international standards and in the formation of INCE are widely recognized, sometimes it has to be remembered that for nearly 35 years he also had a ``day job'' at the IBM Corporation. His achievements at IBM were no less significant and enduring than those in external standards and professional societies. This paper will highlight some of the accomplishments and activities of Bill Lang as an IBM noise control engineer, the creator of the IBM Acoustics Lab in Poughkeepsie, the founder of the global Acoustics program at IBM, and his many other IBM leadership roles. Bill was also a long-serving IBM manager, with the full set of personnel issues to deal with, so his people-management skills were often called into play. Bill ended his long and fruitful IBM career at a high point. In 1988, he took an original idea of his to the top of IBM executive management, which led directly to the formation of the IBM Academy of Technology, today the preeminent body of IBM top technical leaders from around the world.

  19. Bill Lowrie In The Apennines U Reading - The Pelagic Record of Geomagnetic Reversals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alvarez, Walter

    Twenty five years ago, Bill Lowrie and I, along with Mike Arthur, Al Fischer, Gio- vanni Napoleone, Isabella Premoli Silva and Bill Roggenthen, published a set of five papers in the Geological Society of America Bulletin (March 1977), reporting a re- markable new source of information on the geomagnetic polarity time scale. The re- versal sequence was already known back to the Late Cretaceous on the basis of marine magnetic anomalies, but only as a sequence of longer and shorter polarity intervals, a kind of fingerprint with almost no age calibration. At Gubbio, in the Umbrian Apen- nines of Italy, we discovered that the polarity intervals are also recorded in pelagic limestones, deposited quietly at moderate oceanic depths at rates of order 10 m/Myr. and these limestones are literally made of fossils, notably the planktic foraminifera which are the best age correlation tool for the last 100 Myr. The reversal sequence was now datable. You can make a discovery like this either by looking for it, as Al Fischer did U hoping ° that such a record would be present and waiting until magnetometers improved enough to make it possible to measure these very weakly magnetic rocks U or by stumbling ° on it as Bill and I did. We went to the Apennines hoping to measure paleomagnetically a tectonic rotation of the Italian crust. Digital spinner magnetometers had just become available and Bill found that he could measure the remanence of the Apennine pelagic limestones I had been studying in the field. Tectonic rotation of the Italian crust turned out to be very difficult to detect, because interbed slip was a major complication. But we accidentally sampled both normal and reversed beds in the Scaglia rossa limestone on our first trip, and back in the lab we recognized that we had a polarity record in front of us. The microfossils made it a datable record, which raised great excitement among our colleagues at Lamont, where sea-floor magnetic reversals were the key to tectonic

  20. Teaching experience in university students using social networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    María del Rocío Carranza Alcántar

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Social networks, specifically Facebook and Twitter, are currently one of the mainstream media in the world, yet its educational use for the dissemination of knowledge is not significantly evident, under this premise this report is presented, considering an experience in which teachers and university-level students used these networks as mediators of educational practices; such mediation was implemented in order to promote mobile learning as an option to facilitate the process of construction and socialization of knowledge; In this sense, the research presented aimed to identify the experience and opinion of students regarding the influence of this strategy in achieving their learning. The quantitative methodology was applied through the application type of a survey of students who participated and realized the importance of socialization of knowledge. The results showed favorable opinions regarding the use of these networks, highlighting the benefits of mobile learning as a way to streamline the training process. The proposal is to continue this type of strategies to promote flexible teaching-learning options.

  1. One year of migration data for a western yellow-billed cuckoo

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sechrist, Juddson D.; Paxton, Eben H.; Ahlers, Darrell D.; Doster, Robert H.; Ryan, Vicky M.

    2012-01-01

    In 2009, we studied the migration of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo by capturing 13 breeding birds on the middle Rio Grande, New Mexico, and attaching a 1.5-g Mk 14-S British Antarctic Survey geolocator to each bird. In 2010, we recaptured one of the cuckoos, enabling us to download its geolocation data. The cuckoo had flown approximately 9500 km during its southward migration, traveling through Central America to winter in portions of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. The spring migration route differed somewhat from the fall route, with the cuckoo bypassing Central America to migrate through the Caribbean. Additionally, it moved between New Mexico and Mexico at the end of summer in 2009 and again in 2010 before being recaptured at its breeding site. Our results, albeit from one individual, hint at a dynamic migration strategy and have broad implications for the ecology and conservation of the Western Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a species of conservation concern.

  2. Supply chain cost improvement opportunities through streamlining cross-border operations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan Hendrik Havenga

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available The Cross-Border Road Transport Agency (CBRTA in South Africa aims to encourage and facilitate trade between South Africa and its neighbouring countries. The CBRTA sponsored a study by Stellenbosch University (SU to determine the logistics cost impact of cross-border delays between South Africa and its major neighbouring trading partners, and prioritise opportunities for improvement. SU is the proprietor of both a comprehensive freight demand model and a logistics cost model for South Africa, which enable extractions and extensions of freight flows and related costs for specific purposes. Through the application of these models, the following information is identified and presented in this paper: South Africa’s most important border posts (based on traffic flows; a product profile for imports and exports through these border posts; the modal split (road and rail; the annual logistics costs incurred on the corridors feeding the border posts, as well as the additional costs incurred due to border delays. The research has proved that the streamlining of border-post operations that take a total supply chain view (i.e. of both border operations and those that could be moved from the border is beneficial.

  3. Cardiogenic induction of pluripotent stem cells streamlined through a conserved SDF-1/VEGF/BMP2 integrated network.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anca Chiriac

    Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Pluripotent stem cells produce tissue-specific lineages through programmed acquisition of sequential gene expression patterns that function as a blueprint for organ formation. As embryonic stem cells respond concomitantly to diverse signaling pathways during differentiation, extraction of a pro-cardiogenic network would offer a roadmap to streamline cardiac progenitor output. METHODS AND RESULTS: To resolve gene ontology priorities within precursor transcriptomes, cardiogenic subpopulations were here generated according to either growth factor guidance or stage-specific biomarker sorting. Innate expression profiles were independently delineated through unbiased systems biology mapping, and cross-referenced to filter transcriptional noise unmasking a conserved progenitor motif (55 up- and 233 down-regulated genes. The streamlined pool of 288 genes organized into a core biological network that prioritized the "Cardiovascular Development" function. Recursive in silico deconvolution of the cardiogenic neighborhood and associated canonical signaling pathways identified a combination of integrated axes, CXCR4/SDF-1, Flk-1/VEGF and BMP2r/BMP2, predicted to synchronize cardiac specification. In vitro targeting of the resolved triad in embryoid bodies accelerated expression of Nkx2.5, Mef2C and cardiac-MHC, enhanced beating activity, and augmented cardiogenic yield. CONCLUSIONS: Transcriptome-wide dissection of a conserved progenitor profile thus revealed functional highways that coordinate cardiogenic maturation from a pluripotent ground state. Validating the bioinformatics algorithm established a strategy to rationally modulate cell fate, and optimize stem cell-derived cardiogenesis.

  4. Crimes amendment (Zoe's law) Bill 2013 (No 2): paradoxical commercial impacts of the conservative agenda on fetal rights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bricknell, Roseanna; Faunce, Thomas

    2014-12-01

    In 2013, Liberal MP Chris Spence introduced a Private Member's Bill to the New South Wales Parliament, reinvigorating an earlier Bill introduced by Christian Democrat MP Fred Nile. If passed, the Bill would have bestowed legal personhood on fetuses of 20 weeks or more for the purpose of grievous bodily harm offences in the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). The Bill had the potential to undermine freedom of choice for women in relation to abortions prior to the point of viability (capacity for fetal existence outside the womb) as well as other decisions concerning pregnancy and childbirth. One hypothesis is that legislative measures such as this that support the rights of the fetus are well intentioned initiatives by those for whom the fetus is an essentially independent entity or symbol of innocence and moral purity whose existence must be protected over and above the interests and independent decision-making capacity of the mother. This column explores this hypothesis in the context of the paradoxical negative commercial implications of such legislation on multiple areas involving fetal-maternal interaction including surrogacy.

  5. Promoting the Recognition and Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Using a Soft-Law International Migrants Bill of Rights

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ian M. Kysel

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The rights and movement of people crossing international borders remain inadequately governed and incompletely protected by a fragmented patchwork of institutions and norms. In recent years, debates regarding migration law and practice globally have been focused on subcategories of migrants, such as refugees, or on particular migration contexts, such as migration as a result of crisis or climate change. In response, a transnational initiative housed at the Georgetown University Law Center has drafted a soft-law bill of rights — the International Migrants Bill of Rights (IMBR — that seeks to elaborate the law protecting all migrants, regardless of the cause of their movement across an international border. The bill draws its content from human rights, refugee, and labor law, among other areas, and is drafted to be a comprehensive and declarative tool that articulates a core set of rights to protect migrants and to apply in the migration context.This article articulates how such a tool could be used to promote the recognition and protection of the rights of all migrants, in law and in practice. It argues that a soft-law bill of rights could be leveraged to fill significant gaps and promote an improved normative and institutional infrastructure that better protects all migrants worldwide. Section I provides a brief overview of the gap that a soft-law bill of rights can address. Section II provides a brief overview of the history and content of the bill of rights and IMBR Initiative. Section III describes, specifically, how making use of a soft-law bill of rights stands to improve the recognition and protection of fundamental rights that protect all migrants — and how soft law can help fill specific protection gaps.

  6. 20 CFR 10.801 - How are medical bills to be submitted?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... employees, except for treatment and supplies provided by nursing homes, shall be supported by medical... separate bill shall be submitted when the employee is discharged from treatment or monthly, if treatment for the work-related condition is necessary for more than 30 days. (1)(i) Hospitals shall submit...

  7. Explaining the increase in family financial pressures from medical bills between 2003 and 2007: do affordability thresholds change over time?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cunningham, Peter J

    2011-06-01

    This study examines whether affordability thresholds for medical care as defined by families change over time. The results from two nationally representative surveys show that while financial stress from medical bills--defined as the percent with problems paying medical bills--increased between 2003 and 2007, greater out-of-pocket spending accounted for this increase only for higher-income persons with employer-sponsored insurance coverage. Increased spending did not account for an increase in medical bill problems among lower-income persons. Moreover, the increase in medical bill problems among low-income persons occurred at relatively low levels of out-of-pocket spending rather than at higher levels. The results suggest that "affordability thresholds" for medical care as defined by individuals and families are not stable over time, especially for lower-income persons, which has implications for setting affordability standards in health reform.

  8. Streamlining interventional radiology admissions: The role of the interventional radiology clinic and physician's assistant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    White, R.I. Jr.; Rizer, D.M.; Shuman, K.; White, E.J.; Adams, P.; Doyle, K.; Kinnison, M.

    1987-01-01

    During a 5-year period (1982-1987), 376 patients were admitted to an interventional radiology service where they were managed by the senior physician and interventional radiology fellows. Sixty-eight percent of patients were admitted for angioplasty and 32% for elective embolotherapy/diagnostic angiography. A one-half-day, twice weekly interventional radiology clinic and employment of a physician's assistant who performed preadmission history and physicals and wrote orders accounted, in part, for a decrease in hospital stay length from 3.74 days (1982-1983) to 2.41 days (1986-1987). The authors conclude that use of the clinic and the physician's assistant streamlines patient flow and the admitting process and is partially responsible for a decreased length of stay for patients admitted to an interventional radiology service

  9. Should providers be allowed to extra bill for uncovered services? Debate, resolution, and sequel in Japan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ikegami, Naoki

    2006-12-01

    Japan has managed to provide universal coverage at relatively low cost by containing prices and restricting the conditions for which services can be billed in the compulsory social health insurance (SHI) program. However, decline in Japan's economic growth ushered in new actors backed by the prime minister who proposed that the providers should be allowed to extra bill for services not covered by the SHI. In 2004 they took the strategy of drawing the attention of the public to areas where the rigidity of the current prohibition appeared to be unfair and ridiculous. They were opposed by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare and the Japan Medical Association, who strongly objected on the grounds of safety and equity. The compromise reached by the two ministers in charge led to a clarification of the services that are to be covered and of the process for extending coverage to new procedures and drugs. The prohibition on extra billing has remained essentially unchanged, but the momentum for deregulation has been lost. In 2005 an alternate proposal was made to contain SHI expenditures by introducing a global cap on health expenditures and increasing out-of-pocket payment. Although this proposal was not fully adopted, the gradual decline in SHI benefit levels could lead to a renewed move to allow extra billing.

  10. Surveillance Camera Players / Bill Brown ; interv. Tilman Baumgärtel

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Brown, Bill

    2006-01-01

    New Yorgis tegutsevast rühmitusest SCP (Turvakaamera Esinejad), mille rajas Bill Brown (sünd. 1959), temaga 2001. a. jaanuaris tehtud meiliintervjuu. SCP etendab näidendeid turvakaamerate ees, Internetis jagab informatsiooni oma tegevuse kohta. Tekstis: "...kuna SCP keskendub turvakaameratele, kasutades nende loogikat selle tehnoloogia enda vastu, siis võib öelda, et nad töötavad kommunikatsioonivõrkudega"

  11. Bill C-5, an act to amend the radiation emitting devices act

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1984-01-01

    This Act, entitled Bill C-5, allows for a series of amendments to the Radiation Emitting Devices Act. The amendments relate to regulations concerned with the sale, lease or import, labelling, advertising, packaging, safety standards and inspection of radiation emitting devices

  12. The Protection of Information Bill and Access to Information in South ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study concludes by arguing that the 2010 Information Protection Bill has received massive coverage due to the fact that it has a negative impact on the work of the journalists and the information society, in general. Conclusions and recommendations for further research are offered. Keywords: Protection of Information, ...

  13. A Critique of the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill, 2015

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marius Olivier

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The contribution critically reflects on the proposed amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act Act 63 of 2001 (the UIA / the Act, introduced via the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Amendment Bill of 2015 (B25-2015. Several shortcomings and deficiencies are addressed and improvements introduced by the proposed amending legislation, including the extension of coverage to a wider range of beneficiaries, the extension of the period of benefits (to a maximum of 365 days, the increase of the rate of maternity benefits of a (female contributor's earnings, the adjustment of the accrual rate of a contributor's duration of benefits from 1 day for every 6 days of employment to 1 day for every 5 days of employment, and some attempt to provide for employment retention and the re-entry of unemployed contributors into the labour market. And yet, despite these important contributions to the development of unemployment insurance in South Africa, several matters appearing from the Bill point towards inconsistent, inadequate and inappropriate treatment of core elements of the unemployment insurance system. Recommendations have been made to address these matters, which among others relate to: •\tThe insufficient alignment of the UIA with ILO, UN and SADC standards in key areas of concern; •\tUnclear or absent provisions in relation to the coverage and/or application of the UIA in relation to public servants, migrant workers, and the self- and informally employed; •\tInadequate provision for employment promotion, the prevention, combating and reduction of unemployment, and reintegration into employment; •\tInappropriate provisions relating to benefit rates and periods, among others concerning the Minister's power to set/amend the Income Replacement Rate and to vary the benefit period by regulation; •\tInconsistent and discriminatory provisions requiring a 13-week qualifying period for accessing maternity benefits; •\tInappropriate provisions

  14. Survey of billing and coding for counterstrain tender points.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Snider, Karen T; Johnson, Jane C

    2012-06-01

    The names of certain counterstrain tender points are incongruent with their physical locations because of an assumption that these points are reflective of dysfunction in neighboring body areas. Because the body area that is physically examined does not always match the body region in which somatic dysfunction is diagnosed for these tender points, it is not always clear which evaluation and management service codes should be used for billing physician services. To assess the attitudes of osteopathic physicians toward the billing and coding of incongruent counterstrain tender points. Physician members of the American Academy of Osteopathy who use counterstrain in clinical practice were surveyed regarding the body area that they would physically examine when assessing for incongruent tender points and, if tender points were present, the body regions to which they would assign somatic dysfunction for billing and coding purposes. Physician responses were categorized as indicating a structural approach (ie, reflective of anatomic location) or a functional approach (ie, reflective of dysfunction in neighboring body areas) to tender point examination and treatment. Associations between sex, specialty, and years in practice with the approach chosen were also examined. Of 175 physicians who responded to the survey, 156 met the study criteria. Respondents were primarily board-certified in neuromusculoskeletal medicine/osteopathic manipulative medicine (98 [63%]), special proficiency in osteopathic manipulative medicine (30 [19%]), or family practice/family practice and osteopathic manipulative treatment (94 [60%]). Ninety percent of physicians predominantly chose responses indicating a structural approach to the physical examination of tender points and 21% predominantly chose responses indicating a functional approach to somatic dysfunction diagnosis. There were inconsistencies among individual respondents regarding the type of approach chosen for a single tender point. For

  15. Diet of yellow-billed loons (Gavia adamsii) in Arctic lakes during the nesting season inferred from fatty acid analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haynes, T B; Schmutz, Joel A.; Bromaghin, Jeffrey F.; Iverson, S J; Padula, V. M.; Rosenberger, A E

    2015-01-01

    Understanding the dietary habits of yellow-billed loons (Gavia adamsii) can give important insights into their ecology, however, studying the diet of loons is difficult when direct observation or specimen collection is impractical. We investigate the diet of yellow-billed loons nesting on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska using quantitative fatty acid signature analysis. Tissue analysis from 26 yellow-billed loons and eleven prey groups (nine fish species and two invertebrate groups) from Arctic lakes suggests that yellow-billed loons are eating high proportions of Alaska blackfish (Dallia pectoralis), broad whitefish (Coregonus nasus) and three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) during late spring and early summer. The prominence of blackfish in diets highlights the widespread availability of blackfish during the early stages of loon nesting, soon after spring thaw. The high proportions of broad whitefish and three-spined stickleback may reflect a residual signal from the coastal staging period prior to establishing nesting territories on lakes, when loons are more likely to encounter these species. Our analyses were sensitive to the choice of calibration coefficient based on data from three different species, indicating the need for development of loon-specific coefficients for future study and confirmation of our results. Regardless, fish that are coastally distributed and that successfully overwinter in lakes are likely key food items for yellow-billed loons early in the nesting season.

  16. 15 CFR 30.7 - Annotating the bill of lading, air waybill, or other commercial loading documents with proof of...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 1 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Annotating the bill of lading, air... CENSUS, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FOREIGN TRADE REGULATIONS General Requirements § 30.7 Annotating the bill... responsible for annotating the proper proof of filing citation or exemption legend on the first page of the...

  17. Biomechanical features of the bill and and jaw apparatus of cuckoos ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    ... processing at base of the bill. The morphofunctional analyses give results different from what is known for the Galliformes and allow the construction of the hypothesis of two trophic adaptive pathways. One followed by the Cuculidae would have led to the consumption of a large range of arthropods, including toxic species; ...

  18. The Environmental Ethic of Bill Mason: A Model for Environmental Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heintzman, Paul

    2007-01-01

    Almost 20 years after Bill Mason's death, the writings and films of this legendary Canadian canoeist, filmmaker, and artist remain popular: "Few people of any nation have been so influential in creating a sense of responsibility for the environment" (Buck, 2005, p. 12). Supported by statements in Mason's writings and films, this paper…

  19. Breeding Biology of Critically Endangered Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus at a Unique Site in Telangana State, India

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ravikanth Manchiryala

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Out of nine species of vultures, the population of three Gyps species, White-backed Vulture (Gyps bengalensis, Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris and Long-billed Vulture (Gyps indicus has declined drastically by 99% over the past decade (Prakash, 1999. The Gyps vultures' population declined in India by 97% and by 92% in Pakistan (Virani, 2006, Prakash et al., 2012. Possibly the widespread usage of Diclofenac drug in the animal led to the rapid population decline for these Vultures (Green et al., 2004. The Long-billed Vulture G. indicus is a bald headed vulture with very broad wings and short tail feathers, having no sexual dimorphism. In Malabar hills region of India the breeding season of Long-billed Vultures was noted to be November to May where it breed mainly on cliffs (Edward, 1915. Presently, it is in the most critical category of endangerment, listed in Schedule-I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act-1972 followed by IUCN, 2015 (http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22729731/0. The Andhra Pradesh State Biodiversity Board, Hyderabad announced that vultures are already 'Extinct' in the state (Medicheti, 2013.

  20. Severe bill deformity of an American Kestrel wintering in California

    Science.gov (United States)

    Iko, William M.; Dusek, Robert J.

    2011-01-01

    During a recent survey for West Nile virus in wild birds around the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, Imperial County, California (Dusek et al. 2010), we captured a female American Kestrel (Falco sparverius) with a severe bill deformity (Figure 1). The kestrel was captured on 9 March 2006, at 08:45, approximately 0.25 km south of the intersection of Wiest and Lindsey roads (33°  08' 42' N, 115° 26' 59' W) and 6 km east-northeast of Calipatria. It was caught on a bal-chatri trap baited with a domestic mouse (Berger and Mueller 1959), as were all the 208 kestrels captured during this study. The bird was initially perched on a high transmission line running along Wiest Road and was caught within 10 minutes of our setting the trap. In examining the bird, we observed that the maxilla beyond the cere was missing. The upper bill structure from the palatine process, which included part of the maxilla, the entire premaxilla, and the external rhamphotheca (the hardened keratin layer cover­ ing the premaxilla) was missing rostral to the bird's cere and nares (Threlfall 1968, Lucas and Stettenheim 1972, Proctor and Lynch 1993). The epidermal layer of the cere appeared to have fused over the remaining area between the nares where the upper bill normally would have been. The deformation did not appear to be recent or related to our trapping, as there were no obvious abrasions or open wounds in the region surrounding the nares and oropharynx or signs of recent trauma surrounding the oropharynx area. Both nares were clearly defined, and the tongue protruded from the open oropharynx area. After completing the physical examination, measurements, and obtaining a blood sample for testing for West Nile virus, we released the kestrel at the location of capture. After its release, we monitored the kestrel's behavior for approximately 30 minutes but did not observe any additional hunting.

  1. 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit: Fireside Chat with Steven Chu and Bill Gates

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chu, Steven; Gates, Bill; Podesta, John

    2012-02-28

    The third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit was held in Washington D.C. in February, 2012. The event brought together key players from across the energy ecosystem - researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, corporate executives, and government officials - to share ideas for developing and deploying the next generation of energy technologies. This video captures a session called Fireside Chat that featured Steven Chu, the Secretary of Energy, and Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft Corporation. The session is moderated by John Podesta, Chair of the Center for American Progress. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Microsoft Founder and Chairman Bill Gates exchanged ideas about how small businesses and innovators can overcome the challenges that face many startups.

  2. In Sickness and in Debt: Do Mounting Medical Bills Predict Payday Loan Debt?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bickham, Trey; Lim, Younghee

    2015-01-01

    Cash-strapped families sometimes turn to small, short-term loans with exorbitant fees—payday loans—to cope with mounting medical bills. Given that about three-fourths of payday loan customers are repeat borrowers, consumer advocates and policymakers have increasingly raised voices of concern about the use of payday loans to finance various household expenses, including, among other things, medical bills. The present study hypothesized that increases in medical debt are associated with increases in payday loan debt among a sample of Chapter 7 bankruptcy filers. The results of a multivariate tobit regression analysis showed that medical debt was associated with increased payday loan debt, controlling for various types of debt and other socioeconomic variables. This article concludes with implications of the results for social work policy- and direct-practice.

  3. Gender Differences in the Media Interviews of Bill and Hillary Clinton

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suleiman, Camelia; O'Connell, Daniel

    2008-01-01

    Does gender make a difference in the way politicians speak and are spoken to in public? This paper examines perspective in three television interviews and two radio interviews with Bill Clinton in June 2004 and in three television interviews and two radio interviews with Hillary Clinton in June 2003 with the same interviewers. Our perspectival…

  4. An interview with Bill and Melinda Gates. Interviewed by Claire Pomeroy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gates, Bill; Gates, Melinda

    2013-10-01

    Bill and Melinda Gates have led a profound transformation in the way we view the world's most pressing health concerns, looking for effective ways to improve the lives of millions of people. Claire Pomeroy, president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, spoke with them about their current concerns and plans to advance their agenda.

  5. Understanding the new US climate change strategy - The Waxman-Markey bill at a glance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Marchal, V.; Galharret, S.

    2009-01-01

    The climate change agenda is one of the two top priorities of Obama's administration, along with the reform of the health system. On June 26, 2009, the House of Representatives passed, by a margin of 219 to 212, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES), authored by Henry Waxman (from California) and Edward Markey (from Massachusetts). The bill is a comprehensive energy legislation that presents a cap and trade scheme regulating US Green House Gas (GHG) emissions, and a set of federal measures that aims at transforming the US traditional fossil fuel-based economy into a cleaner economy, based on renewable energy and low carbon alternatives. If passed by the Senate, the bill would intent to reduce US GHG emissions by 17% in 2020 and 80% in 2050 under 2005 levels, along with a 2 degrees / 450 ppm GHG concentration global objective. This brief provides an overview of the 1,428-page bill mechanisms and its implications at the national and international levels. It highlights the key uncertainties surrounding its institutional adoption and operational implementation. It also emphasizes its main differences with the European approach on cap and trade, the EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), as well as examines its international implications on carbon markets and negotiations. (authors)

  6. Less wireless costs : optimizing firms aim to cut wireless service bills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mahony, J.

    2006-01-01

    The Calgary-based firm Alliance is offering optimized billing to oil companies, many of which spend more than $100,000 a month on wireless services for devices such as cellular telephones, pagers and Blackberries. In particular, Alliance is focusing on cutting the cost of wireless for corporate clients by analyzing client-usage patterns and choosing the most cost-efficient rate plans offered by the telecoms. Alliance suggests that do-it-yourself optimization is too complex for the average user, given the very large choice of rate plans. Using algorithms, Alliance software goes through all the wireless service contract options from the telecoms to choose the best plan for a company's needs. Optimizers claim their clients will see significant savings on wireless, in the order to 20 to 50 per cent. This article presented a brief case history of a successful optimization plan for Nabors Canada LP. Alliance allows its clients to view their billing information on their web-based server. Call records can be viewed by device or company division. 1 ref., 1 fig

  7. The Influence Of Tax Billing By Forced Letter Intensity Against Taxpayer Compliance In Tax Service Office €˜Pratama€™ Manado

    OpenAIRE

    Pangemanan, Sifrid; Kawulur, Cecilya Helmy

    2015-01-01

    Tax Billing by forced letter is the governments efforts to improve the welfare of the people and encourage people to be responsible and participate in economic development. This study aims to determine the influence of tax billing by forced letter intensity against taxpayer compliance in Tax Service Office €˜Pratama€™ Manado. The analysis method used in this research is associative research methods to describe the influence of tax billing by forced letter intensity against taxpayer compliance...

  8. Hidalgo Sets Sail: A School District Supports All Students in Earning College Credits

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nodine, Thad R.

    2011-01-01

    In 2005, the Hidalgo Independent School District made an ambitious commitment. In partnership with nearby University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Texas System, the Communities Foundation of Texas/Texas High School Project, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the district promised that all of its students, not just a select…

  9. Charting Success: Data Use and Student Achievement in Urban Schools. Executive Summary

    Science.gov (United States)

    Faria, Ann-Marie; Heppen, Jessica; Li, Yibing; Stachel, Suzanne; Jones, Wehmah; Sawyer, Katherine; Thomsen, Kerri; Kutner, Melissa; Miser, David; Lewis, Sharon; Casserly, Michael; Simon, Candace; Uzzell, Renata; Corcoran, Amanda; Palacios, Moses

    2012-01-01

    In recent years, interest has spiked in data-driven decision making in education--that is, using various types of student data to inform decisions in schools and classrooms. In October 2008, the Council of the Great City Schools and American Institutes for Research (AIR) launched a project funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that focused…

  10. Design and implementation of a smart card based billing system for ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    A smart card based billing system for petroleum dispenser is just one of the many ways in which smart cards can be employed to make commerce efficient. It incorporates the use of smart card as its legal tender and a smart card reader embedded into the filling station dispenser design. The smart card reader processes the ...

  11. 78 FR 7387 - Continuation of 2008 Farm Bill-Dairy Forward Pricing Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-01

    ...] Continuation of 2008 Farm Bill--Dairy Forward Pricing Program AGENCY: Agricultural Marketing Service, USDA... the Dairy Forward Pricing Program contained in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008... associations of producers may enter into forward price contracts under the Dairy Forward Pricing Program...

  12. The streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin stabilising method for the numerical solution of highly advective problems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Humberto Galeano Urueña

    2009-05-01

    Full Text Available This article describes the streamline upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG method as being a stabilisation technique for resolving the diffusion-advection-reaction equation by finite elements. The first part of this article has a short analysis of the importance of this type of differential equation in modelling physical phenomena in multiple fields. A one-dimensional description of the SUPG me- thod is then given to extend this basis to two and three dimensions. The outcome of a strongly advective and a high numerical complexity experiment is presented. The results show how the version of the implemented SUPG technique allowed stabilised approaches in space, even for high Peclet numbers. Additional graphs of the numerical experiments presented here can be downloaded from www.gnum.unal.edu.co.

  13. 31 CFR Appendix II to Part 13 - Form of Bill for Reimbursement

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 31 Money and Finance: Treasury 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Form of Bill for Reimbursement II Appendix II to Part 13 Money and Finance: Treasury Office of the Secretary of the Treasury PROCEDURES FOR... title) of ______ (Country) to participate in the work of ______ (International Organization) or...

  14. Analysis of Radiation Accident of Non-destructive Inspection and Rational Preparing Bills

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bae, Junwoo; Yoo, Donghan; Kim, Hee Reyoung

    2013-01-01

    After 2006, according to enactment of Non-destructive Inspection Promotion Act, the number of non-destructive inspection companies and corresponding accident is increased sharply. In this research, it includes characteristic analysis of field of the non-destructive inspection. And from the result of analysis, the purpose of this research is discovering reason for 'Why there is higher accident ratio in non-destructive inspection field, relatively' and preparing effective bill for reducing radiation accidents. The number of worker for non-destructive inspect is increased steadily and non-destructive inspect worker take highest dose. Corresponding to these, it must be needed to prepare bills to protect non-destructive inspect workers. By analysis of accident case, there are many case of carelessness that tools are too heavy to carry it everywhere workers go. And there are some cases caused by deficiency of education that less understanding of radiation and poor operation by less understanding of structure of tools. Also, there is no data specialized to non-destructive inspect field. So, it has to take information from statistical data. Because of this, it is hard to analyze nondestructive inspect field accurately. So, it is required to; preparing rational bills to protect non-destructive inspect workers nondestructive inspect instrument lightening and easy manual which can understandable for low education background people accurate survey data from real worker. To accomplish these, we needs to do; analyze and comprehend the present law about non-destructive inspect worker understand non-destructive inspect instruments accurately and conduct research for developing material developing rational survey to measuring real condition for non-destructive inspect workers

  15. Filaments in curved streamlines: rapid formation of Staphylococcus aureus biofilm streamers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kevin Kim, Minyoung; Drescher, Knut; Shun Pak, On; Stone, Howard A; Bassler, Bonnie L

    2014-01-01

    Biofilms are surface-associated conglomerates of bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotics. These bacterial communities can cause chronic infections in humans by colonizing, for example, medical implants, heart valves, or lungs. Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious human pathogen, causes some of the most common biofilm-related infections. Despite the clinical importance of S. aureus biofilms, it remains mostly unknown how physical effects, in particular flow, and surface structure influence biofilm dynamics. Here we use model microfluidic systems to investigate how environmental factors, such as surface geometry, surface chemistry, and fluid flow affect biofilm development of S. aureus. We discovered that S. aureus rapidly forms flow-induced, filamentous biofilm streamers, and furthermore if surfaces are coated with human blood plasma, streamers appear within minutes and clog the channels more rapidly than if the channels are uncoated. To understand how biofilm streamer filaments reorient in flows with curved streamlines to bridge the distances between corners, we developed a mathematical model based on resistive force theory of slender filaments. Understanding physical aspects of biofilm formation of S. aureus may lead to new approaches for interrupting biofilm formation of this pathogen. (paper)

  16. "There's no billing code for empathy" - Animated comics remind medical students of empathy: a qualitative study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tsao, Pamela; Yu, Catherine H

    2016-08-12

    Physician empathy is associated with improved diabetes outcomes. However, empathy declines throughout medical school training. This study seeks to describe how comics on diabetes affect learning processes for empathy in medical students. All first- or second-year students at a Canadian medical school were invited to provide written reflections on two comics regarding diabetes and participate in a focus group. Responses were analyzed qualitatively for emergent themes. Students completed the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy (JSPE) at baseline, after the comic, and after the focus group. Linear mixed model statistical analyses were performed. Thirteen first-year and 12 second-year students participated. Qualitative analysis revealed four themes: 1) Empathy decline and its barriers; 2) Impact of the comic and focus group on knowledge, attitudes and skills; 3) Role of the comic in the curriculum as a reminder tool of the importance of empathy; 4) Comics as an effective medium. Baseline mean JSPE scores were 116.4 (SD 10.5) and trended up to 117.2 (SD 12.5) and 119.6 (SD 15.2) after viewing the comics and participating in the focus groups, respectively (p = 0.08). Animated comics on diabetes are novel methods of reminding students about empathy by highlighting the patient perspective.

  17. Ontario pharmacists' crisis over Bill 16: A missed opportunity?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosenthal, Meagen; Austin, Zubin; Tsuyuki, Ross T

    2012-01-01

    In 2010, the Ontario government brought forward Bill 16, which, among other things, removed pharmacists' professional allowances. While many would disagree with this unilateral action by the Ontario government, it also could have served as a crisis for change towards patient-centred care. We sought to examine the response of the pharmacy profession in Ontario to this crisis as it relates to the vision outlined in the Blueprint for Pharmacy. We systematically examined publicly available responses to Schedule 5 of Ontario's Bill 16 during the period from April to June 16, 2010. A rapid textual analysis of the data using tag or word clouds and a qualitative content analysis were performed on all of the data collected. The rapid textual analysis revealed that the most frequently used terms were "pharmacist," "pharmacy" and "professional allowances"; the least used were "layoffs," "service cuts" and "patient care." Content analysis revealed 4 themes: the desire to maintain the status quo of practice, a focus on the business of pharmacy, pharmacy stakeholders' perceptions of government's attitude towards the profession and changes to patient services. It is notable that patient care was almost completely absent from the discussion, a reflection that our profession has not embraced patient-centred care. This also represents a missed opportunity - a crisis that could have been used to move the profession towards the Blueprint's vision. We thought that the Blueprint had already achieved this consensus, but the Ontario experience has shown that this may not be the case.

  18. Analytical Work in Support of the Design and Operation of Two Dimensional Self Streamlining Test Sections

    Science.gov (United States)

    Judd, M.; Wolf, S. W. D.; Goodyer, M. J.

    1976-01-01

    A method has been developed for accurately computing the imaginary flow fields outside a flexible walled test section, applicable to lifting and non-lifting models. The tolerances in the setting of the flexible walls introduce only small levels of aerodynamic interference at the model. While it is not possible to apply corrections for the interference effects, they may be reduced by improving the setting accuracy of the portions of wall immediately above and below the model. Interference effects of the truncation of the length of the streamlined portion of a test section are brought to an acceptably small level by the use of a suitably long test section with the model placed centrally.

  19. S. 2844: A Bill to provide for radon testing. Introduced in the Senate of the United States, One Hundredth Congress, Second Session, September 29, 1988

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anon.

    1988-01-01

    Bill S. 2844 provides for radon testing and is cited as the Department of Housing and Urban Development Policy Act. The bill provides the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with a mandate to establish a departmental radon policy and program. The department will be required to use its programs to assist the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) address radon contamination. The bill also requires HUD, in coordination with the EPA, to develop a radon assessment and mitigation program which utilizes EPA recommended guidelines and standards to ensure that occupants of housing covered under this act are not exposed to elevated levels of radon. The entire contents of the bill are presented in eight sections entitled: Short Title, findings, Purpose, Definitions, Program, Information, Cooperation with Environmental Protection Agency, and Authorization. The bill was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

  20. Streamlining Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Procedures to Promote Early-Career Faculty Success.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Shannon B; Hollerbach, Ann; Donato, Annemarie Sipkes; Edlund, Barbara J; Atz, Teresa; Kelechi, Teresa J

    2016-01-01

    A critical component of the progression of a successful academic career is being promoted in rank. Early-career faculty are required to have an understanding of appointment, promotion, and tenure (APT) guidelines, but many factors often impede this understanding, thwarting a smooth and planned promotion pathway for professional advancement. This article outlines the steps taken by an APT committee to improve the promotion process from instructor to assistant professor. Six sigma's DMAIC improvement model was selected as the guiding operational framework to remove variation in the promotion process. After faculty handbook revisions were made, several checklists developed, and a process review rubric was implemented; recently promoted faculty were surveyed on satisfaction with the process. Faculty opinions captured in the survey suggest increased transparency in the process and perceived support offered by the APT committee. Positive outcomes include a strengthened faculty support framework, streamlined promotion processes, and improved faculty satisfaction. Changes to the APT processes resulted in an unambiguous and standardized pathway for successful promotion. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Monitoring undergraduate student needs and activities at Experimental Biology: APS pilot survey.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nichols, Nicole L; Ilatovskaya, Daria V; Matyas, Marsha L

    2017-06-01

    Life science professional societies play important roles for undergraduates in their fields and increasingly offer membership, fellowships, and awards for undergraduate students. However, the overall impacts of society-student interactions have not been well studied. Here, we sought to develop and test a pilot survey of undergraduate students to determine how they got involved in research and in presenting at the Experimental Biology (EB) meeting, what they gained from the scientific and career development sessions at the meeting, and how the American Physiological Society (APS) can best support and engage undergraduate students. This survey was administered in 2014 and 2015 to undergraduate students who submitted physiology abstracts for and attended EB. More than 150 students responded (38% response rate). Respondents were demographically representative of undergraduate students majoring in life sciences in the United States. Most students (72%) became involved in research through a summer research program or college course. They attended a variety of EB sessions, including poster sessions and symposia, and found them useful. Undergraduate students interacted with established researchers at multiple venues. Students recommended that APS provide more research fellowships (25%) and keep in touch with students via both e-mail (46%) and social media (37%). Our results indicate that APS' EB undergraduate activities are valued by students and are effective in helping them have a positive scientific meeting experience. These results also guided the development of a more streamlined survey for use in future years. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

  2. The Development of a More Equitable Method of Billing for Online Services.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenton, David

    1984-01-01

    The National Library of Medicine has discarded connect hour-only billing for a more equitable system, which distributes user costs by type and intensity of work performed and data delivered. User data (cost comparisons, interpolated input/output count per connect hours, connect hours per year) were analyzed and further improvements are planned.…

  3. Credit-Card Bill Seeks to Protect Students but Could Limit Their Access to Credit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Kelly

    2009-01-01

    Congress passed legislation last week that would shield students and other consumers from sudden spikes in interest rates and fees, but that could make it harder for young people to access credit to pay for college. The legislation would extend broad new consumer protections to all credit-card holders, offering special protections to college…

  4. Investigating the effects of streamline-based fiber tractography on matrix scaling in brain connective network.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jan, Hengtai; Chao, Yi-Ping; Cho, Kuan-Hung; Kuo, Li-Wei

    2013-01-01

    Investigating the brain connective network using the modern graph theory has been widely applied in cognitive and clinical neuroscience research. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of streamline-based fiber tractography on the change of network properties and established a systematic framework to understand how an adequate network matrix scaling can be determined. The network properties, including degree, efficiency and betweenness centrality, show similar tendency in both left and right hemispheres. By employing the curve-fitting process with exponential law and measuring the residuals, the association between changes of network properties and threshold of track numbers is found and an adequate range of investigating the lateralization of brain network is suggested. The proposed approach can be further applied in clinical applications to improve the diagnostic sensitivity using network analysis with graph theory.

  5. Department of Education Information on Consolidation Opportunities and Student Aid. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Human Resources and the Intergovernmental Relations Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, House of Representatives. Statement of Cornelia M. Blanchette, Associate Director, Education and Employment Issues, Health, Education, and Human Services Division.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Blanchette, Cornelia M.

    This report evaluates Department of Education opportunities to consolidate overlapping education programs, to find cost savings, and to strengthen its "gatekeeping" over schools' participation in student financial aid programs. It notes that, besides already proposed program consolidation, other programs that could be streamlined include…

  6. Health bill and MDGS 4, 5, & 6 | Daru | Tropical Journal of Obstetrics ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 30, No 2 (2013) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads. Username, Password, Remember me, or Register. Health bill and MDGS 4, 5, & 6. PH Daru ...

  7. [The flexibilization of the Brazilian legislation on pesticides and the risks to human health: analysis of Bill of Law 3,200/2015].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almeida, Mirella Dias; Cavendish, Thais Araújo; Bueno, Priscila Campos; Ervilha, Iara Campos; Gregório, Luisa De Sordi; Kanashiro, Natiela Beatriz de Oliveira; Rohlfs, Daniela Buosi; Carmo, Thenille Faria Machado do

    2017-07-27

    This article aims to contribute to a reflection on pesticides, based on the Brazilian legal framework, from the perspective of protecting human health and the environment. This initiative is due to successive attempts to flexibilize the regulation of pesticides in Brazil, through bills of law in progress in the Brazilian National Congress. An analysis of Bill of Law 3,200/2015 was carried out. This bill of law represents a major setback to the legislative achievements for the regulation of pesticides, in order to alert to the risks to human health from exposure to these products and aggravated by other similar proposals.

  8. Nr 17 - Private bill aiming at preparing transition towards a energy efficient system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bartolone, Claude

    2012-01-01

    This private bill indicates which new articles and which modifications are introduced in the French energy code to implement progressive energy tariffs and favour energy savings by households. These new articles define how a bonus-malus on household energy consumptions is determined. They also define accompanying measures

  9. Report on the bill project related to the struggle against proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2010-01-01

    In a first part presenting the various forms of proliferations, the author first gives a quantitative overview of illegal activities concerning nuclear materials, and then discusses the existence and activities of proliferation networks, explaining how international trade liberalization creates a favourable context for proliferations of any kind, and describing how a typical network is organised. He also discusses the example of Iraq and the case of the network created by the Pakistani scientist Abdul Q. Khan. The risk created by the hypothetical relationship between terrorism and nuclear weapon of mass destruction is also questioned. Then, after having recalled the existing international texts and the present national legislation, the author comments the contribution on the bill project and outlines aspects which are not dealt with by this bill project: radiological devices and cybernetic attacks. Then he reports the comments made by the commission on the bill project articles which define interdictions, sanctions and sentences, or procedures against people or organisations involved in the financing or the use of weapons of mass destruction (biological and chemical). A table gives a comparison between the bill project text and the commission's propositions

  10. College Students' Use of the Internet

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna C. McFadden

    1999-02-01

    Full Text Available Over the last several years there has been mounting concern about children being exposed to sex-related material on the Internet. Concern about pornography and obscenity is widespread and this concern has spawned a host of products to block or filter content. The notorious Time magazine article (July 3, 1995 "Cyberporn"--which Time later acknowledged had doubtful credibility (July 24, 1995--undoubtedly inflamed this trend. The article, which asserted that much of traffic on the Internet dealt with pornography, was based on the largely discredited research of a Carnegie Mellon undergraduate student who examined 32 alt.binaries newsgroups on Usenet, not the Internet. Nonetheless, the article was fodder for the Communications Decency Act of 1996. While the Supreme Court struck down the Act, pending bills such as the "Safe Schools Internet Act" (H.R. 3177 would require all public libraries and schools that receive federal funds for Internet access to install blocking software to restrict minors' access to "inappropriate" material. Other pending bills would punish commercial online distributors for access to material they do not directly control and require service providers to offer blocking software to customers. While most students who use computers in university computer labs are legally adults, many are not. If laws restrict access to minors, there will be a host of technical problems to provide access to scholars and adult students. Labs are open spaces where students come and go, using computers for many purposes but only part of the time for Internet access. Determining policies and creating procedures to implement and monitor policies will entail considerable resources for something that may not be a serious problem and something that cannot be effectively controlled with filtering software. It could require students to present identification to prove they are adults in order to access certain computer resources, not to mention the

  11. 78 FR 17647 - Annual Notice of Interest Rates of Federal Student Loans Made Under the Federal Family Education...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-03-22

    ... DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Annual Notice of Interest Rates of Federal Student Loans Made Under the.... Department of Education published in the Federal Register (78 FR 5433) a notice announcing the interest rates... bill rate Margin Total rate First disbursed on or after disbursed interest rate (percent) (percent...

  12. Streamlining the Design-to-Build Transition with Build-Optimization Software Tools.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oberortner, Ernst; Cheng, Jan-Fang; Hillson, Nathan J; Deutsch, Samuel

    2017-03-17

    Scaling-up capabilities for the design, build, and test of synthetic biology constructs holds great promise for the development of new applications in fuels, chemical production, or cellular-behavior engineering. Construct design is an essential component in this process; however, not every designed DNA sequence can be readily manufactured, even using state-of-the-art DNA synthesis methods. Current biological computer-aided design and manufacture tools (bioCAD/CAM) do not adequately consider the limitations of DNA synthesis technologies when generating their outputs. Designed sequences that violate DNA synthesis constraints may require substantial sequence redesign or lead to price-premiums and temporal delays, which adversely impact the efficiency of the DNA manufacturing process. We have developed a suite of build-optimization software tools (BOOST) to streamline the design-build transition in synthetic biology engineering workflows. BOOST incorporates knowledge of DNA synthesis success determinants into the design process to output ready-to-build sequences, preempting the need for sequence redesign. The BOOST web application is available at https://boost.jgi.doe.gov and its Application Program Interfaces (API) enable integration into automated, customized DNA design processes. The herein presented results highlight the effectiveness of BOOST in reducing DNA synthesis costs and timelines.

  13. Customer-economics of residential photovoltaic systems (Part 1): The impact of high renewable energy penetrations on electricity bill savings with net metering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Darghouth, Naïm R.; Barbose, Galen; Wiser, Ryan H.

    2014-01-01

    Residential photovoltaic (PV) systems in the US are often compensated at the customer's underlying retail electricity rate through net metering. Given the uncertainty in future retail rates and the inherent links between rates and the customer–economics of behind-the-meter PV, there is growing interest in understanding how potential changes in rates may impact the value of bill savings from PV. In this article, we first use a production cost and capacity expansion model to project California hourly wholesale electricity market prices under two potential electricity market scenarios, including a reference and a 33% renewables scenario. Second, based on the wholesale electricity market prices generated by the model, we develop retail rates (i.e., flat, time-of-use, and real-time pricing) for each future scenario based on standard retail rate design principles. Finally, based on these retail rates, the bill savings from PV is estimated for 226 California residential customers under two types of net metering, for each scenario. We find that high renewable penetrations can drive substantial changes in residential retail rates and that these changes, together with variations in retail rate structures and PV compensation mechanisms, interact to place substantial uncertainty on the future value of bill savings from residential PV. - Highlights: • We investigate the impact of high renewables on customer economics of solar. • We model three types of residential retail electricity rates. • Based on the rates, we calculate the bill savings from photovoltaic (PV) generation. • High renewables penetration can lead to lower bill savings with time-varying rates. • There is substantial uncertainty in the future bill savings from residential PV

  14. Energy consumption behavior in the commercial sector: An ethnographic analysis of utility bill information and customer comprehension in the workplace

    Science.gov (United States)

    Payne, Christopher Todd

    The commercial and industrial sectors of the United States compose roughly one-third of total United States energy consumption. Many studies have suggested that significant cost-effective energy savings opportunities exist in this sector, but there is a gap between predictions of potential and actual investment in energy-efficient technologies. Very few studies have been conducted to examine the decision-making environment of the business sector. In particular, there is essentially no information about how small-business decision-makers make choices about energy consumption. My research is intended to begin the process of understanding this important arena of energy consumption behavior. Using semi-structured interview techniques, I interviewed forty-four businesses in ten states. The focus of the interviews was the business decision-maker's handling and use of the utility bill---the main (often sole) piece of information that links energy consumption to cost. Through the interviews, I collected information about how utility bills are understood and misunderstood, what components of the bill are seen as useful or confusing, and how energy consumption was seen in the context of larger business decision-making. In addition, I collected data on two forms of energy consumption feedback: historic consumption feedback, in which informants compared their current energy use to patterns of their own energy consumption over time; and group comparison consumption feedback, in which informants compared their energy consumption to the consumption of a group of similar energy consumers. Finally, I collected data on sources of information to which decision-makers turned when they wanted to seek more information about energy consumption alternatives. Overall, my findings suggest that the current utility bill format is often misunderstood. In many cases, particularly in the small-business and medium-size-business categories, the link between energy consumption and energy cost is

  15. Evaluation of capture techniques for long-billed curlews wintering in Texas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woodin, Marc C.; Skoruppa, Mary K.; Edwardson, Jeremy W.; Austin, Jane E.

    2012-01-01

    Texas coast harbors the largest, eastern-most populations of Long-billed Curlews (Numenius americanus) in North America; however, very little is known about their migration and wintering ecology. Curlews are readily captured on their breeding grounds, but experience with capturing the species during the non-breeding season is extremely limited. We assessed the efficacy of 6 capture techniques for Long-billed Curlews in winter: 1) modified noose ropes, 2) remotely controlled bow net, 3) Coda Netgun, 4) Super Talon net gun, 5) Hawkseye whoosh net, and 6) cast net. The Coda Netgun had the highest rate of captures per unit of effort (CPUE = 0.31; 4 curlew captures/13 d of trapping effort), followed by bow net (CPUE = 0.17; 1 capture/6 d of effort), whoosh net (CPUE = 0.14; 1 capturel7 d of effort), and noose ropes (CPUE = 0.07; 1 capturel15 d of effort). No curlews were captured using the Super Talon net gun or a cast net (3 d and 1 d of effort, respectively). Multiple capture techniques should be readily available for maximum flexibility in matching capture methods with neophobic curlews that often unpredictably change referred feeding locations among extremely different habitat types.

  16. The Report on Part-Time Faculty Compensation and Salary Survey, House Bill 384

    Science.gov (United States)

    New Mexico Higher Education Department, 2007

    2007-01-01

    In the 2007 Legislative Session, House Bill 384 (HB 384) directed the New Mexico Higher Education Department to produce an Annual Accountability Report in collaboration with each public postsecondary educational institution in the state of New Mexico. The report contains information pertaining to: (1) faculty compensation and benefits practices;…

  17. The Library Bill of Rights in the 1960s: One Profession, One Ethic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Samek, Toni

    1996-01-01

    Discusses two vying interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights (intellectual freedom seen as pure neutrality or as social responsibility) and highlights conflicts that these views created within the American Library Association (ALA) from 1967 to 1973. Outlines early history of the Social Responsibilities Round Table of Libraries and the…

  18. Bioprofiling of unknown antibiotics in herbal extracts: Development of a streamlined direct bioautography using Bacillus subtilis linked to mass spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamshidi-Aidji, Maryam; Morlock, Gertrud E

    2015-11-13

    Working in the field of profiling and identification of bioactive compounds in herbal extracts is faced with the challenge that common chromatographic methods do not directly link to bioactive compounds. Direct bioautography, the combination of TLC/HPTLC with bioassays, linked to structure elucidating techniques is demonstrated to overcome this challenge. The combination of TLC and Bacillus subtilis bioassay was already demonstrated to detect the antibiotics in samples. However, previous studies in this field were faced with some challenges, like being time-consuming, leading not to a homogenous plate background or being restricted to a non-acidic mobile phase. In this study, these aspects were investigated and a streamlined HPTLC-B. subtilis bioassay was developed that generated a homogenous plate background, which was crucial to yield a good baseline for biodensitometry. Two commonly used broths for B. subtilis and a self-designed medium were compared with regard to their capability of detection and baseline noise. The workflow developed allowed the use of acidic mobile phases for the first time. To prove this, 20 herbal extracts were screened for antimicrobial substances developed in parallel with an acidic mobile phase. The main antimicrobial substance in Salvia officinalis tincture detected was further characterized by microchemical reactions, Aliivibrio fischeri, β-glucosidase and acetylcholinesterase (bio)assays as well as mass spectrometry. Scientists looking for new herbal-based medicine may benefit from this time-saving and streamlined bioactivity profiling. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. Student Loan Assistance Amendments of 1982. Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Education, Arts and Humanities of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, United States Senate. Ninety-Seventh Congress, Second Session on S. 2655.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

    Hearings of the Committee on Education and Labor on the proposed Student Loan Assistance Amendments of 1982 are presented. The bill (S. 2655) is designed to provide increased maximum limitations for student loans under Part B of Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 for certain students who lost benefits under the Social Security Act as a…

  20. Technical skills acquisition in surgery-bound senior medical students: an evaluation of student assertiveness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Talbott, Vanessa A; Marks, Joshua A; Bodzin, Adam S; Comeau, Jason A; Maxwell, Pinckney J; Isenberg, Gerald A; Martin, Niels D

    2012-01-01

    To prepare students pursuing surgical careers, we devised a senior subinternship curriculum supplement that focused on the acquisition of technical skills required of surgical residents. We hypothesized that more assertive students, those that accomplished more of the curriculum, would perform better on a technical skills Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Senior medical students rotating on their first general surgery subinternship were administered a 6-station OSCE on the first day of their subinternship and again during the final week of the month-long rotation. A self-directed, 38-task "scavenger hunt" representing common intern level clinical skills, procedures, and patient care activities was provided to each student. The study was performed at Jefferson Medical College, a large, private medical school in Philadelphia, PA. Forty-nine senior students completed surgical subinternships between July 2009 and September 2010, and participated both in the pre-/post-OSCEs and the scavenger hunt. Students performed significantly better on the post-rotation OSCE than on the pre-rotation OSCE; 70.2% ± 8.1% vs. 60.4% ± 12.0%, p Assertiveness scores from the "scavenger hunt" did not correlate with final OSCE scores (r = -0.328, p = 0.25), and were negatively correlated with the change between pre- and post-OSCE scores (r = -0.573, p assertiveness scores were determined by the number of tasks completed over the course of the rotation. As surgical education becomes more streamlined with evolving work hour restrictions, medical school education is playing an increasingly pivotal role in preparing students for internship. In our study, individual assertiveness in completing structured self-directed learning tasks did not directly predict the acquisition of proficiency in technical skills. We feel assertiveness is overshadowed by other factors that may carry more weight in terms of technical skills acquisition. Further studies are required to delineate these

  1. Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016: A commentary.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timms, Olinda

    2018-01-01

    Soon after the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 was approved by the Cabinet for introduction into Parliament in 2016, it was submitted for review to a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare. The report of this committee, The 102nd Report on the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 was laid on the table of the Lok Sabha and presented to the Rajya Sabha on August 10, 2017. It contains hearings with stakeholders and witnesses and a review of relevant documents and related legislation. The comments of the Parliamentary Standing Committee are wide ranging and pertinent, seeking to fill the gaps and explain and rationalise the statute and includes responses from the Department of Health Research. This commentary seeks to analyse the recommendations of the Committee, exploring some of the ethical, legal, and social implications of surrogacy arrangements in our country, where diverse viewpoints and strong sentiments can encounter difficult ground realities.

  2. Financial attitudes, knowledge, and habits of chiropractic students: A descriptive survey

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lorence, Julie; Lawrence, Dana J.; Salsbury, Stacie A.; Goertz, Christine M.

    2014-01-01

    Objective: Our purpose was to describe the financial knowledge, habits and attitudes of chiropractic students. Methods: We designed a cross-sectional survey to measure basic financial knowledge, current financial habits, risk tolerance, and beliefs about future income among 250 students enrolled in business courses at one US chiropractic college. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. Results: We received 57 questionnaires (23% response rate). Most respondents would accumulate over $125,000 in student loan debt by graduation. Financial knowledge was low (mean 77%). Most respondents (72%) scored as average financial risk takers. Chiropractic students reported recommended short-term habits such as having checking accounts (90%) and health insurance (63%) or paying monthly bills (88%) and credit cards (60%). Few saved money for unplanned expenses (39%) or long-term goals (26%), kept written budgets (32%), or had retirement accounts (19%). Conclusion: These chiropractic students demonstrated inadequate financial literacy and did not engage in many recommended financial habits. PMID:24587498

  3. Incremental analysis of the reengineering of an outpatient billing process: an empirical study in a public hospital.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chu, Kuan-Yu; Huang, Chunmin

    2013-06-13

    A smartcard is an integrated circuit card that provides identification, authentication, data storage, and application processing. Among other functions, smartcards can serve as credit and ATM cards and can be used to pay various invoices using a 'reader'. This study looks at the unit cost and activity time of both a traditional cash billing service and a newly introduced smartcard billing service in an outpatient department in a hospital in Taipei, Taiwan. The activity time required in using the cash billing service was determined via a time and motion study. A cost analysis was used to compare the unit costs of the two services. A sensitivity analysis was also performed to determine the effect of smartcard use and number of cashier windows on incremental cost and waiting time. Overall, the smartcard system had a higher unit cost because of the additional service fees and business tax, but it reduced patient waiting time by at least 8 minutes. Thus, it is a convenient service for patients. In addition, if half of all outpatients used smartcards to pay their invoices, along with four cashier windows for cash payments, then the waiting time of cash service users could be reduced by approximately 3 minutes and the incremental cost would be close to breaking even (even though it has a higher overall unit cost that the traditional service). Traditional cash billing services are time consuming and require patients to carry large sums of money. Smartcard services enable patients to pay their bill immediately in the outpatient clinic and offer greater security and convenience. The idle time of nurses could also be reduced as they help to process smartcard payments. A reduction in idle time reduces hospital costs. However, the cost of the smartcard service is higher than the cash service and, as such, hospital administrators must weigh the costs and benefits of introducing a smartcard service. In addition to the obvious benefits of the smartcard service, there is also scope

  4. Symbiotic adaptation drives genome streamlining of the cyanobacterial sponge symbiont "Candidatus Synechococcus pongiarum"

    KAUST Repository

    Gao, Zhao-Ming

    2014-04-01

    "Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum" is a cyanobacterial symbiont widely distributed in sponges, but its functions at the genome level remain unknown. Here, we obtained the draft genome (1.66 Mbp, 90% estimated genome recovery) of "Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum" strain SH4 inhabiting the Red Sea sponge Carteriospongia foliascens. Phylogenomic analysis revealed a high dissimilarity between SH4 and free-living cyanobacterial strains. Essential functions, such as photosynthesis, the citric acid cycle, and DNA replication, were detected in SH4. Eukaryoticlike domains that play important roles in sponge-symbiont interactions were identified exclusively in the symbiont. However, SH4 could not biosynthesize methionine and polyamines and had lost partial genes encoding low-molecular-weight peptides of the photosynthesis complex, antioxidant enzymes, DNA repair enzymes, and proteins involved in resistance to environmental toxins and in biosynthesis of capsular and extracellular polysaccharides. These genetic modifications imply that "Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum" SH4 represents a low-light-adapted cyanobacterial symbiont and has undergone genome streamlining to adapt to the sponge\\'s mild intercellular environment. 2014 Gao et al.

  5. Surrogate Based Optimization of Aerodynamic Noise for Streamlined Shape of High Speed Trains

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhenxu Sun

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Aerodynamic noise increases with the sixth power of the running speed. As the speed increases, aerodynamic noise becomes predominant and begins to be the main noise source at a certain high speed. As a result, aerodynamic noise has to be focused on when designing new high-speed trains. In order to perform the aerodynamic noise optimization, the equivalent continuous sound pressure level (SPL has been used in the present paper, which could take all of the far field observation probes into consideration. The Non-Linear Acoustics Solver (NLAS approach has been utilized for acoustic calculation. With the use of Kriging surrogate model, a multi-objective optimization of the streamlined shape of high-speed trains has been performed, which takes the noise level in the far field and the drag of the whole train as the objectives. To efficiently construct the Kriging model, the cross validation approach has been adopted. Optimization results reveal that both the equivalent continuous sound pressure level and the drag of the whole train are reduced in a certain extent.

  6. Symbiotic adaptation drives genome streamlining of the cyanobacterial sponge symbiont "Candidatus Synechococcus pongiarum"

    KAUST Repository

    Gao, Zhao-Ming; Wang, Yong; Tian, Ren-Mao; Wong, Yue Him; Batang, Zenon B.; Al-Suwailem, Abdulaziz M.; Bajic, Vladimir B.; Qian, Pei-Yuan

    2014-01-01

    "Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum" is a cyanobacterial symbiont widely distributed in sponges, but its functions at the genome level remain unknown. Here, we obtained the draft genome (1.66 Mbp, 90% estimated genome recovery) of "Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum" strain SH4 inhabiting the Red Sea sponge Carteriospongia foliascens. Phylogenomic analysis revealed a high dissimilarity between SH4 and free-living cyanobacterial strains. Essential functions, such as photosynthesis, the citric acid cycle, and DNA replication, were detected in SH4. Eukaryoticlike domains that play important roles in sponge-symbiont interactions were identified exclusively in the symbiont. However, SH4 could not biosynthesize methionine and polyamines and had lost partial genes encoding low-molecular-weight peptides of the photosynthesis complex, antioxidant enzymes, DNA repair enzymes, and proteins involved in resistance to environmental toxins and in biosynthesis of capsular and extracellular polysaccharides. These genetic modifications imply that "Ca. Synechococcus spongiarum" SH4 represents a low-light-adapted cyanobacterial symbiont and has undergone genome streamlining to adapt to the sponge's mild intercellular environment. 2014 Gao et al.

  7. Mutanttulnukad ja festivalid pimedas öös / Bill Plympton ; interv. Mikk Rand, tõlk. Elen Lotman

    Index Scriptorium Estoniae

    Plympton, Bill

    2002-01-01

    USA animaator, illustraator ja karikaturist Bill Plympton (1946), kelle animafilm "Mutanttulnukad" ("Mutant Aliens") osales Pimedate Ööde Filmifestivalil 2001. aasta detsembris. Vestlus toimus samal festivalil. Lisatud filmograafia

  8. 2004 energy bill of the France; Facture energetique de la France en 2004

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2005-07-01

    This document analyzes the energy bill in France (28,35 milliards of euros), which increased of 24,1 % in 2004. This increase is due to the net imports and especially the fossil fuels. Statistical data and the presentation of Patrick Devedjian, delegated ministry for the Industry, illustrate this economic analysis. (A.L.B.)

  9. An object-oriented model for complex bills of materials in process industries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vegetti M.

    2002-01-01

    Full Text Available In recent years, many process industries have been forced to drastically increase their product variety and adopt mass customization production strategies. Many of them have found that traditional bill of material (BOM processing systems do not sufficiently support the maintenance of the very large amounts of data (concerned with product structure demanded by these new production policies. Due to the use of BOM technology within the framework of integrated information systems, there is a demand for both (i a new representation of BOMs, able to deal efficiently with product variants and to handle decomposition-based production strategies, and (ii its corresponding BOM information processing system. This paper describes a conceptual representation that integrates elements of semantic relationships with object-oriented concepts to develop a data model for a hybrid bill of materials. The proposed semantic relationships include composed-of, decomposed-into, variant-of, restriction-of, and their corresponding reverse relationships. The conceptual model has been implemented using object-oriented data-based management system (OODBMS technology that allows creation of persistent Java objects. Preliminary tests show a remarkable reduction in the number of relationships when compared with former approaches.

  10. Streamlining Education System Through Waqf Enlargement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Imam Bahroni

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper is aimed at discussing the development of education systembased on the Waqf Empowerment. It is an experience of Gontor ModernIntegrated Islamic Institution to maintain its existence through the activitiesof Waqf Enlargement. The spirit of self-reliance which has been implementedby Gontor through various economic enterprise activities inside the campus isthe total processes of educational activities, carried out by students andteachers themselves. They act as the subjects and objects of the education atthe same time. They teach themselves through various activities, creativitiesand social interaction for their character and personality building. Thislearning process is purposely undertaken in Gontor, because the basicprinciple of this system is to actualize the community orientation throughwhich the students in the campus guided and prepared to have a spirit ofself reliance. So when they back to the society to undertake the real life theyconfidently take their role to develop their society for the sake of Allah andunity of muslim ummah.

  11. Political realities of statewide smoking legislation: the passage of California's Assembly Bill 13.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Macdonald, H R; Glantz, S A

    1997-01-01

    To prepare a history of the enactment of California Assembly Bill 13 (AB 13), a state law prohibiting smoking in most workplaces passed in 1994, and to discuss its initial impacts. Data were gathered from open ended interviews with representatives of voluntary health organisations, local government organisations, and principal legislators involved in the process, as well as observers around the state who could provide insight into the legislative process. Information was also obtained from legislative hearings and debates, public documents, letters and personal communications, internal memoranda, and news reports. The success of local tobacco control legislation in California led to a situation in which some health groups were willing to accept state preemption in order to attract the support of the state restaurant association for a bill. The decision to accept this preemption compromise was made by the state level offices of the voluntary health agencies without consulting the broader tobacco control community within California. In contrast, local tobacco control advocates did not accept this compromise, in part because of their belief that local legislation was a better device to educate the public, generate media coverage, and build community support for enforcement and implementation of clean indoor air and other tobacco control laws. Enactment of AB 13 was associated with a slowing of all local tobacco control legislation, including youth oriented laws. Because its supporters initially doubted that AB 13 would pass, there was never an effort to reconcile the policy differences between state oriented and locally oriented tobacco control policies. This lack of consensus, combined with the political realities inherent in passing any state legislation, led to a bill with ambiguous preemption language which replaced the "patchwork of local laws" with a "patchwork of local enforcement."

  12. Radioactive material (road transport) bill. [Third reading

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fishburn, D.; Walley, J.; Currie, E.

    1991-01-01

    This is a private members Bill which will enable new rules to be set out that will govern the way in the which nearly 500,000 shipments of radioactive and nuclear material go by road in the United Kingdom every year. It would give the Department of Transport, which would become the enforcing authority, the powers of entry and inspection and allows penalties to be exacted from those breaking the rules. The present regulations for transport by road are those set out in 1947 and these need to be updated to comply with International Atomic Energy Authority Standards. The debate which lasted over one and a half hours is reported verbatim. The main points raised were about which emergency services if any should be notified on the transport of nuclear materials, with particular reference to Derbyshire. Nuclear power in general was also discussed. (UK)

  13. Bill (declared urgency) asserting the national commitment for the environment; Projet de Loi (urgence declaree), portant engagement national pour l'environnement

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2009-01-15

    The bill asserting the French national commitment for the environment (also named 'Grenelle 2') is considered as the juridical tool-box of the French environmental policy. It confirms, strengthens, and concretizes the objectives defined by the Grenelle 1 law. The main dispositions of the bill concern the following domains: settlement and urbanism with the improvement of the energy efficiency, energy conservation and life-cycle of buildings; transports with the development of sustainable transportation systems; energy with the creation of regional climate, air and energy schemes with the aim of developing renewable energies (with some restrictions concerning wind power) and reducing CO{sub 2} emissions; biodiversity with the creation of ecological pathways between protected areas for the migration of flora and fauna species; environment and waste management with the reinforcement of measures for the abatement of environmental pollutant effects. Among the numerous dispositions involving more than 20 codes (urbanism, environment, buildings etc..) one concerns the progressive implementation of a 'carbon price' index taking into account the greenhouse gas emission costs during the whole life cycle of a product, another one concerns the monitoring of indoor air quality in public buildings. This document is made of three parts. Part 1 is the exposition of the intentions of each article of the bill, part 2 is the bill itself and part 3 is the impact study of the bill in terms of economical, social and environmental impact. (J.S.)

  14. Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth: 2014 Farm Bill Insect and Disease Restoration Provision -- True Gift or False Hope?

    OpenAIRE

    Holmstead, Jamilee E.

    2015-01-01

    Congress passed a revised Farm Bill in 2014 that amended the Healthy Forest Restoration Act (HFRA) to, hopefully, increase the speed with which natural resource issues could be addressed. Federal land management has often been condemned for being time-consuming and burdensome, chiefly in situations that require rapid response, such as insect disease and fire. The amendment in the 2014 Farm Bill is meant to address this concern. The amendment would allow for the insect and disease restorati...

  15. Spanish utility turns customer bills into a strategic advantage with EDP

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stone, C. [StreamServe Inc., Burlington, MA (United States)

    2007-03-15

    Enterprise document presentments (EDPs) are now used at many utilities to enable the automated creation and presentment of documents in formats that suit the needs of their customers. Upgraded billing capabilities can reduce operational costs, as well as drive incremental revenue for utilities that offer a portfolio of services. EDP bills can also provide an adaptable vehicle for meeting regulatory information requirements, as well as for demonstrating the utility's community obligations. This paper discussed an EDP program used by the Spanish utility Hidroelectrica del Cantabrico. After consulting with various companies, the utility finally selected an EDP solution provided by StreamServe Utilities, which offered data source independence. SAP data was received in RDI format, which provided the ability to rapidly design and generate invoices, contracts, and other documents. The EDP system selected by the utility also allowed them to consolidate electricity and gas consumption into a single invoice. Invoices were classified by distinct criteria, and optical labels were inserted to provide greater flexibility for design changes. The EDP solution allowed the utility to improve its corporate image on each printed document and optimize its client relationships by establishing a new marketing channel through the invoice itself. It was concluded that the utility has also achieved significant cost savings on paper and postage, as promotional campaigns are now inserted into invoice envelopes. 1 fig.

  16. Spanish utility turns customer bills into a strategic advantage with EDP

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stone, C.

    2007-01-01

    Enterprise document presentments (EDPs) are now used at many utilities to enable the automated creation and presentment of documents in formats that suit the needs of their customers. Upgraded billing capabilities can reduce operational costs, as well as drive incremental revenue for utilities that offer a portfolio of services. EDP bills can also provide an adaptable vehicle for meeting regulatory information requirements, as well as for demonstrating the utility's community obligations. This paper discussed an EDP program used by the Spanish utility Hidroelectrica del Cantabrico. After consulting with various companies, the utility finally selected an EDP solution provided by StreamServe Utilities, which offered data source independence. SAP data was received in RDI format, which provided the ability to rapidly design and generate invoices, contracts, and other documents. The EDP system selected by the utility also allowed them to consolidate electricity and gas consumption into a single invoice. Invoices were classified by distinct criteria, and optical labels were inserted to provide greater flexibility for design changes. The EDP solution allowed the utility to improve its corporate image on each printed document and optimize its client relationships by establishing a new marketing channel through the invoice itself. It was concluded that the utility has also achieved significant cost savings on paper and postage, as promotional campaigns are now inserted into invoice envelopes. 1 fig

  17. A High School Student's Bill of Rights. Teaching Resources in the ERIC Database (TRIED) Series.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gottlieb, Stephen S.

    Designed to tap the rich collection of instructional techniques in the ERIC database, this compilation of lesson plans focuses on teaching high school students their Constitutional rights and responsibilities. The 40 lesson plans in the book cover the courts and basic rights, the rights of criminal suspects, the rights of minors and education law,…

  18. A bill for the renaissance of nuclear power in Italy;Projet de relance de l'electronucleaire en Italie

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anon.

    2009-07-15

    Today Italy is the only G8 member to have no nuclear power plants in operation. In 1987 as a consequence of a referendum Italy decided to shut down its nuclear power plants and to forbid the construction of new ones. Italy relies on oil and gas imports for 80% of its energy needs. The Italian parliament has recently passed a bill for a renaissance of nuclear power. The bill gives 6 months to the government to set the rules and conditions for the come-back of nuclear energy. (A.C.)

  19. Predation threats to the Red-billed Tropicbird breeding colony of Saba: focus on cats

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Debrot, A.O.; Ruijter, M.; Endarwin, W.; Hooft, van P.; Wulf, K.

    2014-01-01

    Feral domestic cats (Felis catus) are recognized as one of the most devastating alien predator species in the world and are a major threat to nesting colonies of the Red-billed Tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus), on Saba island, Dutch Caribbean. Cats and rats are both known to impact nesting seabirds

  20. A simple distributed mechanism for accounting system self-configuration in next-generation charging and billing

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuehne, Ralph; Huitema, George; Carle, Georg

    2011-01-01

    Modern communication systems are becoming increasingly dynamic and complex. In this article a novel mechanism for next generation charging and billing is presented that enables self-configurability for accounting systems consisting of heterogeneous components. The mechanism is required to be simple,

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