The Decision Value of Management Support Systems for Strategic Hospital Management

Several studies have shown that selected management support systems (MSS) favorably impact decision making. Others have theorized that additional benefits could be achieved by consolidating the separate system functions to form an integrated management support system. There have been few, if any, reported empirical tests of this theory. This article offers empirical evidence on integrated MSS effectiveness. It points to the general literature on MSS effects, notes an empirical gap in this literature, and reports the results of experiments that assess the influences of a specific integrated MSS on the process and outcomes of strategic hospital decision making.     

Performance Determination of a Chopper-Controlled Separately Excited DC Motor

Chopper-controlled dc motors have a wide field of application as variable speed drives. The techniques used for chopper control of dc power make use of pulse-width modulation (PWM), pulse-frequency modulation (PFM), and current-limit control. Of these, the pulse-width modulation and current-limit control are more widely used.     

Availability analysis of transit systems

This paper presents two mathematical models of repairable transit systems. State probability equations for both models are developed.     

Partitioning knowledge bases between advanced notification and clinical decision support systems

Clinical decision support system (CDSS) and their logic syntax include the coding of notifications (e.g., Arden Syntax). The following paper will describe the rationale for segregating policies, user preferences and clinical monitoring rules into “advanced notification” and” clinical” components, which together form a novel and complex CDSS. Notification rules and hospital policies are respectively abstracted from care-provider roles and alerting mechanisms. User-defined preferences determine which devices are to be used for receiving notifications. Our design differs from previous notification systems because it integrates a versatile notification platform supporting a wide range of mobile devices with a XML/HL-7 compliant communication protocol.     

High temperature oxidation of some zirconium alloys in flowing oxygen

The oxidation behavior of three zirconium alloys, Zr-2.2wt%Hf, Zr-2.5wt%Nb and Zr-3wt%Nb-1wt%Sn, has been studied in flowing oxygen in the temperature range 873–1173 K to 120 ks (2000 min). Zr-2.5Nb and Zr-3Nb-1Sn showed a transition to rapid linear kinetics after initial parabolic oxidation at all temperatures. Zr-2.2Hf, on the other hand, showed this transition at temperatures in the range 973–1173 K; no transition was observed at 873 K within the oxidation times reported. Zr-2.2Hf showed the smallest weight gains, followed by Zr-2.5Nb and Zr-3Nb-1Sn. Increased oxidation rates and shorter time-to-rate transition of Zr-2.5Nb and Zr-3Nb-1Sn as compared with Zr-2.2Hf are attributed to the presence of the alloying elements Nb, Sn and Hf. Based on the Nomura-Akutsu model, Hf should delay the rate transition, while Nb and Sn lead to shorter transition times. The scale on Zr-2.2Hf was identified as monoclinic zirconia, while the tetragonal phase, 6ZrO₂ · Nb₂O₅, was contained in the monoclinic zirconia scales on both other alloys.     

Isolated bilateral renal aspergillosis: an unusual presentation in an immunocompetent host

A 35 year old apparently immunocompetent farmer developed isolated bilateral renal aspergillosis. He presented with acute renal failure due to granulomatous interstitial nephritis and had bilateral renal abscesses on CT scan. Diagnosis came from renal histology and was confirmed on serology. The patient responded quite satisfactorily to single agent antifungal chemotherapy with IV amphotericin B.     

An algorithm for segmenting juxtaposed objects

This work is an attempt to develop an algorithm for segmentation of juxtaposed objects arising in the recognition of certain scenes. The approach is based on matrix manipulation. The algorithm is implemented in two parts. The first part is to find the significant points of concavity. In the second part, the direction of the paths of segmentation is found and the paths are grown into the pattern until complete segmentation is achieved. The algorithm is illustrated by considering examples from biomedical imagery.     

Bibliography of literature on fault trees

This paper presents a brief introduction and an extensive list of selective references on fault trees.