This paper considers a problem of integrated decision-making for job scheduling and delivery batching wherein different inventory holding costs between production and delivery stages are allowed. In the problem, jobs are processed on a facility at a production stage and then delivered at the subsequent delivery stage by a capacitated vehicle. The objective is to find the coordinated schedule of...

Skilled birth attendance (SBA) and healthcare facility (HCF) delivery are effective means of reducing maternal mortality. However, their uptake remains low in many low-income countries. The present study utilized semi-structured interviews with 85 pregnant women attending an antenatal clinic in Akwatia, Ghana (May-July 2010) to better understand the barriers to SBA and HCF delivery through the ...

WTi he questions "What is authoritative knowledge in the obstetric setting?"; "Who possesses the information on which action is based?"; and, more importantly, "Who should make the decisions in the birth place?" are the topic of this remarkable series of articles. It is commonly accepted that, as a practicing obstetrician in the United States, I am an authority in the realm of birth. I have tra...

Because the Annual General Meeting of the Academy of Canadian Executive Nurses (ACEN) was moved to November from September, this report covers a 14-month period. During this time, ACEN has taken on a new identity on the national front. We have implemented the decisions taken at the last annual meeting related to changes in membership categories and fees, establishing a national office and incre...

Teamwork and care coordination are of increasing importance to health care delivery and patient safety and health. This thesis aims at developing agents that are able to make intelligent information sharing decisions to support a diverse, evolving team of care providers in constructing and maintaining a shared plan that operates in uncertain environments and over a long time horizon.

RF spectrum is a scarce resource. It is inefficient when no of users are increased. So cognitive radio is developed for provide to efficient use of bandwidth utilization. Licensed users are primary users and unlicensed users are secondary users. Cognitive radio enables the secondary usage of unused licensed spectrum band. In this Paper, we propose spectrum decision framework for best effort app...

PURPOSE This work is an attempt to evaluate the extent of knowledge concerning patient's rights and chances to execute these rights in everyday hospital reality. We have collected opinions of the patients from the maternity ward of Independent Central Public Clinical Hospital of Medical University of Silesia in Katowice. We also interested in participation of medical staff in respecting and rea...

Whether patient satisfaction scores can act as a catalyst for improving health care is highly debated. Some argue that pursuing patient satisfaction is overemphasized and potentially at odds with providing good care because it leads providers to overtest and overtreat patients and to bend to unreasonable patient demands, all to improve their ratings. Others cite studies showing that high patien...

Numerous studies have considered penalty as part of lease contract stipulation, which incurs whenever equipment downtime exceed a predetermined level. Under this stipulation, lessor would then choose maintenance effort level just enough to hinder them from penalty. Since it is used for business purpose, lower equipment downtime would always preferable for the lessee but necessarily for the less...