96,624 research outputs found
Shift rostering using decomposition: assign weekend shifts first
This paper introduces a shift rostering problem that surprisingly has not been studied in literature: the weekend shift rostering problem. It is motivated by our experience that employeesā shift preferences predominantly focus on the weekends, since many social activities happen during weekends. The Weekend Rostering Problem (WRP) addresses the rostering of weekend shifts, for which we design a problem specific heuristic. We consider the WRP as the first phase of the shift rostering problem. To complete the shift roster, the second phase assigns the weekday shifts using an existing algorithm. We discuss effects of this two-phase approach both on the weekend shift roster and on the roster as a whole. We demonstrate that our first-phase heuristic is effective both on generated instances and real-life instances. For situations where the weekend shift roster is one of the key determinants of the quality of the complete roster, our two-phase approach shows to be effective when incorporated in a commercially implemented algorithm
Reflections on the Practicality of Good Theory
Jennifer Kennison noticed something different about the way her high school chemistry students were working together during Complex Instruction rotation. Her attention to the change in her studentsā learning caused me to think about how Elizabeth Cohenās often referenced Kurt Lewinās comment āThere is nothing so practical as a good theory.ā As a result, I decided to ask two students who were teaching CI rotations if they would be interested in working together on a conference presentation that looked at their work through the eyes of Lewinās dictum. They would take on responsibility for documenting and writing about their CI units and I, their advisor, would take on Lewin. Both Jennifer, an experienced teacher and MEd. candidate, and Bethany Brodeur, a senior elementary education major, agreed to this task. The resulting papers formed the core of our presentation at the 2004 conference of the New England Educational Research Organization. Together, they form a short volume that integrates learning about CI with the practical implications of implementation of CI at the elementary and secondary levels. This paper reports my observations of their work confirming Lewinās dictum and Cohenās wisdom. C
Taxonomic classification of planning decisions in health care: a review of the state of the art in OR/MS
We provide a structured overview of the typical decisions to be made in resource capacity planning and control in health care, and a review of relevant OR/MS articles for each planning decision. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, to position the planning decisions, a taxonomy is presented. This taxonomy provides health care managers and OR/MS researchers with a method to identify, break down and classify planning and control decisions. Second, following the taxonomy, for six health care services, we provide an exhaustive specification of planning and control decisions in resource capacity planning and control. For each planning and control decision, we structurally review the key OR/MS articles and the OR/MS methods and techniques that are applied in the literature to support decision making
Wireless Health Monitoring using Passive WiFi Sensing
This paper presents a two-dimensional phase extraction system using passive
WiFi sensing to monitor three basic elderly care activities including breathing
rate, essential tremor and falls. Specifically, a WiFi signal is acquired
through two channels where the first channel is the reference one, whereas the
other signal is acquired by a passive receiver after reflection from the human
target. Using signal processing of cross-ambiguity function, various features
in the signal are extracted. The entire implementations are performed using
software defined radios having directional antennas. We report the accuracy of
our system in different conditions and environments and show that breathing
rate can be measured with an accuracy of 87% when there are no obstacles. We
also show a 98% accuracy in detecting falls and 93% accuracy in classifying
tremor. The results indicate that passive WiFi systems show great promise in
replacing typical invasive health devices as standard tools for health care.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, conference pape
Capacity-building in open education: an Australian approach
Addressing the gap between global open educational resource (OER) proliferation and the slow adoption of OER and open educational practices (OEP) in Australian higher education, this paper focuses on a capacity-building project targeting academics, academic support staff and educational developers. The conception, design, development, piloting and evaluation of an open, online professional development micro course are detailed, highlighting key aspects of the open design and considerations for sharing and reuse across higher education institutions. The open micro course introduces five key OEP concepts through five contemporary curriculum design topics, using knowledge co-creation activities which engage learners in iterative shaping of the course, and generate artefacts for demonstration and recognition of learning. Opportunities for short to longer term capacity-building which leverage the micro course are also discussed, in response to significant shifts underway in higher education funding and professional development priorities
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