836 research outputs found

    Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management

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    Standardized pallets are an important factor in today's logistics sector to enable efficient processes in transport, storage and handling. By using an open exchange pool for pallets, additional opportunities arise for horizontal and vertical collaboration of various actors from different supply chains. The dissertation "Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management" investigates the potential of a digital platform for such cross-actor collaboration in pallet management. The designed platform has special mechanisms for balancing pallet debts that arise in the network and for joint planning of empty pallet flows. Therefore, the impact of the designed platforms on logistic processes, especially transports, is explored using simulation modeling. Furthermore, blockchain technology is investigated, which could be used for the implementation of the platform concept and could generate trust in a network of unknown actors. In this context, an empirical online-experiment is used to analyze in a differentiated way which specific features of the blockchain technology generate trust in technology and how these features interact with each other

    Predicting and preventing relapse of depression in primary care: a mixed methods study

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    BackgroundMost people with depression are managed in primary care. Relapse (reemergence of depression symptoms after improvement) is common and contributes to the burden and morbidity associated with depression. There is a lack of evidence-based approaches for risk-stratifying people according to risk of relapse and for preventing relapse in primary care.MethodsIn this mixed methods study, I initially reviewed studies looking to predict relapse of depression across all settings. I then attempted to derive and validate a prognostic model to predict relapse within 6-8 months in a primary care setting, using multilevel logistic regression analysis on individual participant data from seven studies (n=1244). Concurrently, a qualitative workstream, using thematic analysis, explored the perspectives of general practitioners (GPs) and people with lived experience of depression around relapse risk and prevention in practice.ResultsThe systematic review identified eleven models; none could currently be implemented in a primary care setting. The prognostic model developed in this study had inadequate predictive performance on internal validation (Cstatistic 0.60; calibration slope 0.81). I carried out twenty-two semi-structured interviews with GPs and twenty-three with people with lived experience of depression. People with lived experience of depression and GPs reflected that a discussion around relapse would be useful but was not routinely offered. Both participant groups felt there would be benefits to relapse prevention for depression being embedded within primary care.ConclusionsWe are currently unable to accurately predict an individual’s risk ofdepression relapse. The longer-term care of people with depression ingeneral practice could be improved by enabling continuity of care, increased consistency and clarity around follow-up arrangements, and focussed discussions around relapse risk and prevention. Scalable, brief relapse prevention interventions are needed, which would require policy change and additional resource. We need to better understand existing interventions and barriers to implementation in practice

    Application of knowledge management principles to support maintenance strategies in healthcare organisations

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    Healthcare is a vital service that touches people's lives on a daily basis by providing treatment and resolving patients' health problems through the staff. Human lives are ultimately dependent on the skilled hands of the staff and those who manage the infrastructure that supports the daily operations of the service, making it a compelling reason for a dedicated research study. However, the UK healthcare sector is undergoing rapid changes, driven by rising costs, technological advancements, changing patient expectations, and increasing pressure to deliver sustainable healthcare. With the global rise in healthcare challenges, the need for sustainable healthcare delivery has become imperative. Sustainable healthcare delivery requires the integration of various practices that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare infrastructural assets. One critical area that requires attention is the management of healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilitiesis considered one of the core elements in the delivery of effective healthcare services, as shortcomings in the provision of facilities management (FM) services in hospitals may have much more drastic negative effects than in any other general forms of buildings. An essential element in healthcare FM is linked to the relationship between action and knowledge. With a full sense of understanding of infrastructural assets, it is possible to improve, manage and make buildings suitable to the needs of users and to ensure the functionality of the structure and processes. The premise of FM is that an organisation's effectiveness and efficiency are linked to the physical environment in which it operates and that improving the environment can result in direct benefits in operational performance. The goal of healthcare FM is to support the achievement of organisational mission and goals by designing and managing space and infrastructural assets in the best combination of suitability, efficiency, and cost. In operational terms, performance refers to how well a building contributes to fulfilling its intended functions. Therefore, comprehensive deployment of efficient FM approaches is essential for ensuring quality healthcare provision while positively impacting overall patient experiences. In this regard, incorporating knowledge management (KM) principles into hospitals' FM processes contributes significantly to ensuring sustainable healthcare provision and enhancement of patient experiences. Organisations implementing KM principles are better positioned to navigate the constantly evolving business ecosystem easily. Furthermore, KM is vital in processes and service improvement, strategic decision-making, and organisational adaptation and renewal. In this regard, KM principles can be applied to improve hospital FM, thereby ensuring sustainable healthcare delivery. Knowledge management assumes that organisations that manage their organisational and individual knowledge more effectively will be able to cope more successfully with the challenges of the new business ecosystem. There is also the argument that KM plays a crucial role in improving processes and services, strategic decision-making, and adapting and renewing an organisation. The goal of KM is to aid action – providing "a knowledge pull" rather than the information overload most people experience in healthcare FM. Other motivations for seeking better KM in healthcare FM include patient safety, evidence-based care, and cost efficiency as the dominant drivers. The most evidence exists for the success of such approaches at knowledge bottlenecks, such as infection prevention and control, working safely, compliances, automated systems and reminders, and recall based on best practices. The ability to cultivate, nurture and maximise knowledge at multiple levels and in multiple contexts is one of the most significant challenges for those responsible for KM. However, despite the potential benefits, applying KM principles in hospital facilities is still limited. There is a lack of understanding of how KM can be effectively applied in this context, and few studies have explored the potential challenges and opportunities associated with implementing KM principles in hospitals facilities for sustainable healthcare delivery. This study explores applying KM principles to support maintenance strategies in healthcare organisations. The study also explores the challenges and opportunities, for healthcare organisations and FM practitioners, in operationalising a framework which draws the interconnectedness between healthcare. The study begins by defining healthcare FM and its importance in the healthcare industry. It then discusses the concept of KM and the different types of knowledge that are relevant in the healthcare FM sector. The study also examines the challenges that healthcare FM face in managing knowledge and how the application of KM principles can help to overcome these challenges. The study then explores the different KM strategies that can be applied in healthcare FM. The KM benefits include improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, increased efficiency, and enhanced collaboration among healthcare professionals. Additionally, issues like creating a culture of innovation, technology, and benchmarking are considered. In addition, a framework that integrates the essential concepts of KM in healthcare FM will be presented and discussed. The field of KM is introduced as a complex adaptive system with numerous possibilities and challenges. In this context, and in consideration of healthcare FM, five objectives have been formulated to achieve the research aim. As part of the research, a number of objectives will be evaluated, including appraising the concept of KM and how knowledge is created, stored, transferred, and utilised in healthcare FM, evaluating the impact of organisational structure on job satisfaction as well as exploring how cultural differences impact knowledge sharing and performance in healthcare FM organisations. This study uses a combination of qualitative methods, such as meetings, observations, document analysis (internal and external), and semi-structured interviews, to discover the subjective experiences of healthcare FM employees and to understand the phenomenon within a real-world context and attitudes of healthcare FM as the data collection method, using open questions to allow probing where appropriate and facilitating KM development in the delivery and practice of healthcare FM. The study describes the research methodology using the theoretical concept of the "research onion". The qualitative research was conducted in the NHS acute and non-acute hospitals in Northwest England. Findings from the research study revealed that while the concept of KM has grown significantly in recent years, KM in healthcare FM has received little or no attention. The target population was fifty (five FM directors, five academics, five industry experts, ten managers, ten supervisors, five team leaders and ten operatives). These seven groups were purposively selected as the target population because they play a crucial role in KM enhancement in healthcare FM. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with all participants based on their pre-determined availability. Out of the 50-target population, only 25 were successfully interviewed to the point of saturation. Data collected from the interview were coded and analysed using NVivo to identify themes and patterns related to KM in healthcare FM. The study is divided into eight major sections. First, it discusses literature findings regarding healthcare FM and KM, including underlying trends in FM, KM in general, and KM in healthcare FM. Second, the research establishes the study's methodology, introducing the five research objectives, questions and hypothesis. The chapter introduces the literature on methodology elements, including philosophical views and inquiry strategies. The interview and data analysis look at the feedback from the interviews. Lastly, a conclusion and recommendation summarise the research objectives and suggest further research. Overall, this study highlights the importance of KM in healthcare FM and provides insights for healthcare FM directors, managers, supervisors, academia, researchers and operatives on effectively leveraging knowledge to improve patient care and organisational effectiveness

    GPT Semantic Networking: A Dream of the Semantic Web – The Time is Now

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    The book presents research and practical implementations related to natural language processing (NLP) technologies based on the concept of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and the concept of Complex Networks aimed at creating Semantic Networks. The main principles of NLP, training models on large volumes of text data, new universal and multi-purpose language processing systems are presented. It is shown how the combination of NLP and Semantic Networks technologies opens up new horizons for text analysis, context understanding, the formation of domain models, causal networks, etc. This book presents methods for creating Semantic Networks based on prompt engineering. Practices are presented that will help build semantic networks capable of solving complex problems and making revolutionary changes in the analytical activity. The publication is intended for those who are going to use large language models for the construction and analysis of semantic networks in order to solve applied problems, in particular, in the field of decision making.У книзі представлені дослідження та практичні реалізації технологій обробки природної мови (НЛП), заснованих на концепції штучного інтелект, генеративний ШІ та концепція складних мереж, спрямована на створення семантичних мереж. Представлено основні принципи НЛП, моделі навчання на великих обсягах текстових даних, нові універсальні та багатоцільові системи обробки мови. Показано, як поєднання технологій NLP і семантичних мереж відкриває нові горизонти для аналізу тексту, розуміння контексту, формування моделей домену, причинно-наслідкових мереж тощо. У цій книзі представлені методи створення семантичних мереж на основі оперативного проектування. Представлені практики, які допоможуть побудувати семантичні мережі, здатні вирішувати складні проблеми та вносити революційні зміни в аналітичну діяльність. Видання розраховане на тих, хто збирається використовувати велику мову моделі побудови та аналізу семантичних мереж з метою вирішення прикладних задач, зокрема, у сфері прийняття рішень

    A Study of Founder-entrepreneurs from High-tech Software SMEs in China in Managing Risks and Exploring Market Opportunities

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    Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the national economy (Franco et al., 2014). And the rapid growth of the software market has brought in a lot of new opportunities for SMEs, especially in the high-tech software sector in China. However, the development of these SMEs still faces many uncertainties and competition that highly threaten their survival and sustainability (Li, 2019). In such scenarios, having good risk management strategies can be a significant factor towards the development and success of enterprises (Gourinchas et al., 2020; Bartik et al., 2020). However, limited by size and resources, SMEs commonly lack a well-developed risk management structure. In most scenarios, the founder-entrepreneurs tend to play a key role in the risk management of their SMEs (Islam and Tedford, 2012; Oláh et al., 2019). Their personal risk attitude and judgments will therefore directly decide the company's development and direction, and sometimes will even influence the company's survival (Carland et al., 1995). To understand the risk management status of Chinese high-tech software SMEs, this study adopted a qualitative research approach, using multiple case studies to deeper explore the role of the founder-entrepreneur in the risk management process. Nine founder-entrepreneurs from Chinese high-tech software SMEs have been selected as samples in this study. The findings show the important role of founder-entrepreneurs plays in the risk management of Chinese high-tech software SMEs. In this study, founder-entrepreneurs are primarily driven by 'pull motivations' to see entrepreneurship as a self-directed pursuit. Besides, the study supports that different personality traits significantly impact the founder-entrepreneurs' risk attitude and further lead the different risk strategies during the company's operation. Among them, openness and neuroticism are the two main personality traits which highly impact the founder-entrepreneurs' decision-making when facing risks. In this study, participants with a higher level of openness tended to accept new challenges and tasks, they showed a more positive attitude towards facing market uncertainties and addressing challenges. At the same time, people who scored lower in neuroticism have a better capability to manage their emotions. This quality in their personality helps them to be more objective in their decision-making, especially during crises and when facing risks and setbacks

    Computer Systems and Networks Fundamentals. Laboratory Work Tutorial

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    Навчальний посібник розроблений для ознайомлення студентів з основами теорії та практичними методами налаштування компонентів комп’ютерної мережі. Навчальний посібник містить вступ і 4 розділи, присвячені певній лабораторній роботі. До кожного лабораторного завдання є мета роботи, опис завдання, теоретичні відомості та методичні вказівки; питання для самоконтролю та список рекомендованої літератури. Навчальний посібник розрахований на студентів спеціальності 121 «Інженерія програмного забезпечення» освітньої програми «Інженерія програмного забезпечення мультимедійних та інформаційно-пошукових систем» факультету прикладної математики КПІ ім. Ігоря Сікорського.This tutorial is developed for familiarizing students with basic theory and practical methods of computer network components configuration. The tutorial includes the introduction and 4 sections devoted to a certain laboratory work. There are a work objective, a description of the task, theoretical information, and methodological instructions for every laboratory task; questions for self-assessment and a list of recommended literature. The tutorial is aimed at students of the speciality 121 “Software Engineering”, educational program “Software Engineering of Multimedia and Information Retrieval Systems” of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute

    Machine Learning Algorithm for the Scansion of Old Saxon Poetry

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    Several scholars designed tools to perform the automatic scansion of poetry in many languages, but none of these tools deal with Old Saxon or Old English. This project aims to be a first attempt to create a tool for these languages. We implemented a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) model to perform the automatic scansion of Old Saxon and Old English poems. Since this model uses supervised learning, we manually annotated the Heliand manuscript, and we used the resulting corpus as labeled dataset to train the model. The evaluation of the performance of the algorithm reached a 97% for the accuracy and a 99% of weighted average for precision, recall and F1 Score. In addition, we tested the model with some verses from the Old Saxon Genesis and some from The Battle of Brunanburh, and we observed that the model predicted almost all Old Saxon metrical patterns correctly misclassified the majority of the Old English input verses

    Envisioning Transitions. Bodies, buildings, and boundaries

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    “Transition” is the dynamic process of changing state, going beyond, crossing over, and passing from one point to the next. The signification of the word is close to that of evolution, modification, mutation, and transformation, all of which are confined into a strictly restricted timeframe. Etymologically, “transitions” can be nothing else than temporary: they appear silently, burst, violently establish, and gradually disappear into reality. In their blinding momentariness, “transitions” bear with them the positive undertone of change and renewal, along with the hopefulness of that which is unknown.  If the term “transition” recurs regularly in the contemporary vocabulary of architecture and design cultures, this repetition reveals a period characterized by overlapping and sequential changes. The word is without a doubt overused, but not without reason. Indeed, we find ourselves in an unusually extended period of consecutive “transitions”, overwhelmingly undefined in temporality and ambitions. As we are witnessing societies go through stark demographic, political, economic, and cultural changes, the intersecting problematics (e.g., ecological, digital, pandemic, etc.) form a rather complex topography of change, negatively charged by the instability of dilated time and the uncertainty of undefined destination. The word is employed with the confidence of a natural process, as if it were a storm, and while we affirm our existence in “transition”, we nod our troubled times away. Whether positively or negatively perceived, “transitions” form bridges between histories. Yet, what does it actually mean to be in “transition”? Can we define it as an autonomous and productive period whose importance could go beyond a starting and an ending date? How are “transitions” impacting and being impacted by human spaces, the built environment, and design cultures? What are some concrete, practical case studies that demonstrate how “transitions” could affect architecture and design cultures while emphasizing the role that these disciplines play in transitional processes? It is within this backdrop that we put forward the theme of “transition”—in all its simplicity and complexity
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