49,344 research outputs found
Impact Factor: outdated artefact or stepping-stone to journal certification?
A review of Garfield's journal impact factor and its specific implementation
as the Thomson Reuters Impact Factor reveals several weaknesses in this
commonly-used indicator of journal standing. Key limitations include the
mismatch between citing and cited documents, the deceptive display of three
decimals that belies the real precision, and the absence of confidence
intervals. These are minor issues that are easily amended and should be
corrected, but more substantive improvements are needed. There are indications
that the scientific community seeks and needs better certification of journal
procedures to improve the quality of published science. Comprehensive
certification of editorial and review procedures could help ensure adequate
procedures to detect duplicate and fraudulent submissions.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, 6 table
EXAMINING QUALITY INDICATOR RATES FOR OLDER HOME CARE CLIENTS WITH DUAL SENSORY IMPAIRMENT (DSI) AND EXPLORING THE HETEROGENEITY WITHIN DSI.
Older adults with impairments in both hearing and vision, called dual sensory impairment (DSI), are at an increased risk of negative health outcomes such as impaired communication and difficulties with mobility. It is unknown whether DSI is associated with potential quality of care issues. This study used a set of home care quality indicators (HCQIs) to examine potential quality issues in older clients (65+) with DSI. Further, it looked to explore how HCQI rates differed based on the geographic region of care and whether the client’s level of hearing and vision impairment was related to certain HCQIs. The HCQIs were generated from data collected using the Resident Assessment Instrument for Home Care and capture undesirable outcomes (e.g., falls, cognitive decline). Higher rates indicate a greater frequency of experiencing the issue. In this sample (n=352,656), the average age was 82.8 years (sd=7.9), the majority were female (63.2%), and 20.5% experienced DSI. Compared to those without DSI, clients with DSI had higher rates across 20 of the 22 HCQIs. The HCQI rates differed by geographic region, with specific regions consistently performing worse than others. Finally, the level of hearing and vision impairment was related to certain HCQIs more than others, for example hearing impairment appeared to be more related to the quality indicator measuring communication difficulty. Overall, the hope is that this information can help to identify some of the potential issues around quality and in turn, assist in continually improving the services being provided to these clients
Is a Dominant Service-Centric Sector Good for Diversity of Provision?
An obvious assumption underpinning the immense interest in service-oriented computing is that it is an inherently Good Thing, by which we mean that robust processes and tools for developing service-based systems will bring benefits for service providers and service consumers. The arguments, in terms of consumer choice and flexibility, are certainly quite convincing. However, in this position paper, we question the nature of the underlying assumption, in a world where requirements are as many and varied as potential users and ask if safeguards are needed to ensure that diversity of provision is maintained
Structured matrices, continued fractions, and root localization of polynomials
We give a detailed account of various connections between several classes of
objects: Hankel, Hurwitz, Toeplitz, Vandermonde and other structured matrices,
Stietjes and Jacobi-type continued fractions, Cauchy indices, moment problems,
total positivity, and root localization of univariate polynomials. Along with a
survey of many classical facts, we provide a number of new results.Comment: 79 pages; new material added to the Introductio
Coefficients of Sylvester's Denumerant
For a given sequence of positive integers, we consider
the combinatorial function that counts the nonnegative
integer solutions of the equation , where the right-hand side is a varying
nonnegative integer. It is well-known that is a
quasi-polynomial function in the variable of degree . In combinatorial
number theory this function is known as Sylvester's denumerant.
Our main result is a new algorithm that, for every fixed number , computes
in polynomial time the highest coefficients of the quasi-polynomial
as step polynomials of (a simpler and more explicit
representation). Our algorithm is a consequence of a nice poset structure on
the poles of the associated rational generating function for
and the geometric reinterpretation of some rational
generating functions in terms of lattice points in polyhedral cones. Our
algorithm also uses Barvinok's fundamental fast decomposition of a polyhedral
cone into unimodular cones. This paper also presents a simple algorithm to
predict the first non-constant coefficient and concludes with a report of
several computational experiments using an implementation of our algorithm in
LattE integrale. We compare it with various Maple programs for partial or full
computation of the denumerant.Comment: minor revision, 28 page
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