Effect of Reengineering on the Information and Statistics Process in the Iran University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Nowadays, organizations working in dynamic and competitive environments have to change their processes from both the inside and outside of the organization. One of the most effective strategies for monitoring and controlling these changes is re-engineering. This study aimed to refine the collection and classification process of data through re-engineering. Methods: This study was done with an analytical-descriptive approach in 2012, in the Planning and Budget department of the Iran University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected by documents, interviews and observations. Three main process indicators include: number of activities, time, and costs of human resource. These were calculated and compared before and after the implementation of the reengineering. Data were analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007. Results: The current status of the process included 53 activities that reduced to 27 after reengineering. Total process time was reduced from 79 to 38 days and direct human costs decreased to about 15 million Rls. Thus, by the implementation of reengineering, the number of activities, time and costs were decreased to 49%, 52% and 54% respectively. Conclusion: Based on the findings, re-engineering led to improvements of performance and saved resources. Therefore the use of this technique is recommended in order to have an improvement in different performances, increases satisfaction and saves resources

Treatment of Traumatic Direct Carotid-Cavernous Fistula with a BeGraft-Covered Stent

The widely accepted option for treating traumatic direct carotid-cavernous fistula (dCCF) has been endovascular treatment using detachable balloons, coils, or embolic agents. Covered stent deployment has been applied by a few operators and has shown promising results. This is a retrospective study on patients with dCCF treated by an endovascular approach using BeGraft, a covered stent. In 4 cases, this device was successfully deployed without any complications. Immediate complete occlusion was achieved in 3 patients (75%) after deployment of the covered stents. One patient required transvenous coiling for occlusion of the remaining endoleak. Follow-up imaging demonstrated 100% fistula occlusion with complete internal carotid artery patency. No early or late complications occurred following treatment. In conclusion, the BeGraft-covered stent could be a promising safe and effective alternative option for the endovascular treatment of dCCF

Improvement of operating room performance using a multi-objective mathematical model and data envelopment analysis: A case study

Surgical theater is one of the most expensive hospital sources that a high percentage of hospital admissions are related to it. Therefore, efficient planning and scheduling of the operating rooms (ORs) is necessary to improve the efficiency of any healthcare system. Therefore, in this paper, the weekly OR planning and scheduling problem is addressed to minimize the waiting time of elective patients, overutilization and underutilization costs of ORs and the total completion time of surgeries. We take into account the available hours of ORs and the surgeons, legal constraints and job qualification of surgeons, and priority of patients in the model. A real-life example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the model and is solved using ε-constraint method in GAMS software. Then, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is employed to obtain the best solution among the Pareto solutions obtained by ε-constraint method. Finally, the best Pareto solution is compared to the schedule used in the hospitals. The results indicate the best Pareto solution outperforms the schedule offered by the OR director

Microporous metal–organic frameworks:Synthesis and applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as porous hybrid materials composed of metal ions and organic ligands. MOFs have attracted the attention of many researchers due to their promising characteristics, including high porosity, surface area, and drug loading capacity, tunable pore size and structure, good biodegradability and biocompatibility, and ease of functionalization. MOFs are categorized into three groups based on their pore widths, including microporous, mesoporous, and macroporous MOFs. MOFs with micropores have shown special features. The internal pore widths of microporous MOFs are less than 2 nm, which leads to their high porosity and surface area. Microporous MOFs could be synthesized through different strategies, including modulator-induced defect-formation, structure-directing agents, pillared-layer assembly, bridging helical chain secondary building units, coordination capabilities of P[dbnd]O moieties in the structure of a ligand, and using octahedral cage-like building units. Because of their unique properties, microporous MOFs have shown great potential for many applications such as separation, storage, catalysis, and sensing. A description of synthesis approaches and applications of microporous MOFs in recent years is provided in this review

Characteristics of electrospark deposition of a nickel-based alloy on 410 stainless steel for purpose of facilitating dissimilar metal welding by laser

In this research, a new method is developed using the electrospark deposition (ESD) process for making an interlayer, which could be useful in welding dissimilar metals. Alloy 82 nickel-based alloy was deposited on the edge of a 410-stainless-steel plate and used as an interlayer for subsequent welding to a nickel Alloy 82 plate forming a dissimilar metal weld. Metallographic analysis showed that the ESD layer consisted of a γ phase, columnar grains oriented in {100} direction and cellular solidification morphology with 250–350 nm cell diameter. Neither Lave phase nor large carbide crystals were observed in the microstructure of ESD layer due to the high-cooling rate and the low tendency for segregation. Tensile test exhibited an ultimate strength in excess of 420 MPa, and failure of the joint occurred in the 410 stainless steel base metal indicating good weldability of the ESD interlayer to the base metal

Hydrogen Storage on Porous Carbon Adsorbents: Rediscovery by Nature-Derived Algorithms in Random Forest Machine Learning Model

Porous carbons as solid adsorbent materials possess effective porosity characteristics that are the most important factors for gas storage. The chemical activating routes facilitate hydrogen storage by adsorbing on the high surface area and microporous features of porous carbon-based adsorbents. The present research proposed to predict H2 storage using four nature-inspired algorithms applied in the random forest (RF) model. Various carbon-based adsorbents, chemical activating agents, ratios, micro-structural features, and operational parameters as input variables are applied in the ML model to predict H2 uptake (wt%). Particle swarm and gray wolf optimizations (PSO and GWO) in the RF model display accuracy in the train and test phases, with an R2 of ~0.98 and 0.91, respectively. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated the ranks for temperature, total pore volume, specific surface area, and micropore volume in first to fourth, with relevancy scores of 1 and 0.48. The feasibility of algorithms in training sizes 80 to 60% evaluated that RMSE and MAE achieved 0.6 to 1, and 0.38 to 0.52. This study contributes to the development of sustainable energy sources by providing a predictive model and insights into the design of porous carbon adsorbents for hydrogen storage. The use of nature-inspired algorithms in the model development process is also a novel approach that could be applied to other areas of materials science and engineering.</p