Organizing agility through Business analytics : A quantitative analysis of the impact of Business Analytics usage on Business Process Agility

In the last decade, Information technology (IT) developments have been triggering markets to become more turbulent. Previous literature has suggested that business process agility (BPA) can help organizations to cope with such turbulence. This research reconsiders the commonly used measurement of BPA by separately measuring sensing and responding ability. Furthermore, this research quantitatively addresses the relationship between the frequency of use of Business analytics (BA), and BPA at a departmental level. Furthermore, two organizational factors are considered with regard to the relationship between BA and BPA: the presence of a data-driven environment and the extent of data-driven decision-making. An analysis shows that BA tools can be categorized into two types. No significant effects of Type 1 BA on BPA are found. In contrast, Type 2 BA are found to directly and indirectly influence BPA positively. Type 2 BA has a direct positive impact on responding ability, and it has an indirect positive impact on sensing ability mediated by the existence of a data-driven environment. Furthermore, the extent of data-driven decision making is found to positively impact a department’s responding ability. Speculative meanings are discussed for the two types of BA

Proximal femoral fractures:influence of multidisciplinary care

Hip fractures are the most common operatively treated fractures. Most patients are frail elderly people. A hip fracture means admittance to the hospital and almost always an operation, after which complications are frequently encountered. The rehabilitation is a prolonged process and many patients do not regain their level of preoperative functioning, thereby losing their independence partially or fully. Because of the numbers, the expenditures for hip fractures contribute to a substantial amount of the yearly healthcare costs. The aim of this thesis was to develop a comprehensive care pathway for the treatment of hip fractures, and to determine its effectiveness as well as its effect on the prevention of complications. The conclusion is that it was possible to introduce a comprehensive care pathway. After introduction the process was better: a decrease in preoperative fasting time, length of hospital stay and in-hospital mortality. However, after comparing 2 groups of patients in 2 hospitals, the functional outcome 6 months after a hip fracture was not better in the group, who was treated within a care pathway. Because of the frail elderly research population, it was difficult to have a complete follow-up. The amount of complications was as high as before. The most important risk factor for getting a complication was having other diseases, therefore most complications were not preventable

Spectroscopy on metal-halide lamps under varying gravity conditions

Worldwide, 20% of all electricity is used for lighting. For this reason, efficient lamps are economically and ecologically important. High intensity discharge (HID) lamps are efficient lamps. The most common HID lamp these days is the metal-halide (MH) lamp. MH lamps have a good colour rendering index. They are high pressure lamps based on arc emission. These lamps are mainly used for applications where a high light output is desired; examples are shop lighting, street lighting, flood lighting of sport stadiums and city beautification. MH lamps have a high efficiency (up to 40%) and emit white light. The MH lamp contains a buffer gas (usually mercury) and additives that act as the prime radiator in the visible. These additives increase the efficiency and the colour rendering. The additive is dosed as salt; in this thesis mainly dysprosium iodide (DyI3) is used as additive. The aim of this thesis is to characterize a well verifiable MH lamp and obtain a set of reliable measurement data. The experimentally obtained data is used to validate existing numerical models of the MH lamp, which gain a better understanding of the plasma properties and transport phenomena in the MH lamp. When the lamp is burning vertically, segregation of the additives and colour separation occurs. The non-uniform light output has a bad influence on the efficiency and the colour rendering of the lamp. The distribution of the Dy atoms is determined by convection and diffusion in the lamp. Convection is induced by gravity and therefore the lamp is measured under varying gravity conditions. Besides laboratory experiments the lamp is investigated during parabolic flights. Here the lamp is measured during periods of about 20 s of microgravity (0g) and hyper-gravity (??1.8g). The lamp is also placed in in a centrifuge (1–10g). This centrifuge, with a diameter of about 3 m, is used as a tool to vary the (artificial) gravity and thus the amount of convection for a longer time than at the 153 parabolic flights to assure stable arc conditions. To develop better lamps, the knowledge from the gravitational study can be applied to other parameters that influence the amount of convection. Examples in practice are changing the buffer gas pressure or the ratio between the length and radius of a lamp. At 1g the radially and axially resolved density of ground state atomic Dy is measured by means of laser absorption spectroscopy. The radially resolved measurements show a hollow density profile with a maximum in the Dy density somewhere between the centre and the wall. In the outer region molecules dominate, while the centre is depleted due to ionization of Dy. During the parabolic flights, line-of-sight density profiles of atomic ground state dysprosium were obtained at one axial position of the lamp by means of one-dimensional laser absorption spectroscopy. These profiles are a measure for the amount of axial segregation. The measured lamp voltage and integrated light output are in agreement with the results for the dysprosium density. Three processes with different time constants play a role when switching from hyper-gravity to micro-gravity. Axial diffusion is the slowest, and its time constant (??30 s) is proportional to the amount of mercury. As a result, at the end of the micro-gravity phase the lamp still is not in equilibrium. The novel Imaging Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (ilas) obtains the 2D ground state atomic dysprosium density distribution in the lamp. The measurements of the Dy density by ilas clearly show that the setup and measurement technique are a useful tool to get more insight into the lamp. The theory of E. Fischer gives the amount of axial segregation as a function of the amount of convection for an infinitely long lamp. This model is extended for our lamps, which are of finite length and have an axial temperature gradient. A change of temperature shifts the chemical equilibrium between salt molecules, atoms and ions. From this extended model the corrected Fischer parameter ??c is introduced, which only has physical meaning when the temperature influence is not dominant. The axial inhomogeneity parameter ?? gives the non-uniformity in axial direction of any lamp property. We use it to describe the axial inhomogeneity in the additive density. Various lamps with Hg and DyI3 are measured by ilas. The corrected segregation parameter ??c presented in this thesis follows the predicted behaviour by Fischer better than the Fischer parameter ??, which does not take the temperature influence into account. The various lamps are on different positions on the Fischer curve. Furthermore, at 10g, short lamps show the highest Dy density at the top of the lamp, caused by the dominant temperature effect. The ilas setup is accurate, but has been implemented for a particular geometry of the MH lamp and DyI3 as salt filling, and can not be easily converted to other lamps. In addition, an easy and fast emission spectroscopy method is introduced, which derives axial intensity profiles for any wavelength of interest. From the line intensities the axial intensity inhomogeneity is deduced directly at different gravity conditions. The results obtained by using this technique are in agreement with the ilas results for lamps with DyI3, and next applied to the commercial Philips CosmoWhite lamp with a different salt mixture. The ilas measurements are compared with results obtained by numerical modelling with the TU/e plasma modelling platform plasimo and show good agreement. The competition between convection and diffusion is understood quantitatively. In conclusion: the measurements on the MH lamps in this thesis are successful and are a set of reliable and consistent data. The results obtained by experiment and model are in agreement; the set of measurement data can be used for validation of future numerical models

Proximal femoral fractures:influence of multidisciplinary care

Hip fractures are the most common operatively treated fractures. Most patients are frail elderly people. A hip fracture means admittance to the hospital and almost always an operation, after which complications are frequently encountered. The rehabilitation is a prolonged process and many patients do not regain their level of preoperative functioning, thereby losing their independence partially or fully. Because of the numbers, the expenditures for hip fractures contribute to a substantial amount of the yearly healthcare costs. The aim of this thesis was to develop a comprehensive care pathway for the treatment of hip fractures, and to determine its effectiveness as well as its effect on the prevention of complications. The conclusion is that it was possible to introduce a comprehensive care pathway. After introduction the process was better: a decrease in preoperative fasting time, length of hospital stay and in-hospital mortality. However, after comparing 2 groups of patients in 2 hospitals, the functional outcome 6 months after a hip fracture was not better in the group, who was treated within a care pathway. Because of the frail elderly research population, it was difficult to have a complete follow-up. The amount of complications was as high as before. The most important risk factor for getting a complication was having other diseases, therefore most complications were not preventable

Automatic extraction of a navigation graph intended for indoorgml from an indoor point cloud

Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to the public. The need for knowing where people are, how they can get somewhere or how to reach them in these buildings is thus equally increasing. In this research point clouds are used, obtained by dynamic laser scanning of a building, since we cannot rely on architectural drawings for maps and paths, which can be outdated. The presented method focuses on the creation of an indoor navigation graph, based on IndoorGML structure, in a fast and automated way, while retaining the type of walkable surface. In this paper the focus has been on door detection, because doors are essential elements in an indoor environment, seeing that they connect spaces and are a logical step in a route. This paper describes a way to detect doors using 3D Medial Axis Transform (MAT) combined with the intelligence stored in the path of a mobile laser scanner, showing good first results. Additionally different spaces (e.g. rooms and corridors) in the building are identified and slopes and stairs in walkable spaces are detected. This results in a navigation graph which can be stored in an IndoorGML structure

The development of a comprehensive multidisciplinary care pathway for patients with a hip fracture:design and results of a clinical trial

Background: Hip fractures frequently occur in older persons and severely decrease life expectancy and independence. Several care pathways have been developed to lower the risk of negative outcomes but most pathways are limited to only one aspect of care. The aim of this study was therefore to develop a comprehensive care pathway for older persons with a hip fracture and to conduct a preliminary analysis of its effect. Methods: A comprehensive multidisciplinary care pathway for patients aged 60 years or older with a hip fracture was developed by a multidisciplinary team. The new care pathway was evaluated in a clinical trial with historical controls. The data of the intervention group were collected prospectively. The intervention group included all patients with a hip fracture who were admitted to University Medical Center Groningen between 1 July 2009 and 1 July 2011. The data of the control group were collected retrospectively. The control group comprised all patients with a hip fracture who were admitted between 1 January 2006 and 1 January 2008. The groups were compared with the independent sample t-test, the Mann-Whitney U-test or the Chi-squared test (Phi test). The effect of the intervention on fasting time and length of stay was adjusted by linear regression analysis for differences between the intervention and control group. Results: The intervention group included 256 persons (women, 68%; mean age (SD), 78 (9) years) and the control group 145 persons (women, 72%; mean age (SD), 80 (10) years). Median preoperative fasting time and median length of hospital stay were significantly lower in the intervention group: 9 vs. 17 hours (p <0.001), and 7 vs. 11 days (p <0.001), respectively. A similar result was found after adjustment for age, gender, living condition and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification. In-hospital mortality was also lower in the intervention group: 2% vs. 6% (p <0.05). There were no statistically significant differences in other outcome measures. Conclusions: The new comprehensive care pathway was associated with a significant decrease in preoperative fasting time and length of hospital stay

Remittance-Sending Behaviour Along Migration Trajectories: The Case of Senegalese, Ghanaian and Congolese Migrants

In this chapter, we examine the remittance-sending behaviour of Ghanaian, Congolese and Senegalese migrants along their migration trajectories to Europe. We aim to understand the extent to which and why sending remittances might differ when the migrants consider themselves to be either en route or settled. We hypothesise that migrants on the move experience legal and economic precariousness and have a lesser capacity and, hence, probability to remit. Moreover, we argue that migrants with close family members and assets in the origin country have higher incentives to remit but are less likely to do so if they are on the move. Overall, we do not find support for the argument that being on the move decreases the probability of sending remittances. Surprisingly, we illustrate that migrants on the move are more likely to be employed and to send remittances compared to settled migrants. We argue that the former may consider their situation to be insecure – despite being employed – and want to keep in closer contact with their country of origin. The chapter highlights the importance of including a(n) (im)mobility perspective when studying remittance-sending and the need for a fuller understanding of how frictions and experiences along more complex migration trajectories affect remittance-sending behaviour

AUTOMATIC EXTRACTION OF A NAVIGATION GRAPH INTENDED FOR INDOORGML FROM AN INDOOR POINT CLOUD

Indoor environments tend to be more complex and more populated when buildings are accessible to the public. The need for knowing where people are, how they can get somewhere or how to reach them in these buildings is thus equally increasing. In this research point clouds are used, obtained by dynamic laser scanning of a building, since we cannot rely on architectural drawings for maps and paths, which can be outdated. The presented method focuses on the creation of an indoor navigation graph, based on IndoorGML structure, in a fast and automated way, while retaining the type of walkable surface. In this paper the focus has been on door detection, because doors are essential elements in an indoor environment, seeing that they connect spaces and are a logical step in a route. This paper describes a way to detect doors using 3D Medial Axis Transform (MAT) combined with the intelligence stored in the path of a mobile laser scanner, showing good first results. Additionally different spaces (e.g. rooms and corridors) in the building are identified and slopes and stairs in walkable spaces are detected. This results in a navigation graph which can be stored in an IndoorGML structure

Spinal epidural abscess presenting with abdominal pain

We report a case of spinal epidural abscess presenting as abdominal pain. An 7-year-old boy presented with abdominal pain. He was operated on under suspicion of appendicitis. During operation, no abnormalities were found. Postoperatively, the abdominal pain did not subside. Subsequently, the boy developed neurological abnormalities. MR1 showed a spinal epidural abscess. A laminectomy was performed and the boy was treated with antibiotics; he recovered well. This case showed that it is important to consider a spinal epidural abscess as a cause of abdominal pain with fever in children