1,641 research outputs found
Optimizing the stake holder’s perspective on enhancing the service quality in health care
For the success of health care organizations, accurate measurement of health care service quality is as important as understanding the nature of the service delivery system. Without a valid measure, it would be difficult to establish and implement appropriate tactics or strategies for service quality management. Experts have struggled for decades to formulate a concise, meaningful and generally applicable definition of the quality of health care. However, the complexity and variability of many definitions are very confusing even to experts. Patients, service providers and other parties involved in the process of health care service delivery, understand and describe service quality in different ways. Different perspectives on health care quality lead to different expectations and different methods of quality measurement. Patients tend to evaluate health care quality according to the responsiveness to their specific needs. Most patients define quality as efforts of physicians to do everything possible for a patient. Patient’s expectations about the health care system may differ from those of health care professionals and managers. On the other hand, patients cannot evaluate many technical aspects of health care service quality. Physicians can provide a high level technical quality but still be rated low by patients because of the lack of humanity, responsiveness or satisfaction. For physicians and other health care providers measurement of service quality has typically been driven by medical outcomes. However, outcomes indicative of quality may differ for a patient and physician. Health care administrators often use managerial input measures such as the average number of nursing hours required for an outpatient surgery. This research paper aims to explore the ways and means towards optimizing the competing stake holders perspectives on enhancing the service quality in health care.Service quality; Healthcare; Optimization; India;
A geometric proof of the equality between entanglement and edge spectra
The bulk-edge correspondence for topological quantum liquids states that the
spectrum of the reduced density matrix of a large subregion reproduces the
thermal spectrum of a physical edge. This correspondence suggests an intricate
connection between ground state entanglement and physical edge dynamics. We
give a simple geometric proof of the bulk-edge correspondence for a wide
variety of physical systems. Our unified proof relies on geometric techniques
available in Lorentz invariant and conformally invariant quantum field
theories. These methods were originally developed in part to understand the
physics of black holes, and we now apply them to determine the local structure
of entanglement in quantum many-body systems.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Vortices and quasiparticles near the "superconductor-insulator" transition in thin films
We study the low temperature behavior of an amorphous superconducting film
driven normal by a perpendicular magnetic field (B). For this purpose we
introduce a new two-fluid formulation consisting of fermionized field induced
vortices and electrically neutralized Bogoliubov quasiparticles (spinons)
interacting via a long-ranged statistical interaction. This approach allows us
to access a novel non-Fermi liquid phase which naturally interpolates between
the low B superconductor and the high B normal metal. We discuss the transport,
thermodynamic, and tunneling properties of the resulting "vortex metal" phase.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, references adde
Vortex description of the fractionalized phase in exciton bose condensate
As a sequel to the previous work [Phys. Rev. B 72, 235104 (2005)] we present
a vortex description of the fractionalized phase in exciton bose condensate.
Magnetic flux line and monopole of the 3+1D emergent U(1) gauge theory are
identified in the exciton picture. A bundle of vortex/anti-vortex pairs of all
flavors of excitons corresponds to the magnetic flux line and a point at which
the vortices and anti-vortices recombine is identified as magnetic monopole.
This completes the magnetic sector of the low energy excitation in the
fractionalized phase.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures; clarification made in introductio
Active Vibration Control of Structures using an Impedance Matching Control Technique
Active vibration control of structures has gained a lot of interest in recent years. This paper presents an active vibration control methodology of a structure using piezoelectric actuators. The proposed methodology is useful in practical applications where the system to be controlled is difficult to model due to the presence of complex boundary conditions. The impedance matching control technique uses a power flow approach wherein the controller is designed such that the power flow into the structure is minimized. The system transfer function is obtained from the experimental collocated actuator/sensor pair data using Eigen Realisation Algorithm (ERA). The controller is designed for the system transfer function according to impedance matching theory. The above approach is targeted towards the vibration control of wind tunnel stings, which suffer from flow-induced vibration. A wind tunnel sting model is designed and fabricated for this study. The real time implementation of the impedance matching controller has been carried out using dSPACE® Digital Signal Processor (DSP) card. The results are encouraging and demonstrate the feasibility of applying this technique in the wind tunne
Exotic order in simple models of bosonic systems
We show that simple Bose Hubbard models with unfrustrated hopping and short
range two-body repulsive interactions can support stable fractionalized phases
in two and higher dimensions, and in zero magnetic field. The simplicity of the
constructed models advances the possibility of a controlled experimental
realization and novel applications of such unconventional states.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Correlated Topological Insulators and the Fractional Magnetoelectric Effect
Topological insulators are characterized by the presence of gapless surface
modes protected by time-reversal symmetry. In three space dimensions the
magnetoelectric response is described in terms of a bulk theta term for the
electromagnetic field. Here we construct theoretical examples of such phases
that cannot be smoothly connected to any band insulator. Such correlated
topological insulators admit the possibility of fractional magnetoelectric
response described by fractional theta/pi. We show that fractional theta/pi is
only possible in a gapped time reversal invariant system of bosons or fermions
if the system also has deconfined fractional excitations and associated
degenerate ground states on topologically non-trivial spaces. We illustrate
this result with a concrete example of a time reversal symmetric topological
insulator of correlated bosons with theta = pi/4. Extensions to electronic
fractional topological insulators are briefly described.Comment: 4 pages + ref
EVALUATION OF IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT AND ANTIDIABETIC POTENTIALS OF DIFFERENT FRACTIONS OF MAYTENUS HEYNEANA ROOT EXTRACT
Objective: In an attempt to explore herbal drug which may become useful in the prevention of diabetes and antioxidant potential by the ethanol extracts of Maytenus heyneana (MH) root belonging to the family Celastraceae and their different fractions were studied.Methods: Different fractionation was done using chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol on ethanolic extract of MH and preliminary phytochemical analysis was done by standard methods to identify the presence of important compounds. In vitro antioxidants activities were carried by 2,2-diphenyl- 2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) cation radical scavenging assays. For antidiabetic potential, α-amylase and α-glucosidase enzyme inhibitory studies were carried on different fractions.Results: Phytochemical studies show the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, cardiac glycosides, and terpenoids in all fractionations; however, tannins and quinones were present in ethyl acetate fraction and saponins in methanolic fraction. For antioxidant activity, ethyl acetate fraction shows concentration of the sample causing 50% inhibition (IC50) values in 22.31 μg/ml and methanolic fraction shows in 12.82 μg/ml concentrations for DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assay, respectively. In case of antidiabetic activity, methanolic fraction offered significant result in inhibitory action of α-glucosidase and also for α-amylase assay IC50 (5.28 and 3.14 μg/ml) than other fractions.Conclusion: From the results of our studies, it can be concluded that MH shows antidiabetic and antioxidant values and methanolic fraction of MH could be possessed potential constituents in the prevention of diabetes and antioxidant than other fractions. However, further studies are required to validate
A Quality of Experience-based Recommender System for E-learning Resources
Web services are a rapidly developing and generally acknowledged technology across all areas of management. Independent software systems that can be shared and called from anywhere online. The creation of educational tools (such LMSs, MOOCs, and e-learning) now typically makes use of web services. Having these learning tools readily accessible online is a great method to acquire and disseminate information. The primary objective of this paper is to describe how web services can effectively manage educational resources by leveraging Quality of Experience and to develop an effective E-learning recommender system in the context of web services that help the user choose a course based on his needs in terms of availability, cost, and reputation
Onion detopping machine - an emerging horticultural enterprising
Onion is the one of the important vegetable crops cultivated in India. Multiplier type onion is one among the three major types of onions. Tamil Nadu accounts for five per cent of country’s area under onion and more than 70 per cent of the area is cultivated by small onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum). Around 90 per cent of country’s multiplier onion is produced from Tamil Nadu. Detopping is one of the steps in the on-farm processing carried out after harvest. Presently this is done manually by farm women. Individual onions are picked and detopping is done by using sickle. This operation is time consuming and highly drudgery in nature. An Onion detopping machine to remove the foliage after harvest was designed and developed in the present study. This machine has a capacity of 370 kg/h against 30 kg/h manual practice and works with an efficiency of 98%. The unique design of the detopper is that it is suitable for all sizes of onions. Also, the cluster is intact after detopping, which is very important requirement. This multiplier type onion is grown in Nagamangala (Tk), Mandya (Dt.) of Karnataka State. Two farmers of this area have installed this machine and running a successful enterprising. Cost involved in using this machine is Rs. 200 per quintal against Rs. 500 per quintal by manual detopping. Owing to the higher capacity by mechanization, the farmers will be able to process the higher volume of produce within a short span of time. Hence, this will facilitate the farmers to sell the produce, get good market price and earn higher returns
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