Sweetening the carrot : motivating public physicians for better performance

It is widely observed that many physicians working in public health facilities do not put in the required effort and time in their jobs. At the same time, many public physicians remain highly motivated, working long hours for little financial reward, in providing quality health services. This mix of provider-types poses fundamental challenges in the design of compensation mechanisms and monitoring regime in public facilities, where the objective of any reward-control paradigm is to improve the inoptimal performance of some physicians without compromising the effort of those already motivated. This paper presents a model to explain shirking behavior among public physicians and explores combinations of monitoring and incentive mechanisms that meet the twin objectives of inspiring the shirkers without losing the motivated. Drawing on the basic Shapiro-Stiglitz shirking model and the theory of social custom, the paper develops and presents a design of incentive structures that consists of punitive monitoring systems accompanied by non-pecuniary rewards. The analysis shows that intensive monitoring persuades the shirking physicians to improve their performance but may have a negative effect on the morale of those already motivated. The findings indicate that non-pecuniary rewards and recognition for the latter can potentially restore the incentives and counter the deleterious effect of increased supervision. The policy implications are discussed by presenting case studies in the health care context of developing countries.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Health Economics&Finance,Educational Sciences,Labor Markets,Work&Working Conditions

Adapting Web Services for Multiple Devices: a Model-Driven, Aspect-Oriented Approach

Mobile devices have become an essential element in our daily lives, even for connecting to the Internet. Web Services have become extremely important when offering services through the Internet. However, current Web Services are very inflexible as regards their invocation from different types of device, especially if we consider the need for them to be adaptable when being invoked from a mobile device. In this paper, we will propose several alternatives for the creation of flexible web services which can be invoked from different types of device, and compare the different proposed approaches. Aspect -Oriented Programming and Model-Driven Development have been used in all proposals to reduce the impact of service adaption, not only for the service developer, but also to maintain the correct code structure. This work has been developed thanks to the support of MEC (contract TIN2008-02985)

Impact of metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy environment on silicon bulk lifetime for III–V-on-Si multijunction solar cells

With the final goal of integrating III-V materials on silicon substrates for tandem solar cells, the influence of the Metal-Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) environment on the minority carrier properties of silicon wafers has been evaluated. These properties will essentially determine the photovoltaic performance of the bottom cell in a III-V-on-Si tandem solar cell. A comparison of the base minority carrier lifetimes obtained for different thermal processes carried out in a MOVPE reactor on Czochralski silicon wafers has been carried out. An important degradation of minority carrier lifetime during the surface preparation (i.e. H2 anneal) has been observed. Three different mechanisms have been proposed for explaining this behavior: 1) the introduction of extrinsic impurities coming from the reactor; 2) the activation of intrinsic lifetime killing impurities coming from the wafer itself; and finally, 3) the formation of crystal defects, which eventually become recombination centers. The effect of the emitter formation by phosphorus diffusion has also been evaluated. In this sense, it has been reported that lifetime can be recovered during the emitter formation either by the effect of the P on extracting impurities, or by the role of the atomic hydrogen on passivating the defects

Managing Uncertain Complex Events in Web of Things Applications

A critical issue in the Web of Things (WoT) is the need to process and analyze the interactions of Web-interconnected real-world objects. Complex Event Processing (CEP) is a powerful technology for analyzing streams of information about real-time distributed events, coming from different sources, and for extracting conclusions from them. However, in many situations these events are not free from uncertainty, due to either unreliable data sources and networks, measurement uncertainty, or to the inability to determine whether an event has actually happened or not. This short research paper discusses how CEP systems can incorporate different kinds of uncertainty, both in the events and in the rules. A case study is used to validate the proposal, and we discuss the benefits and limitations of this CEP extension.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Open Innovation and Business Model: A Brazilian Company Case Study

Open Innovation is increasingly being introduced in international and national organizations for the creation of value. Open innovation is a practical tool, requiring new strategies and decisions from managers for the exploitation of innovative activities. The basic question that this study seeks to answer is linked to the practice of open innovation in connection with the open business model geared towards the creation of value in a Brazilian company. This paper aims to present a case study that illustrates how open innovation offers resources to change the open business model in order to create value for the Brazilian company. The case study method of a company in the sector of pharma-chemical products was used. The results indicate that internal sources of knowledge, external sources of knowledge and accentuate working partnerships were adopted by company as strategies to offer resources to change the open business model in order to create value

Status of Ultra-High Concentrator Multijunction Solar Cell Development at IES-UPM.

After the successful implementation of a record performing dual-junction solar cell at ultra high concentration, in this paper we present the optimization of key aspects in the transition to a triple-junction device, namely the hetero nucleation of III-V structures onto germanium substrates. This optimization is based on in-situ RAS measurements during the MOVPE growth of the triple-junction solar cell structure and subsequent AFM analysis. The correlation between RAS and AFM allows detecting which RAS features correlate with good morphology and low RMS roughness. TEM analysis confirms that the quality of the triple-junction structures grown is good, revealing no trace of antiphase disorder, and showing flat, sharp and clear interfaces. Triple-junction solar cells manufactured on these structures have shown a peak efficiency of 36.2% at 700X, maintaining an efficiency over 35% from 300 to 1200 suns

Como estão estruturadas algumas lojas especializadas em comercializar móveis de luxo na cidade de Cacoal - RO: um estudo de caso nas empresas Casa & Decoração e Todeschini

Artigo de conclusão de curso apresentado à Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia, Campus Cacoal, como requisito parcial para a obtenção de título de Bacharel em Administração de Empresas. Orientador: Prof. Me. Antônio Siviero.O presente artigo tem como objetivo geral identificar como estão estruturadas as empresas que comercializam móveis de luxo na cidade de Cacoal-RO, identificando as técnicas de marketing utilizadas por essas empresas, o perfil do consumidor, seu processo de compra e as perspectivas futuras de mercado, visto que é um ramo de atividade que está sendo explorado a pouco tempo na região, e esses produtos visam atender a desejos lúdicos de seus consumidores, possuindo assim um valor além de seu objetivo primário, possuem um público alvo específico, com padrões de vida e necessidades diferenciados dos demais consumidores em geral, sendo utilizado no decorrer da pesquisa métodos quantitativos e qualitativos, assim como observações não participativas no processo de compra, o uso desses métodos permitiu a identificação das técnicas de marketing utilizadas pelas empresas e do perfil do consumidor traçando uma visão que eles possuem do produto e o que eles sentem em relação ao consumo desses bens