14,179 research outputs found
Does IT Spending Matter on Hospital Financial Performance and Quality?
This research explored impacts of IT spending on hospital financial performance and hospital quality. We developed two research hypotheses accordingly. The first hypothesis was that IT spending would be positively related to the hospital financial performance, and the second hypothesis was that hospitals with higher IT spending would have better quality metrics. We used the 2017 American Hospital Association Survey data and the HCAHPS dataset from Medicare website. We tested three hospital financials and three quality measures. We employed T-Tests and ANOVA models to test the hypotheses. Results were inconclusive for both hypotheses. Evidence showed statistical significance on two out of seven tests
Nonlinear dynamic intertwining of rods with self-contact
Twisted marine cables on the sea floor can form highly contorted
three-dimensional loops that resemble tangles. Such tangles or hockles are
topologically equivalent to the plectomenes that form in supercoiled DNA
molecules. The dynamic evolution of these intertwined loops is studied herein
using a computational rod model that explicitly accounts for dynamic
self-contact. Numerical solutions are presented for an illustrative example of
a long rod subjected to increasing twist at one end. The solutions reveal the
dynamic evolution of the rod from an initially straight state, through a
buckled state in the approximate form of a helix, through the dynamic collapse
of this helix into a near-planar loop with one site of self-contact, and the
subsequent intertwining of this loop with multiple sites of self-contact. This
evolution is controlled by the dynamic conversion of torsional strain energy to
bending strain energy or, alternatively by the dynamic conversion of twist (Tw)
to writhe (Wr).
KEY WORDS Rod Dynamics, Self-contact, Intertwining, DNA Supercoiling, Cable
HocklingComment: 35 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Proceedings of the Royal Society A:
Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Science
Method and apparatus for producing microshells
A method is described for forming hollow particles, or shells, of extremely small size. The shell material is heated to a molten temperature in the presence of a gas that is at least moderately soluble in the shell material, to form a solution of the molten shell material and the soluble gas. The solution is atomized to form a multiplicity of separate droplets that are cooled while in free fall. Cooling of a droplet from the outside traps the desolved gas and forces it to form a gas bubble at the center of the droplet which now forms a gas filled shell. The shell is reheated and then cooled in free fall, in an environment having a lower pressure than the gas pressure in the shell. This causes expansion of the shell and the formation of a shell having a small wall thickness compared to its diameter
Super-Resolving Quantum Radar: Coherent-State Sources with Homodyne Detection Suffice to Beat the Diffraction Limit
There has been much recent interest in quantum metrology for applications to
sub-Raleigh ranging and remote sensing such as in quantum radar. For quantum
radar, atmospheric absorption and diffraction rapidly degrades any actively
transmitted quantum states of light, such as N00N states, so that for this
high-loss regime the optimal strategy is to transmit coherent states of light,
which suffer no worse loss than the linear Beer's law for classical radar
attenuation, and which provide sensitivity at the shot-noise limit in the
returned power. We show that coherent radar radiation sources, coupled with a
quantum homodyne detection scheme, provide both longitudinal and angular
super-resolution much below the Rayleigh diffraction limit, with sensitivity at
shot-noise in terms of the detected photon power. Our approach provides a
template for the development of a complete super-resolving quantum radar system
with currently available technology.Comment: 23 pages, content is identical to published versio
Ventricular tachycardia associated with lacosamide co-medication in drug-resistant epilepsy.
We report a case of sustained ventricular tachycardia following the initiation of lacosamide as adjunctive epilepsy treatment. A 49-year-old male with intractable frontal lobe seizures experienced severe ventricular tachycardia following the addition of 400Â mg lacosamide to his existing regimen of carbamazepine, lamotrigine, clonazepam, and valproate. The tachycardia occurred during a cardiac stress test; stress tests prior to initiation of lacosamide were normal. Conduction defects, including QRS prolongation, persisted during hospitalization until lacosamide was discontinued. The patient had no prior history of cardiac arrhythmia but did possess cardiac risk factors, including hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and low heart rate variability. This case represents one part of a growing body of literature suggesting a link between arrhythmia and use of lacosamide, which enhances slow inactivation of sodium channels in both the brain and the heart. We believe further study may be necessary to assess the safety of lacosamide in epilepsy patients with cardiac risk factors
Momentum Flow Correlations from Event Shapes: Factorized Soft Gluons and Soft-Collinear Effective Theory
The distributions of two-jet event shapes contain information on
hadronization in QCD. Near the two-jet limit, these distributions can be
described by convolutions of nonperturbative event shape functions with the
same distributions calculated in resummed perturbation theory. The shape
functions, in turn, are determined by correlations of momentum flow operators
with each other and with light-like Wilson lines, which describe the coupling
of soft, wide-angle radiation to jets. We observe that leading power
corrections to the mean values of event shapes are determined by the
correlation of a single momentum flow operator with the relevant Wilson lines.
This generalizes arguments for the universality of leading power corrections
based on the low-scale behavior of the running coupling or resummation. We also
show how a study of the angularity event shapes can provide information on
correlations involving multiple momentum flow operators, giving a window to the
system of QCD dynamics that underlies the variety of event shape functions. In
deriving these results, we review, develop and compare factorization techniques
in conventional perturbative QCD and soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). We
give special emphasis to the elimination of double counting of momentum regions
in these two formalisms.Comment: 25 pages revtex
Development of Training Scenarios in the Flight Training Device for Flight Courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s (ERAU) Daytona Beach Campus operates as a certificated flight school under 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 141. Additionally, ERAU employs the use of Frasca Level 6 Flight Training Devices (FTD) for each of their flight courses. Scenario based training cross-country lessons are included in each of the private pilot, instrument rating, commercial pilot, and multi-engine additional rating courses. Each FTD is equipped with software that allows a programmable lesson plan to be created and replayed for each student. They allow for voice recognition from the student, real radio calls and background chatter, automatic dependent surveillance – broadcast (ADS-B), and visual traffic displays. While the student is flying, they will be presented with a situation that will force them to make a decision. The software will allow the scenario to branch off and allow the student to experience the result of that decision further and will allow multiple branches and decisions to be made, if needed, for the duration of the simulation. This form of decision-based scenario training using this software was created with the goal of training the flight students to the application or correlation level of learning. This paper describes the process that a team of flight instructors and support staff completed to use this software and their experience to create more realistic scenarios and a more immersive flight training experience
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