262 research outputs found
Customer Empowerment in Healthcare Organisations Through CRM 2.0: Survey Results from Brunei Tracking a Future Path in E-Health Research
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with the Web technology provides
healthcare organizations the ability to broaden services beyond its usual
practices, and thus provides a particular advantageous environment to achieve
complex e-health goals. This paper discusses and demonstrates how a new
approach in CRM based on Web 2.0 namely CRM 2.0 will help customers to have
greater control in the sense of controlling the process of interaction
(empowerment) between healthcare organizations with its customers, and among
customers themselves. A survey was conducted to gather preliminary requirements
and expectations on empowerment in Brunei. The survey revealed that there is a
high demand for empowering customers in Brunei through the Web. Regardless of
the limitations of the survey, the general public has responded with a great
support for the capabilities of empowerment listed from the questionnaires. The
data were analyzed to provide initial ideas and recommendation to a future
direction on research for customers' empowerment in e-health services.Comment: ASEAS -- Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studie
Variations of Little Higgs Models and their Electroweak Constraints
We calculate the tree-level electroweak precision constraints on a wide class
of little Higgs models including: variations of the Littlest Higgs SU(5)/SO(5),
SU(6)/Sp(6), and SU(4)^4/SU(3)^4. By performing a global fit to the precision
data we find that for generic regions of the parameter space the bound on the
symmetry breaking scale f is several TeV, where we have kept the normalization
of f constant in the different models. For example, the ``minimal''
implementation of SU(6)/Sp(6) is bounded by f>3.0 TeV throughout most of the
parameter space, and SU(4)^4/SU(3)^4 is bounded by f^2 = f_1^2+f_2^2 > (4.2
TeV)^2. In certain models, such as SU(4)^4/SU(3)^4, a large f does not directly
imply a large amount of fine tuning since the heavy fermion masses that
contribute to the Higgs mass can be lowered below f for a carefully chosen set
of parameters. We also find that for certain models (or variations) there exist
regions of parameter space in which the bound on f can be lowered into the
range 1-2 TeV. These regions are typically characterized by a small mixing
between heavy and standard model gauge bosons, and a small (or vanishing)
coupling between heavy U(1) gauge bosons and the light fermions. Whether such a
region of parameter space is natural or not is ultimately contingent on the UV
completion.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures; revised discussion of SU(4)^4/SU(3)^4 model,
bound on f is slightly highe
Aromatic Features in AGN: Star-Forming Infrared Luminosity Function of AGN Host Galaxies
We describe observations of aromatic features at 7.7 and 11.3 um in AGN of
three types including PG, 2MASS and 3CR objects. The feature has been
demonstrated to originate predominantly from star formation. Based on the
aromatic-derived star forming luminosity, we find that the far-IR emission of
AGN can be dominated by either star formation or nuclear emission; the average
contribution from star formation is around 25% at 70 and 160 um. The
star-forming infrared luminosity functions of the three types of AGN are
flatter than that of field galaxies, implying nuclear activity and star
formation tend to be enhanced together. The star-forming luminosity function is
also a function of the strength of nuclear activity from normal galaxies to the
bright quasars, with luminosity functions becoming flatter for more intense
nuclear activity. Different types of AGN show different distributions in the
level of star formation activity, with 2MASS> PG> 3CR star formation rates.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 24 pages, 13 figure
Twin paradox and space topology
If space is compact, then a traveller twin can leave Earth, travel back home
without changing direction and find her sedentary twin older than herself. We
show that the asymmetry between their spacetime trajectories lies in a
topological invariant of their spatial geodesics, namely the homotopy class.
This illustrates how the spacetime symmetry invariance group, although valid
{\it locally}, is broken down {\it globally} as soon as some points of space
are identified. As a consequence, any non--trivial space topology defines
preferred inertial frames along which the proper time is longer than along any
other one.Comment: 6 pages, latex, 3 figure
Measuring the Invisible Higgs Width at the 7 and 8 TeV LHC
The LHC is well on track toward the discovery or exclusion of a light
Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs boson. Such a Higgs has a very small SM width
and can easily have large branching fractions to physics beyond the SM, making
Higgs decays an excellent opportunity to observe new physics. Decays into
collider-invisible particles are particularly interesting as they are
theoretically well motivated and relatively clean experimentally. In this work
we estimate the potential of the 7 and 8 TeV LHC to observe an invisible Higgs
branching fraction. We analyze three channels that can be used to directly
study the invisible Higgs branching ratio at the 7 TeV LHC: an invisible Higgs
produced in association with (i) a hard jet; (ii) a leptonic Z; and (iii)
forward tagging jets. We find that the last channel, where the Higgs is
produced via weak boson fusion, is the most sensitive, allowing branching
fractions as small as 40% to be probed at 20 inverse fb for masses in the range
between 120 and 170 GeV, including in particular the interesting region around
125 GeV. We provide an estimate of the 8 TeV LHC sensitivity to an
invisibly-decaying Higgs produced via weak boson fusion and find that the reach
is comparable to but not better than the reach at the 7 TeV LHC. We further
estimate the discovery potential at the 8 TeV LHC for cases where the Higgs has
substantial branching fractions to both visible and invisible final states.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures. v2: version published in JHEP. 8 TeV analysis
adde
Big Corrections from a Little Higgs
We calculate the tree-level expressions for the electroweak precision
observables in the SU(5)/SO(5) littlest Higgs model. The source for these
corrections are the exchange of heavy gauge bosons, explicit corrections due to
non-linear sigma-model dynamics and a triplet Higgs VEV. Weak isospin violating
contributions are present because there is no custodial SU(2) global symmetry.
The bulk of these weak isospin violating corrections arise from heavy gauge
boson exchange while a smaller contribution comes from the triplet Higgs VEV. A
global fit is performed to the experimental data and we find that throughout
the parameter space the symmetry breaking scale is bounded by f > 4 TeV at 95%
C.L. Stronger bounds on f are found for generic choices of the high energy
gauge couplings. We find that even in the best case scenario one would need
fine tuning of less than a percent to get a Higgs mass as light as 200 GeV.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures included, typos fixed, comments on the effects of
extra vector-like heavy fermions adde
Ten Million Degree Gas in M 17 and the Rosette Nebula: X-ray Flows in Galactic H II Regions
We present the first high-spatial-resolution X-ray images of two high-mass
star forming regions, the Omega Nebula (M 17) and the Rosette Nebula (NGC
2237--2246), obtained with the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced CCD Imaging
Spectrometer (ACIS) instrument. The massive clusters powering these H II
regions are resolved at the arcsecond level into >900 (M 17) and >300 (Rosette)
stellar sources similar to those seen in closer young stellar clusters.
However, we also detect soft diffuse X-ray emission on parsec scales that is
spatially and spectrally distinct from the point source population. The diffuse
emission has luminosity L_x ~ 3.4e33 ergs/s in M~17 with plasma energy
components at kT ~0.13 and ~0.6 keV (1.5 and 7 MK), while in Rosette it has L_x
\~6e32 ergs/s with plasma energy components at kT ~0.06 and ~0.8 keV (0.7 and 9
MK). This extended emission most likely arises from the fast O-star winds
thermalized either by wind-wind collisions or by a termination shock against
the surrounding media. We establish that only a small portion of the wind
energy and mass appears in the observed diffuse X-ray plasma; in these blister
H II regions, we suspect that most of it flows without cooling into the
low-density interstellar medium. These data provide compelling observational
evidence that strong wind shocks are present in H II regions.Comment: 35 pages, including 11 figures; to appear in ApJ, August 20, 2003. A
version with high-resolution figures is available at
ftp://ftp.astro.psu.edu/pub/townsley/diffuse.ps.g
What "best practice" could be in Palliative Care: an analysis of statements on practice and ethics expressed by the main Health Organizations
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In palliative care it would be necessary to refer to a model. Nevertheless it seems that there are no official statements which state and describe that model. We carried out an analysis of the statements on practice and ethics of palliative care expressed by the main health organizations to show which dimensions of end-of-life care are taken into consideration.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The official documents by the most representative health organisations committed to the definition of policies and guidelines for palliative and end-of-life care had been considered. The documents were analysed through a framework of the components of end-of-life care derived from literature, which was composed of 4 main "areas" and of 12 "sub-areas".</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, 34 organizations were identified, 7 international organisations, and 27 organisations operating on the national level in four different countries (Australia, Canada, UK and United States). Up to 56 documents were selected and analysed. Most of them (38) are position statements. Relevant quotations from the documents were presented by "areas" and "sub-areas". In general, the "sub-areas" of symptoms control as well as those referring to relational and social issues are more widely covered by the documents than the "sub-areas" related to "preparation" and to "existential condition". Indeed, the consistency of end-of-life choices with the patient's wishes, as well as completion and meaningfulness at the end of life is given only a minor relevance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>An integrated model of the best palliative care practice is generally lacking in the documents. It might be argued that the lack of a fixed and coherent model is due to the relevance of unavoidable context issues in palliative care, such as specific cultural settings, patient-centred variables, and family specificity. The implication is that palliative care staff have continuously to adapt their model of caring to the specific needs and values of each patient, more than applying a fixed, although maybe comprehensive, care model.</p
The Science of Sungrazers, Sunskirters, and Other Near-Sun Comets
This review addresses our current understanding of comets that venture close to the Sun, and are hence exposed to much more extreme conditions than comets that are typically studied from Earth. The extreme solar heating and plasma environments that these objects encounter change many aspects of their behaviour, thus yielding valuable information on both the comets themselves that complements other data we have on primitive solar system bodies, as well as on the near-solar environment which they traverse. We propose clear definitions for these comets: We use the term near-Sun comets to encompass all objects that pass sunward of the perihelion distance of planet Mercury (0.307 AU). Sunskirters are defined as objects that pass within 33 solar radii of the Sun’s centre, equal to half of Mercury’s perihelion distance, and the commonly-used phrase sungrazers to be objects that reach perihelion within 3.45 solar radii, i.e. the fluid Roche limit. Finally, comets with orbits that intersect the solar photosphere are termed sundivers. We summarize past studies of these objects, as well as the instruments and facilities used to study them, including space-based platforms that have led to a recent revolution in the quantity and quality of relevant observations. Relevant comet populations are described, including the Kreutz, Marsden, Kracht, and Meyer groups, near-Sun asteroids, and a brief discussion of their origins. The importance of light curves and the clues they provide on cometary composition are emphasized, together with what information has been gleaned about nucleus parameters, including the sizes and masses of objects and their families, and their tensile strengths. The physical processes occurring at these objects are considered in some detail, including the disruption of nuclei, sublimation, and ionisation, and we consider the mass, momentum, and energy loss of comets in the corona and those that venture to lower altitudes. The different components of comae and tails are described, including dust, neutral and ionised gases, their chemical reactions, and their contributions to the near-Sun environment. Comet-solar wind interactions are discussed, including the use of comets as probes of solar wind and coronal conditions in their vicinities. We address the relevance of work on comets near the Sun to similar objects orbiting other stars, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for the field and the planned ground- and space-based facilities that will allow us to address those science topics
Laboratory-based evaluation of legionellosis epidemiology in Ontario, Canada, 1978 to 2006
BACKGROUND: Legionellosis is a common cause of severe community acquired pneumonia and
respiratory disease outbreaks. The Ontario Public Health Laboratory (OPHL) has conducted most
testing for Legionella species in the Canadian province of Ontario since 1978, and represents a
multi-decade repository of population-based data on legionellosis epidemiology. We sought to
provide a laboratory-based review of the epidemiology of legionellosis in Ontario over the past 3
decades, with a focus on changing rates of disease and species associated with legionellosis during
that time period.
METHODS: We analyzed cases that were submitted and tested positive for legionellosis from 1978
to 2006 using Poisson regression models incorporating temporal, spatial, and demographic
covariates. Predictors of infection with culture-confirmed L. pneumophila serogroup 1 (LP1) were
evaluated with logistic regression models.
Results: 1,401 cases of legionellosis tested positive from 1978 to 2006. As in other studies, we
found a late summer to early autumn seasonality in disease occurrence with disease risk increasing
with age and in males. In contrast to other studies, we found a decreasing trend in cases in the
recent decade (IRR 0.93, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.95, P-value = 0.001); only 66% of culture-confirmed
isolates were found to be LP1.
CONCLUSION: Despite similarities with disease epidemiology in other regions, legionellosis appears
to have declined in the past decade in Ontario, in contrast to trends observed in the United States
and parts of Europe. Furthermore, a different range of Legionella species is responsible for illness,
suggesting a distinctive legionellosis epidemiology in this North American region
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