TripAdvisor of healthcare: Opportunities for value creation through patient feedback platforms

The objective of this study is to explore new opportunities for hospitals to use patient feedback platforms (i.e., digital platforms on which patients express their opinions on their care journeys). Patient feedback platforms generate an ever-expanding amount of data on patient experience of care that is currently unused by most hospital or their business intelligence unit. We used the methodological approach of netnography on the negative feedback received by one hospital combined with interviews to identify the potential value of the data generated by the patient feedback platform. The main findings are that a digital feedback platform serves as a source of data to indicate: (1)Where to act (by localizing the negative comments), (2) On what to act (what thematic provides satisfaction and therefore is to be kept; or causes dissatisfaction and thus is to be improved), and (3) How to innovate (ideas about new practices to implement). It becomes evident that the platforms are developing a service to help hospitals make sense of this raw data and that a hospital can use patient feedback from other hospitals to improve their own practices. The first implication of our results is that patient feedback platforms generate a complementary type of feedback (i.e. based on patient perception and not empirical fact), as well as a source of data (i.e., patients’ external spontaneous feedback and not internally controlled survey feedback) for the Business Intelligence unit engaged in the transformation of the hospital towards patient-centered care. The second implication is that these platforms create a feedback network effect (i.e. A patient’s feedback can be used by hospitals other than the focal hospital concerned by that feedback, therefore increasing the overall value of the platform). The third implication is that digital transformation is enabled not only by data generation on the platform but also by data analysis services provided by the third party that runs the platform

VELOCITY-BASED MODELING OF THE THERMAL LOAD FOR A FORMULA SAE’S DISK BRAKE SIMULATION

This paper proposes a methodology for the estimation of a disk brake’s thermal load based on its vehicle’s velocity, where this thermal load serves as an input for a numerical simulation. The load is estimated through a balance between variation in the mechanical energy of the vehicle and the energy dissipated via aerodynamic and rolling drag forces. The RS Racing UFRGS team provided the vehicle’s data and geometry, and the velocity data was taken from a real endurance competition. The thermal load thus calculated is then used as input for a 3D transient finite element model containing the disk and the wheel hub. The results are consistent with what is expected by the RS Racing UFRGS team. Based on the results of the 3D transient model, two more simplified analysis are viable: one in permanent regime, which achieves a temperature distribution within the oscillation presented on the transient model; and also a 2D analysis which can be made by the replacement of the wheel hub with an equivalent global heat transfer coefficient

THERMAL PROCESSES RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT IN MACHINE-BUILDING TECHNOLOGY

The technique for determining the temperature in the surface layer of the workpiece with a blade tool is considered, taking into account the volume heat source in the cutting zone, on the basis of which it is proposed to calculate the processing errors caused by the thermal action on the cutting tool and the workpiece being machined. When determining the thermal impact on the cutting edge of the tool, heat flows acting on the front and back surfaces are taken into account. When determining the thermal effect on the workpiece, the heat fluxes acting on deformation of the material when removing the chips and the back surface of the cutting tool are taken into account. The temperature in the cutting zone is determined by the summation of the temperature in the surface layer resulting from the plastic deformations of the material in the cutting zone, the friction of the chips against the front surface of the cutting tool and the friction of the back surface of the cutting tool against the treated surface. The peculiarity of the proposed method is that the physical and mechanical properties of the processed and tool materials (thermal diffusivity, ultimate thermal conductivity, specific volume heat capacity), processing regimes (cutting speed, feed and cutting depth), dimensions of the workpiece and cutting tool, geometry of the cutting tool (front and rear corners, radius at the top of the cutter in the plan, radius of rounding of the cutting tool, main and auxiliary corners in the plan). The calculations take into account the change in the intensity of volumetric heat fluxes in the cutting zone along their height

Influence of the starting temperature of calorimetric measurements on the accuracy of determined magnetocaloric effect

Availability of a restricted heat capacity data range has a clear influence on the accuracy of calculated magnetocaloric effect, as confirmed by both numerical simulations and experimental measurements. Simulations using the Bean-Rodbell model show that, in general, the approximated magnetocaloric effect curves calculated using a linear extrapolation of the data starting from a selected temperature point down to zero kelvin deviate in a non-monotonic way from those correctly calculated by fully integrating the data from near zero temperatures. However, we discovered that a particular temperature range exists where the approximated magnetocaloric calculation provides the same result as the fully integrated one. These specific truncated intervals exist for both first and second order phase transitions and are the same for the adiabatic temperature change and magnetic entropy change curves. The effect of this truncated integration in real samples was confirmed using heat capacity data of Gd metal and Gd5Si2Ge2 compound measured from near zero temperatures

Wear Minimization for Cuckoo Hashing: How Not to Throw a Lot of Eggs into One Basket

We study wear-leveling techniques for cuckoo hashing, showing that it is possible to achieve a memory wear bound of $\log\log n+O(1)$ after the insertion of $n$ items into a table of size $Cn$ for a suitable constant $C$ using cuckoo hashing. Moreover, we study our cuckoo hashing method empirically, showing that it significantly improves on the memory wear performance for classic cuckoo hashing and linear probing in practice.Comment: 13 pages, 1 table, 7 figures; to appear at the 13th Symposium on Experimental Algorithms (SEA 2014

Is the dynamics of open quantum systems always linear?

We study the influence of the preparation of an open quantum system on its reduced time evolution. In contrast to the frequently considered case of an initial preparation where the total density matrix factorizes into a product of a system density matrix and a bath density matrix the time evolution generally is no longer governed by a linear map nor is this map affine. Put differently, the evolution is truly nonlinear and cannot be cast into the form of a linear map plus a term that is independent of the initial density matrix of the open quantum system. As a consequence, the inhomogeneity that emerges in formally exact generalized master equations is in fact a nonlinear term that vanishes for a factorizing initial state. The general results are elucidated with the example of two interacting spins prepared at thermal equilibrium with one spin subjected to an external field. The second spin represents the environment. The field allows the preparation of mixed density matrices of the first spin that can be represented as a convex combination of two limiting pure states, i.e. the preparable reduced density matrices make up a convex set. Moreover, the map from these reduced density matrices onto the corresponding density matrices of the total system is affine only for vanishing coupling between the spins. In general, the set of the accessible total density matrices is nonconvex.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, minor changes to improve readability, discussion on Mori's linear regime and references adde

Out of focus ultrafast processing of metals for reduced secondary electron yield

We have demonstrated out-of-focus ultrafast pulsed laser processing of copper with a variable working distance, without the need for mechanical movement. This was achieved by employing a diffractive optical element. The method has been demonstrated in a practical application to reduce the secondary electron yield (SEY) of copper to below 1.3. We show that using an extended focus element not only increases the consistency of processing across a range of working distances, but also changes the topography of the produced structures, reducing the SEY. This presented approach shows promise in facilitating the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC’s) upcoming high luminosity upgrade by preventing electron clouds

On the termination of deep-sea fan channels: Examples from the Rhone Fan (Gulf of Lion, Western Mediterranean Sea)

The termination of a deep-sea turbiditic channel represents the ultimate sink of terrigenous sediment in the oceans or lakes. Such environment is characterized by rapid slope decrease and by loss of confinement of turbidity currents. It results in the deposition of Channel-Mouth-Lobes that can be separated from the channel mouth by an erosional (scoured) or by-pass dominated Channel-Lobe Transition Zone. Several factors can control the occurrence, extent and morphologic expression of the area such as the slope break angle, the upslope and downslope angle and the mud/sand ratio in flows. Disentangling these factors remains challenging due to the scarcity of outcrops and to the usual faint morphologies and low thickness of deposits. With bathymetric and seismic data we calculated the morphometric parameters of 8 channel-levees and their Channel-Mouth Lobes from the deepest area of the Rhone fan, a mud-sand rich system, and among which the youngest one (called neofan) was deposited at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum between 21.5 and 18.3 ka cal. BP. Emplacement and shape (finger-shaped or pear-shaped bulges) of Channel-Mouth Lobes is controlled by the seabed morphology (adjacent channel-levees and salt diapirs). A less prominent morphology of the neofan is attributed to premature quiescence related to the post sea-level rise sediment starvation. We show that the occurrence and expression of a Channel-Lobe Transition Zone is controlled by the gradient upstream of the channel mouth slope break. The extended Channel-Lobe Transition Zone and detached lobe of the neofan are attributed to the high upslope gradient (0.26°) while the less detached or attached lobes of other channel-levees is attributed to lower upslope gradient (0.13°). We show that scouring and scours concatenation into flutes at the Channel-Lobe Transition Zone is a major driver for the inception of channels and further confinement of turbidity current. For the first time we show that concatenation of scours in shingled disposition developed an incipient channel sinuosity at this very early stage of channel development. The channel-levee can extend downslope nearly instantaneously by tens of kilometers when isolated nascent channels connect to the channel mouth