Determinants of Pediatric Care Utilization

The purpose of this paper is to understand the determinants of utilization of pediatric care -- care rendered to children by all physicians. Multivariate techniques are employed to examine four measures of pediatric care utilization in a national sample of children between the ages of 1 and 5. These measures are the probability of contacting a physician within the past year, the probability of obtaining a preventive physical examination within the past year, the number of office visits to physicians in private practice by children with positive visits, and the average quality of these visits.

A computer simulation of processor scheduling in UNIX 4.2BSD

This project is a study of the processor scheduling system in UNIX 4.2BSD. This study involved a computer simulation of the processor scheduling system. The preliminary work for the simulation included choosing a system, choosing and running a set of test processes on that system, gathering statistics from these runs, and constructing a model of the scheduling system. The model was then tuned to perform like the real system by introducing overhead into the model. The overhead was added using several variables in the model. Tuning consisted of adjusting the values of these variables until the performance of the model was as close as possible to that of the real system. Experiments were performed on the model consisting of a rescheduling experiment that examined the handling of compute-bound processes by the scheduler and several experiments that study the effects of modifications to the scheduler

The role of emergency medicine physicians in trauma care in North America: evolution of a specialty

The role of Emergency Medicine Physicians (EMP) in the care of trauma patients in North America has evolved since the advent of the specialty in the late 1980's. The evolution of this role in the context of the overall demands of the specialty and accreditation requirements of North American trauma centers will be discussed. Limited available data published in the literature examining the role of EMP's in trauma care will be reviewed with respect to its implications for an expanded role for EMPs in trauma care. Two training models currently in the early stages of development have been proposed to address needs for increased manpower in trauma and the critical care of trauma patients. The available information regarding these models will be reviewed along with the implications for improving the care of trauma patients in both Europe and North America

Measuring the Photon Helicity in Radiative B Decays

We propose a way of measuring the photon polarization in radiative B decays into K resonance states decaying to K\pi\pi, which can test the Standard Model and probe new physics. The photon polarization is shown to be measured by the up-down asymmetry of the photon direction relative to the K\pi\pi decay plane in the K resonance rest frame. The integrated asymmetry in K_1(1400)\to K\pi\pi, calculated to be 0.34\pm 0.05 in the Standard Model, is measurable at currently operating B factories.Comment: 4 pages, final version to appear in Physical Review Letter

Toward a Dependability Case Language and Workflow for a Radiation Therapy System

We present a near-future research agenda for bringing a suite of modern programming-languages verification tools - specifically interactive theorem proving, solver-aided languages, and formally defined domain-specific languages - to the development of a specific safety-critical system, a radiotherapy medical device. We sketch how we believe recent programming-languages research advances can merge with existing best practices for safety-critical systems to increase system assurance and developer productivity. We motivate hypotheses central to our agenda: That we should start with a single specific system and that we need to integrate a variety of complementary verification and synthesis tools into system development

Photon polarization in radiative B decays

We study decay distributions in B -> K pi pi gamma, combining contributions from several overlapping resonances in a K pi pi mass range near 1400 MeV, (1^+) K_1(1400), (2^+) K^*_2(1430) and (1^-) K^*(1410). A method is proposed for using these distributions to determine a photon polarization parameter in the effective radiative weak Hamiltonian. This parameter is measured through an up-down asymmetry of the photon direction relative to the K pi pi decay plane. We calculate a dominant up-down asymmetry of 0.33 +- 0.05 from the K1(1400) resonance, which can be measured with about 10^8 B B-bar pairs, thus providing a new test for the Standard Model and a probe for some of its extensions.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, version to appear in Phys. Rev.

An evolutionary stage model of outsourcing and competence destruction : a Triad comparison of the consumer electronics industry

Outsourcing has gained much prominence in managerial practice and academic discussions in the last two decades or so. Yet, we still do not understand the full implications of outsourcing strategy for corporate performance. Traditionally outsourcing across borders is explained as a cost-cutting exercise, but more recently the core competency argument states that outsourcing also leads to an increased focus, thereby improving effectiveness. However, no general explanation has so far been provided for how outsourcing could lead to deterioration in a firm‟s competence base. We longitudinally analyze three cases of major consumer electronics manufacturers, Emerson Radio from the U.S., Japan‟s Sony and Philips from the Netherlands to understand the dynamic process related to their sourcing strategies. We develop an evolutionary stage model that relates outsourcing to competence development inside the firm and shows that a vicious cycle may emerge. Thus it is appropriate to look not only at how outsourcing is influenced by an organization‟s current set of competences, but also how it alters that set over time. The four stages of the model are offshore sourcing, phasing out, increasing dependence on foreign suppliers, and finally industry exit or outsourcing reduction. The evolutionary stage model helps managers understand for which activities and under which conditions outsourcing across borders is not a viable option. Results suggest that each of these firms had faced a loss of manufacturing competitiveness in its home country, to which it responded by offshoring and then outsourcing production. When a loss of competences occurred, some outsourcing decisions were reversed

Path Crossing Exponents and the External Perimeter in 2D Percolation

2D Percolation path exponents $x^{\cal P}_{\ell}$ describe probabilities for traversals of annuli by $\ell$ non-overlapping paths, each on either occupied or vacant clusters, with at least one of each type. We relate the probabilities rigorously to amplitudes of $O(N=1)$ models whose exponents, believed to be exact, yield $x^{\cal P}_{\ell}=({\ell}^2-1)/12$. This extends to half-integers the Saleur--Duplantier exponents for $k=\ell/2$ clusters, yields the exact fractal dimension of the external cluster perimeter, $D_{EP}=2-x^{\cal P}_3=4/3$, and also explains the absence of narrow gate fjords, as originally found by Grossman and Aharony.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures (EPSF). Revised presentatio