The long road to improvement in modelling & managing engineering processes (MMEP)

Managing complex engineering design processes is a challenge for industry, which is looking to academia to provide tools and methods to support them. The Modelling and Managing of Engineering Processes Special Interest Group of the Design Society aims to support industry in understanding, modelling and running design processes by bringing together a community of design researchers and interacting with industry by identifying research challenges and working together to resolve them. This paper maps out research challenges for MMEP and reflects over some of the challenges we have as a research community in meeting these ambitious goals. This paper begins by presenting an ambitious research roadmap developed in 2008 and then compares the roadmap with the research topics that current members of the MMEP SIG are working on before reflecting on how and where we have made progress and what would be serious progress in this area. Based on the analyses of research topics and progress, the paper concludes with a discussion of the evolution of research topics and associated challenges for design research, and sketches measures required for improving our efficacy as a research community

Financing health care in Egypt: Current issues and options for reform

Introduction: The Government of Egypt has embarked on a process of reforming health care financing in the country. Under the influence of external advisers it has so far focused on social health insurance as the main funding mechanism. Other options, in particular tax-based financing, have hardly been considered. Methods: Review of current health care financing arrangements in Egypt, of potential areas for improvement, and of stated health policy goals. Analysis of social health insurance and taxation-based financing on their ability to meet the stated policy goals and their viability. Results: Although both funding mechanisms have distinct advantages and disadvantages when applied to the Egyptian health system, tax-based financing seems better able to meet the official policy goals of the Government of Egypt than social health insurance on grounds of efficiency, equity and technical feasibility. Conclusions: The Government of Egypt will have to raise public health expenditure substantially to finance care at an adequate level. Expanding and refining the present tax-based financing scheme, rather than switching to an insurance-based scheme seems the technically superior strategy. Other measures to improve the coordination of financing, such as the creation of a single fundholding agency, are needed as well as tighter regulation of private providers and the pharmaceutical market. -- Hintergrund: Die ägyptische Regierung hat begonnen die Finanzierungs-mechanismen im Gesundheitssystem zu reformieren. Der Fokus der Überlegungen der Regierung und der externen Berater war bisher ein Sozialversicherungssystem. Andere Optionen, besonders ein aus Steuern finanziertes Gesundheitssystem, wurden bisher nicht ausreichend berücksichtigt. Methoden: Übersicht über derzeitige Finanzierungsmechanismen im ägyptischen Gesundheitssystem und Aufzeigen von möglichen Ansatzpunkten für Reformen und der gesundheitspolitischen Ziele der Regierung. Vergleichende Analyse des Verbesserungspotentials durch eine allgemeine Sozialversicherungspflicht oder eine Finanzierung aus Steuermitteln. Die offiziellen gesundheitspolitischen Ziele der Regierung werden dabei neben der technischen und politischen Umsetzbarkeit als Kriterien verwendet. Ergebnisse: Obwohl beide Finanzierungsmechanismen im Kontext des ägyptischen Gesundheitssystems unterschiedliche Vor- und Nachteile bieten, scheint eine Finanzierung aus Steuermitteln die geeignetere Finanzierungsart um die gesundheitspolitischen Ziele der Regierung wie Effizienz und Gerechtigkeit nachhaltig zu erreichen. Empfehlungen: Zum einen müsste die ägyptische Regierung die öffentliche Finanzierung des Gesundheitssystems deutlich erhöhen um eine adäquate Gesundheitsversorgung der Bevölkerung zu gewährleisten. Zum anderen scheint eine Ausweitung und Präzision des bestehenden steuerfinanzierten Systemanteils einer Ausweitung des Sozialversicherungsanteils die technisch überlegene Strategie zu sein. Andere flankierende Massnahmen wie die Schaffung einer zentralen Koordinationsstelle für die Gesundheitssystemfinanzierung und eine verbesserte Regulierung der privaten Anbieter und des Marktes für pharmazeutische Produkte sind ebenfalls wünschenswert.

Comparison of health care financing arrangements in Egypt and Cuba: Lessons for health reform in Egypt

Egypt and Cuba are both lower-middle income countries with a history of socialist rule and which have embarked on economic liberalisation since the 1990s. Health status in both countries is extremely different. While life expectancy of the Cuban population in all age-groups is similar to that of many high-income industrialised countries, health status in Egypt is relatively poor compared to countries with a similar national income and compared to regional comparators. Health care systems in both countries are also markedly different, although both share a socialist origin with centralised administration of funding and delivery, funding mainly from general taxation, and state-employed providers. In this article, health care financing mechanisms in both countries are analysed on their effectiveness, efficiency, and equity, with the objective of identifying the determinants of success in the Cuban health care system from which valuable lessons for current health reforms in Egypt may be derived. -- Ägypten und Kuba sind Länder mit niedrig-mittlerem Nationaleinkommen, die nach mehreren Dekaden sozialistischer Führung seit den 90er Jahren Wirtschaftsreformen im Sinne einer Liberalisierung begonnen haben. Das Gesundheitsniveau der Bevölkerung in beiden Ländern ist jedoch extrem unterschiedlich. Während in Kuba die Lebenserwartung in allen Altersgruppen der Lebenserwartung in vielen industrialisierten Ländern mit hohem Einkommen entspricht, fällt Ägypten im internationalen Vergleich durch seinen unterdurchschnittlichen Gesundheitsstatus auf. Dies sowohl im Vergleich mit anderen Ländern im nahen Osten und in Nordafrika, als auch im Vergleich mit anderen Ländern mit vergleichbarem Nationaleinkommen. Die Gesundheitssysteme in beiden Ländern haben sich in den letzten 20 bis 30 Jahren ebenfalls sehr unterschiedlich entwickelt, obwohl beide ihren Ursprung in zentralistischen Systemen mit Finanzierung durch Steuern und staatlichen Anbietern haben. In dieser Arbeit werden die Finanzierungsmechanismen in beiden Gesundheitssystemen hinsichtlich ihrer Wirksamkeit, ihrer Effizienz und Gerechtigkeit miteinander verglichen, um diejenigen Mechanismen im kubanischen Gesundheitssystem zu identifizieren, die vermutlich entscheidend für den Erfolg sind. Diese Erfolgsfaktoren könnten wertvolle Anregungen für die derzeitige Entwicklung der Gesundheitsreformen in Ägypten bieten.

Low frequency structural dynamics of warm dense matter

Measurements of the microscopic response of warm dense matter have been demonstrated by multi-keV inelastic x-ray scattering using laser-based sources. These techniques have been used to study the high frequency electron correlations (plasmons) in low to mid-Z plasmas. The advent of fourth generation light sources will provide high fluxes of narrowband and coherent x rays that will allow to look at the low frequency correlations (the ion-acoustic waves). In this paper we present an analysis of such low frequency modes by calculating the frequency dependent ion-ion structure factor. Our model includes all the relevant multibody contributions arising from strong coupling and nonideal plasma effects. In particular, the ion-ion structure factor is obtained within the memory function formalism by satisfying a finite number of sum rules. This work could be used as a basis to a direct experimental test of dense plasma model as soon as keV free electron laser sources will become available

Comparison of electron-ion energy transfer in dense plasmas obtained from numerical simulations and quantum kinetic theory

We evaluate various analytical models for the electron-ion energy transfer and compare the results to data from molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The models tested includes energy transfer via strong binary collisions, Landau-Spitzer rates with different choices for the cut-off parameters in the Coulomb logarithm, rates based on Fermi's golden rule (FGR) and theories taking coupled collective modes (CM) into account. In search of a model easy to apply, we first analyze different approximations of the FGR energy transfer rate. Then we investigate several numerical studies using MD simulations and try to uncover CM effects in the data obtained. Most MD data published so far show no distinct CM effects and, thus, can be interpreted within a FGR or binary collision approach. We show that this finding is related to the parameter regime, in particular the initial temperature difference, considered in these investigations.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Towards a Framework of Choices Made During the Lifecycles of Process Models

A variety of process modelling approaches exist. The tools provide visualizations and enable analyses of a process. However, analyses of a process depend fundamentally on the properties of the underlying process model. Choices that modellers make in building process models affect the quality of the created models and have an effect on what the models can be used for and can affect the process that is modelled. This paper reflects over the choices the processes modellers need to make in the course of building processes and proposes a framework to show how the choices are related to each other

Ramp wave loading experiments driven by heavy ion beams: a feasibility study

A new design for heavy-ion beam driven ramp wave loading experiments is suggested and analyzed. The proposed setup utilizes the long stopping ranges and the variable focal spot geometry of the high-energy uranium beams available at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung and Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research accelerator centers in Darmstadt, Germany. The release wave created by ion beams can be utilized to create a planar ramp loading of various samples. In such experiments, the predicted high pressure amplitudes (up to 10 Mbar) and short timescales of compression (<10 ns) will allow to test the time-dependent material deformation at unprecedented extreme conditions