Scheduling Workforce Relief Breaks In Advance Versus In Real-Time

This paper focuses upon employee rest breaks, or reliefs, in workforce scheduling. Historically, the workforce scheduling literature has largely ignored reliefs, as less than 18% of the 64 papers we surveyed scheduled reliefs. The argument has been that one need not schedule reliefs in advance, since they can easily be scheduled in real-time. We find this argument to be flawed. We show that failing to schedule reliefs in advance will have one of two undesirable outcomes. First, there will be a less profitable deployment of labor should all reliefs actually be taken in real-time. Second, if some reliefs are never assigned or if relief-timing restrictions are relaxed so that more reliefs may be assigned in real-time, there will be a disgruntled and less productive workforce and perhaps violations of contractual obligations. Our findings are supported by anecdotal evidence drawn from commercial labor scheduling software

Strategies for Integrating Capacity with Demand in Service Networks

Service managers face the problem of simultaneously developing and implementing both capacity and demand management strategies. Often they must choose between marketing options, for shifting or increasing demand, or operations management options such as adding additional capacity via more equipment or employees. The interaction of these two functional area strategies can have surprising, unintended, and often detrimental outcomes from a profit perspective. This article looks at the outcomes of various combinations of these decisions in a service network, a service with multiple activities within one site. We develop and apply an integrative model for determining the profit-maximizing capacity management strategy for a service network. We implement the model by combining a conjoint analysis-based optimal product design model from marketing with a simulation model investigating capacity and demand management strategies from operations management. We tested the model using data from an actual service network, a ski resort. Our results indicated that queue information signage was the most effective strategy for improving profitability. We also found that a decision that management believed would increase revenues—changing the customer class mix—actually decreased profitability substantially

Genomewide Association Studies of LRRK2 Modifiers of Parkinson's Disease.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to search for genes/variants that modify the effect of LRRK2 mutations in terms of penetrance and age-at-onset of Parkinson's disease. METHODS: We performed the first genomewide association study of penetrance and age-at-onset of Parkinson's disease in LRRK2 mutation carriers (776 cases and 1,103 non-cases at their last evaluation). Cox proportional hazard models and linear mixed models were used to identify modifiers of penetrance and age-at-onset of LRRK2 mutations, respectively. We also investigated whether a polygenic risk score derived from a published genomewide association study of Parkinson's disease was able to explain variability in penetrance and age-at-onset in LRRK2 mutation carriers. RESULTS: A variant located in the intronic region of CORO1C on chromosome 12 (rs77395454; p value = 2.5E-08, beta = 1.27, SE = 0.23, risk allele: C) met genomewide significance for the penetrance model. Co-immunoprecipitation analyses of LRRK2 and CORO1C supported an interaction between these 2 proteins. A region on chromosome 3, within a previously reported linkage peak for Parkinson's disease susceptibility, showed suggestive associations in both models (penetrance top variant: p value = 1.1E-07; age-at-onset top variant: p value = 9.3E-07). A polygenic risk score derived from publicly available Parkinson's disease summary statistics was a significant predictor of penetrance, but not of age-at-onset. INTERPRETATION: This study suggests that variants within or near CORO1C may modify the penetrance of LRRK2 mutations. In addition, common Parkinson's disease associated variants collectively increase the penetrance of LRRK2 mutations. ANN NEUROL 2021;90:82-94

word~river literary review (2013)

wordriver is a literary journal dedicated to the poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction of adjunct, part-time and fulltime instructors teaching under a semester or yearly contract in our universities, colleges, and community colleges worldwide. Graduate student teachers who have used up their teaching assistant time and are teaching with adjunct contracts for the remainder of their graduate program are also eligible. We’re looking for work that demonstrates the creativity and craft of adjunct/part-time instructors in English and other disciplines. We reserve first publication rights and onetime anthology publication rights for all work published. We do not accept simultaneous submissions.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river/1004/thumbnail.jp

word~river literary review (2012)

wordriver is a literary journal dedicated to the poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction of adjunct, part-time and fulltime instructors teaching under a semester or yearly contract in our universities, colleges, and community colleges worldwide. Graduate student teachers who have used up their teaching assistant time and are teaching with adjunct contracts for the remainder of their graduate program are also eligible. We’re looking for work that demonstrates the creativity and craft of adjunct/part-time instructors in English and other disciplines. We reserve first publication rights and onetime anthology publication rights for all work published. We do not accept simultaneous submissions.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river/1003/thumbnail.jp

word~river literary review (2011)

wordriver is a literary journal dedicated to the poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction of adjuncts and part-time instructors teaching in our universities, colleges, and community colleges. Our premier issue was published in Spring 2009. We are always looking for work that demonstrates the creativity and craft of adjunct/part-time instructors in English and other disciplines. We reserve first publication rights and onetime anthology publication rights for all work published. We define adjunct instructors as anyone teaching part-time or full-time under a semester or yearly contract, nationwide and in any discipline. Graduate students teaching under part-time contracts during the summer or who have used up their teaching assistant time and are teaching with adjunct contracts for the remainder of their graduate program also are eligible.https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/word_river/1001/thumbnail.jp

Capacity- and Demand-Management Decisions at a Ski Resort

[Excerpt] Capacity planning is a dominant issue when developing hospitality-operations strategies. From relatively small-scale settings such as restaurants to massive venues such as cruise ships and theme parks, managers face the same questions, such as: How can the service create the most revenue from a limited space and still keep the guests satisfied?; Should the business promote off-peak use at discount prices, add more capacity (at the risk of making guests feel crowded), or target marketing campaigns to those customer groups that might take advantage of underused facilities?; and Should the firm implement automated reservation technology to control queues for a ride or attraction

Strategies for Integrating Capacity with Demand in Service Networks

Service managers face the problem of simultaneously developing and implementing both capacity and demand management strategies. Often they must choose between marketing options, for shifting or increasing demand, or operations management options such as adding additional capacity via more equipment or employees. The interaction of these two functional area strategies can have surprising, unintended, and often detrimental outcomes from a profit perspective. This article looks at the outcomes of various combinations of these decisions in a service network, a service with multiple activities within one site. We develop and apply an integrative model for determining the profit-maximizing capacity management strategy for a service network. We implement the model by combining a conjoint analysis-based optimal product design model from marketing with a simulation model investigating capacity and demand management strategies from operations management. We tested the model using data from an actual service network, a ski resort. Our results indicated that queue information signage was the most effective strategy for improving profitability. We also found that a decision that management believed would increase revenues—changing the customer class mix—actually decreased profitability substantially.Thompson22.pdf: 221 downloads, before Aug. 1, 2020