Comment on "Hole-Burning Experiments within Glassy Models with Infinite Range Interactions"

Comment on: L.F. Cugliandolo and J.L. Iguain; Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 85} 3448 (2000)Comment: 1 page, RevTe

Developmental Evaluation of a Centralized Denials Management Program

Health care reimbursement is changing, and hospitals are finding it difficult to receive payment due to insurers\u27 denial of services already rendered to patients. A denial can be considered an underpayment by the insurer to the hospital. Using a Six Sigma approach, a large hospital system in the southeast United States found that individual hospitals were not focused strictly on denials, but other tasks as well. Hospital administrators conducted a literature review and found that centralizing denials management team has improved reimbursement outcomes elsewhere. Therefore, the hospital system implemented a centralized denials unit to focus on overturning insurer denials while the patient was still hospitalized. The purpose of the project was to develop an evaluation plan to determine whether the pilot centralized denials management unit could overturn an additional 5% or more of the concurrent denials compared with the current individual hospital-based denials management approach. The quantitative evaluation plan will guide review of data collected from one organization to determine payer trends on the types of denials received and reasons for the denials. Understanding the pattern of denials is expected to uncover opportunities for denials coordinators in the dedicated centralized management unit to challenge payers based on contract language or medical necessity. If the centralized denials management unit is shown to reduce denials, it will be considered for expansion corporate wide. The social change expected through a successful denials management unit program is that the hospitals in the system will recover payment for services rendered and will be able to continue to provide quality care in the communities they serve

Stochastic modelling of soot in turbulent combustion

The current work studies the modelling of soot in turbulent combustion via a sectional model, a two-equation type approach, and the method of moments with interpolative closure in the framework of a transported probability density function model closed at joint-scalar level. Detailed sectional model calculations in a premixed well-stirred/plug flow reactor system are carried out, and updates to nucleation rates for acetylene-based soot nucleation models and soot oxidation rates used in previous work are proposed and evaluated. The updates are integrated into two-equation and method of moments calculations of two turbulent non-premixed jet flames burning ethylene and a methane based fuel, and the sensitivity to the surface area dependance of soot growth and oxidation is evaluated. Further, soot volume fraction statistics and particle size distributions (PSDs) were calculated for the turbulent ethylene flame using the sectional soot model, and an improved agreement with experimental data over the two-equation model results was noted, while the calculated PSDs demonstrate the capabilities of the model. Overall, the current work presents a significant advance upon previously published results obtained using a wide range of alternative approaches.Open Acces

Competence Assessment in Higher Education. A Pilot Study on the Measurement of Competencies in Empirical Social Research Methods among University Students

In the general education system, standardized competence assessment of students are by now well established (cf. the PISA studies). As concerns the higher education sector, however, evaluation of student achievement is still mostly based on subjective indicators or on indicators that measure input into the educational system (e.g., the funding of universities), although research has clearly pointed out the flaws of this practice. Given the general demand for an objective, standardized competence assessment among university students, it is astonishing that especially in sociology, a discipline which is supposedly sensible for the need of valid measurement instruments and at the same time has the methodological competency to develop them, virtually no research has focused on this issue yet. Our article is intended to start filling this gap. We present results from a pilot study devoted to the definition and measurement of competencies in quantitative empirical social research methods - a core sub-discipline of all social sciences which is particularly well suited for competence measurements - among university students. For this purpose, we present a structural competence model, that was operationalized into test items which were administered to 776 sociology students in Germany and Switzerland. The resulting data were scaled into competence indicators using methods of item response theory. The resulting indicators show satisfactory scale properties and good external validity. Content-related analyses on determinants of student achievement, as measured by the competence indicators, show a fruitful analysis potential of the data. All in all, the results are in favor of further pursuing competence assessments of university students in sociology. For this goal, however, several problems that we also discuss in the paper have to be addressed in the future

Statuseffekte beruflicher Weiterbildung im Spiegel des Mikrozensus

Insgesamt ergeben die hier vorgelegten empirischen Analysen auf Basis der kumulierten Querschnittdatensätze des Mikrozensus (1989-2004) ein plausibles Bild für die Situation der Weiterbildung in Deutschland. Die Daten stützen den Rückgang der Weiterbildungsbeteiligung seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre, wie er auch im Berichtssystem Weiterbildung vorzufinden ist. Die soziale Ungleichheit im Zugang zur Weiterbildung ist insbesondere nach der allgemeinen und beruflichen Vorbildung ausgeprägt und verstärkt die Unterschiede zwischen den Bildungsgruppen im Laufe des Erwerbslebens. Der Zusammenhang zwischen beruflicher Weiterbildung und dem sozialen Status von Erwerbstätigen ist stark. Er dürfte jedoch in höherem Maße auf unbeobachtete Merkmale der Erwerbstätigen (z. B. Persönlichkeitseigenschaften) oder auf Pfadabhängigkeiten von beruflichen Karrieren zurückzuführen sein als auf Kausaleffekte der Weiterbildung

Hole-burning experiments within solvable glassy models

We reproduce the results of non-resonant spectral hole-burning experiments with fully-connected (equivalently infinite-dimensional) glassy models that are generalizations of the mode-coupling approach to nonequilibrium situations. We show that an ac-field modifies the integrated linear response and the correlation function in a way that depends on the amplitude and frequency of the pumping field. We study the effect of the waiting and recovery-times and the number of oscillations applied. This calculation will help descriminating which results can and which cannot be attributed to dynamic heterogeneities in real systems.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures, RevTe

Statuseffekte beruflicher Weiterbildung im Spiegel des Mikrozensus

Insgesamt ergeben die hier vorgelegten empirischen Analysen auf Basis der kumulierten Querschnittdatensätze des Mikrozensus (1989–2004) ein plausibles Bild für die Situation der Weiterbildung in Deutschland. Die Daten stützen den Rückgang der Weiterbildungsbeteiligung seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre, wie er auch im Berichtssystem Weiterbildung vorzufinden ist. Die soziale Ungleichheit im Zugang zur Weiterbildung ist insbesondere nach der allgemeinen und beruflichen Vorbildung ausgeprägt und verstärkt die Unterschiede zwischen den Bildungsgruppen im Laufe des Erwerbslebens. Der Zusammenhang zwischen beruflicher Weiterbildung und dem sozialen Status von Erwerbstätigen ist stark. Er dürfte jedoch in höherem Maße auf unbeobachtete Merkmale der Erwerbstätigen (z. B. Persönlichkeitseigenschaften) oder auf Pfadabhängigkeiten von beruflichen Karrieren zurückzuführen sein als auf Kausaleffekte der Weiterbildung.

Allergen-specific immunotherapy of Hymenoptera venom allergy:also a matter of diagnosis

Stings of hymenoptera can induce IgE-mediated hypersensitivity reactions in venom-allergic patients, ranging from local up to severe systemic reactions and even fatal anaphylaxis. Allergic patients' quality of life can be mainly improved by altering their immune response to tolerate the venoms by injecting increasing venom doses over years. This venom-specific immunotherapy is highly effective and well tolerated. However, component-resolved information about the venoms has increased in the last years. This knowledge is not only able to improve diagnostics as basis for an accurate therapy, but was additionally used to create tools which enable the analysis of therapeutic venom extracts on a molecular level. Therefore, during the last decade the detailed knowledge of the allergen composition of hymenoptera venoms has substantially improved diagnosis and therapy of venom allergy. This review focuses on state of the art diagnostic and therapeutic options as well as on novel directions trying to improve therapy

Monte-Carlo simulation of supercooled liquids using a self-consistent local temperature

We combine Creutz energy conservation with Kawasaki spin exchange to simulate the microcanonical dynamics of a system of interacting particles. Relaxation occurs via Glauber spin-flip activation using a self-consistent temperature. Heterogeneity in the dynamics comes from finite-size constraints on the spin exchange that yield a distribution of correlated regions. The simulation produces a high-frequency response that can be identified with the boson peak, and a lower-frequency peak that contains non-Debye relaxation and non-Arrhenius activation, similar to the primary response of supercooled liquids.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure