Value Stream Mapping and Simulation Modelling for Healthcare Transactional Process Improvement

Lean management philosophy was originated in Japan from the Toyota production system. The main idea is to determine and eliminate waste. The concept of end-to-end value allows organizations to achieve competitive advantage through best quality product and services through minimum operational cost. These days there is more to be achieved by applying lean to services and transactional processes floors. Lean facilitators are facing challenges when trying to transform an organization to be a lean enterprise because it is possible in production systems, but that is not easier in the services and transactional sectors, which means there are challenges that should be considered. Some of the challenges for the service sector are; complex and mixed value streams, information and people are processed instead of parts and human interaction is a major part of the service sector

A Systematic Review of The Potential Use of Neurofeedback in Patients with Schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by positive symptoms (hallucinations and delusions), negative symptoms (anhedonia, social withdrawal) and marked cognitive deficits (memory, executive function, and attention). Current mainstays of treatment, including medications and psychotherapy, do not adequately address cognitive symptoms, which are essential for everyday functioning. However, recent advances in computational neurobiology have rekindled interest in neurofeedback (NF), a form of self-regulation or neuromodulation, in potentially alleviating cognitive symptoms in patients with SCZ. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the literature for NF studies in SCZ to identify lessons learned and to identify steps to move the field forward. Our findings reveal that NF studies to date consist mostly of case studies and small sample, single-group studies. Despite few randomized clinical trials, the results suggest that NF is feasible and that it leads to measurable changes in brain function. These findings indicate early proof-of-concept data that needs to be followed up by larger, randomized clinical trials, testing the efficacy of NF compared to well thought out placebos. We hope that such an undertaking by the field will lead to innovative solutions that address refractory symptoms and improve everyday functioning in patients with SCZ

Feshbach blockade: single-photon nonlinear optics using resonantly enhanced cavity-polariton scattering from biexciton states

We theoretically demonstrate how the resonant coupling between a pair of cavity-polaritons and a biexciton state can lead to a large single-photon Kerr nonlinearity in a semiconductor solid-state system. A fully analytical model of the scattering process between a pair of cavity-polaritons is developed, which explicitly includes the biexcitonic intermediate state. A dramatic enhancement of the polariton-polariton interactions is predicted in the vicinity of the biexciton Feshbach resonance. Application to the generation of non-classical light from polariton dots is discussed

The challenge of unravelling magnetic properties in LaFeAsO

First principles calculations of magnetic and, to a lesser extent, electronic properties of the novel LaFeAsO-based superconductors show substantial apparent controversy, as opposed to most weakly or strongly correlated materials. Not only do different reports disagree about quantitative values, there is also a schism in terms of interpreting the basic physics of the magnetic interactions in this system. In this paper, we present a systematic analysis using four different first principles methods and show that while there is an unusual sensitivity to computational details, well-converged full-potential all-electron results are fully consistent among themselves. What makes results so sensitive and the system so different from simple local magnetic moments interacting via basic superexchange mechanisms is the itinerant character of the calculated magnetic ground state, where very soft magnetic moments and long-range interactions are characterized by a particular structure in the reciprocal (as opposed to real) space. Therefore, unravelling the magnetic interactions in their full richness remains a challenging, but utterly important task

Hexaaquazinc(II) dinitrate bis[5-(pyridinium-3-yl)tetrazol-1-ide]

Indexación: Scopus.Funding for this research was provided by: Fondecyt Regular (award No. 1151527); Proyecto REDES ETAPA INICIAL, Convocatoria 2017 (award No. REDI170423); Millennium Institute for Research in Optics (MIRO); Basal USA (award No. 1799).Hexaaquazinc(II) dinitrate 5-(pyridinium-3-yl)tetrazol-1-ide, [Zn(H2 O)6](NO 3)2 ·2C6H5 N 5, crystallizes in the space group P. The asymmetric unit contains one zwitterionic 5-(pyridinium-3-yl)tetrazol-1-ide molecule, one NO3-anion and one half of a [Zn(H2 O)6]2+ cation (symmetry). The pyridinium and tetrazolide rings in the zwitterion are nearly coplanar, with a dihedral angle of 5.4 (2)°. Several O-H..N and N-H..O hydrogen-bonding interactions exist between the [Zn(H2 O)6]2+ cation and the N atoms of the tetrazolide ring, and between the nitrate anions and the N-H groups of the pyridinium ring, respectively, giving rise to a three-dimensional network. The 5-(pyridinium-3-yl)tetrazol-1-ide molecules show parallel-displaced π-π stacking interactions; the centroid-centroid distance between adjacent tetrazolide rings is 3.6298 (6) Å and that between the pyridinium and tetrazolide rings is 3.6120 (5) Å. © 2018 Chi-Duran et al.http://journals.iucr.org/e/issues/2018/09/00/cq2025/index.htm

Characteristics of alpha projectile fragments emission in interaction of nuclei with emulsion

The properties of the relativistic alpha fragments produced in interactions of 84^Kr at around 1 A GeV in nuclear emulsion are investigated. The experimental results are compared with the similar results obtained from various projectiles with emulsion interactions at different energies. The total, partial nuclear cross-sections and production rates of alpha fragmentation channels in relativistic nucleus-nucleus collisions and their dependence on the mass number and initial energy of the incident projectile nucleus are investigated. The yields of multiple alpha fragments emitted from the interactions of projectile nuclei with the nuclei of light, medium and heavy target groups of emulsion-detector are discussed and they indicate that the projectile-breakup mechanism seems to be free from the target mass number. It is found that the multiplicity distributions of alpha fragments are well described by the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling presentation. The mean multiplicities of the freshly produced newly created charged secondary particles, normally known as shower and secondary particles associated with target in the events where the emission of alpha fragments were accompanied by heavy projectile fragments having Z value larger than 4 seem to be constant as the alpha fragments multiplicity increases, and exhibit a behavior independent of the alpha fragments multiplicity.Comment: 33 pages, 8 figures and 3 tables (in press

Thermal Abundances of Heavy Particles

Matsumoto and Yoshimura [hep-ph/9910393] have argued that there are loop corrections to the number density of heavy particles (in thermal equilibrium with a gas of light particles) that are not Boltzmann suppressed by a factor of e^(-M/T) at temperatures T well below the mass M of the heavy particle. We argue, however, that their definition of the number density does not correspond to a quantity that could be measured in a realistic experiment. We consider a model where the heavy particles carry a conserved U(1) charge, and the light particles do not. The fluctuations of the net charge in a given volume then provide a measure of the total number of heavy particles in that same volume. We show that these charge fluctuations are Boltzmann suppressed (to all orders in perturbation theory). Therefore, we argue, the number density of heavy particles is also Boltzmann suppressed.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure; minor improvements in revised versio