Ablation and functionalization of flexographic printing forms using femtosecond lasers for additively manufactured polymer-optical waveguides

An efficient and low-cost approach to manufacture Opto-Mechatronic Interconnect Devices will be obligatory to handle the strongly increasing amount of data. The presented approach is based on a flexographic printing process. To adjust the transferred material the printing form is functionalized by means of laser-induced structures using an ultrashort-pulsed laser. The long-term goal is to adjust the printing result through microstructures in the printing form in order to create spatially resolved material transfer. In this work, first the ablation parameters are investigated at different repetition rates using a femtosecond laser. Further, a line structure is inserted in the material transferring areas of the printing form, which is consequently widened. Its influence on the printing result is presented. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

What is important in evaluating health care quality? An international comparison of user views

BACKGROUND: Quality of care from the perspective of users is increasingly used in evaluating health care performance. Going beyond satisfaction studies, quality of care from the users' perspective is conceptualised in two dimensions: the importance users attach to aspects of care and their actual experience with these aspects. It is well established that health care systems differ in performance. The question in this article is whether there are also differences in what people in different health care systems view as important aspects of health care quality. The aim is to describe and explain international differences in the importance that health care users attach to different aspects of health care. METHODS: Data were used from different studies that all used a version of the QUOTE-questionnaire that measures user views of health care quality in two dimensions: the importance that users attach to aspects of care and their actual experience. Data from 12 European countries and 5133 individuals were used. They were analysed using multi-level analysis. RESULTS: Although most of the variations in importance people attach to aspects of health care is located at the individual level, there are also differences between countries. The ranking of aspects shows similarities. 'My GP should always take me seriously' was in nearly all countries ranked first, while an item about waiting time in the GP's office was always ranked lowest. CONCLUSION: Differences between countries in how health care users value different aspects of care are difficult to explain. Further theorising should take into account that importance and performance ratings are positively related, that people compare their experiences with those of others, and that general and instrumental values might be related through the institutions of the health care system

QUALICOPC, a multi-country study evaluating quality, costs and equity in primary care

Contains fulltext : 96249.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The QUALICOPC (Quality and Costs of Primary Care in Europe) study aims to evaluate the performance of primary care systems in Europe in terms of quality, equity and costs. The study will provide an answer to the question what strong primary care systems entail and which effects primary care systems have on the performance of health care systems. QUALICOPC is funded by the European Commission under the "Seventh Framework Programme". In this article the background and design of the QUALICOPC study is described. METHODS/DESIGN: QUALICOPC started in 2010 and will run until 2013. Data will be collected in 31 European countries (27 EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey) and in Australia, Israel and New Zealand. This study uses a three level approach of data collection: the system, practice and patient. Surveys will be held among general practitioners (GPs) and their patients, providing evidence at the process and outcome level of primary care. These surveys aim to gain insight in the professional behaviour of GPs and the expectations and actions of their patients. An important aspect of this study is that each patient's questionnaire can be linked to their own GP's questionnaire. To gather data at the structure or national level, the study will use existing data sources such as the System of Health Accounts and the Primary Health Care Activity Monitor Europe (PHAMEU) database. Analyses of the data will be performed using multilevel models. DISCUSSION: By its design, in which different data sources are combined for comprehensive analyses, QUALICOPC will advance the state of the art in primary care research and contribute to the discussion on the merit of strengthening primary care systems and to evidence based health policy development

A comparative study of semi-empirical noise emission models based on the PANAM and sonAIR aircraft noise simulation tools

In the context of aircraft noise simulations, an accurate representation of the aircraft noise sources is crucial so that reliable predictions can be obtained. In this contribution, we present a comparative study between the predictions provided by the emission models based on the DLR’s in-house PANAM tool and the sonAIR simulation software. Both are based on semi-empirical descriptions of the engine and airframe noise contributions, meaning that the emission levels are modeled separately for each noise source according to the operational conditions of the aircraft. This allows the comparison of the emission models not only in terms of the aircraft’s overall noise levels, but also regarding its different noise sources. The comparative study considers models representing the noise emissions of an A319 aircraft, which are provided by both simulation tools but further simulated within the sonAIR software environment in order to yield noise immission levels on a large calculation area. In general, a good agreement is observed for the departure procedure due to the similar performance of the engine noise models. In contrast, larger differences are observed during the approach procedure and at larger distances from the runway, which might be explained by differences in the airframe noise models

Прискорене моделювання стаціонарного розподілу кількості вимог у системі SMBAP|G| ∞

Розглядається система масового обслуговування з нескінченною кількістю обслуговуючих пристроїв. В систему надходить груповий потік вимог, який керується напівмарковським процесом. Запропоновано метод прискореного моделювання стаціонарної ймовірності кількості вимог у системі, що ґрунтується на методі істотної вибірки та використовує центральну граничну теорему. Оцінки є асимптотично незміщеними. Виграш в дисперсії порівняно з методом Монте-Карло становить в середньому два порядки.Рассматривается система массового обслуживания с бесконечным количеством обслуживающих устройств. В систему поступает групповой поток требований, управляемый полумарковским процессом. Предложен метод ускоренного моделирования стационарной вероятности количества требований в системе, основанный на методе существенной выборки и использующий центральную предельную теорему. Оценки — асимптотически несмещенные. Выигрыш в дисперсии по сравнению с методом Монте-Карло составляет в среднем два порядка.A queueing system with the infinite number of servers and batch arrival process controlled by the semi-Markov process is investigated. A fast simulation method for the evaluation of the steady-state distribution of the number of customers in the system is proposed, which is based on essential sampling and the central limit theorem. The estimates are asymptotically unbiased. The gain in variance compared to the Monte Carlo method is on the average two orders of magnitude