Equity trend prediction with neural networks

This paper presents results of neural network based trend prediction for equity markets. Raw equity exchange data is pre-processed before being fed into a series of neural networks. The use of Self Organising Maps (SOM) is investigated as a data classification method to limit neural network inputs and training data requirements. The resulting primary simulation is a neural network that can prediction whether the next trading period will be, on average, higher or lower than the current. Combinations of pre-processing and feature extracting SOM’s are investigated to determine the more optimal system configuration

Sensor data retransmission by satellite

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Hydrologic data relay by satellite from remote areas

The author has identified the following significant results. Experimental use of LANDSAT data collection system and the GOES system has demonstrated the feasibility of using this technology to relay hydrologic data from remote areas on a near real time basis. The system has proved to be accurate, reliable, and cost effective

Use of satellites in data retransmission

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Water survey of Canada: Application for use of ERTS-A for retransmission of water resources data

The author has identified the following significant results. Water resources data including water level, water velocity, precipitation, air temperature, ice-out indicator, data collection platform battery check and water stage recorder clock operation have been transmitted from remote areas in Canada using the ERTS Data Collection System. The system has met all requirements. The suitability of satellite retransmission has been demonstrated. The present network will be expanded to 28 in 1975

Hydrologic applications of the TIROS-N Argos data collection system

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Retransmission of hydrometric data in Canada

The author has identified the following significant results. The feasibility of transmitting hydrometric data to polar orbiting spacecraft and using these data for quasi-operational purposes was demonstrated

Retransmission of hydrometric data in Canada

The author has identified the following significant results. The project continued to demonstrate the feasibility of transmitting hydrometric data in the LANDSAT and GOES mode and using these data operationally. All elements except for the GOES downlink at PASS were functioning well

Retransmission of Hydrometric Data in Canada

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Integration and Continuity of Primary Care: Polyclinics and Alternatives, a Patient-Centred Analysis of How Organisation Constrains Care Coordination

Background An ageing population, increasingly specialised of clinical services and diverse healthcare provider ownership make the coordination and continuity of complex care increasingly problematic. The way in which the provision of complex healthcare is coordinated produces – or fails to – six forms of continuity of care (cross-sectional, longitudinal, flexible, access, informational, relational). Care coordination is accomplished by a combination of activities by: patients themselves; provider organisations; care networks coordinating the separate provider organisations; and overall health system governance. This research examines how far organisational integration might promote care coordination at the clinical level. Objectives To examine: 1. What differences the organisational integration of primary care makes, compared with network governance, to horizontal and vertical coordination of care. 2. What difference provider ownership (corporate, partnership, public) makes. 3. How much scope either structure allows for managerial discretion and ‘performance’. 4. Differences between networked and hierarchical governance regarding the continuity and integration of primary care. 5. The implications of the above for managerial practice in primary care. Methods Multiple-methods design combining: 1. Assembly of an analytic framework by non-systematic review. 2. Framework analysis of patients’ experiences of the continuities of care. 3. Systematic comparison of organisational case studies made in the same study sites. 4. A cross-country comparison of care coordination mechanisms found in our NHS study sites with those in publicly owned and managed Swedish polyclinics. 5. Analysis and synthesis of data using an ‘inside-out’ analytic strategy. Study sites included professional partnership, corporate and publicly owned and managed primary care providers, and different configurations of organisational integration or separation of community health services, mental health services, social services and acute in-patient care. Results Starting from data about patients' experiences of the coordination or under-coordination of care we identified: 1. Five care coordination mechanisms present in both the integrated organisations and the care networks. 2. Four main obstacles to care coordination within the integrated organisations, of which two were also present in the care networks. 3. Seven main obstacles to care coordination that were specific to the care networks. 4. Nine care coordination mechanisms present in the integrated organisations. Taking everything into consideration, integrated organisations appeared more favourable to producing continuities of care than were care networks. Network structures demonstrated more flexibility in adding services for small care groups temporarily, but the expansion of integrated organisations had advantages when adding new services on a longer term and larger scale. Ownership differences affected the range of services to which patients had direct access; primary care doctors’ managerial responsibilities (relevant to care coordination because of its impact on GP workload); and the scope for doctors to develop special interests. We found little difference between integrated organisations and care networks in terms of managerial discretion and performance. Conclusions On balance, an integrated organisation seems more likely to favour the development of care coordination, and therefore continuities of care, than a system of care networks. At least four different variants of ownership and management of organisationally integrated primary care providers are practicable in NHS-like settings