Security Concerns In E-Prescribing

There has been significant growth in electronic prescriptions in the last three years. E-prescribing volume has exceeded 250 million and the number of prescribers routing prescriptions has exceeded 75,000. There has been a push from the federal government to increase e-prescriptions. There are many advantages to e-prescriptions. But, with these advantages there is also a concern regarding privacy and security of patient information.  The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of the e-prescribing processes, point out security risks, and develop ideas to reduce or eliminate those security risks

Data Mining: How Popular Is It?

Data Mining is a process used in the industry, to facilitate decision making. As the name implies, large volumes of data is mined or sifted, to find useful information for decision making. With the advent of E-business, Data Mining has become more important to practitioners. The purpose of this paper is to find out the importance of Data Mining by looking at the different application areas that have used data mining for decision making

Shift Work in Nurses: Contribution of Phenotypes and Genotypes to Adaptation

Daily cycles of sleep/wake, hormones, and physiological processes are often misaligned with behavioral patterns during shift work, leading to an increased risk of developing cardiovascular/metabolic/gastrointestinal disorders, some types of cancer, and mental disorders including depression and anxiety. It is unclear how sleep timing, chronotype, and circadian clock gene variation contribute to adaptation to shift work.Newly defined sleep strategies, chronotype, and genotype for polymorphisms in circadian clock genes were assessed in 388 hospital day- and night-shift nurses.Night-shift nurses who used sleep deprivation as a means to switch to and from diurnal sleep on work days (∼25%) were the most poorly adapted to their work schedule. Chronotype also influenced efficacy of adaptation. In addition, polymorphisms in CLOCK, NPAS2, PER2, and PER3 were significantly associated with outcomes such as alcohol/caffeine consumption and sleepiness, as well as sleep phase, inertia and duration in both single- and multi-locus models. Many of these results were specific to shift type suggesting an interaction between genotype and environment (in this case, shift work).Sleep strategy, chronotype, and genotype contribute to the adaptation of the circadian system to an environment that switches frequently and/or irregularly between different schedules of the light-dark cycle and social/workplace time. This study of shift work nurses illustrates how an environmental "stress" to the temporal organization of physiology and metabolism can have behavioral and health-related consequences. Because nurses are a key component of health care, these findings could have important implications for health-care policy

Customer Retention - CRM Application

Customer retention is an important customer relationship management (CRM) strategy. To be effective, retention programs must embrace a customer-centric management approach to identify customer needs, segment profitable customers and facilitate satisfaction and loyalty. In cyclical business environments, firms often make adjustments to address changing markets and economic environments. Firms will adapt and modify previous practices to meet contemporary needs. This trend has occurred with customer relationships as many firms use relationship strategies to build stronger consumer-business bonds. CRM-retention also has significant advantages for consumers by providing information which helps them become more informed. Yet, CRM-retention programs are frequently misunderstood, and firms often rely on IT solutions that often fail. CRM-retention programs must include a customer-centric management approach which identifies and segments profitable customers, while fostering satisfaction and loyalty. This is mutually beneficial for the business and customers, and it facilitates the efficient use of labor and technical resources to meet even more consumer needs

Student Performance at College Level Introductory Computer Courses – Does Gender and Maturity Play a Role?

Most of the entering business students at our university enroll in a computer literacy course called “Computers Literacy”. In this course students will learn effective strategies for learning and applying microcomputer software including word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database management. The course introduces concepts, terminology, and tools of the microcomputer software operating and application system environment. Introduction to the effective utilization of networking for communication, research, and information downloading is also incorporated in the course. Emphasis is on preparing the student to use computer technology effectively in education and work environments. The second computer class is called “Software Tools for Business”. This course prepares students to be proficient in problem solving through the application of spreadsheet and database tools. In addition, students are introduced to other decision support tools, such as electronic presentation tools and web editors that are used in today\u27s global workforce. Our study will investigate the knowledge of the students at the beginning of the course by administering a pretest. Their knowledge at the end of the semester will also be evaluated by means of a posttest. The pretest and posttest scores will be compared to ascertain whether the students have increased their knowledge base and skill set. Statistical analysis will be done to ascertain whether (1) gender plays a role in the students’ understanding of the computer concepts and (2) the students’ maturity level (determined by their class standing – freshmen, sophomore, junior or senior – plays a role in the students’ understanding of computer concepts

Security Concerns In E-Prescribing

There has been significant growth in electronic prescriptions in the last three years. E-prescribing volume has exceeded 250 million and the number of prescribers routing prescriptions has exceeded 75,000. There has been a push from the federal government to increase e-prescriptions. There are many advantages to e-prescriptions. But, with these advantages there is also a concern regarding privacy and security of patient information. The purpose of this research is to develop an understanding of the e-prescribing processes, point out security risks, and develop ideas to reduce or eliminate those security risks

Analytic Hierarchy Process As a Decision Support System In The Petroleum Pipeline Industry

Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a decision making algorithm developed by Dr. Saaty. It has many applications as documented in Decision Support System literature. The importance of decisions in the petroleum pipeline industry is reflected in the magnitude and nature of the industry. Worldwide, pipelines transport natural gas, crude oil, and finished petroleum products over long distances within countries and across borders to meet energy needs. Within the United States, natural gas pipelines comprise more than 1.5 million miles of underground transportation pipes. The overall objective in selecting a petroleum pipeline route is the connection of the crude/natural gas source to the refinery or utility company. Obviously, choosing the shortest, most direct route is always a goal for capital expenditure reasons, but many important goals exist simultaneously in the route selection project and at times these goals may conflict [4]. Geophysical, environmental, political, social, economic, and regulatory factors interact to define the route possibilities. This paper looks at AHP as a tool used in petroleum pipe industry to help in decision making