Search results for: healthcare workers
188 Polyurethane Nanofibers Obtained By Electrospinning Process
Authors: H. Karakaş, A.S. Saraç, T. Polat, E.G. Budak, S. Bayram, N. Dağ, S. Jahangiri
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Electrospinning is a broadly used technology to obtain polymeric nanofibers ranging from several micrometers down to several hundred nanometers for a wide range of applications. It offers unique capabilities to produce nanofibers with controllable porous structure. With smaller pores and higher surface area than regular fibers, electrospun fibers have been successfully applied in various fields, such as, nanocatalysis, tissue engineering scaffolds, protective clothing, filtration, biomedical, pharmaceutical, optical electronics, healthcare, biotechnology, defense and security, and environmental engineering. In this study, polyurethane nanofibers were obtained under different electrospinning parameters. Fiber morphology and diameter distribution were investigated in order to understand them as a function of process parameters.Keywords: Electrospinning, polyurethane, nanofibers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4795187 Surgical Theater Utilization and PACU Staffing
Authors: Abdulrahim Shamayleh
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In this work, the surgical theater of a local hospital in KSA was analyzed using simulation. The focus was on attempting to answer questions related to how many Operating Rooms (ORs) to open and to analyze the performance of the surgical theater in general and mainly the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) to assist making decisions regarding PACU staffing. The surgical theater consists of ten operating rooms and the PACU unit which has a maximum capacity of fifteen beds. Different sequencing rules to sequence the surgical cases were tested and the Longest Case First (LCF) were superior to others. The results of the different alternatives developed and tested can be used by the manager as a tool to plan and manage the OR and PACUKeywords: Operating room, post anesthesia care unit, PACUstaffing, sequencing, healthcare
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2564186 A Decision Support System for Predicting Hospitalization of Hemodialysis Patients
Authors: Jinn-Yi Yeh, Tai-Hsi Wu
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Hemodialysis patients might suffer from unhealthy care behaviors or long-term dialysis treatments. Ultimately they need to be hospitalized. If the hospitalization rate of a hemodialysis center is high, its quality of service would be low. Therefore, how to decrease hospitalization rate is a crucial problem for health care. In this study we combined temporal abstraction with data mining techniques for analyzing the dialysis patients' biochemical data to develop a decision support system. The mined temporal patterns are helpful for clinicians to predict hospitalization of hemodialysis patients and to suggest them some treatments immediately to avoid hospitalization.Keywords: Hemodialysis, Temporal abstract, Data mining, Healthcare quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1730185 Factors of Vocational Identity for Social Welfare University Students in Japan
Authors: J. Sakano, Y. Yajima, W. Ono, Y. Yamazaki, S. Sasahara, Y. Tomotsune, Y. Ohi, S. Suzuki, A. Seki, I. Matsuzaki
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The study aimed to verify a hypothesis that a sense of fulfillment in student life and perceived stress in training in the facilities could affect vocational identity among social welfare university students, in order to acquire implications for enhancing the vocational consciousness. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 388 third- and fourth-year students of training course for certified social workers in three universities in A prefecture in Japan. The questionnaire was returned by 338 students, and 288 responses (85.2%) were valid and used for the analysis. As a SEM result, the hypothesized model proved to be fit to the data. Path coefficient of sense of fulfillment of student life to vocational identity was statistically positive. Path coefficient of training stress to vocational identity was statistically negative.Keywords: Training stress, Physical health, Sense of fulfillment of student life, structural equation modeling (SEM)
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1592184 Analysis of Production Loss on a Linear Walking Worker Line
Authors: Qian Wang, Sylvain Lassalle, Antony R. Mileham, Geraint W. Owen
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This paper mathematically analyses the varying magnitude of production loss, which may occur due to idle time (inprocess waiting time and traveling time) on a linear walking worker assembly line. Within this flexible and reconfigurable assembly system, each worker travels down the line carrying out each assembly task at each station; and each worker accomplishes the assembly of a unit from start to finish and then travels back to the first station to start the assembly of a new product. This strategy of system design attempts to combine the flexibility of the U-shaped moving worker assembly cell with the efficiency of the conventional fixed worker assembly line. The paper aims to evaluate the effect of idle time that may offset the labor efficiency of each walking worker providing an insight into the mechanism of such a flexible and reconfigurable assembly system.Keywords: Production lines, manufacturing systems, assemblysystems, walking workers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1896183 An Approach for the Prediction of Cardiovascular Diseases
Authors: Nebi Gedik
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Regardless of age or gender, cardiovascular illnesses are a serious health concern because of things like poor eating habits, stress, a sedentary lifestyle, hard work schedules, alcohol use, and weight. It tends to happen suddenly and has a high rate of recurrence. Machine learning models can be implemented to assist healthcare systems in the accurate detection and diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in patients. Improved heart failure prediction is one of the primary goals of researchers using the heart disease dataset. The purpose of this study is to identify the feature or features that offer the best classification prediction for CVD detection. The support vector machine classifier is used to compare each feature's performance. It has been determined which feature produces the best results.
Keywords: Cardiovascular disease, feature extraction, supervised learning, support vector machine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 170182 Development of a Mobile Image-Based Reminder Application to Support Tuberculosis Treatment in Africa
Authors: Haji Ali Haji, Hussein Suleman, Ulrike Rivett
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This paper presents the design, development and evaluation of an application prototype developed to support tuberculosis (TB) patients’ treatment adherence. The system makes use of graphics and voice reminders as opposed to text messaging to encourage patients to follow their medication routine. To evaluate the effect of the prototype applications, participants were given mobile phones on which the reminder system was installed. Thirty-eight people, including TB health workers and patients from Zanzibar, Tanzania, participated in the evaluation exercises. The results indicate that the participants found the mobile image-based application is useful to support TB treatment. All participants understood and interpreted the intended meaning of every image correctly. The study findings revealed that the use of a mobile visualbased application may have potential benefit to support TB patients (both literate and illiterate) in their treatment processes.Keywords: ICT4D, mobile technology, tuberculosis, visualbased reminder.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1971181 Rock Thickness Measurement by Using Self-Excited Acoustical System
Authors: JanuszKwaśniewski, IreneuszDominik, KrzysztofLalik
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The knowledge about rock layers thickness,especially above drilled mining pavements is crucial for workers safety. The measuring systems used nowadays are generally imperfect and there is a strong demand for improvement. The application of a new type of a measurement system called Self-excited Acoustical System is presentedin the paper. The system was applied until now to monitor stress changes in metal and concrete constructions. The change in measurement methodology resulted in possibility of measuring the thickness of the rocks above the tunnels as well as thickness of a singular rocklayer. The idea is to find two resonance frequencies of the self-exited system,which consists of a vibration exciter and vibration receiver placed at a distance, which are coupled with a proper power amplifier, and which operate in a closed loop with a positive feedback. The resonance with the higher amplitude determines thickness of the whole rock, whereas the lower amplitude resonance indicates thickness of a singular layer. The results of the laboratory tests conducted on a group of different rock materials are also presented.
Keywords: Autooscillator, non-destructive testing, rock thickness measurement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2070180 Performance Comparison between Conventional and Flexible Box Erecting Machines Using Dispatching Rules
Authors: Min Kyu Kim, Eun Young Lee, Dong Woo Son, Yoon Seok Chang
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In this paper, we introduce a flexible box erecting machine (BEM) that swiftly and automatically transforms cardboard into a three dimensional box. Recently, the parcel service and home-shopping industries have grown rapidly, and there is an increasing need for various box types to ship various products. However, workers cannot fold thousands of boxes manually in a day. As such, automatic BEMs are garnering greater attention. This study takes equipment operation into consideration as well as mechanical improvements in order to design a BEM that is able to outperform its conventional counterparts. We analyzed six dispatching rules – First In First Out (FIFO), Shortest Processing Time (SPT), Earliest Due Date (EDD), Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, and EDD + Setup Avoidance – to determine which one was most suitable for BEM operation. Consequently, SPT and Setup Avoidance were found to be the most critical rules, followed by EDD + Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, EDD, and FIFO. This hierarchy was valid for both our conventional BEM and our new flexible BEM from the viewpoint of processing time. We believe that this research can contribute to flexible BEM management, which has the potential to increase productivity and convenience.Keywords: Automation, box erecting machine, dispatching rule, setup time.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1496179 Mathematical Modelling of Different Types of Body Support Surface for Pressure Ulcer Prevention
Authors: Mahbub C. Mishu, Venketesh N. Dubey, Tamas Hickish, Jonathan Cole
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Pressure ulcer is a common problem for today’s healthcare industry. It occurs due to external load applied to the skin. Also when the subject is immobile for a longer period of time and there is continuous load applied to a particular area of human body, blood flow gets reduced and as a result pressure ulcer develops. Body support surface has a significant role in preventing ulceration so it is important to know the characteristics of support surface under loading conditions. In this paper we have presented mathematical models of different types of viscoelastic materials and also we have shown the validation of our simulation results with experiments.
Keywords: Pressure ulcer, viscoelastic material, mathematical model, experimental validation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1919178 Applying 5S Lean Technology: An Infrastructure for Continuous Process Improvement
Authors: Raid A. Al-Aomar
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This paper presents an application of 5S lean technology to a production facility. Due to increased demand, high product variety, and a push production system, the plant has suffered from excessive wastes, unorganized workstations, and unhealthy work environment. This has translated into increased production cost, frequent delays, and low workers morale. Under such conditions, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to implement effective continuous improvement studies. Hence, the lean project is aimed at diagnosing the production process, streamlining the workflow, removing/reducing process waste, cleaning the production environment, improving plant layout, and organizing workstations. 5S lean technology is utilized for achieving project objectives. The work was a combination of both culture changes and tangible/physical changes on the shop floor. The project has drastically changed the plant and developed the infrastructure for a successful implementation of continuous improvement as well as other best practices and quality initiatives.
Keywords: 5S Technique, Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Lean Technology, Work Methods, Work Standards
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4907177 Investigation of Organizational Work-Life Imbalance of Thai Software Developers in a Multinational Software Development Firm using Fishbone Diagram for Knowledge Management
Authors: N. Mantalay, N. Chakpitak, W. Janchai, P. Sureepong
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Work stress causes the organizational work-life imbalance of employees. Because of this imbalance, workers perform with lower effort to finish assignments and thus an organization will experience reduced productivity. In order to investigate the problem of an organizational work-life imbalance, this qualitative case study focuses on an organizational work-life imbalance among Thai software developers in a German-owned company in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In terms of knowledge management, fishbone diagram is useful analysis tool to investigate the root causes of an organizational work-life imbalance systematically in focus-group discussions. Furthermore, fishbone diagram shows the relationship between causes and effects clearly. It was found that an organizational worklife imbalance among Thai software developers is influenced by management team, work environment, and information tools used in the company over time.Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge worker, worklife imbalance, fishbone diagram
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2871176 Using Interpretive Structural Modeling to Determine the Relationships among Knowledge Management Criteria inside Malaysian Organizations
Authors: Reza Sigari Tabrizi, Yeap Peik Foong, Nazli Ebrahimi
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This paper is concerned with the establishment of relationships among knowledge management (KM) criteria that will ensure an essential foundation to evaluate KM outcomes. The major issue under investigation is to assess the popularity of criteria within organizations and to establish a structure of criteria for measuring KM results. An empirical survey was conducted among Malaysian organizations to investigate KM criteria for measuring success of KM initiatives. Therefore, knowledge workers as the respondents were targeted to establish a structure of criteria for evaluating KM outcomes. An established structure of criteria based on the Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) is used to map criteria relationships inside organizations. This structure is portrayed to identify that how these set of criteria are related. This network schema should be investigated and implemented to promote innovation and improve enterprise performance. To the researchers, this survey has significant insights into relationship between KM programs and business success.
Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge ManagementOutcomes, KM Criteria, Innovation, Interpretive Structural Modeling
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3637175 Key Competences in Economics and Business Field: The Employers’ Side of the Story
Authors: Bruno Škrinjarić
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Rapid technological developments and increase in organizations’ interdependence on international scale are changing the traditional workplace paradigm. A key feature of knowledge based economy is that employers are looking for individuals that possess both specific academic skills and knowledge, and also capability to be proactive and respond to problems creatively and autonomously. The focus of this paper is workers with Economics and Business background and its goals are threefold: (1) to explore wide range of competences and identify which are the most important to employers; (2) to investigate the existence and magnitude of gap between required and possessed level of a certain competency; and (3) to inquire how this gap is connected with performance of a company. A study was conducted on a representative sample of Croatian enterprises during the spring of 2016. Results show that generic, rather than specific, competences are more important to employers and the gap between the relative importance of certain competence and its current representation in existing workforce is greater for generic competences than for specific. Finally, results do not support the hypothesis that this gap is correlated with firms’ performance.
Keywords: Competency gap, competency matching, key competences, firm performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1468174 Corporate Governance Networks and Interlocking Directorates in the Czech Republic
Authors: Ondřej Nowak
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This paper presents an exploration into the structure of the corporate governance network and interlocking directorates in the Czech Republic. First a literature overview and a basic terminology of the network theory is presented. Further in the text, statistics and other calculations relevant to corporate governance networks are presented. For this purpose an empirical data set consisting of 2 906 joint stock companies in the Czech Republic was examined. Industries with the highest average number of interlocks per company were healthcare, and energy and utilities. There is no observable link between the financial performance of the company and the number of its interlocks. Also interlocks with financial companies are very rare.
Keywords: Corporate Governance, Interlocking Directorates, Network Theory, Czech Republic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1578173 Study on Disaster Prevention Plan for an Electronic Industry in Thailand
Authors: S. Pullteap, M. Pathomsuriyaporn
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In this article, a study of employee’s opinion to the factors that affect to the flood preventive and the corrective action plan in an electronic industry at the Sharp Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has been investigated. The surveys data of 175 workers and supervisors have, however, been selected for data analysis. The results is shown that the employees emphasize about the needs in a subsidy at the time of disaster at high levels of 77.8%, as the plan focusing on flood prevention of the rehabilitation equipment is valued at the intermediate level, which is 79.8%. Demonstration of the hypothesis has found that the different education levels has thus been affected to the needs factor at the flood disaster time. Moreover, most respondents give priority to flood disaster risk management factor. Consequently, we found that the flood prevention plan is valued at high level, especially on information monitoring, which is 93.4% for the supervisor item. The respondents largely assume that the flood will have impacts on the industry, up to 80%, thus to focus on flood management plans is enormous.
Keywords: Flood prevention plan, flood event, electronic industrial plant, disaster, risk management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1845172 Critical Heights of Sloped Unsupported Trenches in Unsaturated Sand
Authors: Won Taek Oh, Adin Richard
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Workers are often required to enter unsupported trenches during the construction process, which may present serious risks. Trench failures can result in death or damage to adjacent properties, therefore trenches should be excavated with extreme precaution. Excavation work is often done in unsaturated soils, where the critical height (i.e. maximum depth that can be excavated without failure) of unsupported trenches can be more reliably estimated by considering the influence of matric suction. In this study, coupled stress/pore-water pressure analyses are conducted to investigate the critical height of sloped unsupported trenches considering the influence of pore-water pressure redistribution caused by excavating. Four different wall slopes (1.5V:1H, 2V:1H, 3V:1H, and 90°) and a vertical trench with the top 0.3 m sloped 1:1 were considered in the analyses with multiple depths of the ground water table in a sand. For comparison, the critical heights were also estimated using the limit equilibrium method for the same excavation scenarios used in the coupled analyses.
Keywords: Critical height, matric suction, unsaturated soil, unsupported trench.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1063171 Towards an Understanding of how Information Technology Enables Innovation – The Innovators- Perceptions
Authors: R. Nootjarat, W. Chantatub, P. Chongstitvatana
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This research attempts to explore gaps in Information Systems (IS) and innovation literatures by developing a model of Information Technology (IT) capability in enabling innovation. The research was conducted by using semi-structured interview with six innovators in business consulting, financial, healthcare and academic organizations. The interview results suggest four elements of ITenabled innovation capability which are information (ability to capture ideas and knowledge), connectivity (ability to bridge geographical boundary and mobilize human resources), communication (ability to attain and engage relationships between human resources) and transformation (ability to change the functions and process integrations) in defining IT-enabled innovation platform. The results also suggests innovators- roles and IT capability.Keywords: Innovation Platform, IT Capability, Innovators, Innovation Delivery
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1395170 To Design Holistic Health Service Systems on the Internet
Authors: Åsa Smedberg
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There are different kinds of online systems on the Internet for people who need support and develop new knowledge. Online communities and Ask the Expert systems are two such systems. In the health care area, the number of users of these systems has increased at a rapid pace. Interactions with medical trained experts take place online, and people with concerns about similar health problems come together to share experiences and advice. The systems are also used as storages and browsed for health information. Over the years, studies have been conducted of the usage of the different systems. However, in what ways the systems can be used together to enhance learning has not been explored. This paper presents results from a study of online health-communities and an Ask the Expert system for people who suffer from overweight. Differences and similarities in regards to posted issues and replies are discussed, and suggestions for a new holistic design of the two systems are presented.
Keywords: Learning, Ask the Expert, online community, healthcare, holistic, overweight.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1429169 Simulations of Routing Protocols of Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Kristoffer Clyde Magsino, H. Srikanth Kamath
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Wireless Sensor Network is widely used in electronics. Wireless sensor networks are now used in many applications including military, environmental, healthcare applications, home automation and traffic control. We will study one area of wireless sensor networks, which is the routing protocol. Routing protocols are needed to send data between sensor nodes and the base station. In this paper, we will discuss two routing protocols, such as datacentric and hierarchical routing protocol. We will show the output of the protocols using the NS-2 simulator. This paper will compare the simulation output of the two routing protocol using Nam. We will simulate using Xgraph to find the throughput and delay of the protocol.
Keywords: data-centric routing protocol, hierarchical routingprotocol, Nam, NS-2, Routing Protocol, sensor nodes, SPIN, throughput, Xgraph
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2120168 Risk Factors for Defective Autoparts Products Using Bayesian Method in Poisson Generalized Linear Mixed Model
Authors: Pitsanu Tongkhow, Pichet Jiraprasertwong
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This research investigates risk factors for defective products in autoparts factories. Under a Bayesian framework, a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) in which the dependent variable, the number of defective products, has a Poisson distribution is adopted. Its performance is compared with the Poisson GLM under a Bayesian framework. The factors considered are production process, machines, and workers. The products coded RT50 are observed. The study found that the Poisson GLMM is more appropriate than the Poisson GLM. For the production Process factor, the highest risk of producing defective products is Process 1, for the Machine factor, the highest risk is Machine 5, and for the Worker factor, the highest risk is Worker 6.
Keywords: Defective autoparts products, Bayesian framework, Generalized linear mixed model (GLMM), Risk factors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1911167 Air Pollution Control from Rice Shellers - A Case Study
Authors: S. M. Ahuja
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A Rice Sheller is used for obtaining polished white rice from paddy. There are about 3000 Rice Shellers in Punjab and 50000 in India. During the process of shelling lot of dust is emitted from different unit operations like paddy silo, paddy shaker, bucket elevators, huskers, paddy separator etc. These dust emissions have adverse effect on the health of the workers and the wear and tear of the shelling machinery is fast. All the dust emissions spewing out of these unit operations of a rice Sheller were contained by providing suitable hoods and enclosures while ensuring their workability. These were sucked by providing an induced draft fan followed by a high efficiency cyclone separator that has got an overall dust collection efficiency of more than 90%. This cyclone separator replaced two cyclone separators and a filter bag house, which the Rice Sheller was already having. The dust concentration in the stack after the installation of cyclone separator is well within the stipulated standards. Besides controlling pollution, there is improvement in the quality of products like bran and the life of shelling machinery has enhanced. The payback period of this technology is less than four shelling months.Keywords: Air Pollution, Cyclone Separator, Pneumatic Conveying, Rice Sheller.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3374166 Factors Affecting General Practitioners’ Transfer of Specialized Self-Care Knowledge to Patients
Authors: Weidong Xia, Malgorzata Kolotylo, Xuan Tan
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This study examines the key factors that influence general practitioners’ learning and transfer of specialized arthritis knowledge and self-care techniques to patients during normal patient visits. Drawing on the theory of planed behavior and using matched survey data collected from general practitioners before and after training sessions provided by specialized orthopedic physicians, the study suggests that the general practitioner’s intention to use and transfer learned knowledge was influenced mainly by intrinsic motivation, organizational learning culture and absorptive capacity, but was not influenced by extrinsic motivation. The results provide both theoretical and practical implications.
Keywords: Empirical study, healthcare knowledge management, patient self-care, physician knowledge transfer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1239165 Health Expenditure and its Place in Economy: The Case of Turkey
Authors: Ayşe Coban, Orhan Coban, Haldun Soydal, Sükrü Sürücü
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While health is a source of prosperity for individuals, it is also one of the most important determinants of economic growth for a country. Health, by increasing the productivity of labor, contributes to economic growth. Therefore, countries should give the necessary emphasis to health services. The primary aim of this study is to analyze the changes occurring in health services in Turkey by examining the developments in the sector. In this scope, the second aim of the study is to reveal the place of health expenditures in the Turkish economy. As a result of the analysis in the dataset, in which the 1999-2013 periods is considered, it was determined that some increase in health expenditures took place and that the increase in the share of health expenditures in GDP was too small. Furthermore, analysis of the results points out that in financing health expenditures, the public sector is prominent compared to the private sector.Keywords: Healthcare, health service, health expenditures, Turkey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1014164 Obstruction to Treatments Meeting International Standards for Lyme and Relapsing Fever Borreliosis Patients
Authors: J. Luché-Thayer, C. Perronne, C. Meseko
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We reviewed how certain institutional policies and practices, as well as questionable research, are creating obstacles to care and informed consent for Lyme and relapsing fever Borreliosis patients. The interference is denying access to treatments that meet the internationally accepted standards as set by the Institute of Medicine. This obstruction to care contributes to significant human suffering, disability and negative economic effect across many nations and in many regions of the world. We note how evidence based medicine emphasizes the importance of clinical experience and patient-centered care and how these patients benefit significantly when their rights to choose among treatment options are upheld.
Keywords: Conflicts of interest, obstacles to healthcare accessibility, patient-centered care, the right to informed consent.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1223163 Worker Behavior Interpretation for Flexible Production
Authors: Bastian Hartmann, Christoph Schauer, Norbert Link
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This paper addresses the problem of recognizing and interpreting the behavior of human workers in industrial environments for the purpose of integrating humans in software controlled manufacturing environments. In this work we propose a generic concept in order to derive solutions for task-related manual production applications. Thus, we are able to use a versatile concept providing flexible components and being less restricted to a specific problem or application. We instantiate our concept in a spot welding scenario in which the behavior of a human worker is interpreted when performing a welding task with a hand welding gun. We acquire signals from inertial sensors, video cameras and triggers and recognize atomic actions by using pose data from a marker based video tracking system and movement data from inertial sensors. Recognized atomic actions are analyzed on a higher evaluation level by a finite state machine.Keywords: activity recognition, task modeling, marker-based video-tracking, inertial sensors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1739162 Thailand and Procession of Trafficking Human Beings (Women and Children)
Authors: Kawinphat Lertpongmanee
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The problems of trafficking human beings were continuously violent in Thailand. The problems occurred from a variety of factors such as unemployment, agricultural workers’ urban immigration, sex tour, attitude of materialism society, divorced family, unsavourily effected law, and officers’ ignorance. The purposes of this study were to study the structure, connection, a number of trafficking human beings in Thailand. Qualitative and quantitative and results of previous research were used in this research. The previous procurers, interested persons, experienced people, human beings-aiding organization, and women-children rights organization were interviewed in depth. The field was used in a variety of regions. The findings showed that the structure and connection of trafficking human beings and their values are $8,750 million. There are 240,000 people in trafficked human beings. The trend of trafficking human beings grows continuously. It is changed according to economic circumstance, society and culture, and law. The state must be aware of its problem. The law is enacted by adding high penalty for serious fear.
Keywords: Human Trade, Prostitution trafficking, trafficking in women and children.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1619161 Dynamic Performance Indicators for Aged-Care Construction Projects
Authors: Norman Wu, Darren Sun
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Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used for post result evaluation in the construction industry, and they normally do not have provisions for changes. This paper proposes a set of dynamic key performance indicators (d-KPIs) which predicts the future performance of the activity being measured and presents the opportunity to change practice accordingly. Critical to the predictability of a construction project is the ability to achieve automated data collection. This paper proposes an effective way to collect the process and engineering management data from an integrated construction management system. The d-KPI matrix, consisting of various indicators under seven categories, developed from this study can be applied to close monitoring of the development projects of aged-care facilities. The d-KPI matrix also enables performance measurement and comparison at both project and organization levels.Keywords: Aged-care project, construction, dynamic KPI, healthcare system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2376160 Factors Influencing Intention to Engage in Long-term Care Services among Nursing Aide Trainees and the General Public
Authors: Ju-Chun Chien
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Rapid aging and depopulation could lead to serious problems, including workforce shortages and health expenditure costs. The current and predicted future LTC workforce shortages could be a real threat to Taiwan’s society. By means of comparison of data from 144 nursing aide trainees and 727 general public, the main purpose of the present study was to determine whether there were any notable differences between the two groups toward engaging in LTC services. Moreover, this study focused on recognizing the attributes of the general public who had the willingness to take LTC jobs but continue to ride the fence. A self-developed questionnaire was designed based on Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior model. After conducting exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and reliability analysis, the questionnaire was a reliable and valid instrument for both nursing aide trainees and the general public. The main results were as follows: Firstly, nearly 70% of nursing aide trainees showed interest in LTC jobs. Most of them were middle-aged female (M = 46.85, SD = 9.31), had a high school diploma or lower, had unrelated work experience in healthcare, and were mostly unemployed. The most common reason for attending the LTC training program was to gain skills in a particular field. The second most common reason was to obtain the license. The third and fourth reasons were to be interested in caring for people and to increase income. The three major reasons that might push them to leave LTC jobs were physical exhaustion, payment is bad, and being looked down on. Secondly, the variables that best-predicted nursing aide trainees’ intention to engage in LTC services were having personal willingness, perceived behavior control, with high school diploma or lower, and supported from family and friends. Finally, only 11.80% of the general public reported having interest in LTC jobs (the disapproval rating was 50% for the general public). In comparison to nursing aide trainees who showed interest in LTC settings, 64.8% of the new workforce for LTC among the general public was male and had an associate degree, 54.8% had relevant healthcare experience, 67.1% was currently employed, and they were younger (M = 32.19, SD = 13.19) and unmarried (66.3%). Furthermore, the most commonly reason for the new workforce to engage in LTC jobs were to gain skills in a particular field. The second priority was to be interested in caring for people. The third and fourth most reasons were to give back to society and to increase income, respectively. The top five most commonly reasons for the new workforce to quitting LTC jobs were listed as follows: physical exhaustion, being looked down on, excessive working hours, payment is bad, and excessive job stress.
Keywords: Long-term care services, nursing aide trainees, Taiwanese people, theory of planned behavior.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 899159 Understanding ICT Behaviors among Health Workers in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Cross-Sectional Study for Laboratory Persons in Uganda
Authors: M. Kasusse, M. Rosette, E. Burke, C. Mwangi, R. Batamwita, N. Tumwesigye, S. Aisu
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A cross-sectional survey to ascertain the capacity of laboratory persons in using ICTs was conducted in 15 Ugandan districts (July-August 2013). A self-administered questionnaire served as data collection tool, interview guide and observation checklist. 69 questionnaires were filled, 12 interviews conducted, 45 HC observed. SPSS statistics 17.0 and SAS 9.2 software were used for entry and analyses. 69.35% of participants find it difficult to access a computer at work. Of the 30.65% who find it easy to access a computer at work, a significant 21.05% spend 0 hours on a computer daily. 60% of the participants cannot access internet at work. Of the 40% who have internet at work, a significant 20% lack email address but 20% weekly read emails weekly and 48% daily. It is viable/feasible to pilot informatics projects as strategies to build bridges develop skills for e-health landscape in laboratory services with a bigger financial muscle.
Keywords: ICT Behavior, Clinical Laboratory persons, Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1705