Abstract: An analysis of the distribution of nurses’ working time constitutes vital information for the management in planning employment. The objective of the study was to analyze the distribution of nurses’ working time in an emergency department. The study was conducted in an emergency department of a teaching hospital in Lublin, in Southeast Poland. The catalogue of activities performed by nurses was compiled by means of continuous observation. Identified activities were classified into four groups: Direct care, indirect care, coordination of work in the department and personal activities. Distribution of nurses’ working time was determined by work sampling observation (Tippett) at random intervals. The research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee by the Medical University of Lublin (Protocol 0254/113/2010). On average, nurses spent 31% of their working time on direct care, 47% on indirect care, 12% on coordinating work in the department and 10% on personal activities. The most frequently performed direct care tasks were diagnostic activities – 29.23% and treatment-related activities – 27.69%. The study has provided information on the complexity of performed activities and utilization of nurses’ working time. Enhancing the effectiveness of nursing actions requires working out a strategy for improved management of the time nurses spent at work. Increasing the involvement of auxiliary staff and optimizing communication processes within the team may lead to reduction of the time devoted to indirect care for the benefit of direct care.
Abstract: This study aims at being acquainted with the using the
body fat percentage (%BF) with body Mass Index (BMI) as input
parameters in fuzzy logic decision support system to predict properly
the lifted weight for students at weightlifting class lift according to
his abilities instead of traditional manner. The sample included 53
male students (age = 21.38 ± 0.71 yrs, height (Hgt) = 173.17 ± 5.28
cm, body weight (BW) = 70.34 ± 7.87.6 kg, Body mass index (BMI)
23.42 ± 2.06 kg.m-2, fat mass (FM) = 9.96 ± 3.15 kg and fat
percentage (% BF) = 13.98 ± 3.51 %.) experienced the weightlifting
class as a credit and has variance at BW, Hgt and BMI and FM. BMI
and % BF were taken as input parameters in FUZZY logic whereas
the output parameter was the lifted weight (LW). There were
statistical differences between LW values before and after using
fuzzy logic (Diff 3.55± 2.21, P > 0.001). The percentages of the LW
categories proposed by fuzzy logic were 3.77% of students to lift 1.0
fold of their bodies; 50.94% of students to lift 0.95 fold of their
bodies; 33.96% of students to lift 0.9 fold of their bodies; 3.77% of
students to lift 0.85 fold of their bodies and 7.55% of students to lift
0.8 fold of their bodies. The study concluded that the characteristic
changes in body composition experienced by students when
undergoing weightlifting could be utilized side by side with the
Fuzzy logic decision support system to determine the proper
workloads consistent with the abilities of students.
Abstract: In the Solid-State-Drive (SSD) performance, whether
the data has been well parallelized is an important factor. SSD
parallelization is affected by allocation scheme and it is directly
connected to SSD performance. There are dynamic allocation and
static allocation in representative allocation schemes. Dynamic
allocation is more adaptive in exploiting write operation parallelism,
while static allocation is better in read operation parallelism.
Therefore, it is hard to select the appropriate allocation scheme when
the workload is mixed read and write operations. We simulated
conditions on a few mixed data patterns and analyzed the results to
help the right choice for better performance. As the results, if data
arrival interval is long enough prior operations to be finished and
continuous read intensive data environment static allocation is more
suitable. Dynamic allocation performs the best on write performance
and random data patterns.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), which sense
environmental data with battery-powered nodes, require multi-hop
communication. This power-demanding task adds an extra workload
that is unfairly distributed across the network. As a result, nodes run
out of battery at different times: this requires an impractical
individual node maintenance scheme. Therefore we investigate a new
Cooperative Sensing approach that extends the WSN operational life
and allows a more practical network maintenance scheme (where all
nodes deplete their batteries almost at the same time). We propose a
novel cooperative algorithm that derives a piecewise representation
of the sensed signal while controlling approximation accuracy.
Simulations show that our algorithm increases WSN operational life
and spreads communication workload evenly. Results convey a
counterintuitive conclusion: distributing workload fairly amongst
nodes may not decrease the network power consumption and yet
extend the WSN operational life. This is achieved as our cooperative
approach decreases the workload of the most burdened cluster in the
network.
Abstract: Health workforce is a fundamental component of
health system and plays a significant role in delivering effective
health care services. However, there is a crucial shortage of skilled
personnel which make them prone to work in stressful conditions. In
spite of excessively high workload and burnout among the staff, little
attention is given to their job satisfaction level which has serious
implications on the productivity and effective performance of staff to
achieve organizational goals. Therefore, this study aims to explore
the job satisfaction of midwives working in the labor ward of the
Lady Dufferin Hospital, Karachi. A cross-sectional survey was
conducted. The short version of Minnesota Job Satisfaction
Questionnaire was administered on a convenient sample group of 22
midwives to gather information on their job satisfaction. The results
demonstrated that midwives were overall satisfied with their job. The
level of job satisfaction was however found different in various
positions within midwifery cadre. The head of midwives was highly
satisfied as compared to midwifery staff who works under the
supervision of head. The level of satisfaction of team leaders fall
between the head and staff of midwifery. Similar trends were
observed for both intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. Such
evidences on these issues are essential and useful as it helps explore
the attitudes of individuals towards work which has direct
implications on access to quality care services. Strategic interventions
are required at organizational level to provide motivators and
satisfiers to health workers for their work related satisfaction and
enhanced motivation.
Abstract: Over the past few years, a lot of research has been
conducted to bring Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) into various
areas of Air Traffic Control (ATC), such as air traffic control
simulation and training, monitoring live operators for with the aim
of safety improvements, air traffic controller workload measurement
and conducting analysis on large quantities controller-pilot speech.
Due to the high accuracy requirements of the ATC context and its
unique challenges, automatic speech recognition has not been widely
adopted in this field. With the aim of providing a good starting
point for researchers who are interested bringing automatic speech
recognition into ATC, this paper gives an overview of possibilities
and challenges of applying automatic speech recognition in air traffic
control. To provide this overview, we present an updated literature
review of speech recognition technologies in general, as well as
specific approaches relevant to the ATC context. Based on this
literature review, criteria for selecting speech recognition approaches
for the ATC domain are presented, and remaining challenges and
possible solutions are discussed.
Abstract: Background - The TrendCare Patient Dependency
System is currently used by a large number of maternity Services
across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2012, 2013 and
2014 validation studies were initiated in all three countries to validate
the acuity tools used for women in labour, and postnatal mothers and
babies. This paper will present the findings of the validation study.
Aim - The aim of this study was to; identify if the care hours
provided by the TrendCare acuity system was an accurate reflection
of the care required by women and babies; obtain evidence of
changes required to acuity indicators and/or category timings to
ensure the TrendCare acuity system remains reliable and valid across
a range of maternity care models in three countries.
Method - A non-experimental action research methodology was
used across maternity services in four District Health Boards in New
Zealand, a large tertiary and a large secondary maternity service in
Singapore and a large public maternity service in Australia.
Standardised data collection forms and timing devices were used to
collect midwife contact times, with women and babies included in the
study. Rejection processes excluded samples when care was not
completed/rationed, and contact timing forms were incomplete. The
variances between actual timed midwife/mother/baby contact and the
TrendCare acuity category times were identified and investigated.
Results - Thirty two (88.9%) of the 36 TrendCare acuity category
timings, fell within the variance tolerance levels when compared to
the actual timings recorded for midwifery care. Four (11.1%)
TrendCare categories provided less minutes of care than the actual
timings and exceeded the variance tolerance level. These were all
night shift category timings. Nine postnatal categories were not able
to be compared as the sample size for these categories was
statistically insignificant. 100% of labour ward TrendCare categories
matched actual timings for midwifery care, all falling within the
variance tolerance levels.
The actual time provided by core midwifery staff to assist lead
maternity carer (LMC) midwives in New Zealand labour wards
showed a significant deviation to previous studies. The findings of
the study demonstrated the need for additional time allocations in
TrendCare to accommodate an increased level of assistance given to
LMC midwives.
Conclusion - The results demonstrated the importance of regularly
validating the TrendCare category timings with actual timings of the
care hours provided. It was evident from the findings that variances
to models of care and length of stay in maternity units have increased
midwifery workloads on the night shift. The level of assistance
provided by the core labour ward staff to the LMC midwife has
increased substantially.
Outcomes - As a consequence of this study, changes were made to
the night duty TrendCare maternity categories, additional acuity
indicators were developed and times for assisting LMC midwives in
labour ward increased. The updated TrendCare version was delivered
to maternity services in 2014.
Abstract: Assembly line balancing problem is aimed to divide
the tasks among the stations in assembly lines and optimize some
objectives. In assembly lines the workload on stations is different
from each other due to different tasks times and the difference in
workloads between stations can cause blockage or starvation in some
stations in assembly lines. Buffers are used to store the semi-finished
parts between the stations and can help to smooth the assembly
production. The assembly line balancing and buffer sizing problem
can affect the throughput of the assembly lines. Assembly line
balancing and buffer sizing problems have been studied separately in
literature and due to their collective contribution in throughput rate of
assembly lines, balancing and buffer sizing problem are desired to
study simultaneously and therefore they are considered concurrently
in current research. Current research is aimed to maximize
throughput, minimize total size of buffers in assembly line and
minimize workload variations in assembly line simultaneously. A
multi objective optimization objective is designed which can give
better Pareto solutions from the Pareto front and a simple example
problem is solved for assembly line balancing and buffer sizing
simultaneously. Current research is significant for assembly line
balancing research and it can be significant to introduce optimization
approaches which can optimize current multi objective problem in
future.
Abstract: By running transactions under the SNAPSHOT isolation
we can achieve a good level of concurrency, specially in databases
with high-intensive read workloads. However, SNAPSHOT is not
immune to all the problems that arise from competing transactions
and therefore no serialization warranty exists. We propose in this
paper a technique to obtain data consistency with SNAPSHOT by using
some special triggers that we named DAEMON TRIGGERS. Besides
keeping the benefits of the SNAPSHOT isolation, the technique is
specially useful for those database systems that do not have an
isolation level that ensures serializability, like Firebird and Oracle. We
describe all the anomalies that might arise when using the SNAPSHOT
isolation and show how to preclude them with DAEMON TRIGGERS.
Based on the methodology presented here, it is also proposed the
creation of a new isolation level: DAEMON SNAPSHOT.
Abstract: A wide variety of observational methods have been developed to evaluate the ergonomic workloads in manufacturing. However, the precision and accuracy of these methods remain a subject of debate. The aims of this study were to develop biomechanical methods to evaluate ergonomic workloads and to compare them with observational methods.
Two observational methods, i.e. SCANIA Ergonomic Standard (SES) and Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA), were used to assess ergonomic workloads at two simulated workstations. They included four tasks such as tightening & loosening, attachment of tubes and strapping as well as other actions. Sensors were also used to measure biomechanical data (Inclinometers, Accelerometers, and Goniometers).
Our findings showed that in assessment of some risk factors both RULA & SES were in agreement with the results of biomechanical methods. However, there was disagreement on neck and wrist postures. In conclusion, the biomechanical approach was more precise than observational methods, but some risk factors evaluated with observational methods were not measurable with the biomechanical techniques developed.
Abstract: Presented in this paper is a framework of a software ‘WEMax’. The WEMax is invented for analysis and simulation for manned assembly lines to sustain and improve performance of manufacturing systems. In a manufacturing system, performance, such as productivity, is a key of competitiveness for output products. However, the manned assembly lines are difficult to forecast performance, because human labors are not expectable factors by computer simulation models or mathematical models. Existing approaches to performance forecasting of the manned assembly lines are limited to matters of the human itself, such as ergonomic and workload design, and non-human-factor-relevant simulation. Consequently, an approach for the forecasting and improvement of manned assembly line performance is needed to research. As a solution of the current problem, this study proposes a framework that is for generation and simulation of virtual manned assembly lines, and the framework has been implemented as a software.
Abstract: Keys to high-quality face-to-face education are ensuring flexibility in the way lectures are given, and providing care and responsiveness to learners. This paper describes a face-to-face education support system that is designed to raise the satisfaction of learners and reduce the workload on instructors. This system consists of a lecture adaptation assistance part, which assists instructors in adapting teaching content and strategy, and a Q&A assistance part, which provides learners with answers to their questions. The core component of the former part is a “learning achievement map", which is composed of a Bayesian network (BN). From learners- performance in exercises on relevant past lectures, the lecture adaptation assistance part obtains information required to adapt appropriately the presentation of the next lecture. The core component of the Q&A assistance part is a case base, which accumulates cases consisting of questions expected from learners and answers to them. The Q&A assistance part is a case-based search system equipped with a search index which performs probabilistic inference. A prototype face-to-face education support system has been built, which is intended for the teaching of Java programming, and this approach was evaluated using this system. The expected degree of understanding of each learner for a future lecture was derived from his or her performance in exercises on past lectures, and this expected degree of understanding was used to select one of three adaptation levels. A model for determining the adaptation level most suitable for the individual learner has been identified. An experimental case base was built to examine the search performance of the Q&A assistance part, and it was found that the rate of successfully finding an appropriate case was 56%.
Abstract: Objective of this study was to study and compare the effectiveness of inspectors who had different workloads for feed forward and feedback training. The visual search task was simulated to search for specified alphabets called defects. These defects were included of four alphabets in Thai and English such as s ภ, ถ, X, and V with different background. These defects were combined in the specified alphabets and were given the different three backgrounds i.e., Thai, English, and mixed English and Thai alphabets. Sixty students were chosen as a sample in this study and test for final selection subject. Finally, five subjects were taken into testing process. They were asked to search for defects after they were provided basic information. Experiment design was used factorial design and subjects were trained for feed forward and the feedback training. The results show that both trainings were affected on mean search time. It was also found that the feedback training can increase the effectiveness of visual inspectors rather than the feed forward training significantly different at the level of .05
Abstract: Job stress is one of the most important concepts for
the today-s corporate as well as institutional world. The current study
is conducted to identify the causes of faculty stress at Higher
Education in Pakistan. For the purpose, Public & Private Business
Schools of Punjab is selected as representative of Pakistan. A sample
of 300 faculty members (214 males, 86 females) responded to the
survey. Regression analysis shows that the Workload, Student
Related issues and Role Conflicts are the major sources contributing
significantly towards producing stress. The study also revealed that
Private sector faculty members experienced more stress as compared
to faculty in Public sector Business Schools. Moreover, females,
younger ages, lower designation & low qualification faculty
members experience more stress as compared to males, older ages,
higher designation and high qualification. The study yield many
significant results for the policy makers of Business Institutions.
Abstract: The overall service performance of I/O intensive
system depends mainly on workload on its storage system. In
heterogeneous storage environment where storage elements from
different vendors with different capacity and performance are put
together, workload should be distributed according to storage
capability. This paper addresses data placement issue in short video
sharing website. Workload contributed by a video is estimated by the
number of views and life time span of existing videos in same
category. Experiment was conducted on 42,000 video titles in six
weeks. Result showed that the proposed algorithm distributed
workload and maintained balance better than round robin and random
algorithms.
Abstract: Server provisioning is one of the most attractive topics in virtualization systems. Virtualization is a method of running multiple independent virtual operating systems on a single physical computer. It is a way of maximizing physical resources to maximize the investment in hardware. Additionally, it can help to consolidate servers, improve hardware utilization and reduce the consumption of power and physical space in the data center. However, management of heterogeneous workloads, especially for resource utilization of the server, or so called provisioning becomes a challenge. In this paper, a new concept for managing workloads based on user behavior is presented. The experimental results show that user behaviors are different in each type of service workload and time. Understanding user behaviors may improve the efficiency of management in provisioning concept. This preliminary study may be an approach to improve management of data centers running heterogeneous workloads for provisioning in virtualization system.
Abstract: Currently, a large number of license activities (Early
Site Permits, Combined Operating License, reactor certifications,
etc.), are pending for review before the United States Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (US NRC). Much of the senior staff at the
NRC is now committed to these review and licensing actions. To
address this additional workload, the NRC has recruited a large
number of new Regulatory Staff for dealing with these and other
regulatory actions such as the US Fleet of Research and Test Reactors
(RTRs). These reactors pose unusual demands on Regulatory Staff
since the US Fleet of RTRs, although few (32 Licensed RTRs as of
2010), they represent a broad range of reactor types, operations, and
research and training aspects that nuclear reactor power plants (such
as the 104 LWRs) do not pose. The NRC must inspect and regulate
all these facilities. This paper addresses selected training topics and
regulatory activities providedNRC Inspectors for RTRs.
Abstract: The aim of this study was to establish the feasibility of a minute incremental exercise testing protocol in young asthma children. Twenty-two children with clinically diagnosed mild to moderate asthma volunteered to participate. The maximum incremental exercise test was performed using a cycle ergometer with an electromagnetic braking. A warm-up unloaded for 2 minutes then the workload was started at 40 watts for 2 minutes, and then stepwise increments of 8 watts per 2 minutes were applied. The pedaling frequency was set at 50 rpm. Ventilation and gas exchange were measured with a breath-by-breath automatic metabolic measurement system. Results showed that this test was well tolerated by all asthmatic children. Most of the children reached the VO2 plateau and satisfied the criteria for maximal respiratory exchange ratio of ≥ 1. This Study demonstrated that this testing protocol was suitable for young asthmatic children.
Abstract: I/O workload is a critical and important factor to
analyze I/O pattern and file system performance. However tracing I/O
operations on the fly distributed parallel file system is non-trivial due
to collection overhead and a large volume of data. In this paper, we
design and implement a parallel file system logging method for high
performance computing using shared memory-based multi-layer
scheme. It minimizes the overhead with reduced logging operation
response time and provides efficient post-processing scheme through
shared memory. Separated logging server can collect sequential logs
from multiple clients in a cluster through packet communication.
Implementation and evaluation result shows low overhead and high
scalability of this architecture for high performance parallel logging
analysis.
Abstract: This paper systematically investigates the timedependent
health outcomes for office staff during computer work
using the developed mathematical model. The model describes timedependent
health outcomes in multiple body regions associated with
computer usage. The association is explicitly presented with a doseresponse
relationship which is parametrized by body region
parameters. Using the developed model we perform extensive
investigations of the health outcomes statically and dynamically. We
compare the risk body regions and provide various severity rankings
of the discomfort rate changes with respect to computer-related
workload dynamically for the study population. Application of the
developed model reveals a wide range of findings. Such broad
spectrum of investigations in a single report literature is lacking.
Based upon the model analysis, it is discovered that the highest
average severity level of the discomfort exists in neck, shoulder, eyes,
shoulder joint/upper arm, upper back, low back and head etc. The
biggest weekly changes of discomfort rates are in eyes, neck, head,
shoulder, shoulder joint/upper arm and upper back etc. The fastest
discomfort rate is found in neck, followed by shoulder, eyes, head,
shoulder joint/upper arm and upper back etc. Most of our findings are
consistent with the literature, which demonstrates that the developed
model and results are applicable and valuable and can be utilized to
assess correlation between the amount of computer-related workload
and health risk.