Modelling home care organisations from an operations management perspective

Home Care (HC) service consists of providing care to patients in their homes. During the last decade, the HC service industry experienced significant growth in many European countries. This growth stems from several factors, such as governmental pressure to reduce healthcare costs, demographic changes related to population ageing, social changes, an increase in the number of patients that suffer from chronic illnesses, and the development of new home-based services and technologies. This study proposes a framework that will enable HC service providers to better understand HC operations and their management. The study identifies the main processes and decisions that relate to the field of HC operations management. Hence, an IDEF0 (Integrated Definition for Function Modelling) activity-based model describes the most relevant clinical, logistical and organisational processes associated with HC operations. A hierarchical framework for operations management decisions is also proposed. This analysis is derived from data that was collected by nine HC service providers, which are located in France and Italy, and focuses on the manner in which operations are run, as well as associated constraints, inputs and outputs. The most challenging research areas in the field of HC operations management are also discussed

The clinical course of low back pain: a meta-analysis comparing outcomes in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies.

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that the course of low back pain (LBP) symptoms in randomised clinical trials (RCTs) follows a pattern of large improvement regardless of the type of treatment. A similar pattern was independently observed in observational studies. However, there is an assumption that the clinical course of symptoms is particularly influenced in RCTs by mere participation in the trials. To test this assumption, the aim of our study was to compare the course of LBP in RCTs and observational studies. METHODS: Source of studies CENTRAL database for RCTs and MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE and hand search of systematic reviews for cohort studies. Studies include individuals aged 18 or over, and concern non-specific LBP. Trials had to concern primary care treatments. Data were extracted on pain intensity. Meta-regression analysis was used to compare the pooled within-group change in pain in RCTs with that in cohort studies calculated as the standardised mean change (SMC). RESULTS: 70 RCTs and 19 cohort studies were included, out of 1134 and 653 identified respectively. LBP symptoms followed a similar course in RCTs and cohort studies: a rapid improvement in the first 6 weeks followed by a smaller further improvement until 52 weeks. There was no statistically significant difference in pooled SMC between RCTs and cohort studies at any time point:- 6 weeks: RCTs: SMC 1.0 (95% CI 0.9 to 1.0) and cohorts 1.2 (0.7to 1.7); 13 weeks: RCTs 1.2 (1.1 to 1.3) and cohorts 1.0 (0.8 to 1.3); 27 weeks: RCTs 1.1 (1.0 to 1.2) and cohorts 1.2 (0.8 to 1.7); 52 weeks: RCTs 0.9 (0.8 to 1.0) and cohorts 1.1 (0.8 to 1.6). CONCLUSIONS: The clinical course of LBP symptoms followed a pattern that was similar in RCTs and cohort observational studies. In addition to a shared 'natural history', enrolment of LBP patients in clinical studies is likely to provoke responses that reflect the nonspecific effects of seeking and receiving care, independent of the study design

Moving carbon between spheres, the potential oxalate-carbonate pathway of Brosimum alicastrum Sw.; Moraceae.

Aims The Oxalate-Carbonate Pathway (OCP) is a biogeochemical process that transfers atmospheric CO2 into the geologic reservoir as CaCO3; however, until now all investigations on this process have focused on species with limited food benefits. This study evaluates a potential OCP associated with Brosimum alicastrum, a Neotropical species with agroforestry potential (ca. 70–200 kg-nuts yr−1), in the calcareous soils of Haiti and Mexico. Methods / results Enzymatic analysis demonstrated significant concentrations of calcium oxalate (5.97 % D.W.) were associated with B. alicastrum tissue in all sample sites. The presence of oxalotrophism was also confirmed with microbiological analyses in both countries. High concentrations of total calcium (>7 g kg−1) and lithogenic carbonate obscured the localised alkalinisation and identification of secondary carbonate associated with the OCP at most sample sites, except Ma Rouge, Haiti. Soils adjacent to subjects in Ma Rouge demonstrated an increase in pH (0.63) and CaCO3 concentration (5.9 %) that, when coupled with root-like secondary carbonate deposits in Mexico, implies that the OCP does also occur in calcareous soils. Conclusions Therefore this study confirms that the OCP also occurs in calcareous soils, adjacent to B. alicastrum, and could play a fundamental and un-accounted role in the global calcium-carbon coupled cycle

Study of hadronic event-shape variables in multijet final states in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for new physics in the multijet and missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 Tev

Peer reviewe

Measurement of Higgs boson production and properties in the WW decay channel with leptonic final states

Peer reviewe

Constraints on parton distribution functions and extraction of the strong coupling constant from the inclusive jet cross section in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Study of double parton scattering using W+2-jet events in proton-proton collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurements of the tt¯ charge asymmetry using the dilepton decay channel in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Peer reviewe

In-Line estimation of the standard colour index of citrus fruits using a computer vision system developed for a mobile platform

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11947-012-1015-2A key aspect for the consumer when it comes to deciding on a particular product is the colour. In order to make fruit available to consumers as early as possible, the collection of oranges and mandarins begins before they ripen fully and reach their typical orange colour. As a result, they are therefore subjected to certain degreening treatments, depending on their standard colour citrus index at harvest. Recently, a mobile platform that incorporates a computer vision system capable of pre-sorting the fruit while it is being harvested has been developed as an aid in the harvesting task. However, due to the restrictions of working in the field, the computer vision system developed for this machine is limited in its technology and processing capacity compared to conventional systems. This work shows the optimised algorithms for estimating the colour of citrus in-line that were developed for this mobile platform and its performance is evaluated against that of a spectrophotometer used as a reference in the analysis of colour in food. The results obtained prove that our analysis system predicts the colour index of citrus with a good reliability (R2 = 0.925) working in real time. Findings also show that it is effective for classifying harvested fruits in the field according to their colour. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.This work was partially funded by the INIA through research project RTA2009-00118-C02-01 with the support of European FEDER funds, and by the project PAID-05-11-2745, Vicerectorat d'Investigacio, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia.Vidal, A.; Talens Oliag, P.; Prats-Montalbán, JM.; Cubero García, S.; Albert Gil, FE.; Blasco Ivars, J. (2013). 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