Modelling for the planning and management of bed capacities in hospitals

The internal dynamics of a hospital represent a complex non-linear structure. Planning and management of bed capacities must be evaluated within an environment of uncertainty, variability and limited resources. A common approach is to plan and manage capacities based on simple deterministic spreadsheet calculations. This paper demonstrates that these calculations typically do not provide the appropriate information and result in underestimating true bed requirements. More sophisticated, flexible and necessarily detailed capacity models are needed. The development and use of such a simulation model is presented in this paper. The modelling work, in conjunction with a major UK NHS Trust, considers various types of patient flows, at the individual patient level, and resulting bed needs over time. The consequence of changes in capacity planning policies and management of existing capacities can be readily examined. The work has highlighted the need for evaluating hospital bed capacities in light of both bed occupancies and refused admission rates. The relationship between occupancy and refusals is complex and often overlooked by hospital managers.     

Microstructure of a-SiOx:H

A set of a-SiO_x:H (0.52 <x< 1.58) films are fabricated by plasma-enhanced-chemical-vapor-deposition (PECVD) method at the substrate temperature of 250°C. The microstructure and local bonding configurations of the films are investigated in detail using micro-Raman scattering, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). It is found that the films are structural inhomogeneous, with five phases of Si, Si₂O:H, SiO:H, Si₂O₃:H and SiO₂ that coexist. The phase of Si is composed of nonhydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si) clusters that are spatially isolated. The average size of the clusters decreases with the increasing oxygen concentration x in the films. The results indicate that the structure of the present films can be described by a multi-shell model, which suggests that a-Si cluster is surrounded in turn by the subshells of Si₂O:H, SiO:H, Si₂O₃:H, and SiO₂.     

用多焦点全息透镜实现多重谱分数傅里叶变换

提出用多焦点全息透镜实现多重谱分数傅里叶变换.利用全息方法通过一次曝光制作出多焦点的全息透镜,分析了用此全息元件实现这种变换的条件,并在实验上实现了多重谱分数傅里叶变换. 实验结果表明这种变换方法简便可行,可广泛应用于多通道光学信息处理系统及多目标图像识别系统中.     

在SQUID心磁测量中基于奇异值分解和自适应滤波的噪声消除法

采用矩阵奇异值分解(singular value decomposition, SVD)的方法，对高温射频超导量子干涉仪(HTc rf-SQUID)采集到的单通道心磁信号进行处理.证明了对于近似周期性的心磁信号，在无参考噪声的情况下矩阵奇异值分解的方法与自适应窄带陷波相结合有较好的消除广谱噪声的效果. 关键词： 高温射频超导量子干涉仪 心磁信号 奇异值分解 噪声消除     

CH分子束的强度与CH_4/He混合配比的关系及CH(A~2Δ)振转温度的计算

为了获得CH分子束及其相关特性,以氦气为载气,利用直流脉冲放电技术产生了CH分子束。实验记录了放电时间相对于脉冲分子束不同延时CH光谱信号强度的变化,放电相对延时为460μs左右获得最大的信号强度。研究了在保持CH4/He总气压3 atm和放电电压-4 kV不变的条件下CH分子束强度与不同配比的关系,建立了理论模型,对实验数据进行了理论拟合,拟合曲线与实验结果符合较好,配比为1%(甲烷与氦的气压比为1∶99)左右能够维持较稳定的放电现象和较强的放电强度而获得较强的CH自由基束流。在这一配比下对CH(A2Δ-X2Π)(0,0)带发射光谱进行探测和分析,获得CH(A2Δ)转动温度和振动温度分别为2455 K和4575 K,并估计此时每个脉冲中大约包含1013~1014个CH自由基。     

正相协列乘积和的重对数律与强大数律

证明了强平稳正相协列乘积和的重对数律与不同分布正相协列乘积和的强大数律,指出了部分和服从强大数律但乘积和未必服从强大数律这一事实,并讨论了定理2中一个条件的必要性．     

Influence of fluoride on f-f transitions of Eu in LiEuM2O8 (M=Mo, W)

The influence of fluoride on the luminescence of LiEuM₂O₈ (M=Mo, W) was studied. LiEuMo₂O₈ and LiEuW₂O₈ formed the whole range of solid solutions, which emitted intense red luminescence under the excitations by 395, 465 and 535 nm wavelengths. When doped with fluoride, the materials also formed solid solutions and the luminescent intensity was remarkably enhanced. The phosphor with optimized compositions in this system would be a promising red component for solid-state lighting devices based on GaN light-emitting diodes.     

Stowage planning in maritime container transportation

We consider a stowage-planning problem of arranging containers on a container ship in the maritime transportation system. Since containers are accessible only from the top of the stack, temporary unloading and reloading of containers, called shifting, is unavoidable if a container required to be unloaded at the current port is stacked under containers to be unloaded at later ports on the route of the ship. The objective of the stowage planning problem is to minimize the time required for shifting and crane movements on a tour of a container ship while maintaining the stability of the ship. For the problem, we develop a heuristic solution method in which the problem is divided into two subproblems, one for assigning container groups into the holds and one for determining a loading pattern of containers assigned to each hold. The former subproblem is solved by a greedy heuristic based on the transportation simplex method, while the latter is solved by a tree search method. These two subproblems are solved iteratively using information obtained from solutions of each other. To see the performance of the suggested algorithm, computational tests are performed on problem instances generated based on information obtained from an ocean container liner. Results show that the suggested algorithm works better than existing algorithms.     

Redefining Event Variables for Efficient Modeling of Continuous-Time Batch Processing

We define events so as to reduce the number of events and decision variables needed for modeling batch-scheduling problems such as described in [15]. We propose a new MILP formulation based on this concept, defining non-uniform time periods as needed and decision variables that are not time-indexed. It can handle complicated multi-product/multi-stage machine processes, with production lines merging and diverging, and with minimum and maximum batch sizes. We compare it with earlier models and show that it can solve problems with small to medium demands relative to batch sizes in reasonable computer times.