Integral resource capacity planning for inpatient care services based on bed census predictions by hour

The design and operations of inpatient care facilities are typically largely historically shaped. A better match with the changing environment is often possible, and even inevitable due to the pressure on hospital budgets. Effectively organizing inpatient care requires simultaneous consideration of several interrelated planning issues. Also, coordination with upstream departments like the operating theatre and the emergency department is much-needed. We present a generic analytical approach to predict bed census on nursing wards by hour, as a function of the Master Surgical Schedule and arrival patterns of emergency patients. Along these predictions, insight is gained on the impact of strategic (ie, case mix, care unit size, care unit partitioning), tactical (ie, allocation of operating room time, misplacement rules), and operational decisions (ie, time of admission/discharge). The method is used in the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam as a decision-support tool in a complete redesign of the inpatient care operations.     

K° production in e+e− annihilation

The production of enutral kaons in e⁺e^? annihilation has been measured for c.m. energies between 3.4 GeV and 7.6 GeV. Near 4 GeV the inclusive K_S cross section shows an increase and structure similar to total hadron production. Roughly 40–45% of all hadronic final states contain kaons, except at 4.028 GeV and 4.415 GeV, where a significantly larger kaon fraction is observed.     

Evidence for TeV gamma-ray emission from a region of the galactic plane

Gamma-ray emission from a narrow band at the galactic equator has previously been detected up to 30 GeV. We report evidence for a TeV gamma-ray signal from a region of the galactic plane by Milagro, a large-field-of-view water Cherenkov detector for extensive air showers. An excess with a significance of 4.5 standard deviations has been observed from the region of galactic longitude l E (40 degrees, 100 degrees) and latitude /b/ < 5 degrees. Under the assumption of a simple power law spectrum, with no cutoff in the EGRET-Milagro energy range, the measured integral flux is phi gamma(>3.5 TeV) = (6.4 +/- 1.4 +/- 2.1) x 10(-11) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1). This flux is consistent with an extrapolation of the EGRET spectrum between 1 and 30 GeV in this galactic region.     

A cluster algorithm for the study of jets in high energy physics

A cluster algorithm using angular correlations and leading particle effects is presented which is applicable to the study of jets produced in high energy storage ring collisions. The algorithm uses the concept of a minimal spanning tree and is computationally very efficient. Events are classified by their cluster number and the cluster number frequency distribution can be used for comparison with particle production models. Individual particles are assigned to the clusters and the vector sum of their momenta generate a cluster axis. These cluster properties permit the study of the dynamics of the jet production and fragmentation processes. The example of two and three jet production at PEP and PETRA energies is used to illustrate this technique.     

D meson production and decay in e+e− annihilation at 4.03 and 4 GeV c.m. energy

Decay modes of the charmed mesons, D⁰ and D⁺, are studied in e⁺e^? annihilation data at 4.03 and 4.41 GeV c.m. energy. The products of cross section times branching ratio are measured for the K^?π⁺, K^?π⁺π⁺π^?, K_Sπ⁺π^? and K^?π⁺π⁺ final states. Upper limits are established for the Cabibbo forbidden decays via π⁺π^?, K⁺K^?, K⁺K^? π⁺, K⁺π⁺π^? and π⁺π^?π⁺. The K^?π⁺π⁺π^? final state is shown to be dominated by K^?π⁺ρ⁰.