Two‐tier healthcare service systems and cost of waiting for patients

Waiting has been a significant concern for healthcare services. We address this issue in the context of a two‐tier service system in this study. A two‐tier healthcare service system consists of two different service providers, typically one public service provider and one private service provider. In a baseline model, the two service providers are modeled by two queue servers, which charge each patient a common fixed fee for the service. Then, we study a queue model in which one service provider offers a subsidy or charges a premium while the other maintains the fixed service fee. This system provides a mechanism to segment patients along their waiting time cost through price discrimination. We analyze the problem from both the perspective of minimizing total waiting cost for all patients and the perspective of maximizing social gain for the public service provider or profit for the private service provider. We show that this model can significantly alleviate the burden of waiting for patients. The study addresses the design, the efficiency, and the implementation of two‐tier healthcare service systems. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Model Discrimination in Copolymerization Using the Sequential Bayesian Monte Carlo Method

The authors have introduced and extended the sequential Bayesian Monte Carlo model discrimination (SBMCMD) method described in previous studies by Masoumi et al. for the purpose of discriminating between mechanistic models via designed experiments. The features of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods utilized in SBMCMD allow this method to work with a wide range of nonlinear models. Here, SBMCMD has been applied to simulated copolymerization systems to compare its performance with other statistical discrimination methods used in previous studies by Burke et al. In addition, the Hsiang and Reilly method has been reapplied to the same copolymerization systems to address questions arising from previous work on this subject. The results of applying the SBMCMD method show that it is possible to choose the best model correctly with fewer experiments compared to the previously studied methods. Results also confirm that copolymer composition data do not provide enough information to discriminate between terminal and penultimate data.

     

Enantiomeric Discrimination by Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering–Chiral Anisotropy of Chiral Nanostructured Gold Films

A surface-enhanced Raman scattering-chiral anisotropy (SERS-ChA) effect is reported that combines chiral discrimination and surface Raman scattering enhancement on chiral nanostructured Au films (CNAFs) equipped in the normal Raman scattering Spectrometer. The CNAFs provided remarkably higher enhancement factors of Raman scattering (EFs) for particular enantiomers, and the SERS intensity was proportional to the enantiomeric excesses (ee) values. Except for molecules with mesomeric species, all of the tested enantiomers exhibited high SERS-ChA asymmetry factors (g), ranging between 1.34 and 1.99 regardless of polarities, sizes, chromophores, concentrations and ee. The effect might be attributed to selective resonance coupling between the induced electric and magnetic dipoles associated with enantiomers and chiral plasmonic modes of CNAFs.     

A comparison of different discrimination parameters for the DFT-based PSD method in fast scintillators

Although the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based pulse shape discrimination (PSD) method, realized by transforming the digitized scintillation pulses into frequency coefficients by using DFT, has been proven to effectively discriminate neutrons and γ rays, its discrimination performance depends strongly on the selection of the discrimination parameter obtained by the combination of these frequency coefficients. In order to thoroughly understand and apply the DFT-based PSD in organic scintillation detectors, a comparison of three different discrimination parameters, i.e. the amplitude of zero-frequency component, the amplitude difference between the amplitude of zero-frequency component and the amplitude of base-frequency component, and the ratio of the amplitude of base-frequency component to the amplitude of zero-frequency component, is described in this paper. An experimental setup consisting of an Americium–Beryllium (Am–Be) source, a BC501A liquid scintillator detector, and a 5Gsample/s 8-bit oscilloscope was built to assess the performance of the DFT-based PSD with each of these discrimination parameters in terms of the figure-of-merit (based on the separation of the event distributions). The third technique, which uses the ratio of the amplitude of base-frequency component to the amplitude of zero-frequency component as the discrimination parameter, is observed to provide the best discrimination performance in this research.     

Unusual patterns in 15N blood values after a diet switch in red knot shorebirds

When a diet switch results in a change in dietary isotopic values, isotope ratios of the consumer's tissues will change until a new equilibrium is reached. This change is generally best described by an exponential decay curve. Indeed, after a diet switch in captive red knot shorebirds (Calidris canutus islandica), the depletion of ¹³C in both blood cells and plasma followed an exponential decay curve. Surprisingly, the diet switch with a dietary ¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratio (δ¹⁵N) change from 11.4 to 8.8 ‰ had little effect on δ¹⁵N in the same tissues. The diet-plasma and diet-cellular discrimination factors of ¹⁵N with the initial diet were very low (0.5 and 0.2 ‰, respectively). δ¹⁵N in blood cells and plasma decreased linearly with increasing body mass, explaining about 40 % of the variation in δ¹⁵N. δ¹⁵N in plasma also decreased with increasing body-mass change (r ²=.07). This suggests that the unusual variation in δ¹⁵N with time after the diet switch was due to interferences with simultaneous changes in body-protein turnover.     

13C discriminations of Pinus sylvestris vs. Pinus ponderosa at a dry site in Brandenburg (eastern Germany): 100-year growth comparison

The carbon isotope composition (δ¹³C, ‰) and discrimination (Δ, ‰) of old grown North American Pinus ponderosa Dougl. Ex P. et C. Laws. and European Pinus sylvestris L. were determined using trees grown under almost identical growing conditions in a mixed stand in Bralitz, Northeast Germany. Single-tree δ¹³C analyses of tree-ring cellulose of both species were carried out at a yearly resolution for the period 1901–2001 and the results compared with growth (basal area increment). Annual mean δ¹³C values for P. ponderosa ranged from?21.6 ‰ to?25.2 ‰ and for P. sylvestris from?21.4 ‰ to?24.4 ‰. Accordingly, ¹³C discrimination (Δ) showed higher values for P. ponderosa throughout the investigation period. Five characteristic periods of Δ were identified for both the tree species, reflecting positive and negative influences of environmental factors. Good growing conditions such as after-thinning events had a positive effect on Δ, reflecting higher values, while poor conditions like aridity and air pollution had a negative influence, reflecting lower values. The dynamics of Δ were likewise reflected in the growth (basal area increment, BAI). Higher ¹³C discrimination values of P. ponderosa led to higher BAIs of P. ponderosa in comparison with P. sylvestris. Correlation function analyses confirmed that P. sylvestris was more dependent on precipitation than P. ponderosa, which showed a closer relationship with temperature. The results confirm that under predominantly dry growing conditions, P. ponderosa showed better growth performance than P. sylvestris, indicating better common intrinsic water-use efficiency and, therefore, higher rates of net photosynthesis at a given transpiration. In view of the prospect of climate change, the results are very significant for assessing both trees’ physiological properties and, hence, their potential for coping with future growing conditions.     

L-亮氨酸衍生物手性氨基醇的合成与应用

以N,N-二甲基苯胺为原料,经对位溴化、邻位甲酰化得到5-溴-2-(二甲氨基)苯甲醛;L-亮氨酸经酯化、格氏反应得到二齿手性氨基醇;将5-溴-2-(二甲氨基)苯甲醛与上述氨基醇经缩合、还原得到三齿手性氨基醇;产物经红外光谱(IR)、质谱(MS)及核磁共振氢谱(1H-NMR)表征,考察了二齿手性氨基醇和三齿手性氨基醇作为...     

基于稀疏主成分分析特征选择算法的山楂叶产地判别模型研究

为实现山楂叶产地的快速判别,提出一种基于稀疏主成分分析特征选择（SPCAFS）与支持向量机（SVM）建模的定性分析方法。采用近红外积分球漫反射光谱法采集6个产地共41批山楂叶123份样品的近红外光谱图,经数据预处理后,通过SPCAFS对代表性特征波段进行选择,并采用SVM建立山楂叶近红外产地判别模型。模型与连续投影（SPA）,正则化自表示（RSR）和稀疏子空间聚类（SSC）3种特征选择算法进行对比,以准确率、精确度和灵敏度作为评价标准,评估所提模型的预测性能。结果显示,SPCAFS的特征波段数相比于全波长建模从1 500减少到21,预测结果的准确率和精确度分别从78%、76%提升至97%、100%。同时,相比于SPA、RSR、SSC算法,准确率分别提升了6%、3%、3%,精确度分别提升了13%、10%、5%,模型的预测能力得到显著提升,基于SPCAFS的SVM判别模型可实现山楂叶南北产地的快速判别。     

Joint pricing and ordering policy for an advance booking system with partial order cancellations

In this paper, an inventory model for deteriorating items with price-dependent demand is developed. The cycle is divided into two periods, where an advance sales period is followed by a spot sales period. In practice, customers with reservations may cancel their orders before receiving them. During the advance sales period, the rate of reservations which will not be cancelled is dependent on the length of the waiting time for the receiving order. During the spot sales period, all customers receive their orders at the time of the purchase. We prove the existence of the realistic relationship that the advance sales price is smaller than the spot sales price. We also develop some useful properties and provide an iterative procedure for solving the maximization problem. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach and we conclude the paper with suggestions for possible future research.