Ease Of Coordination Research Articles

Can’t clap to a beat? How rhythmically challenged people experience and strategize keeping time to music

While the phenomenon of beat-deafness has been explored in clinical contexts, few studies have investigated how rhythmically challenged people experience the act of keeping time with music. Task-based semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants who self-identified as being unable to clap in time to a beat. Participants were asked to keep time with a gradated battery of musical stimuli using both claps and alternative gestures (e.g. head nodding, swaying) and to articulate their timekeeping experience and strategies. Analysis reveals three core themes: (a) an apparent disconnect between the act of identifying the beat and the physical act of clapping, (b) variation in strategies for keeping time depending on the type of musical example (i.e., whether the beat was explicitly played by a percussive instrument or not), and (c) variation in the ease of coordination and listening experience when a movement other than clapping was used to keep time. Despite being small in scale, this qualitative study sheds light on some of the underlying strategies and processes involved in beat abstraction and keeping time to music, informing options for the musical training of rhythmically challenged people.

COMPARISON OF I-125 SEED MARKING AND WIRE MARKING METHODS USED FOR BREAST TUMOR LOCALIZATION

It is very important to accurately determine the location of the lesion in order to accurately excise the tumor area in the breast tissue. The method used to determine the location of the lesion should not only contribute to the precise excision of the lesion, but also help to minimize the loss of healthy tissue during the excision procedure. In addition, the product applied in the localization method to be used before the excision procedure contributes to the success of the operation, as well as the low possibility of complications, contribution to patient satisfaction, ease of application for the practitioner, cost, time saving, ease of coordination and planning between different departments, and reduction of repetition. supplies. However, different localization methods have advantages and disadvantages compared to each other. At this point, the authorized doctor determines the localization method to be applied before the excision of the breast tissue, considering the advantages and disadvantages of different methods. In this study, the method of marking with I-125 Seed, which is used to determine the location of the lesion before excision of the tumor area in the breast tissue, was mentioned and compared with the method of marking with wire, which is an alternative application.

To racketeer among neighbors: spatial features of criminal collaboration in the American Mafia

ABSTRACT The American Mafia is a network of criminals engaged in drug trafficking, violence and other illegal activities. Here, we analyze a historical spatial social network (SSN) of 680 Mafia members found in a 1960 investigatory dossier compiled by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The dossier includes connections between members who were ‘known criminal associates’ and members are geolocated to a known home address across 15 major U.S. cities. Under an overarching narrative of identifying the network’s proclivities toward security (dispersion) or efficiency (ease of coordination), we pose four research questions related to criminal organizations, power and coordination strategies. We find that the Mafia network is distributed as a portfolio of nearby and distant ties with significant spatial clustering among the Mafia family units. The methods used here differ from former methods that analyze the point pattern locations of individuals and the social network of individuals separately. The research techniques used here contribute to the body of non-planar network analysis methods in GIScience and can be generalized to other types of spatially-embedded social networks.

The coordination roles of relief organisations in humanitarian logistics

ABSTRACTThe number of organisations involved in relief work in general and humanitarian logistics specifically is large and increasing, creating new complexity. In this paper we analyse different types of coordination and roles in two case studies of the humanitarian cluster system based on its initial development and the Kenyan Post-election crisis. The different and unclear roles of the organisations create significant problems before and after cluster activation and deactivation. Individual organisations take on many roles in the cluster system and beyond it in terms of coordination. The clarity of the roles affects the need for and ease of coordination. We suggest a simple basic categorisation of roles as a starting point for developing this concept in the field of humanitarian logistics and connect this to coordination.

Does location matter for a scheduling department?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of physical proximity between schedulers and operators within manufacturing firms. In literature, a small distance between interdependent employees is assumed to be a prerequisite for a high level of coordination. This study investigates this assumption empirically for the relationship between scheduling and manufacturing and shows effects of proximity that are only partly in line with literature.Design/methodology/approachConsequences of relocating the scheduling department within a production firm are studied using a longitudinal case study approach. Data have been collected within three phases: before, three months after, and one year after the relocation.FindingsFindings show that schedulers and operators communicate more face‐to‐face and less by phone after the relocation, especially during rescheduling. Furthermore, schedulers and operators perceived positive changes in ease of coordination and performance due to the relocation.Research limitations/implicationsScheduling and rescheduling are usually treated in literature as a mathematical puzzle to be solved. The authors do not contest this in itself, but the findings indicate that communication and collaboration are important aspects as well. In the case company, the possible negative aspects of close proximity, such as more interruptions, are offset by the advantages for rescheduling such as fast response and improved quality of communication. As the study was done in only one manufacturing firm, further research is needed to determine what firm characteristics specifically determine the appropriate location of the scheduling department.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates the need to carefully design, manage, and facilitate the interface and critical task interdependencies between scheduling and manufacturing departments.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to operations management literature by providing a detailed empirical analysis concerning the effects of physical proximity between schedulers and manufacturing operators, including behavioural and organizational factors.

Coordination Costs and Institutional Investors: Evidence from the Market for Corporate Control

The ease of coordination among a firm's institutional shareholders has an important impact on the market for corporate control. I construct two measures to capture the ease of shareholder coordination, one based on the geographic proximity among institutional shareholders and the other based on the correlation in their portfolio allocation decisions. I find that target firms with greater ease of shareholder coordination experience significantly higher abnormal returns around the takeover announcement. In a similar vein, acquirer firms with greater ease of shareholder coordination are associated with higher acquisition announcement returns. Using the SEC's 1992 proxy reform as an exogenous shock that reduces barriers to shareholder coordination, I find that these effects become significantly stronger after the reform. These findings suggest that the ease of coordination among institutional shareholders plays an important role in the market for corporate control by enhancing the monitoring role of both target and acquirer shareholders and raising the bargaining power of target shareholders.

Shareholder Coordination Costs and the Market for Corporate Control

Coordination costs among a firm's shareholders have an important impact on the market for corporate control. Using geographic distance among institutional investors to measure coordination costs, I find that target firms with lower shareholder coordination costs experience significantly higher abnormal returns around the takeover announcement. In a similar vein, acquirer firms with lower shareholder coordination costs are associated with better acquisition performance. These effects are particularly pronounced after the 1992 proxy reform which relaxes the restrictions on communication and coordination among shareholders. These findings suggest that the ease of coordination among shareholders plays and important role in the market for corporate control by raising the bargaining power of target shareholders and enhancing the monitoring role of both target and acquirer shareholders.

Evaluation of the cost effectiveness of therapist computerized entry of occupational therapy workload measurement data.

A study was conducted to examine the cost effectiveness of two methods of managing occupational therapy workload measurement data. The computer entry of statistical data by a clerk in a central location was compared to multi-site direct input of data by therapists. Cost effectiveness, efficiency and accuracy of each method were the primary outcomes. Ease of coordination and level of computer comfort were secondary outcomes. It was clear that clerk entry of data was more cost effective, efficient and accurate than therapist entry of data. The monitoring of monthly data entry was best facilitated by clerk entry. Therapists had a positive attitude towards direct entry but were unable to approximate the speed and accuracy of the data entry clerk. Therapists' comfort with computers increased slightly during the study. Since the prime purpose of the study was to examine cost effectiveness, it was concluded that clerk entry of workload data is the best use of resources.

On the Effectiveness of Direct Shipping Strategy for the One-Warehouse Multi-Retailer R-Systems

We consider the problem of integrating inventory control and vehicle routing into a cost-effective strategy for a distribution system consisting of one depot and many geographically dispersed retailers. All stock enters the system through the depot and is distributed to the retailers by vehicles of limited constant capacity. We assume that each one of the retailers faces a constant, retailer specific, demand rate and that inventory is charged only at the retailers but not at the depot. We provide a lower bound on the long run average cost over all inventory-routing strategies. We use this lower bound to show that the effectiveness of direct shipping over all inventory-routing strategies is at least 94% whenever the Economic Lot Size of each of the retailers is at least 71% of vehicle capacity. The effectiveness deteriorates as the Economic Lot Sizes become smaller. These results are important because they provide useful guidelines as to when to embark into the much more difficult task of finding cost-effective routes. Additional advantages of direct shipping are lower in-transit inventory and ease of coordination.

New Models for Motor Control

What do a prototype robot (Brooks 1989) and a model for the control of behavioral choice in insects (Altman and Kien 1987a) have in common? And what do they share with a scratching cat (Shadmehr 1989)? The answer is distributed control systems that do not depend on a central command center for the execution of behavioral outputs. The first two in particular are examples of a growing trend to replace the long-held concept of linear hierarchical control of motor output with one of decentralized, distributed control, with inputs at many levels and the output a consensus of the activity in several centers. Brooks (1989) describes a six-legged machine that, in its most advanced form, can walk over rough terrain and prowl around following a source of warmth, such as a person. The six legs, chosen as a compromise between stability and ease of coordination, give the robot a superficial resemblance to an insect — but the similarity goes deeper. The modular control system, designed strictly on engineering principles for maximum efficiency and economy, bears a striking similarity to the model we have proposed elsewhere (Altman and Kien 1987a) to describe the organization of the motor system in insects such as the locust. In both systems, the same set of components can generate different behaviors, depending on the context, and similar principles govern the generation of different levels of behavior, from movements of a single leg to coordinated responses of the whole beast. Neither requires a single center for integrating all sensory information and conflicts tend to be resolved by consensus at the motor level.

The Ullmann Condensation Reaction of Haloanthraquinone Derivatives with Amines in Aprotic Solvents. IV. Kinetic Studies of the Condensation with Ethylenediamine

Abstract In the Ullmann condensation of bromoanthraquinones (AQBr) with ethylenediamine using copper(I) bromide as a catalyst, the reaction rate decreased with time which has been interpreted in terms of the formation of the ineffective copper(II) species. The kinetic investigation showed the reaction rate to be first order both for the copper(I) species and AQBr. After prolonged reaction the copper(I) species was quantitatively converted to the copper(II) species, the copper(II) species appearing to have little catalytic activity due to strong coordination with ethylenediamine. The reactivities of the haloanthraquinones were dependent on the ease of coordination with Cu(I) and the rate of Cu(II) formation. The mechanism, including the reaction between CuI(AQBr) and ethylenediamine, has been proposed and discussed.