Single Service Provider Research Articles

Improving continuity of care for frequent users of emergency departments: service user and provider perspectives.

This study explored service user and provider perspectives on barriers and facilitators of continuity of care for frequent users of emergency departments (ED) participating in a brief intensive case management intervention. We conducted semistructured interviews with 20 frequent ED users with mental health and addiction challenges participating in a brief intensive case management intervention, eliciting experiences of care and care continuity. We interviewed 13 service providers working with this population. We used thematic analysis to determine shared and unique barriers and facilitators to continuity of care, and we gave priority to themes reported by both service users and providers. Within fragmented systems of care, strong working relationships between service users and providers, timely access to coordinated services and seamless transitions to needed supports increased perceived care continuity. Barriers to continuity of care included difficulties engaging this population, short intervention duration and the lack of a single accountable service provider to address health and social needs. Although brief intensive case management interventions have the potential to improve continuity of care for frequent ED users, continuity of care, especially for people with complex health and social needs, may be compromised by program and personal characteristics as well as lack of broader system integration.

Current Opportunities and Challenges of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) of DNA; Determining Health and Diseases

Many publications have demonstrated the huge potential of NGS methods in terms of new species discovery, environment monitoring, ecological studies, etc. [24,35,92,97,103]. Undoubtedly, NGS will become one the major tools for species identification and for routine diagnostic use. While read lengths are still quite short for most existing systems ranging between 50 bp and 800 bp, they are likely to improve soon. This will enable easier, faster, and more reliable contig assembly and subsequent matching against reference databases. When data generation is no longer a bottleneck, the storage, speed of analysis, and interpretation of DNA sequence data are becoming the major challenges. Also, the integration or the use of data originating from diverse datasets and a variety of data providers are serious issues that need to be addressed. Poor sequence record annotations and species name assignments are known problems that should be instantly addressed and would allow the creation of reference databases used for routine diagnostics based on NGS. Samples with huge amounts of short DNA fragments need to be analyzed and compared against reference databases in an efficient and fast way. Although a number of solutions have been proposed by Industry; offering commercial software, there still remain hurdles to take. One of the challenges that we need to address is data upload from client’s computers to central or distributed data storage and analysis services. Another one is the efficient parallelization of analyses using cloud or grid solutions. The reliability and up-time of storage and analyses facilities is another important problem that need to be addressed if one wants to use it for routine diagnostics. Finally, the management, reporting and visualization of the analyses results are among the last issues, but not the least challenging ones. Considering the constant growth of computational power and storage capacity needed by different bioinformatics applications, working with single or a limited number of servers is no longer realistic. Using a cloud environment and grid computing is becoming a must. Even single cloud service provider can be restrictive for bioinformatics applications and working with more than one cloud can make the workflow more robust in the face of failures and always growing capacity needs. In this white paper we review the current state of the art in this field. We discuss the main limitations and challenges that we need to address such as; data upload from client’s computers to central or distributed data storage and analysis services; efficient parallelization of analyses using grid solutions; reliability and up-time of storage and analyses facilities for routine diagnostics; management, retrieving and visualization of the analyses results.

Mass customization for financial services: an empirical study of adoption and usage behavior

Purpose – This paper aims to report findings from an exploratory empirical study focusing on an application of mass customization in financial services. Based on the study of configurations and usage data, the authors evaluate a series of hypotheses relating to the interplay of adoption and usage by customers. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on quantitative analysis of data from a Turkish bank which offers customizable credit cards, encompassing both configurations as well as credit card usage. Findings – The results confirm that trial-and-error learning will not end with product definition, but will continue afterwards and lead to changes in customization. Especially active usage length shows a significant positive effect on the number of changes. The effect of base category usage could only partly be confirmed for changes, but was significant for adoption. It was also found that a series of smaller changes in a limited number of attributes has a higher likelihood than a smaller number of changes in a large number of aspects. Research limitations/implications – The study uses data from a single financial service provider, from a specific country. In addition, anonymized data on adoption and usage were used, thus demographic data as well as subjective measures from customers were not available. Practical implications – The results highlight the importance of specifying the correct solution space, as the authors could at least partially confirm the negative effect of both a large number of options, as well as basing on alternatives rather than attributes on several levels. Although overall mass customization seems less interesting than traditional credit cards, the authors discuss several positive implications for financial sector companies from offering this option. Originality/value – The paper extends current literature in focusing for the first time on mass customization for financial services. In addition, this is the first study using longitudinal data on adoption and modification of mass-customized solutions to analyze the long-term behavior of usage.

Ensuring Data Integrity Using Cooperative Provable Data Possession for Multi Cloud Environment

Cloud computing is a new and fast growing technology that offers an innovative, efficient and scalable business model for organizations. Cloud computing is type of computing where resources are shared rather than having local servers or personal devices to handle various applications. Cloud computing is a type of internet based computing where different services like server, storage, application, and network are delivered to the organizations. Although almost every business organization is going to adopt this technology due to its various advantages. When cloud computing become more perfect organizations and user will store enormous amount of data on remote cloud storage to achieve remote access, reduced cost, data collection and sharing of other services. To access services from cloud user can have account associated with single and multiple cloud service providers (SPs). Important aspect for cloud computing environment is to maintain integrity of stored data. Implementation of encryption of the information is done in such a way that it will be impossible for the attackers to read the resources sent on the web. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) are the methods used for the encryption. Result will be text (cipher) which is decrypted on the receiver’s side. AES and ECC algorithm implemented together to provide sound security.

New High-Speed Rail Lines and Market Competition

The new 1,000 km of high-speed rail (HSR) line between Turin and Salerno, Italy, were completed in 2009, and new service by the Italian railways state-owned company Trenitalia started in December of that year. Furthermore, in anticipation of the European open-access regulatory framework, starting from April 2012, the new HSR private operator Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori entered the market and is competing with the incumbent Trenitalia. This is the first case of large-scale competition between nonsubsidized HSR operators on the same line (i.e., infrastructure managed by the state-owned company, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana). This study provides an overview of the short-term dual effects of the opening of the new HSR line operating with a single service provider (between 2010 and 2012) and of the competition between the two operators starting from 2012. Before-and-after effects on services, prices, and attracted and generated demand based on several data sources, including ad hoc surveys and a system of mathematical models, are presented. Results suggest that the dual effect of new HSR lines and the opening of competition in the market has been producing a significant increase in HSR supply (+94% of trains per day) and demand (+98% of passenger-kilometers per year). The market share in the HSR core area increased about 20% at the expense of air and automobile modes. About 13.8 million extra trips per year were estimated in 2013 with respect to rail demand in 2009 (8.3 million diverted from other modes and 5.5 million induced trips) despite the severe economic crisis faced by the country in the same period.

Revenue-Sharing Contract Models for Logistics Service Supply Chains with Mass Customization Service

The revenue-sharing contract is one of the most important supply chain coordination contracts; it has been applied in various supply chains. However, studies related to service supply chains with mass customization (MC) are lacking. Considering the equity of benefit distribution between the members of service supply chains, in this paper, we designed two revenue-sharing contracts. The first contract for the maximum equity of a single logistics service integrator (LSI) and single functional logistics service provider (FLSP) in a two-echelon logistics service supply chain was designed by introducing the fair entropy function (“one to one” model). Furthermore, the method is extended to a more complex supply chain, which consists of a single LSI and multiple FLSPs. A new contract was designed not only for considering the equity of an LSI and each FLSP but also for the equity between each FLSP (“one toN” model). The “one to one” model in three-echelon LSSC is also provided. The result exemplifies that, whether in the “one to one” model or “one toN” model, there exists a best interval of customized level when the revenue-sharing coefficient reaches its maximum.

MCACM: A Cloud Storage Access Control Model for Multi-Clouds Environment Based on XACML

Cloud storage as a popular application in cloud services, are developing from single cloud service provider towards multiple cloud service providers. As a consequence, users need to manage their files from different sources and share in multi-clouds. While the conventional access control models are no longer suitable in multi-clouds environment. Therefore, a multi-clouds access control model based on XACML, named MCACM, is proposed here to implement access control in multi-clouds environment. In this model, cross-clouds access control is enabled through extending standard XACML framework. At last, we implemented a prototype of MCACM, and performance evaluation results show that our scheme is efficient.

Brief of Amici Curiae Electronic Frontier Foundation, Organization for Transformative Works, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Public Knowledge, and New Media Rights in Capitol v. Vimeo, No. 14-1048 (2d Cir.)

Congress deliberately created distinct rules for online service providers in Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”), codified in Section 512 of the Copyright Act. In order to stimulate the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, Congress created a set of statutory “safe harbors” that helped service providers predict and manage their legal exposure to copyright infringement liability. This effort proved to be a huge success, encouraging not only the growth of the Internet generally, but the growth of innovative platforms for free expression in particular. The district court’s rulings on both “red-flag knowledge” and pre-1972 sound recordings, if accepted, would thwart Congress’s intent and turn back the clock on the DMCA. The first ruling would effectively impose a standard for red flag knowledge that sharply diverges from this Court’s own requirement that the alleged infringement be “objectively obvious.” It would also set the copyright owner’s burden of production so low that every single service provider could be required to proceed to trial on almost any allegedly infringing material that its employees viewed. The second would present service providers with an impossible choice: either screen every audiovisual work it hosts for potential pre-1972 recordings (which could then expose them to a jury trial if the material used is arguably “well-known” and they allow it to remain online), or risk crushing liability. The result: a renewed climate of legal uncertainty for any service hosting expressive works, particularly works that might contain audio, and the loss of the free expression such services foster. In light of this uncertainty, even moderately cautious service providers may well go a third way, and refuse to host audiovisual works at all. Thus, endorsement of these aspects of the decision below would gravely threaten the profusion of online services and the creative communities that rely upon them to the detriment our common culture. In keeping with Congress’ intent, Amici urge the Court to reject the both district court’s interpretation of the standard for red flag knowledge and its improper exclusion of claims based on pre-1972 sound recordings from Section 512, and protect the predictable legal climate the safe harbors were intended to create.

CPDP Scheme to Provide Data Integrity in Multicloud

Nowadays, Cloud storage service is a faster profit growth point by providing a position-independent, low -cost platform, comparably scalable for client’s data. The construction of cloud computing environment is based on interfaces and open architecture. It has cloud capable to include multiple internal and external cloud services together to provide high interoperability there can be multiple accounts associated with a single or multiple service providers. so, Security in terms of integrity is main and most important aspect in cloud computing environment. Cooperative Provable data possession (CPDP) is a method for integrity the ensuring of data in storage outsourcing. Therefore, we address the construction of an efficient dynamic audit service and CPDP scheme for distributed cloud storage as well verifying the integrity guarantee of an entrusted and outsourced storage which support the data migration and scalability of service.

A game mechanism for single machine sequencing with zero risk

A problem is studied in which several non-cooperating clients compete for earlier execution of their jobs in a processing sequence of a single service provider in order to minimize job completion time costs. The clients can move their jobs earlier in a given sequence. They are assumed not to take a risky decision that can decrease their utility function. A game mechanism is suggested such that each client has no incentive to claim false cost and a social criterion is addressed, which is the minimum total cost of all clients. Algorithmic aspects of this mechanism are analyzed such as relations between the values of game equilibria and the social optimum, the computational complexity of finding a game equilibrium and the values of the price of anarchy and the price of stability.

A dynamic spectrum management strategy based on cooperative bargaining framework

This work proposes a dynamic and fair spectrum management strategy to be adopted by a service provider (SP). Here, we consider a scenario where multiple access networks (ANs) of different (not necessarily competing) technologies are owned by a single SP. We envisage that an SP employs an entity, called local spectrum controller (LSC), which manages a common pool of spectrum and is responsible for distributing the spectrum to individual ANs in a fair manner. Since the available spectrum is inadequate to satisfy the aggregate demand from all ANs simultaneously, LSC has to employ a dynamic spectrum allocation strategy. We have modeled the problem as an n-player cooperative bargaining game and have solved the problem with the help of solution techniques namely, Nash bargaining solution (NBS), Kalai-Smorodinsky bargaining solution (KSBS) and modified Thomson bargaining solution (MTBS). We have presented two novel heuristics to compute KSBS and MTBS. Moreover, a suitable utility function for the AN with respect to its received spectrum have been presented. We have also identified possible objectives of LSC (i.e., SP), namely minimizing overall dissatisfaction (MOD) of heterogeneous network, maintaining equality of distribution (MED) and maximizing proportional fairness (MPF). Finally, we have compared performances of above solutions with max–min fairness solution and Shapley value solution with respect to the above objectives of LSC.

Congestion-Dependent Pricing and Forward Contracts for Complementary Segments of a Communication Network

Congestion-dependent pricing is a form of traffic management that ensures the efficient allocation of bandwidth between users and applications. As the unpredictability of congestion prices creates revenue uncertainty for network providers and cost uncertainty for users, it has been suggested that forward contracts could be used to manage these risks. We develop a novel game-theoretic model of a multiprovider communication network with two complementary segments and investigate whether forward contracts would be adopted by service providers. Service on the upstream segment is provided by a single Internet service provider (ISP) and priced dynamically to maximize profit, while several smaller ISPs sell connectivity on the downstream network segment, with the advance possibility of entering into forward contracts with their users for some of their capacity. We show that the equilibrium forward contracting volumes are necessarily asymmetric, with one downstream provider entering into fewer forward contracts than the other competitors, thus ensuring a high subsequent downstream price level. In practice, network providers will choose the extent of forward contracting strategically based not only on their risk tolerance, but also on the market structure in the interprovider network and their peers' actions.

Electronic Payment Systems Evaluation

As e-commerce is increasingly critical to organizational survival in the 21st century global marketplace, business organizations are challenged with selecting the best payment alternatives to meet both their requirements and the needs of their customers. This paper develops and validates a performance-based tool, the Electronic Payment Efficacy Quotient (EPEQ), designed to assist merchants in selecting the appropriate EPS and measuring effectiveness. The research aims at addressing the need for EPS research to aid merchant selection and use of EPS. The paper presents the case study of a single source Internet Service Provider (ISP), which was analyzed to determine merchant’s needs regarding EPS and develop measures. Historical data was then used to determine and test the validity of the most effective alternative measures. The paper concludes with recommendations for future research to assist in optimizing merchant use of EPS.

Multi‐dimensional nature of service innovation

PurposeInnovation in services is thought to be multi‐dimensional in nature, and in this context the purpose of this paper is to present and operationalise the concept of “elevated service offerings” (ESO) in collaborating service organisations. ESO stands for new or enhanced service offerings which can only be eventuated as a result of partnering, and which could not be delivered on individual organisational merit. ESO helps us expand our understanding of service innovation to include a service network or service system's dimension.Design/methodology/approachA structural equation model is specified and estimated based on constructs and relationships grounded in the literature, as well as self‐developed constructs, using empirical data from 449 respondents in an Australian telecommunications service provider (SP) and its partnering organisations.FindingsResults show that ESO is a multi‐dimensional construct which was operationalised and validated through an extensive literature review, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modelling using a holdout sample.Research limitations/implicationsQualitative and empirical data analysis was undertaken with data collected from a single large telecommunications SP organisation, and its partnering organisations. Future research may seek to collect data from the entire telecommunications industry sector and their partnering organisations, across other service sectors, or even any other organisation where collaboration is pivotal to their success.Practical implicationsService organisations today need to understand that innovation in services is not just about process or product innovation, or even performance and productivity improvements, but in fact includes organisational forms of innovation. Indeed, the interactions and complementarities between the three different aspects of ESO – strategic, productivity, and performance – highlight the increasing complex and multi‐dimensional character of innovation and the ongoing iterative process.Originality/valueThis research provides empirical evidence for the existence of a multi‐dimensional innovation in services construct – known as elevated service offerings in a collaborative service network, along with an adapted definition of service and a service innovation model.

Quality for home palliative care: an Italian metropolitan multicentre JCI-certified model

BackgroundAssessing the quality of care and service delivery through the analysis of ad hoc indicators is a relevant process for quality monitoring and improvement with a view to providing patients,...

Quality for home palliative care: an Italian metropolitan multicentre JCI-certified model

BackgroundAssessing the quality of care and service delivery through the analysis of ad hoc indicators is a relevant process for quality monitoring and improvement with a view to providing patients,...

Pricing Scheme Based Nash Q-Learning Flow Control for Multi-User Network

For the congestion problems with multi-user existing in high-speed networks, a pricing scheme based Nash Q-learning flow controller is proposed. It considers a network with a single service provider, and some non-cooperative users. The pricing scheme is introduced to the design of the reward function in the learning process of Q-learning. Because of the uncertainties and highly time-varying, it is not easy to accurately obtain the complete information for high-speed networks. The Nash Q-learning, which is independent of mathematic model, shows particular superiority. It obtains the Nash Q-values through trial-and-error and interaction with the environment to improve its behavior policy. By means of learning process, the proposed controller can learn to take the best actions to regulate source flow with the features of high quality of service. Simulation results show that the proposed controller can promote the performance of the networks and avoid the occurrence of congestion effectively.

Frequency of Serious Arrhythmias Detected With Ambulatory Cardiac Telemetry

Ambulatory cardiac telemetry has been shown to be effective in establishing diagnoses in patients with suspected arrhythmias. A critical component of ambulatory telemetry is the immediate transfer of rhythm information to a central monitoring station without requiring patient action. The frequency with which potentially life-threatening events are detected using ambulatory telemetry has not previously been evaluated in a large patient population. All patients (n = 26,438) who underwent monitoring from April to December 2008 at a single service provider formed the patient population of this study. Arrhythmic events noted in these patients were defined as those requiring physician notification and those that represented potentially life-threatening arrhythmias. Of the 26,438 patients included in the study, 5,459 (21%) had arrhythmic events meeting physician notification criteria during a mean monitoring period of 21 days. Of these, 262 patients (1%) had arrhythmic events that could potentially be classified as emergent. These included 120 patients with wide complex tachycardia > or = 15 beats at > or = 120 beats/min, 100 patients with pauses > or = 6 seconds, and 42 patients with sustained heart rates <30 beats/min. An additional 704 patients (3%) had narrow complex tachycardia > or = 180 beats/min at rest. In conclusion, approximately 1% of patients who underwent ambulatory telemetry for routine clinical indications experienced life-threatening arrhythmic events over a 3-week monitoring period. Ambulatory cardiac telemetry could be potentially lifesaving in this group of patients.

A traffic engineering model for air taxi services

We propose a single-provider model for on-demand air taxi services. Data from a discrete-event model support a “flow model,” which describes the aggregate flow of passengers and aircraft for an air taxi service provider without specifying event-level operation. Using a set of hypothetical scenarios for air taxi network operation, we evaluate the accuracy of the flow model against the outputs of the discrete-event model. Finally, we illustrate how the flow model can be applied towards the optimal pricing of passenger fares for a single air taxi service provider.

Managing Layer 1 VPN services

Control Plane architectures enhance transport networks with distributed signaling and routing mechanisms which allow dynamic connection control. As a result, layer 1 switching networks enabled with a distributed control plane can support the provisioning of advanced connectivity services like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Such Layer 1 VPN (L1VPN) service allows multiple customer networks to share a single transport network in a cost-effective way. However, L1VPN deployment still faces many challenges. In this work, we are concerned on configuration management and interdomain provisioning of L1VPN services. We propose an L1VPN management architecture based on the Policy-Based Management (PBM) approach. First, we describe the architecture and how it allows a single service provider to support multiple L1VPNs while providing customers with some level of control over their respective service. Then we explain how the architecture was extended to support interdomain L1VPNs by using the Virtual Topology approach. We also discuss the prototype implementation and evaluation of the proposed architecture. Moreover, this work is a tentative note before raising a more deep discussion related to interdomain provisioning of L1VPN services and implications of a policy-based approach for L1VPN configuration management.