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ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (Gen-AI) are transforming firms and supply chains. However, the empirical literature reporting the benefits, challenges, and outlook of these nascent technologies in operations and supply chain management (OSCM) is limited. This study surveys current projects and perceptions of these technologies in US (n = 119) and UK (n = 181) supply chains. We found that projects range from proof-of-concept to full implementation, with a main focus on operational gains, such as improved customer satisfaction, cost minimisation, and process efficiencies. The main challenges concern data, technological and organisational issues. Expected benefits are dominated by cost savings and enhanced customer experience, but also include increased automation and sustainability. Industries were found to cluster around six groups according to perceived benefits and implementation challenges. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on Gen-AI use in OSCM, and to management practice by mapping the benefits, challenges, outlook, and maturity level of Gen-AI projects in supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to unprecedented challenges to healthcare quality in the emergency department, including directly impacting quality metrics and worsening barriers to the quality improvement process such as burnout, staff turnover, and boarding. We aimed to develop a blueprint for postpandemic quality improvement to address these specific barriers, focused on prioritizing frontline staff engagement from idea generation to implementation and assessment. Drawing from teamwork literature, we constructed a process that emphasized egalitarian conversations, psychological safety, and creating an environment where staff could feel heard at every step of the process. We applied this blueprint to improving rates of patients who leave without being seen and achieved a four percentage point reduction (9% vs. 5%, p

Introduction: Big data and improved analytic techniques, such as triple exponential smoothing (TES), allow for prediction of emergency department (ED) volume. We sought to determine 1) which method of TES was most accurate in predicting pre-coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), during COVID-19, and post-COVID-19 ED volume; 2) how the pandemic would affect TES prediction accuracy; and 3) whether TES would regain its pre-COVID-19 accuracy in the early post-pandemic period.Methods: We studied monthly volumes of four EDs with a combined annual census of approximately 250,000 visits in the two years prior to, during the 25-month COVID-19 pandemic, and the 14 months following. We compared the accuracy of four models of TES forecasting by measuring the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean square errors (MSE) and mean absolute deviation (MAD), comparing actual to predicted monthly volume.Results: In the 23 months prior to COVID-19, the overall average MAPE across four forecasting methods was 3.88% ± 1.88% (range 2.41–6.42% across the four ED sites), rising to 15.21% ± 6.67%during the 25-month COVID-19 period (range 9.97–25.18% across the four sites), and falling to 6.45% ± 3.92% in the 14 months after (range 3.86–12.34% across the four sites). The 12-month Holt-Winter method had the greatest accuracy prior to COVID-19 (3.18% ± 1.65%) and during the pandemic (11.31% ± 4.81%), while the 24-month Holt-Winter offered the best performance following the pandemic (5.91% ± 3.82%). The pediatric ED had an average MAPE more than twice that of the average MAPE of the three adult EDs (6.42% ± 1.54% prior to COVID-19, 25.18% ± 9.42% during the pandemic, and 12.34% ± 0.55% after COVID-19). After the onset of the pandemic, there was no immediate improvement in forecasting model accuracy until two years later; however, these still had not returned to baseline accuracy levels.Conclusion: We were able to identify a TES model that was the most accurate. Most of the models saw an approximate four-fold increase in MAPE after onset of the pandemic. In the months following the most severe waves of COVID-19, we saw improvements in the accuracy of forecasting models, but they were not back to pre-COVID-19 accuracies.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study proposes an integrative model, whereby socialization caravan passageways—socialization tactics—shape a resource caravan of PsyCap (psychological capital) that newcomers rely upon to achieve socialization-specific adjustment outcomes. SmartPLS 3.0 is mainly used to analyze the data and this model exhibits acceptable levels of structural equation modeling (SEM) fit indices in a sample of 368 respondents from 16 luxury hotels in Hainan Province, China. Study results indicate that socialization tactics have a positive influence on PsyCap, which in turn affects all six adjustment outcomes including task mastery, fitting in, standing out, role negotiation, membership identification, and interpersonal relationships. Our findings are informative and valuable because socialization resources theory (SRT) represents a new approach to capturing the dynamics of newcomer socialization phenomenon with important implications for theory, research, and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular integrated construction (MiC) becomes a promising solution to improve production efficiency in the construction industry. However, the off‐site production and on‐site installation processes of MiC pose challenges to collaboration efficiency among the multiple stakeholders involved, including subcontractors, contractors, and consumers. These challenges stem from information dispersion, which impedes effective collaboration and communication. Such problems can be solved by introducing a blockchain‐based cyber‐physical service platform, which can facilitate information sharing and collaboration across the supply chain. In this paper, we study the impacts of MiC and blockchain technology on construction supply chains and reveal several important insights. First, we find that there exists a first‐mover advantage in the traditional construction supply chain, where subcontractors engage in a sequential game, and the subcontractor who produces first obtains more profit than the counterparts. Moreover, the contractor's ability to increase profits by reducing the unit cost of construction time is limited, but it can improve the effectiveness of the time gap due to early delivery. Second, we show that MiC should not be introduced if it significantly reduces collaboration efficiency in the supply chain. Interestingly, increasing the unit cost of construction for subcontractors can actually result in greater profits for all members of the supply chain. Regarding adopting blockchain technology, our findings suggest that supply chain members generally hold similar attitudes. Specifically, when the value of blockchain in improving collaboration efficiency is below a certain threshold, its adoption may not be beneficial, despite its potential to enable rapid production and early delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research introduced cubic bipolar neutrosophic sets (CBNSs), a novel framework that significantly enhanced the capabilities of bipolar neutrosophic sets (BNSs) in handling uncertainty and vagueness within data analysis. By integrating bipolarity and cubic sets, CBNSs provide a more comprehensive and accurate representation of information. We have defined key operations for CBNSs and thoroughly investigated their structural properties. Additionally, we have introduced cubic bipolar neutrosophic soft sets (CBNSSs) as a flexible parameterization tool for CBNSs. To validate the practical utility of CBNSs, we conducted a case study in decision-making. Our algorithmic approach effectively addressed the challenges posed by uncertainty and vagueness in the decision-making process. The results of our research unequivocally demonstrated the superiority of CBNSs over existing methods in terms of accuracy, flexibility, and applicability. By offering a more nuanced representation of information, CBNSs provide a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners tackling complex decision problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Operations management is experiencing a digital transformation that affects the entire industry landscape. There has been scant research on how digitalisation affects employee well-being in the operations workforce. Using self-determination theory, we bridge this research gap by examining how basic psychological needs among the operations workforce are affected by digitalisation. Our empirical data is collected by a survey from 132 employees in the operations job function in the U.S. The empirical evidence is analysed in a configurational manner by using a fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Our findings suggest there are five empirical important empirical solutions for explaining the presence of employee well-being, as well as four important empirical solutions for the absence (negation) of employee well-being. Our configurational solution consists mostly of both digital competence, social relatedness, and digital autonomy. This is in accordance with the self-determination theory. However, there are several alterations to how important they are among different configurational solutions. The presence of well-being in life and psychological well-being seems less relevant for obtaining well-being at work. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and provide recommendations to managers for how to promote employee well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This editorial discusses the importance of preparing communities, cities, and nations for extreme flooding events. It highlights the need to adapt infrastructure to be more resilient, while acknowledging the tradeoff between efficiency and resilience. The editorial provides examples of infrastructure failures during past flooding events and discusses the challenges of adapting critical infrastructure systems to a changing climate. The document includes articles that explore different approaches to managing flood risk, the use of satellite data for monitoring and warning systems, and the vulnerability of industrial process facilities to flood damage. The authors emphasize the need for comprehensive solutions that consider uncertainties and involve collaboration between academia and the public and private sectors. The text also mentions the challenges of developing protective infrastructures, retrofitting existing infrastructures, and considering implications throughout the lifecycle. [Extracted from the article]

The Mexican health system restructuring process that began in 2018 moves forward in two lanes: individual-based healthcare provision and public health services. The latter has two main goals: strengthening the state's public health governing role in a federative nation and providing the country's Ministry of Health with a highly skilled professional task force to accomplish this role. Mexico's Ministry of Health created the National Public Health Service (NPHS), a corporation of public health officers with the single mission to protect people's health by purposefully enforcing and overseeing the Essential Public Health Functions within the Mexican health system. Correspondingly, the NPHS will pursue three key strategies. First, to reshape public health action by organizing the Ministry's work using operational-based criteria (governance, logistics, operations, and intelligence) instead of program-specific vertical structures. Second, to functionally integrate and provide a group identity and a set of standard operational practices to all federal-level public health practitioners. Third, to refocus the Ministry of Health's nature to a more ground-level work, closer to the people and the needs of the state-level health departments instead of a more normative nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To make operations of an organization digital, i.e., digital transformation (DX), companies and local governments are promoting on-site efforts to improve business efficiency using digital technology and the implementation of measures by DX-promotion departments. To further enhance the effectiveness of DX promotion, it is necessary to create a DX cycle in which workers in the field and DX-promotion departments cooperate to efficiently and accurately implement effective DX measures over a wide area. The work-improvement-support technology developed by NTT to meet this necessity is introduced in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE Το record all the planned surgeries of the pre-pandemic period 2018–2019 and to compare in number with the pandemic years. The study also assessed the impact of the pandemic associated with the general reduction and cancellation of the last 24 hour scheduled surgeries in a secondary public hospital and examined the factors behind the postponements and to what extent they have been affected by the pandemic. ΜETHOD This research was carried out in a General Hospital of Thessaloniki through the utilization of data from the daily programs of the surgery theaters for the years 2018–2022. RESULTS Survey data showed that 17,790 surgeries were performed over the four years (2018–2020) of our study. In the two pandemic years 2020–2021, surgical operations (7,686 operations) had a 23.9% decrease compared to the two previous pre-pandemic years (2018–2019), in which 10,104 operations were performed. The number of postponements in the pre-pandemic years was 437 while in the pandemic it was 186 (routine-emergency) scheduled surgeries, which is a statistically significant reduction of 57.2%.The main reasons for the results were the pandemic that forced the restructuring of the wards and the creation of COVID-19 wards, but mainly the periodic suspensions of surgeries. CONCLUSIONS Health systems allowed the maximum care for patients with COVID-19, mainly through recourse relocation, by reducing surgeries with major impact on the lack of care for patients with other health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current procedure for classifying the capacity of airport pavements, known as the Aircraft Classification Number/Pavement Classification Number (ACN/PCN) method, implemented about 40 years ago, has not followed the evolution of mechanistic-empirical design methods. In this sense, this paper aims to present a comparative analysis between the ACN/PCN Method and what will be implemented by the International Civil Aviation Organization by 2024, the Aircraft Classification Rating/Pavement Classification Rating (ACR/PCR) method, to verify the impacts on the useful life and the admissibility of landing and take-off operations. Therefore, two flexible surface runways, located in Brazil, were evaluated with the help of COMFAA 3.0 and FAARFIELD 2.0 software. It was found that flexible pavements governed by the ACN/PCN method provide structures with reduced durability, both for the subgrade and the surface; on the other hand, when governed by the ACR/PCR Method, the subgrade has a useful life close to the project life and the surfaces have durability of more than 10 years, which may change the admissibility of landing and take-off operations. Furthermore, based on the results of these two pavements, it is suggested that the overload acceptance criteria for the ACR/PCR method be reviewed and adjusted according to the aircraft's landing gear configuration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section Chiefs in academic radiology departments are asked to manage operations across many domains beyond radiology or medicine, to lead and unite diverse faculty groups, and to represent the vision of the Chair and Vice Chairs to section members. In addition to carrying out policies and supporting departmental culture, Section Chiefs represent their section to the department and institution. Yet, in many cases, the path to this role may not include the requisite training or experiences for optimal performance, and Section Chiefs may not be provided with the broad information to carry out these duties. This paper presents the need for, and aims of, annual clinical Section Chief orientation retreats. Retreat goals include optimizing the effectiveness, performance, and confidence of Section Chiefs, to the benefit of both their section members and the department. We describe the program format and detail elements of the Section Chief retreat we created at our large hybrid academic and community radiology department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study determined the relationship between the emergency nurse work environment and emergency department patient left without being seen rates and lengths of stay. Cross-sectional analysis of 215 New York and Illinois emergency departments. The work environment (abbreviated Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index) was measured by emergency nurses in the 2021 RN4CAST-NY/IL survey and linked with outcomes from Hospital Compare. Regression models estimated the relationship between the nurse work environment and emergency department patient left without being seen rates, median length of stay (in minutes), and median behavioral health patient length of stay. Model coefficients were used to estimate expected additional care minutes gained if emergency department work environments improved. "Mixed" work environments had the longest median overall length of stay (3.4 hours) and the highest median left without being seen rates (2.2%), while "poor" work environments had the longest median length of stay for behavioral health patients (6 hours). Improving the emergency department work environment from poor to mixed (and mixed to better) was associated with a 13-minute reduction in overall length of stay (P ≤.05), a 33-minute reduction in behavioral health length of stay (P ≤.01), and a 19% reduction in left without being seen rates (P ≤.01). We estimated 11,824 to 41,071 additional patients could be seen in emergency departments associated with work environment improvements from "poor" to "better," depending on annual patient volumes. Hospital administrators should consider investing in nurse work environments as a foundation to improve timely outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to present the vertical integration state-of-the-art and propose an expansion of the operations and supply chain management (OSCM) field by identifying gaps and bottlenecks. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses a systematic literature review based on a sample of 173 OSCM field articles, collected from Scopus and Web of Science databases. Findings – There are no single factors, such as future costs, structures or skills development, in the decision to vertically integrate operations. It is necessary to combine the vision of production costs with the perspective of governance and transaction costs. In addition, it is essential to consider the competency perspective and its impact on capability building. Research limitations/implications – Few studies have attempted to understand how vertical integration is used in terms of OSCM research themes and theories. Vertical integration can help companies face challenges and serve as a potential solution for achieving better prices, demand control and quality management. Practical implications – The significant role of vertical integration mechanisms in supply chains is crucial for managers evaluating a firm's reconfiguration with more vertical operations. Policymakers interested in supporting the smoothness of vertical integration decisions in regulatory agencies play a key role as contingencies. Social implications – In times of global challenges, vertical integration is a strategy known to be more effective for firms to obtain a competitive advantage, making them more resilient. Originality/value – This paper addresses gaps in the vertical integration theme and provides insights for future research development.

This research introduced cubic bipolar neutrosophic sets (CBNSs), a novel framework that significantly enhanced the capabilities of bipolar neutrosophic sets (BNSs) in handling uncertainty and vagueness within data analysis. By integrating bipolarity and cubic sets, CBNSs provide a more comprehensive and accurate representation of information. We have defined key operations for CBNSs and thoroughly investigated their structural properties. Additionally, we have introduced cubic bipolar neutrosophic soft sets (CBNSSs) as a flexible parameterization tool for CBNSs. To validate the practical utility of CBNSs, we conducted a case study in decision-making. Our algorithmic approach effectively addressed the challenges posed by uncertainty and vagueness in the decision-making process. The results of our research unequivocally demonstrated the superiority of CBNSs over existing methods in terms of accuracy, flexibility, and applicability. By offering a more nuanced representation of information, CBNSs provide a valuable tool for researchers and practitioners tackling complex decision problems.

Introduction: We sought to describe the demographic characteristics, clinical features, and outcomes of a cohort of patients who presented to our emergency departments with mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) infection between May 1–August 1, 2022.Case Series: We identified 145 patients tested for mpox, of whom 79 were positive. All positive cases were among cisgender men, and the majority (92%) were among men who have sex with men. A large number of patients (39%) were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive. There was wide variation in emergency department (ED) length of stay (range 2–16 hours, median 4 hours) and test turnaround time (range 1–11 days, median 4 days). Most patients (95%) were discharged, although a substantial proportion (22%) had a return visit within 30 days, and 28% ultimately received tecrovirimat.Conclusion: Patients who presented to our ED with mpox had similar demographic characteristics and clinical features as those described in other clinical settings during the 2022 outbreak. While there were operational challenges to the evaluation and management of these patients, demonstrated by variable lengths of stay and frequent return visits, most were able to be discharged.

In today’s context, with the interference of technology in the workplace, peoples activities are increasingly sedentary. So, naturally, fitness is becoming more and more popular, fitness centres mushrooming and the variety of products and services on offer is on the rise. They carry out a mixed activity, both service provision (through the packages offered) and commercial (through the sale of supplements and equipment), with a specific accounting approach that naturally outlines certain patterns at the level of the financial statements. This article aims to capture the particularities of current accounting and the valorisation of the information from financial reports at the level of a fitness center in Arad, which appeared on the market in the post-pandemic context. The accounting specificity will be emphasised by means of current operations, and the financial reporting specificity will be highlighted by determining and interpreting a number of relevant static and dynamic indicators.

Whole number computations are a critical skill that serves as a foundation upon which higher-order concepts in mathematics are taught to children. To facilitate their instruction, educators often use multiple representations to support a child's cognition. Representations with physical manipulatives are widely studied through a graduated instructional sequence featuring concrete, representational, and abstract stages of learning. In contrast, research on representational sequences featuring virtual manipulatives is less robust. Thus, this study evaluated an instructional strategy with virtual manipulatives, static representational drawings, and abstract algorithms to teach multiplication to three U.S. elementary students with mathematics difficulty. A functional relation was established via a single-subject multiple probe design between the treatment and students' accuracy performance. Baseline-corrected Tau estimates confirmed a medium effect size for all three students, while student performance on measures assessing the number of errors committed and the duration of sessions also returned favorable findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article defines and describes the concepts of generalized skill, generalized operations, and operations. It provides the internal structure of the generalized skill to listen to English as a foreign language for students of Cuban language schools and its effectiveness was corroborated by a group of experts [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Blood components are costly and scarce. The Blood Stocks Management Scheme (BSMS) was established in the United Kingdom (UK) to support hospital transfusion services and national blood services through collection, analysis, and monthly feedback of data on blood component inventory and wastage management. There is a growing evidence base on how best to deliver feedback for quality improvement. We assessed the quality and utility of the monthly BSMS component reports. Methods: We assessed the content of BSMS reports issued in March 2023 against established criteria for effective feedback. Two researchers independently rated whether criteria spanning the five domains of goal setting, data collection, feedback content, feedback display and feedback delivery were fully, partially or not met. Disagreements were resolved through discussion. We conducted an online questionnaire survey of recipients of BSMS reports during March 2023 to assess their use of reports and seek suggestions for improvement. Results: Five out of 20 criteria for effective feedback were fully met. Areas for improvement included placing more emphasis in the feedback on positive change, linking data and summary messages, and including specific suggestions for action. Respondents highlighted the value of benchmarked comparisons with other hospital transfusion services. Conclusion: There is scope for enhancing the effectiveness and utility of BSMS feedback reports and hence reducing wastage of blood components. This methodology for evaluation of feedback could be utilized to improve other areas of transfusion practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The study aimed to enhance medication management efficiency by introducing a systematic approach to redistributing medications to high-utilization zones, thereby mitigating the volume and expenses associated with non-returnable expired medications. Methods: This quality improvement initiative encompassed 2 key phases. Initially, a standardized workflow for managing expiring medications was implemented across 2 satellite pharmacy areas. Subsequently, the impact of these interventions was assessed by comparing pre-implementation and post-implementation data on the quantity and monetary value of expired medications. Baseline data were derived from expired medication records spanning January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022. The new workflow was established in December 2022, and post-implementation data were collected from January 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023. The process rollout involved devising workflow protocols, creating supportive documentation, and delivering training to pharmacy personnel. Data collection encompassed medication identifiers, stock locations, date medications were received, expiration dates, along with wholesale acquisition cost for each item. Descriptive statistical methods were employed for analysis. Results: Comparative analysis of pre-implementation and post-implementation data revealed substantial reductions in the annual estimated quantity of expired medications (284 fewer items, representing a 13.6% decrease) and corresponding wholesale acquisition costs ($5075 USD reduction, translating to a 19.7% decrease) within the satellite areas during the study period. Moreover, a comparison of post-implementation quarter one data with the corresponding data from the previous year highlighted even more significant reductions in the quantity of expired medications (203 fewer items, reflecting a 31.1% decrease) and associated wholesale acquisition costs ($2548 USD reduction, signifying a 33.0% decrease) within the satellite areas. Conclusions: This study underscores the potential advantages of employing a standardized process to proactively reallocate medications prior to their expiration, thereby enabling their utilization in other hospital sections. Future endeavors could concentrate on the wider implementation of similar workflows throughout different hospital locations and the broader enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article defines and describes the concepts of generalized skill, generalized operations, and operations. It provides the internal structure of the generalized skill to speak English as a foreign language for students of Cuban language schools and the synthetic analytical scale for its evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on the structure and operations of the MicroVeg Vegetable Operational Innovation Platforms (IPs) in Southwestern Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select eleven MicroVeg IPs. Data were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews with IP stakeholders. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis in ATLAS.ti 8. The results reveal that MicroVeg IP structure was in three levels – State, Local Government and Community with the community IPs being the operational IPs while the district IPs were the strategic IPs. Farmers, marketers, input dealers/seed producers, and microfinance bankers were identified as the main stakeholders involved in the IPs. Roles performed by Farmers were raising emerging issues around vegetable production, in-house training, and assistance of one another to resolve emerging issues. The marketers gave farmers market situational reports and counselled farmers on prevailing consumers’ preferences and how to increase profit and reduce wastage. The IP operations utilised collective knowledge, expertise, and resources to improve the efficiency of the vegetable value chain. The study concluded that IPs were successful in joint diagnostic, validation of technologies and access to services, co-creation of innovations, experience sharing, learning and capacity building. The study recommended the sustenance of the IPs.

Operations management (OM) involves the activities related to producing goods by transforming input into output. Operations managers typically organize the design of goods and manage the processes to ensure a quality product. Many of these processes also apply to the future production of goods in space. Space resources are enablers for space travel and life on other bodies, but they must be processed from raw material to a finished good that can be used. Using terrestrial OM processes, we can imagine the procedures and processes needed to operate production plants in space. Some critical issues will be interoperability, sustainability, and high-quality control, but many other OM factors must be considered and explored.

This study focused on the challenges faced by a group of independent and small retailers called Bul-anon retailers and identified coping mechanisms adopted. The study was conducted to investigate the coping me­chanisms that can be utilized by other members of the retail industry to continue to thrive despite difficulties. Findings indicated that the challenges faced by the Bul-anon retailers revolved around three of the four primary business functions: marketing, finance/accounting, and operations. To avoid the significant impact of the above challenges, retailers adopted coping mechanisms to stay in business amidst large department stores and other businesses. How they handled their customers, being customer-oriented, was the winning mechanism for the survival of these retailers.

In recent years, data analytics in pharmaceutical supply chains has aroused much interest as it has the potential of enabling better supply and management of healthcare products by leveraging data generated by modern systems. This article presents the current state, opportunities, and challenges of data analytics in pharmaceutical supply chains through a systematic literature review surveying the Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Springerlink databases. 85 publications from 2012 to 2021 were reviewed and classified based on the research approach, objective addressed, and data used. The contributions of this paper are threefold: (i) it proposes a framework focused on challenges and data resources to assess the current state of data analytics in pharmaceutical supply chains; (ii) it provides examples of techniques exemplified that will serve as inspiring references; and (iii) it gathers and maps existing literature to identify gaps and research perspectives. Findings outlined that despite promising results from machine learning algorithms to address drug shortages and inventories optimisation, the various data resources have not yet been fully harnessed. Unstructured data have barely been used and combined with other types of information. New challenges related to green practices adoption and medicines supply during crises call for further applications of advanced analytics techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prolonged emergency department (ED) length of stay (LOS) has been shown to adversely affect patient care. We sought to determine factors associated with ED LOS via analysis of a large, national, ED operations database.Methods: We performed retrospective, multivariable, linear regression modeling using the 2019 Emergency Department Benchmarking Alliance survey results to identify associated factors of ED LOS for admitted and discharged patients.Results: A total of 1,052 general and adult-only EDs responded to the survey. Median annual volume was 40,946. The median admit and discharge LOS were 289 minutes and 147 minutes, respectively. R-squared values for the admit and discharge models were 0.63 and 0.56 with out-of-sample R-squared values of 0.54 and 0.59, respectively. Both admit and discharge LOS were associated with academic designation, trauma level designation, annual volume, proportion of ED arrivals occurring via emergency medical services, median boarding, and use of a fast track. Additionally, admit LOS was associated with transfer-out percentage, and discharge LOS was associated with percentage of high Current Procedural Terminology, percentage of patients

Diverging diamond interchange (DDI) has received increased attention from the traffic community for its efficiency in reducing delays for vehicles at on- and off-ramps. The conflicting through movements between a DDI’s two crossover intersections mean that its signal plan must concurrently consider the progression for all critical paths to ensure overall efficiency. In light of DDI’s unique geometric features, the design of its signal plans typically starts with the cycle length and green splits for its two crossover intersections, and then employs available progression models to produce the optimal offsets for those critical paths. Such a two-stage design methodology, however, often cannot yield system-wide optimal results because the optimal progression bandwidth and signal settings are interdependent. Moreover, inefficient coordination between its two crossover intersections may cause excessive queues on the DDI’s bridge segment. This paper therefore presents a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model that can concurrently optimize the cycle length, green splits, and offsets for a DDI’s two crossover intersections under the given traffic patterns and geometric constraints such as the link length. The results of extensive numerical analyses with a real-world DDI have confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed model and its robustness in response to demand fluctuation.