With the tides propagating from the open sea to the lagoon, the mean water level (MWL) in the inlet and lagoon becomes different from that at the open sea, and a setup/setdown is generated. The change of MWL (setup...With the tides propagating from the open sea to the lagoon, the mean water level (MWL) in the inlet and lagoon becomes different from that at the open sea, and a setup/setdown is generated. The change of MWL (setup/setdown) in the system imposes a great impact on regulating the development of tidal marshes, on determining the long-term water level for harbor maintenance, on the planning for the water front development with the flood control for the possible inundation, and on the interpretation of the historical sea level change when using tidal marsh peat deposits in the lagoon as the indicator for open sea' s sea level. In this case study on the mechanisms which control the setup/setdown in Xincun Inlet, Hainan in China, the 2-D barotropic mode of Eulerian - Lagrangian CIRCulation (ELCIRC) model was utilized. After model calibration and verification, a series of numerical experiments were conducted to examine the effects of bottom friction and advection terms, wetting and drying of intertidal areas, bathymetry and boundary conditions on the setup/setdown in the system. The modeling results show that setup occurs over the inlet and lagoon areas with an order of one tenth of the tide range at the entrance. The larger the bottom friction is, a larger setup is generated. Without the advection term, the setup is reduced clue to a decrease of water level gradient to compensate for the disappearance of the advection term. Even without overtides, a setup can still be developed in the system. Sea level rise and dredging in the inlet and tidal channel can cause a decrease of setup in the system, whereas shoaling of the system can increase the setup. The uniqueness of the Xincun Inlet with respect to MWL change is that there is no evident setdown in the inlet, which can be attributed to the complex geometry and bathymetry associated with the inlet system.展开更多
Complex factors including steep slopes, intense wave breaking, large bottom friction and remarkable wave setup should be considered while studying wave propagation over coral reefs, and how to simulate wave propagatio...Complex factors including steep slopes, intense wave breaking, large bottom friction and remarkable wave setup should be considered while studying wave propagation over coral reefs, and how to simulate wave propagation and setup on coral reefs efficiently has become a primary focus. Several wave models can be used on coral reefs as have been published, but further testing and comparison of the reliability and applicability of these models are needed. A comparative study of four numerical wave models (i.e., FUNWAVE-TVD, Coulwave, NHWAVE and ZZL18) is carried out in this paper. These models’ governing equations and numerical methods are compared and analyzed firstly to obtain their differences and connections;then the simulation effects of the four wave models are tested in four representative laboratory experiments. The results show that all four models can reasonably predict the spectrum transformation. Coulwave, NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict the wave height variation more accurately;Coulwave and FUNWAVE-TVD tend to underestimate wave setup on the reef top induced by spilling breaker, while NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict wave setup relatively accurately for all types of breakers;NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict wave reflection by steep reef slope more accurately. This study can provide evidence for choosing suitable models for practical engineering or establishing new models.展开更多
Objective: We aim to quantify the magnitude of setup errors in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treated Head and Neck cancer patients and recommend appropriate PTV margin. Methods: 60 patients with head and nec...Objective: We aim to quantify the magnitude of setup errors in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treated Head and Neck cancer patients and recommend appropriate PTV margin. Methods: 60 patients with head and neck cancer required bilateral neck irradiation were planned and treated by simultaneous integrated boost IMRT technique either treated radically or postoperative. Patients undergoing image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) each with once weekly scheduled cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The 3D displacements, systematic and random errors were calculated. The appropriate PTV expansion was determined using Van Herk’s formula. Results: Mean 3D displacement was 0.16 cm in the vertical direction, 0.14 cm in the horizontal direction and 0.16 cm in the longitudinal direction. Conclusion: Use of weekly CBCT allows the planning target volume (PTV) expansion to be reduced according to our setup. The appropriate clinical target volume (CTV)-PTV margin for our institute is 0.30 cm, 0.38 cm, and 0.33 cm in the horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal directions, respectively.展开更多
This paper studies a single machine scheduling problem with time-dependent learning and setup times. Time-dependent learning means that the actual processing time of a job is a function of the sum of the normal proces...This paper studies a single machine scheduling problem with time-dependent learning and setup times. Time-dependent learning means that the actual processing time of a job is a function of the sum of the normal processing times of the jobs already scheduled. The setup time of a job is proportional to the length of the already processed jobs, that is, past-sequence-dependent (psd) setup time. We show that the addressed problem remains polynomially solvable for the objectives, i.e., minimization of the total completion time and minimization of the total weighted completion time. We also show that the smallest processing time (SPT) rule provides the optimum sequence for the addressed problem.展开更多
The m-machine no-wait flowshop scheduling problem is addressed where setup times are treated as separate from processing times. The objective is to minimize total tardiness. Different dispatching rules have been inves...The m-machine no-wait flowshop scheduling problem is addressed where setup times are treated as separate from processing times. The objective is to minimize total tardiness. Different dispatching rules have been investigated and three were found to be superior. Two heuristics, a simulated annealing (SA) and a genetic algorithm (GA), have been proposed by using the best performing dispatching rule as the initial solution for SA, and the three superior dispatching rules as part of the initial population for GA. Moreover, improved versions of SA and GA are proposed using an insertion algorithm. Extensive computational experiments reveal that the improved versions of SA and GA perform about 95% better than SA and GA. The improved version of GA outperforms the improved version of SA by about 3.5%.展开更多
When an expanded-base pile is installed into ground, the cavity expansion associated with penetration of the enlarged pile base is followed by cavity contraction along the smaller-diameter pile shaft. In order to acco...When an expanded-base pile is installed into ground, the cavity expansion associated with penetration of the enlarged pile base is followed by cavity contraction along the smaller-diameter pile shaft. In order to account for the influence of cavity contraction on the change of bearing capacity of expanded-base pile, a theoretical calculation methodology, predicting the setup of expanded-base pile, was established by employing the cavity contraction theory to estimate the shaft resistance of expanded-base pile, and horizontal consolidation theory to predict the dissipation of excess pore pressure. Finally, the numerical solutions for the setup of expanded-base pile were obtained. The parametric study about the influence of cavity contraction on setup of expanded-base pile was carried out, while a field test was introduced. The parametric study shows that the decrements in radial pressure and the maximum pore water pressure after considering cavity contraction are increased as the expanded ratio(base diameter/shaft diameter) and rigidity index of soil are raised. The comparison between calculated and measured values shows that the calculated results of ultimate bearing capacity for expanded-base pile considering cavity contraction agree well with the measured values; however, the computations ignoring cavity contraction are 2.5-3.0 times the measured values.展开更多
When producing special-shape spring in CNC spring coiler,the setup of the coiler is often a manual work using a trial-and-error method.As a result,the setup of coiler consumes so much time and becomes the bottleneck o...When producing special-shape spring in CNC spring coiler,the setup of the coiler is often a manual work using a trial-and-error method.As a result,the setup of coiler consumes so much time and becomes the bottleneck of the spring production process.In order to cope with this situation,this paper proposes an automatic generation system of setup for CNC spring coiler us- ing case-based reasoning(CBR).The core of the study contains:(1)integrated reasoning model of CBR system;(2)spatial shape describe of special-shape spring based on feature;(3)coiling case representation using shape feature matrix;and(4)case similari- ty measure algorithm.The automatic generation system has implemented with C++Builder 6.0 and is helpful in improving the automaticity and efficiency of spring coiler.展开更多
Motivated by industrial applications we study a single-machine scheduling problem in which all the jobs are mutu- ally independent and available at time zero.The machine processes the jobs sequentially and it is not i...Motivated by industrial applications we study a single-machine scheduling problem in which all the jobs are mutu- ally independent and available at time zero.The machine processes the jobs sequentially and it is not idle if there is any job to be pro- cessed.The operation of each job cannot be interrupted.The machine cannot process more than one job at a time.A setup time is needed if the machine switches from one type of job to another.The objective is to find an optimal schedule with the minimal total jobs’completion time.While the sum of jobs’processing time is always a constant,the objective is to minimize the sum of setup times.Ant colony optimization(ACO)is a meta-heuristic that has recently been applied to scheduling problem.In this paper we propose an improved ACO-Branching Ant Colony with Dynamic Perturbation(DPBAC)algorithm for the single-machine schedul- ing problem.DPBAC improves traditional ACO in following aspects:introducing Branching Method to choose starting points;im- proving state transition rules;introducing Mutation Method to shorten tours;improving pheromone updating rules and introduc- ing Conditional Dynamic Perturbation Strategy.Computational results show that DPBAC algorithm is superior to the traditional ACO algorithm.展开更多
The problem of minimizing the maximum lateness on a single machine with family setups is considered.To solve the problem, dominance property is studied and then introduced into the tabu search(TS) algorithm.With the...The problem of minimizing the maximum lateness on a single machine with family setups is considered.To solve the problem, dominance property is studied and then introduced into the tabu search(TS) algorithm.With the dominance property, most unpromising neighbors can be excluded from the neighborhood, which makes the search process always focus on the most promising areas of the solution space.The proposed algorithms are tested both on the randomly generated problems and on the real-life problems.Computational results show that the proposed TS algorithm outperforms the best existing algorithm and can solve the real-life problems in about 1.3 on average.展开更多
Some dominance rules are proposed for the problems of scheduling N jobs on a single machine with due dates, sequence dependent setup times and no preemption. Two algorithms based on Ragatz' s branch and bound scheme ...Some dominance rules are proposed for the problems of scheduling N jobs on a single machine with due dates, sequence dependent setup times and no preemption. Two algorithms based on Ragatz' s branch and bound scheme are developed including the dominance rules where the objective is to minimize the maximum tardiness or the total tardiness. Computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the dominance rules.展开更多
Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of applying ANOVA newly proposed by Yukinori to verify the setup errors, PTV (Planning Target Volume) margins, DVH for lung cancer with SBRT. Methods: 20 patients receiving SBRT...Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of applying ANOVA newly proposed by Yukinori to verify the setup errors, PTV (Planning Target Volume) margins, DVH for lung cancer with SBRT. Methods: 20 patients receiving SBRT to 50 Gy in 5 fractions with a Varian iX linear acceleration were selected. Each patient was scanned with kV-CBCT before the daily treatment to verify the setup position. Two other error calculation methods raised by Van Herk and Remeijer were also compared to discover the statistical difference in systematic errors (Σ), random errors (σ), PTV margins and DVH. Results: Utilizing two PTV margin calculation formulas (Stroom, Van Herk), PTV calculated by Yukinori method in three directions were (5.89 and 3.95), (5.54 and 3.55), (3.24 and 0.78) mm;Van Herk method were (6.10 and 4.25), (5.73 and 3.83), (3.51 and 1.13) mm;Remeijer method were (6.39 and 4.57), (5.98 and 4.10), (3.69 and 1.33) mm. The volumes of PTV using Yukinori method were significantly smaller (P < 0.05) than Van Herk method and Remeijer method. However, dosimetric indices of PTV (D98, D50, D2) and for OARs (Mean Dose, V20, V5) had no significant difference (P > 0.05) among three methods. Conclusions: In lung SBRT treatment, due to fraction reduction and high level of dose per fraction, ANOVA was able to offset the effect of random factors in systematic errors, reducing the PTV margins and volumes. However, no distinct dose distribution improvement was founded in target volume and organs at risk.展开更多
This paper investigates the steady state property of queue length for a batch arrival queue under N-policy with single vacation and setup times. When the system becomes empty, the server is turned off at once and take...This paper investigates the steady state property of queue length for a batch arrival queue under N-policy with single vacation and setup times. When the system becomes empty, the server is turned off at once and takes a single vacation of random length . When he returns, if the queue length reaches or exceeds threshold , the server is immediately turned on but is temporarily unavailable due to a random setup time before offering service. If not, the server stays in the system until the queue length at least being . We derive the system size distribution and confirm the stochastic decomposition property. We also derive the recursion expressions of queue length distribution and other performance measures. Finally, we present some numerical examples to show the analytical results obtained. Sensitivity analysis is also performed.展开更多
Objective: To develop an evaluation method measuring the economic viability outcome of assisted reproductive technology (ART) setup in a concerted fashion. Methods: A mathematical model namely;economic viability outco...Objective: To develop an evaluation method measuring the economic viability outcome of assisted reproductive technology (ART) setup in a concerted fashion. Methods: A mathematical model namely;economic viability outcome (EVO) value has been purposely constructed. The model consists of three important domains: 1) Economic performance outcome of the setup;2) Sustainability outcome;and 3) Control outcome. The model was put to the test at Banoon ART centre, the military hospital in Bahrain during the period Sep 2004 to Sep 2006. Results: When this model was stringently applied at the said centre, the EVO value was increased by 40% from 0.84 to 1.40 within 12 months of rectifications which started Sep 2005. Even though the economic performance has dropped by approximately 22%, due to an extra spending towards assets and lower utilization of treatment cycles, the centre showed improvements at various levels as evident from the resulting higher EVO value. Conclusions: EVO value as a model provides a mechanism by which ART setup can be economically evaluated and self-assessed. It can also generate a method for measuring the safety and efficacy of the treating centre.展开更多
Previous research has clearly and consistently shown that flow time advantages accrue from splitting production lots into smaller transfer batches or sub-lots. Less extensively discussed, and certainly undesired, is t...Previous research has clearly and consistently shown that flow time advantages accrue from splitting production lots into smaller transfer batches or sub-lots. Less extensively discussed, and certainly undesired, is the fact that lot splitting may dramatically increase the number of setups required, making it impractical in some settings. This paper describes and demonstrates a primary cause of these “extra” setups. It then proposes and evaluates decision rules which selectively invoke lot splitting in an attempt to avoid extra setups. For the closed job shop environment tested, our results indicate that conditional logic can achieve a substantial portion of lot splitting’s flow time improvement while avoiding the vast majority of the additional setups which would be caused by previously tested lot splitting schemes.展开更多
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 40266001
文摘With the tides propagating from the open sea to the lagoon, the mean water level (MWL) in the inlet and lagoon becomes different from that at the open sea, and a setup/setdown is generated. The change of MWL (setup/setdown) in the system imposes a great impact on regulating the development of tidal marshes, on determining the long-term water level for harbor maintenance, on the planning for the water front development with the flood control for the possible inundation, and on the interpretation of the historical sea level change when using tidal marsh peat deposits in the lagoon as the indicator for open sea' s sea level. In this case study on the mechanisms which control the setup/setdown in Xincun Inlet, Hainan in China, the 2-D barotropic mode of Eulerian - Lagrangian CIRCulation (ELCIRC) model was utilized. After model calibration and verification, a series of numerical experiments were conducted to examine the effects of bottom friction and advection terms, wetting and drying of intertidal areas, bathymetry and boundary conditions on the setup/setdown in the system. The modeling results show that setup occurs over the inlet and lagoon areas with an order of one tenth of the tide range at the entrance. The larger the bottom friction is, a larger setup is generated. Without the advection term, the setup is reduced clue to a decrease of water level gradient to compensate for the disappearance of the advection term. Even without overtides, a setup can still be developed in the system. Sea level rise and dredging in the inlet and tidal channel can cause a decrease of setup in the system, whereas shoaling of the system can increase the setup. The uniqueness of the Xincun Inlet with respect to MWL change is that there is no evident setdown in the inlet, which can be attributed to the complex geometry and bathymetry associated with the inlet system.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant Nos.11572130 and 41106031)
文摘Complex factors including steep slopes, intense wave breaking, large bottom friction and remarkable wave setup should be considered while studying wave propagation over coral reefs, and how to simulate wave propagation and setup on coral reefs efficiently has become a primary focus. Several wave models can be used on coral reefs as have been published, but further testing and comparison of the reliability and applicability of these models are needed. A comparative study of four numerical wave models (i.e., FUNWAVE-TVD, Coulwave, NHWAVE and ZZL18) is carried out in this paper. These models’ governing equations and numerical methods are compared and analyzed firstly to obtain their differences and connections;then the simulation effects of the four wave models are tested in four representative laboratory experiments. The results show that all four models can reasonably predict the spectrum transformation. Coulwave, NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict the wave height variation more accurately;Coulwave and FUNWAVE-TVD tend to underestimate wave setup on the reef top induced by spilling breaker, while NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict wave setup relatively accurately for all types of breakers;NHWAVE and ZZL18 can predict wave reflection by steep reef slope more accurately. This study can provide evidence for choosing suitable models for practical engineering or establishing new models.
文摘Objective: We aim to quantify the magnitude of setup errors in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) treated Head and Neck cancer patients and recommend appropriate PTV margin. Methods: 60 patients with head and neck cancer required bilateral neck irradiation were planned and treated by simultaneous integrated boost IMRT technique either treated radically or postoperative. Patients undergoing image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT) each with once weekly scheduled cone beam computed tomography (CBCT). The 3D displacements, systematic and random errors were calculated. The appropriate PTV expansion was determined using Van Herk’s formula. Results: Mean 3D displacement was 0.16 cm in the vertical direction, 0.14 cm in the horizontal direction and 0.16 cm in the longitudinal direction. Conclusion: Use of weekly CBCT allows the planning target volume (PTV) expansion to be reduced according to our setup. The appropriate clinical target volume (CTV)-PTV margin for our institute is 0.30 cm, 0.38 cm, and 0.33 cm in the horizontal, vertical, and longitudinal directions, respectively.
文摘This paper studies a single machine scheduling problem with time-dependent learning and setup times. Time-dependent learning means that the actual processing time of a job is a function of the sum of the normal processing times of the jobs already scheduled. The setup time of a job is proportional to the length of the already processed jobs, that is, past-sequence-dependent (psd) setup time. We show that the addressed problem remains polynomially solvable for the objectives, i.e., minimization of the total completion time and minimization of the total weighted completion time. We also show that the smallest processing time (SPT) rule provides the optimum sequence for the addressed problem.
文摘The m-machine no-wait flowshop scheduling problem is addressed where setup times are treated as separate from processing times. The objective is to minimize total tardiness. Different dispatching rules have been investigated and three were found to be superior. Two heuristics, a simulated annealing (SA) and a genetic algorithm (GA), have been proposed by using the best performing dispatching rule as the initial solution for SA, and the three superior dispatching rules as part of the initial population for GA. Moreover, improved versions of SA and GA are proposed using an insertion algorithm. Extensive computational experiments reveal that the improved versions of SA and GA perform about 95% better than SA and GA. The improved version of GA outperforms the improved version of SA by about 3.5%.
基金Project(LQ15E080002)supported by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of ChinaProjects(5150828251478228)supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘When an expanded-base pile is installed into ground, the cavity expansion associated with penetration of the enlarged pile base is followed by cavity contraction along the smaller-diameter pile shaft. In order to account for the influence of cavity contraction on the change of bearing capacity of expanded-base pile, a theoretical calculation methodology, predicting the setup of expanded-base pile, was established by employing the cavity contraction theory to estimate the shaft resistance of expanded-base pile, and horizontal consolidation theory to predict the dissipation of excess pore pressure. Finally, the numerical solutions for the setup of expanded-base pile were obtained. The parametric study about the influence of cavity contraction on setup of expanded-base pile was carried out, while a field test was introduced. The parametric study shows that the decrements in radial pressure and the maximum pore water pressure after considering cavity contraction are increased as the expanded ratio(base diameter/shaft diameter) and rigidity index of soil are raised. The comparison between calculated and measured values shows that the calculated results of ultimate bearing capacity for expanded-base pile considering cavity contraction agree well with the measured values; however, the computations ignoring cavity contraction are 2.5-3.0 times the measured values.
基金Supported by the Doctoral Programme Foundation of Education Ministry of China under the grant(No.20050699033)
文摘When producing special-shape spring in CNC spring coiler,the setup of the coiler is often a manual work using a trial-and-error method.As a result,the setup of coiler consumes so much time and becomes the bottleneck of the spring production process.In order to cope with this situation,this paper proposes an automatic generation system of setup for CNC spring coiler us- ing case-based reasoning(CBR).The core of the study contains:(1)integrated reasoning model of CBR system;(2)spatial shape describe of special-shape spring based on feature;(3)coiling case representation using shape feature matrix;and(4)case similari- ty measure algorithm.The automatic generation system has implemented with C++Builder 6.0 and is helpful in improving the automaticity and efficiency of spring coiler.
文摘Motivated by industrial applications we study a single-machine scheduling problem in which all the jobs are mutu- ally independent and available at time zero.The machine processes the jobs sequentially and it is not idle if there is any job to be pro- cessed.The operation of each job cannot be interrupted.The machine cannot process more than one job at a time.A setup time is needed if the machine switches from one type of job to another.The objective is to find an optimal schedule with the minimal total jobs’completion time.While the sum of jobs’processing time is always a constant,the objective is to minimize the sum of setup times.Ant colony optimization(ACO)is a meta-heuristic that has recently been applied to scheduling problem.In this paper we propose an improved ACO-Branching Ant Colony with Dynamic Perturbation(DPBAC)algorithm for the single-machine schedul- ing problem.DPBAC improves traditional ACO in following aspects:introducing Branching Method to choose starting points;im- proving state transition rules;introducing Mutation Method to shorten tours;improving pheromone updating rules and introduc- ing Conditional Dynamic Perturbation Strategy.Computational results show that DPBAC algorithm is superior to the traditional ACO algorithm.
基金supported by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 Program)(2002CB312205)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60574077+2 种基金 60874071 60834004)the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program) (2007AA04Z102)
文摘The problem of minimizing the maximum lateness on a single machine with family setups is considered.To solve the problem, dominance property is studied and then introduced into the tabu search(TS) algorithm.With the dominance property, most unpromising neighbors can be excluded from the neighborhood, which makes the search process always focus on the most promising areas of the solution space.The proposed algorithms are tested both on the randomly generated problems and on the real-life problems.Computational results show that the proposed TS algorithm outperforms the best existing algorithm and can solve the real-life problems in about 1.3 on average.
文摘Some dominance rules are proposed for the problems of scheduling N jobs on a single machine with due dates, sequence dependent setup times and no preemption. Two algorithms based on Ragatz' s branch and bound scheme are developed including the dominance rules where the objective is to minimize the maximum tardiness or the total tardiness. Computational experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the dominance rules.
文摘Purpose: To investigate the feasibility of applying ANOVA newly proposed by Yukinori to verify the setup errors, PTV (Planning Target Volume) margins, DVH for lung cancer with SBRT. Methods: 20 patients receiving SBRT to 50 Gy in 5 fractions with a Varian iX linear acceleration were selected. Each patient was scanned with kV-CBCT before the daily treatment to verify the setup position. Two other error calculation methods raised by Van Herk and Remeijer were also compared to discover the statistical difference in systematic errors (Σ), random errors (σ), PTV margins and DVH. Results: Utilizing two PTV margin calculation formulas (Stroom, Van Herk), PTV calculated by Yukinori method in three directions were (5.89 and 3.95), (5.54 and 3.55), (3.24 and 0.78) mm;Van Herk method were (6.10 and 4.25), (5.73 and 3.83), (3.51 and 1.13) mm;Remeijer method were (6.39 and 4.57), (5.98 and 4.10), (3.69 and 1.33) mm. The volumes of PTV using Yukinori method were significantly smaller (P < 0.05) than Van Herk method and Remeijer method. However, dosimetric indices of PTV (D98, D50, D2) and for OARs (Mean Dose, V20, V5) had no significant difference (P > 0.05) among three methods. Conclusions: In lung SBRT treatment, due to fraction reduction and high level of dose per fraction, ANOVA was able to offset the effect of random factors in systematic errors, reducing the PTV margins and volumes. However, no distinct dose distribution improvement was founded in target volume and organs at risk.
文摘This paper investigates the steady state property of queue length for a batch arrival queue under N-policy with single vacation and setup times. When the system becomes empty, the server is turned off at once and takes a single vacation of random length . When he returns, if the queue length reaches or exceeds threshold , the server is immediately turned on but is temporarily unavailable due to a random setup time before offering service. If not, the server stays in the system until the queue length at least being . We derive the system size distribution and confirm the stochastic decomposition property. We also derive the recursion expressions of queue length distribution and other performance measures. Finally, we present some numerical examples to show the analytical results obtained. Sensitivity analysis is also performed.
文摘Objective: To develop an evaluation method measuring the economic viability outcome of assisted reproductive technology (ART) setup in a concerted fashion. Methods: A mathematical model namely;economic viability outcome (EVO) value has been purposely constructed. The model consists of three important domains: 1) Economic performance outcome of the setup;2) Sustainability outcome;and 3) Control outcome. The model was put to the test at Banoon ART centre, the military hospital in Bahrain during the period Sep 2004 to Sep 2006. Results: When this model was stringently applied at the said centre, the EVO value was increased by 40% from 0.84 to 1.40 within 12 months of rectifications which started Sep 2005. Even though the economic performance has dropped by approximately 22%, due to an extra spending towards assets and lower utilization of treatment cycles, the centre showed improvements at various levels as evident from the resulting higher EVO value. Conclusions: EVO value as a model provides a mechanism by which ART setup can be economically evaluated and self-assessed. It can also generate a method for measuring the safety and efficacy of the treating centre.
文摘Previous research has clearly and consistently shown that flow time advantages accrue from splitting production lots into smaller transfer batches or sub-lots. Less extensively discussed, and certainly undesired, is the fact that lot splitting may dramatically increase the number of setups required, making it impractical in some settings. This paper describes and demonstrates a primary cause of these “extra” setups. It then proposes and evaluates decision rules which selectively invoke lot splitting in an attempt to avoid extra setups. For the closed job shop environment tested, our results indicate that conditional logic can achieve a substantial portion of lot splitting’s flow time improvement while avoiding the vast majority of the additional setups which would be caused by previously tested lot splitting schemes.