1,720,977 research outputs found
Timed automata with urgent transitions
No full textIn this paper we propose an extension to the formalism of timed automata by
allowing urgent transitions. A urgent transition is a transition which must be taken
within a fixed time interval from its enabling time. We give a set of rules formally
describing the behaviour of urgent transitions and we show that, from a language
theoretic point of view, the addition of urgency does not improve the expressive
power of timed automata. However, from a specification point of view, the use of
urgent transitions is crucial, especially in modular specification of systems
An Abstract Interpretation Approach for Enhancing the Java Bytecode Verifier
No full textThe Java virtual machine embodies a verifier that performs a set of checks on Java bytecode programs before their execution. The verifier carries out an efficient data-flow analysis applied to a type-level abstract interpretation of the code. The implementations of the bytecode verifier presented a significant problem with programs compiled with the Sun Java compiler (until version 1.4.1): there were legal Java programs which were correctly compiled into a bytecode that was rejected by the verifier. The problem was fixed by removing, in version 1.4.2 and following, some interesting features in the compilation of the try-finally Java construct. Because removing such features has a cost in terms of memory space, in this paper we propose to enhance the bytecode verifier to accept such programs, maintaining the space efficiency of the previous versions of the compiler. We define an abstract interpretation framework in which we model the enhanced version of the verifier. The defined abstract interpretation framework can be considered a good basis for other static analyses of bytecode programs
IL GIRO VISITA: UNA PRASSI CHE GARANTISCE LA QUALITÀ? UNA REVISIONE INTEGRATIVA DELLA LETTERATURA
No full textIntroduction The ward round is a long-standing practice rooting in bygone times. Despite being a key component of health care activities, it is often underestimated in care planning and management. Many studies report an enormous variance both in the purposes and in the management of the ward round, with nurses often invisible within the process and negative consequences on the patients’ clinical and emotional outcomes. The aim of the review is to summarize the main evidences regarding the WR practice as an evidence-based tool supporting the clinical governance in healthcare system.
Methods An integrative review has been conducted using MedLine database, through PubMed, in order to identify primary indexed studies investigating the WR as a practice to ensure quality in the healthcare system.
Results The 21 studies included in the review allowed to identify four main issues regarding WR: (I) “perceived quality by health professionals”; (II) perceived quality by patient”; (III) “quality management”; (IV) “professional quality”.
Conclusions A structured WR, on a daily basis and with evidence-based tools, improves the managerial quality, the efficiency (cost containment and increased productivity - in terms of the ratio between volume of services provided and costs), the integration between business processes and professional quality. Moreover, in order to improve the perceived quality, the ward round practice needs to be reconsidered in a number of aspects: involvement of all the team members, patients and careers, awareness of the professional role, communication within the triad physician-nurse-patient.Introduzione Il giro visita (GV) è una prassi che affonda le sue radici in epoche molto remote e, seppur consolidata, essendo una componente chiave delle attività sanitarie, viene spesso sottovalutata come parte della pianificazione e gestione assistenziale. Numerosi studi, riportano un’enorme variabilità sia negli scopi che nella conduzione dei GV, con la figura dell’infermiere che rimane spesso invisibile all’interno del processo, con ripercussioni negative sugli outcomes clinici ed emozionali dell’assistito. L’obiettivo della revisione è quello di riassumere le principali evidenze sulla prassi del GV come strumento evidence-based a supporto della clinical governance in ambito sanitario.
Materiali e metodi E’ stata effettuata una revisione integrativa della letteratura, condotta sul database MedLine, attraverso PubMed, per identificare gli studi primari indicizzati che hanno indagato il GV come prassi in grado di garantire la qualità in sanità.
Risultati I 24 studi inclusi nella revisione hanno permesso di identificare quattro tematiche principali legate alla prassi del GV: (I) “qualità percepita dagli operatori”; (II) “qualità percepita dalla persona assistita”; (III) “qualità gestionale”; (IV) “qualità professionale”.
Conclusioni Un GV strutturato, su base giornaliera e che prevede strumenti evidence-based migliora la qualità gestionale, l’efficienza (contenimento dei costi e aumento della produttività, intesa come rapporto tra volume di prestazioni e costi), l’integrazione tra i processi aziendali e la qualità professionale. Inoltre, al fine di migliorare la qualità percepita, la prassi del GV necessita di essere rivista sotto vari aspetti: coinvolgimento di tutti i componenti del team, pazienti e career, consapevolezza del ruolo professionale, comunicazione all’interno della triade medico-infermiere-paziente
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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