scholarly journals On the Benefits of Providing Timely Information in Ticket Queues with Balking and Calling Times

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (21) ◽  
pp. 2753
Author(s):  
Gabi Hanukov ◽  
Michael Hassoun ◽  
Oren Musicant
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measures ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Time Loss ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Type ◽  
Expected Waiting Time ◽  
Partially Observable ◽  
Steady State Probabilities ◽  
Different Levels

We study a phenomenon causing server time loss in ticket queues with balking and calling time. A customer who balks from the queue after printing a ticket leaves a virtual entity in the queue that requires server time to be cleared. The longer the queue, the larger the proportion of customers abandoning their place, and the larger the server time loss due to calling customers that left the queue. The solution is suggested by giving the customer the best possible estimate of her expected waiting time before printing a ticket, thus ensuring that, if she balks, no number in the queue is created that will waste server time. Although partially observable ticket queues have been studied in the literature, the addition of a calling time for absent customers creates a new type of problem that has been observed in real life but has not been formally addressed yet. We analyze this stochastic system, formulate its steady state probabilities, and calculate the system’s performance measures. The analytical solution provided here is robust and can be applied to a wide range of customers’ behavior functions. Finally, numerical analysis is performed that demonstrates the benefits of providing timely information to customers for different levels of traffic congestion.

scholarly journals Traffic Congestion Quantification for Urban Heterogeneous Traffic Using Public Transit Buses as Probes

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-267
Author(s):  
Selvaraj Vasantha Kumar ◽  
Ramaswamy Sivanandan
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Heterogeneous Traffic ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Transit Buses ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Acceleration And Deceleration ◽  
Bus Stops

Understanding congestion in space-time domain using performance measures is essential prior to suggesting improvement schemes to reduce congestion. With technological advances like Global Positioning System (GPS), many metropolitan planning organizations give more emphasis on travel time based performance measures to quantify congestion, than on traditional way of using volume-to-capacity (V/C) ratios. In India, often it may not be possible to use personal vehicles as probes for travel time data collection. However, the public transit buses fitted with GPS devices could be used as cheap and effective probes to estimate the congestion status of other types of vehicles in the stream. The present study is an attempt in this direction. Two bus transit routes in Chennai, India were considered as case studies in order to cover the wide range of geometric and traffic conditions on urban arterials. GPS-fitted buses on these routes were used as probes in congestion quantification. As the dwell time at bus stops is a unique characteristic of transit buses when compared to other vehicles in the stream, a methodology has been proposed to find the dwell times including acceleration and deceleration times based on the approaching and departing speeds at bus stops. Regression models were then developed to predict the Congestion Index (CI) for various types of vehicles using bus CI, weighted carriageway width and the presence or absence of signalized intersection as independent variables. The results are promising and could be considered for real-time display of congestion levels for Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) applications.

Home Learning in Times of COVID: Experiences of Parents

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelina Bhamani ◽  
Areeba Zainab Makhdoom ◽  
Vardah Bharuchi ◽  
Nasreen Ali ◽  
Sidra Kaleem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Online Classes ◽  
Google Docs ◽  
Learning Gap ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Home Learning ◽  
Collection Data ◽  
Learning At Home ◽  
At Home

<p align="center"><em>The widespread prevalence of COVID-19 pandemic has affected academia and parents alike. Due to the sudden closure of schools, students are missing social interaction which is vital for better learning and grooming while most schools have started online classes. This has become a tough routine for the parents working online at home since they have to ensure their children’s education. The study presented was designed to explore the experiences of home learning in times of COVID-19. A descriptive qualitative study was planned to explore the experiences of parents about home learning and management during COVID-19 to get an insight into real-life experiences.  Purposive sampling technique was used for data collection.  Data were collected from 19 parents falling in the inclusion criteria. Considering the lockdown problem, the data were collected via Google docs form with open-ended questions related to COVID-19 and home learning. Three major themes emerged after the data analysis: impact of COVID on children learning; support given by schools; and strategies used by caregivers at home to support learning. It was analyzed that the entire nation and academicians around the world have come forward to support learning at home offering a wide range of free online avenues to support parents to facilitate home-learning. Furthermore, parents too have adapted quickly to address the learning gap that have emerged in their children’s learning in these challenging times. Measures should be adopted to provide essential learning skills to children at home. Centralized data dashboards and educational technology may be used to keep the students, parents and schools updated.</em></p>

scholarly journals A Systematic Review and Qualitative Synthesis Resulting in a Typology of Elementary Classroom Movement Integration Interventions

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Spyridoula Vazou ◽  
Collin A. Webster ◽  
Gregory Stewart ◽  
Priscila Candal ◽  
Cate A. Egan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Dose Intensity ◽  
Routine Practice ◽  
Qualitative Synthesis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Movement Integration

Abstract Background/Objective Movement integration (MI) involves infusing physical activity into normal classroom time. A wide range of MI interventions have succeeded in increasing children’s participation in physical activity. However, no previous research has attempted to unpack the various MI intervention approaches. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically review, qualitatively analyze, and develop a typology of MI interventions conducted in primary/elementary school settings. Subjects/Methods Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed to identify published MI interventions. Irrelevant records were removed first by title, then by abstract, and finally by full texts of articles, resulting in 72 studies being retained for qualitative analysis. A deductive approach, using previous MI research as an a priori analytic framework, alongside inductive techniques were used to analyze the data. Results Four types of MI interventions were identified and labeled based on their design: student-driven, teacher-driven, researcher-teacher collaboration, and researcher-driven. Each type was further refined based on the MI strategies (movement breaks, active lessons, other: opening activity, transitions, reward, awareness), the level of intrapersonal and institutional support (training, resources), and the delivery (dose, intensity, type, fidelity). Nearly half of the interventions were researcher-driven, which may undermine the sustainability of MI as a routine practice by teachers in schools. An imbalance is evident on the MI strategies, with transitions, opening and awareness activities, and rewards being limitedly studied. Delivery should be further examined with a strong focus on reporting fidelity. Conclusions There are distinct approaches that are most often employed to promote the use of MI and these approaches may often lack a minimum standard for reporting MI intervention details. This typology may be useful to effectively translate the evidence into practice in real-life settings to better understand and study MI interventions.

scholarly journals Estimating the number of usability problems affecting medical devices: modelling the discovery matrix

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Vandewalle ◽  
Alexandre Caron ◽  
Coralie Delettrez ◽  
Renaud Périchon ◽  
Sylvia Pelayo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Devices ◽  
Market Access ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Usability Testing ◽  
Probability Of Detection ◽  
Usability Problems ◽  
Usability Problem ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Problem Detection

Abstract Background Usability testing of medical devices are mandatory for market access. The testings’ goal is to identify usability problems that could cause harm to the user or limit the device’s effectiveness. In practice, human factor engineers study participants under actual conditions of use and list the problems encountered. This results in a binary discovery matrix in which each row corresponds to a participant, and each column corresponds to a usability problem. One of the main challenges in usability testing is estimating the total number of problems, in order to assess the completeness of the discovery process. Today’s margin-based methods fit the column sums to a binomial model of problem detection. However, the discovery matrix actually observed is truncated because of undiscovered problems, which corresponds to fitting the marginal sums without the zeros. Margin-based methods fail to overcome the bias related to truncation of the matrix. The objective of the present study was to develop and test a matrix-based method for estimating the total number of usability problems. Methods The matrix-based model was based on the full discovery matrix (including unobserved columns) and not solely on a summary of the data (e.g. the margins). This model also circumvents a drawback of margin-based methods by simultaneously estimating the model’s parameters and the total number of problems. Furthermore, the matrix-based method takes account of a heterogeneous probability of detection, which reflects a real-life setting. As suggested in the usability literature, we assumed that the probability of detection had a logit-normal distribution. Results We assessed the matrix-based method’s performance in a range of settings reflecting real-life usability testing and with heterogeneous probabilities of problem detection. In our simulations, the matrix-based method improved the estimation of the number of problems (in terms of bias, consistency, and coverage probability) in a wide range of settings. We also applied our method to five real datasets from usability testing. Conclusions Estimation models (and particularly matrix-based models) are of value in estimating and monitoring the detection process during usability testing. Matrix-based models have a solid mathematical grounding and, with a view to facilitating the decision-making process for both regulators and device manufacturers, should be incorporated into current standards.

scholarly journals Measuring Recurrent and Nonrecurrent Traffic Congestion

2003 ◽  
Vol 1856 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Skabardonis ◽  
Pravin Varaiya ◽  
Karl F. Petty
Keyword(s):  
Los Angeles ◽  
Travel Time ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Time Variability ◽  
Loop Detectors ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Freeway Corridors ◽  
Travel Time Variability

A methodology and its application to measure total, recurrent, and nonrecurrent (incident related) delay on urban freeways are described. The methodology used data from loop detectors and calculated the average and the probability distribution of delays. Application of the methodology to two real-life freeway corridors in Los Angeles, California, and one in the San Francisco, California, Bay Area, indicated that reliable measurement of congestion also should provide measures of uncertainty in congestion. In the three applications, incident-related delay was found to be 13% to 30% of the total congestion delay during peak periods. The methodology also quantified the congestion impacts on travel time and travel time variability.

scholarly journals An Interoperability Platform Enabling Reuse of Electronic Health Records for Signal Verification Studies

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Yuksel ◽  
Suat Gonul ◽  
Gokce Banu Laleci Erturkmen ◽  
Ali Anil Sinaci ◽  
Paolo Invernizzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Case Series ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Lombardy Region ◽  
Common Information ◽  
Spontaneous Reports ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Common Information Model

Depending mostly on voluntarily sent spontaneous reports, pharmacovigilance studies are hampered by low quantity and quality of patient data. Our objective is to improve postmarket safety studies by enabling safety analysts to seamlessly access a wide range of EHR sources for collecting deidentified medical data sets of selected patient populations and tracing the reported incidents back to original EHRs. We have developed an ontological framework where EHR sources and target clinical research systems can continue using their own local data models, interfaces, and terminology systems, while structural interoperability and Semantic Interoperability are handled through rule-based reasoning on formal representations of different models and terminology systems maintained in the SALUS Semantic Resource Set. SALUS Common Information Model at the core of this set acts as the common mediator. We demonstrate the capabilities of our framework through one of the SALUS safety analysis tools, namely, the Case Series Characterization Tool, which have been deployed on top of regional EHR Data Warehouse of the Lombardy Region containing about 1 billion records from 16 million patients and validated by several pharmacovigilance researchers with real-life cases. The results confirm significant improvements in signal detection and evaluation compared to traditional methods with the missing background information.

Mainstream Superhero Comics and Gendered Representations of Social Control

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hope Hutchins
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Women Police Officers ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Media Constructions ◽  
Women Police

In the context of increasing familiarity with mainstream superhero comics and their characters, a wide range of readers are being exposed to the values regarding gender and social control being communicated in this genre. Therefore, it is important to assess whether social control is signified differently for males and females in superhero comics. This presentation will begin with a discussion of why it is important to study comics and graphic novels. I will then outline the concept of social control and criminological theories centered on this idea before demonstrating why superheroes may be understood as agents of social control. This will bring me to a discussion of preliminary findings of a qualitative content analysis of issues of Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Ms Marvel, Justice League of America, and New Avengers comics released from May to October 2007. In examining the leadership positions, the formal and informal methods employed, those over whom social control is exercised, and relative success of each superhero in these issues, I am seeking to assess whether social control is portrayed as being exercised by male and female superheroes in different ways and to identify how this happens. The results of this content analysis will be compared with previous studies of women police officers to assess whether representations of female agents of social control in superhero comics are consistent with the experiences of real‐life criminal justice practitioners. Finally, the reasons for and implications of the nature of such media constructions will be briefly explored to encourage other students to study comics and graphic novels.

A single server Markovian queuing system with limited buffer and reverse balking

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1774-1784
Author(s):  
Girin Saikia ◽  
Amit Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Steady State ◽  
Performance Measures ◽  
Mutual Fund ◽  
System Size ◽  
Queuing System ◽  
Single Server ◽  
Insurance Company ◽  
Number Of Customers ◽  
Steady State Probabilities

The phenomena are balking can be said to have been observed when a customer who has arrived into queuing system decides not to join it. Reverse balking is a particular type of balking wherein the probability that a customer will balk goes down as the system size goes up and vice versa. Such behavior can be observed in investment firms (insurance company, Mutual Fund Company, banks etc.). As the number of customers in the firm goes up, it creates trust among potential investors. Fewer customers would like to balk as the number of customers goes up. In this paper, we develop an M/M/1/k queuing system with reverse balking. The steady-state probabilities of the model are obtained and closed forms of expression of a number of performance measures are derived.

scholarly journals “This one Grandma knew, too, exactly this one!” Processes of Canonization in Children’s Music

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingeborg Lunde Vestad ◽  
Petter Dyndahl
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Care Staff ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Children's Music ◽  
Everyday Lives ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Different Levels ◽  
Musical Activities

Processes of musical canonization occur at different levels of culture and society. People have a strong propensity to categorize, differentiate, and evaluate the music that is important to them, and music is ascribed value in action by people in real-life settings. Based in these premises, the article discusses two questions: First, how does the idea of a canon of children’s music influence the daily musical activities and repertoires used in children’s day care facilities and family homes? Second, in what ways is music legitimized in the everyday lives of children? Our data is collected by observation and interviews conducted in two pedagogical day care facilities and nine family homes. Children, day care staff and parents participated in the study. We find that a discussion of canonization in children’s music along the following four paths of legitimation is meaningful: the “good, old stuff,” the need for renewal, the inclusion of other types of music other than that aimed at a child audience, and the need for a wide array of genres and sentiments. Finally, we argue that although the legitimation and canonization in children’s music obviously involve considerations of musical aspects, separating these canonization processes from the prevailing socio-cultural ideas of childhood and children’s best interest is impossible.  

scholarly journals An Advanced Educational Tool for Digital Forensic Engineering

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Primož Cigoj ◽  
Borka Jerman Blažič
Keyword(s):  
Digital Forensics ◽  
Real Life ◽  
University Education ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Digital Tool ◽  
College And University ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Forensic Engineering

This paper presents a novel approach to education in the area of digital forensics based on a multi-platform cloud-computer infrastructure and an innovative computer based tool. The tool is installed and available through the cloud-based infrastructure of the Dynamic Forensic Education Alliance. Cloud computing provides an efficient mechanism for a wide range of services that offer real-life environments for teaching and training cybersecurity and digital forensics. The cloud-based infrastructure, the virtualized environment and the developed educational tool enable the construction of a dynamic e-learning environment making the training very close to reality and to real-life situations. The paper presents the Dynamic Forensic Digital tool named EduFors and describes the different levels of college and university education where the tool is introduced and used in the training of future investigators of cybercrime events.

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