Search results

This paper presents new trends in parallel methods used to solve finite element matrix systems: standard iterative and direct solving methods first, and then domain decomposition methods. For example, the current status and properties of two prevailing programming environments (PVM and MPI) are finally given and compared when implemented together with a finite element time domain formulation.

A two‐grid iterative method for 3D linear elasticity problems, discretized using quadratic tetrahedral elements is proposed. The conjugate‐gradient method is used as smoother. As compared to the conjugate‐gradient alone, it is shown, via numerical examples, that the method is much more efficient on the basis of computing time and memory allocation. The convergence property of the method is sensitive to the regularity of the problem.

The significance of investing in healthcare has been recognised during the COVID-19 period more than ever before across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed inefficiency in the healthcare systems of many African countries which have resulted in the death of many people including healthcare workers who contracted the virus due to lack of protective equipment. Many African countries have not adequately invested in healthcare systems to prevent and urgently tackle the outbreaks of pandemics. This explains their unpreparedness to immediately address the COVID-19 pandemic that has ravaged many leading to the loss of lives. These challenges, therefore, have created the need to reflect and rethink concerted approaches to tackle this health hiccup. Consequently, this chapter discusses healthcare system challenges that have inhibited the delivery of good healthcare as well as issues of inequality in the provision of healthcare. The chapter explores the solutions to the identified challenges that can be adopted for better functioning of the healthcare system and provision of good healthcare. The chapter discusses how it costs the governments when they don't improve the healthcare systems. These costs are in form of increased strikes over demand for better remunerations, loss of manpower due to brain drain, loss of foreign currency that would come from medical tourism as well as loss of money in form of medical expenses abroad. It also highlights the benefits that accrue from improved healthcare systems. The chapter debates issues of morality about operations of private healthcare facilities and recommends appropriate measures that should be taken for better performance. The chapter recommends to the developing countries with meager resources the best model that can be adapted to better manage future pandemics, taking into account the environmental, cultural and demographic differences. The lessons that readers will pick from this chapter will go a long way in building healthcare systems that protect and shield the population against any future epidemics.

The aim is to apply probabilistic approaches to electromagnetic numerical dosimetry problems in order to take into account the variability of the input parameters.

A classic finite element method is coupled with probabilistic methods. These probabilistic methods are based on the expansion of the random parameters in two different ways: a spectral expansion and a nodal expansion.

The computation of the mean and the variance on a simple scattering problem shows that only a few hundreds calculations are required when applying these methods while the Monte Carlo method uses several thousands of samples in order to obtain a comparable accuracy.

The number of calculations is reduced using several techniques: a regression technique, sparse grids computed from Smolyak algorithm or a suited coordinate system.

Environmental decision making involving multiple stakeholders can benefit from the use of a formal process to structure stakeholder interactions, leading to more successful outcomes than traditional discursive decision processes. There are many tools available to handle complex decision making. Here we illustrate the use of a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) outranking tool (PROMETHEE) to facilitate decision making at the watershed scale, involving multiple stakeholders, multiple criteria, and multiple objectives. We compare various MCDA methods and their theoretical underpinnings, examining methods that most realistically model complex decision problems in ways that are understandable and transparent to stakeholders.

The purpose of this study is to develop a spatio-temporal neighbourhood-level house price index (STNL-HPI) incorporating a geographic information system (GIS) functionality that can be used to improve the house price indexation system.

By using the Malaysian house price index (MHPI) and application of geographically weighted regression (GWR), GIS-based analysis of STNL-HPI through an application called LHPI Viewer v.1.0.0, the stand-alone GIS-statistical application for STNL-HPI was successfully developed in this study.

The overall results have shown that the modelling and GIS application were able to help users understand the visual variation of house prices across a particular neighbourhood.

This research was only able to acquire data from the federal government over the period 1999 to 2006 because of budget limitations. Data purchase was extremely costly. Because of financial constraints, data with lower levels of accuracy have been obtained from other sources. As a consequence, a major portion of data was mismatched because of the absence of a common parcel identifier, which also affected the comparison of this system to other comparable systems.

Neighbourhood-level HPI is needed for a better understanding of the local housing market.

Health is a fundamental populations’ need and an integral part of the socio-economic development of a country. However, it is required to explain the growing role of the private sectors in addressing various health care needs. The purpose of this paper is to analyse potential contribution, criticalities and conditions of success of public-private partnership (PPP) as a strategy to face the complexity of nationally relevant Italian and Indian service systems.

The methodology is built upon the basis of the viable systems approach (VSA) integrated with the fundamental interpretative elements of service science and service-dominant logic to contextualize interpretation to the management of service systems benefitting from recent advances in these research fields.

A VSA-based general framework of reference is built that is useful for analysing any relational context in which different aims and expectations need to be harmonized to make the collaboration effective. On the basis of this framework, first insights on Italian and Indian health care PPPs are proposed, highlighting key elements of analysis and criticalities that may challenge a positive conclusion on health care PPPs.

The implications of the study are both theoretical and practical. From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to the scholarly understanding of complex health care system in Italy as well as in India with particular reference to the public-private collaboration phenomenon. It also suggests theoretical approaches in the form of a generic VSA-based framework as applicable. From a practical perspective, the study stimulates managers to a critical reflection about current health care management approaches which are reflected in the adoption of PPPs solutions.

The paper discusses relevant worldwide decision-making challenges, such as the equality in the populations’ access to health service, suggesting managers the way to create conditions of consonance among the diverse stakeholders for a successful health care PPPs.

The purpose of this monograph is to examine the main elements of the Copyright Designs & Patents Act 1988 which received the Royal Assent on the 15th November 1988. The Act provided for a major overhaul of the law on copyright and on registered designs, as well as certain adjustments to patent and trademark law and two major new regimes on performers' rights and design rights. While this is a major domestic reform the law is unlikely to remain unaltered for long because of the move towards a single market within the E.E.C. by 1992. This will lead to the introduction of harmonised regimes on the various elements of intellectual property law such as copyright and industrial design which will no doubt require some readjustment to U.K. domestic law. Recently the E.E.C. Commission published a Green Paper on “Copyright and the Challenge of Technology” which suggests solutions to some questions such as the vexed problem of illegal home taping which are different to those adopted by the U.K. in the new Act. [On 21/12/88 a draft directive on Copyright & Computer Software which proposes a harmonised regime for the protection of computer programs and related matters was published]. It also has to be borne in mind that while Article 222 of the Treaty of Rome states that the treaty does not affect the existence of national intellectual property right regimes the “exercise” of these national rights may be found to infringe the provisions of the Treaty on free movement of goods (Arts. 30–36) or on competition law (Arts. 85–86).

Highlights the importance of music in ritual and culture generally, extending the focus to collective action. Argues that music and its emotional and cognitive impacts can be fundamental to the construction of social movement culture. Analyses song lyrics from the southern textile strikes of 1929‐1934 in an attempt to show how music and song helped construct a collective identity across relatively dispersed mill villages, shifted accountability for mill workers problems towards the labour process and its beneficiaries and suggested to the listener a collective solution. Discusses the implications of the findings for understanding music, culture and their relation to subordinate group challenge.