In this issue of Pediatrics, Bourgeois et al describe wide variation in emergency department (ED) admission rates for common conditions across 35 US children’s hospitals. The greatest variation was observed for concussion, with adjusted admission rates ranging from 5% to 72%; the least was in “bronchiolitis and RSV pneumonia” and “pneumonia not elsewhere classified,” for which rates ranged from...

BACKGROUND Proficiency testing (PT), or external quality assessment (EQA), is intended to verify on a recurring basis that laboratory results conform to expectations for the quality required for patient care. CONTENT Key factors for interpreting PT/EQA results are knowledge of the commutability of the samples used and the process used for target value assignment. A commutable PT/EQA sample de...

We are concerned with function approximation and image representation using Iterated Function Systems (IFS) over L p (X;): An N-map IFS with grey level maps (IFSM), to be denoted as (w;), is a set w of N contraction maps w i : X ! X over a compact metric space (X; d) (the \base space") with an associated set of maps i : R ! R. Associated with each IFSM is a contractive operator T with xed point...

BACKGROUND The IFCC Committee for Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests aims at equivalence of laboratory test results for free thyroxine (FT4) and thyrotropin (TSH). OBJECTIVES This report describes the phase III method comparison study with clinical samples representing a broad spectrum of thyroid disease. The objective was to expand the feasibility work and explore the impact of standa...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure motivation to improve Internet addiction. Motivation is known to be important to treat Internet addiction successfully. The reliability of the scale was assessed, and its concurrent validity was evaluated. METHODS Ninety-two adolescents participated in this study. The basic demographic characteristics were recorded and the ...

This article reviews international standardization activities on optical interfaces over the last four years. Standardization is the key to the cost-effective manufacture, purchase, and installation of largecapacity high-speed optical network elements. This article mainly focuses on the activities related to wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) interfaces in ITU-T (International Telecommunica...

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) poses multiple challenges to traditional standardization, due the complexity, dynamics, and accelerating speed technological progress. need for a timely availability standards calls new approaches tools enhance standardization processes smart manufacturing. Industry development organizations worldwide are seeking solutions. Testbeds have been acknowledge...

background :effective leadership is of prime importance in any organization and it goes through changes based on accepted health promotion and behavior change theory. although there are many leadership styles, transformational leadership, which emphasizes supportive leadership behaviors, seems to be an appropriate style in many settings particularly in the health care and educational sectors wh...

This article builds on Mannion and Exworthy’s account of the tensions between standardization and customization within health services to explore why these tensions exist. It highlights the limitations of explanations which root them in an expression of managerialism versus professionalism and suggests that each logic is embedded in a set of ontological, epistemological and moral commitments wh...

This study considers the developments in international standardization over the last 20 years, particularly the status of public standardization as compared with consortium-based industrial standardization. The report shows that the radical reform of the global public standardization system in 2008, prompted by the loss of interest in public standardization on the part of large corporations and...