Learning curve

There is considerable argument concerning the number of sentinel node biopsy cases with axillary dissection that surgeons should perform before they are eligible on abandoning axillary dissection in negative sentinel node patients. Papers that (1) address directly or indirectly the subject of credentialing or of learning curve, (2) report on a surgeon's performance, (3) are reported as feasibility or learning curve studies, or both, (4) discuss the learning curve issue, and (5) express an expert's opinion on the learning curve. The number of procedures of the learning curve can not be fixed for all surgeons. Only surgeons in specialized breast cancer centers can succeed in meeting current recommendations with 20 to 30 cases. Surgeons from affiliated community hospitals will need more than 30 cases, whereas broad-based surgeons might need as many as 60 cases with their current caseload. Not all surgeons will be able to offer the procedure to their patients by the current reco...

Introduction: While there is an increasing demand for minimally invasive operative techniques in Ear, Nose and Throat surgery, these operations are difficult to learn for junior doctors and demanding to supervise for experienced surgeons. The motivation for this study was to overcome ...

The existence of a learning curve in which a firm’s costs decline with cumulative experience suggests that early entry provides learning opportunities that create advantage by reducing future costs relative to later entrants. While prior strategy research often assumes that learning curves are deterministic and known ex ante to firms, a substantial body of evidence suggests that learning curves are inherently uncertain. If there is uncertainty in the learning curve, then the taken-for-granted wisdom regarding the strategic implications of learning curves may over- or under-emphasize the value of early entry. We consider two forms of uncertainty prospective (future costs) and contemporaneous (current costs). We demonstrate computationally that while prospective uncertainty in the learning curve enhances the benefits of early entry, contemporaneous uncertainty reduces these benefits. Further, we examine the implications of these findings for competition and learning curve spillovers between leader and laggard firms. Recognizing learning curve uncertainty highlights a novel form of spillovers that don’t affect expected cost, but rather affect uncertainty about cost. Our core insight is that when learning curve uncertainty is large relative to the expected learning rate, it is uncertainty, rather than expectations about this rate, that determines the extent of early mover advantage.

Interior space design is a collaborative process for deriving different proposals on the content and structure of any type of interior space. This process is partially supported by mainstream CAD systems which are not designed for that particular task but for general engineering-or architectural-design development. Although, several add-on modules have been developed for supporting mainly arctitectural design, still, significant effort is required in order to employ a CAD system due to their increased requiremenets and slow learning ...

Effective onboarding is essential to the acclimation and socialization of new healthcare risk management professionals within their new organizations. This acclimation process is a natural extension of employee orientation training. Benefits of effective onboarding include maximizing new employees' full productivity in core functions, thereby recouping the organization's return on investment, and positioning them for enduring success.

The paper presents an efficient 88 line MATLAB code for topology optimization. It has been developed using the 99 line code presented by Sigmund (Struct Multidisc Optim 21(2):120–127, 2001) as a starting point. The original code has been extended by a density filter, and a considerable improvement in efficiency has been achieved, mainly by preallocating arrays and vectorizing loops. A speed improvement with a factor of 100 is obtained for a benchmark example with 7,500 elements. Moreover, the length of the code has been reduced to a mere 88 lines. These improvements have been accomplished without sacrificing the readability of the code. The 88 line code can therefore be considered as a valuable successor to the 99 line code, providing a practical instrument that may help to ease the learning curve for those entering the field of topology optimization. The paper also discusses simple extensions of the basic code to include recent PDE-based and black-and-white projection filtering methods. The complete 88 line code is included as an appendix and can be downloaded from the web site www.topopt.dtu.dk.

The Taylor spatial frame uses the slow correction principles of the Ilizarov system but adds a six-axis deformity analysis incorporated within a computer program. To evaluate its use in our community, we used it in lengthening and deformity correction of the lower limbs to treat 22 cases from 1999 to 2001. There were 14 females and eight males (average age 16.5 years). Our target was lengthening in eight cases, correction of deformities in eight and both in six. The results were excellent in 18 cases, good in two, and fair in two. Despite the cost, patient profile and a steep learning curve, our results were encouraging but less favorable than with the Ilizarov external fixator. Le Cadre Spatial de Taylor utilise les principes de la correction progressive du système Ilizarov mais ajoute une analyse de la difformité selon six axes, incorporée dans un programme informatique. Pour évaluer son usage nous l’avons utilisé dans notre institution, dans 22 cas, de 99 à 2001 pour allonger et corriger des déformations des membres inférieurs. Il y avait 14 femmes et 8 hommes (âge moyen 16.5 années). Notre but était l› allongement dans 8 cas, la correction de difformités dans 8 cas, et les deux dans 6 cas. Les résultats étaient excellents dans 18 cas, bon dans 2, et juste dans 2. En dépit du coût, du profil des patients, et de la courbe d’apprentissage, nos résultats étaient encourageant, mais moins favorables qu’avec le fixateur externe d’Ilizarov.

Entrepreneurship education at U.S. Universities formally began at Harvard University in 1947 with a single course and most efforts have begun in the past 30 years (Katz 2003). This paper provides entrepreneurship education profiles of top ranked programs, emerging campus-wide programs and 1890 Land Grant Institution programs. Entrepreneurship Centers (ECs) are components of entrepreneurship education at many institutions. ECs have programs and services from research to academic instruction to community outreach and programming. This paper introduces a typology of ECs predicated upon their academic programs and community outreach. Detailed program recommendations are provided. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The growth and success of entrepreneurs has long been a cornerstone of the U.S. economy. Today, more than ever, the need to foster such growth and success in all communities is widely recognized and encouraged. In order to strengthen the capacity of entrepreneurship education programs, a compa...

We describe an approach to player-centred game design through adaptive game technologies [9]. The work presented is the result of on-going collaborative research between Media and Computing groups at the University of Ulster, and so we begin with a review of related literature from both areas before presenting our new ideas. In particular we focus on three areas of related research: understanding players, modelling players, and adaptive game technology. We argue that player modelling and adaptive technologies may be used alongside existing approaches to facilitate improved player-centred game design in order to provide a more appropriate level of challenge, smooth the learning curve, and enhance the gameplay experience for individual players regardless of gender, age and experience. However, adaptive game behaviour is a controversial topic within game research and development and so while we outline the potential of such technologies, we also address the most significant concerns.

Many construction projects could be considered as repetitive projects. Researchers developed many scheduling models for repetitive projects. Although these models showed enhancement in meeting deadline and resources limitations, they ignored the effect of learning curve on the production rate of construction crews. The effect of learning in repetitive work are being studied since the 1930. Despite the fact that there is an effect on Line of Balance (LOB), no further development has been made to their applications. This paper develops a scheduling model which incorporate the effect of learning with LOB. The model is validated using a case study to show the learning effect on activities duration.

Pulse oximeters are used worldwide as a non-intrusive way to monitor a patient's pulse and blood-oxygen saturation instantaneously. The purpose of this design is to examine the possibility of using a simple microcontroller to measure pulse and blood-oxygen saturation in real time, as well as the level of difficulty and learning curve associated with assigning such a task as a senior capstone design project. The circuit consists of a PIC18F452 microcontroller, transistor network, photoplethys-mogram amplifier (PPG), pulse oximeter probe, digital-to-analog converter (DAC), and an LCD screen to display results. Software is written in C++ for the microprocessor, which supports a limited C syntax. The project requires various engineering proficiencies such as signal processing, programming, circuitry, and microprocessors. Overall, the project is a good introduction to medical instrumentation and capstone design for undergraduate biomedical and electrical engineers.