Dynamic deployment is an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) ambulance management strategy where 911 call demand coverage is maximized continuously through time. Unlike static deployment where dispatched ambulances leave a coverage gap until they return to their home-base after service, dynamic deployment redeploys idle ambulances to different locations if that leads to an increase in demand coverage. The purpose of this dissertation was to study dynamic deployment as a viable, beneficial, and cost-effective methodology in managing EMS ambulances and crews. The literature, while rich in studies on static deployment, was lacking when it came to ambulance management strategies like dynamic deployment. Through a discrete-event simulation model, hypothetical EMS systems were simulated under dynamic and static deployment with different demand patterns, demand loads, and system sizes. Dynamic deployment was found to be as good, or often better, in emergency response metrics than static deployment. When EMS systems want to meet a certain response goal, dynamic deployment may enable them to achieve that performance with fewer vehicles than static deployment. While savings in number of vehicles translate to substantial savings in crew wages and vehicular purchasing costs, dynamic deployment may increase operating costs per vehicle because of the extra mileage involved in redeployments. Many EMS systems with average vehicular utilizations of 40% to 50% may find, however, that dynamic deployment may be both cost-effective and beneficial in improving response performance. Different redeployment strategies were studied to address the added travel costs of dynamic deployment and a min-sum assignment model was found to decrease redeployment travel the most without impacting response performance. Finally, a procedure and a mathematical model were developed to route vehicles intelligently such that demand coverage is maximized throughout the redeployment process.

EMS providers work in a high-stress environment and are routinely exposed to critical incidents. Many providers are left to deal with the chronic stress on their own, either because of lack of effective employer-based programs or a culture that discourages its use. The extent to which these factors -- as well as personal characteristics such as resilience, PTG, and coping skills -- influence PTSD and suicide ideation among EMS providers has not been well studied among EMS providers. An online survey was administered to a convenience sample of EMS providers. Of the 2,683 respondents, more than one quarter (27.7%) met the PTSD criteria of 50 or higher on the PCL-M. Close to half of the respondents (42.0%) reported having contemplated suicide in the last six months. Of those who had contemplated suicide in the last 30 days, nearly one third (27.1%) thought about suicide 10 or more days in the last 30 days. EMS culture and resilience were negatively associated with PTSD, while positive associations were found with some coping styles. PTSD scores and suicide ideation frequency were highest when post-incident services were not available in the workplace. No significant relationships were found between personal factors and suicide ideation.

abstract: Energy management system (EMS) is at the heart of the operation and control of a modern electrical grid. Because of economic, safety, and security reasons, access to industrial grade EMS and real-world power system data is extremely limited. Therefore, the ability to simulate an EMS is invaluable in researching the EMS in normal and anomalous operating conditions. I first lay the groundwork for a basic EMS loop simulation in modern power grids and review a class of cybersecurity threats called false data injection (FDI) attacks. Then I propose a software architecture as the basis of software simulation of the EMS loop and explain an actual software platform built using the proposed architecture. I also explain in detail the power analysis libraries used for building the platform with examples and illustrations from the implemented application. Finally, I will use the platform to simulate FDI attacks on two synthetic power system test cases and analyze and visualize the consequences using the capabilities built into the platform. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Computer Science 2019

<p><strong><p>Environmental issues have been highly in focus for several years. With the development of EMS, many companies get environmental improvements through implementing EMS. Also, "green logistics" turns out to be a popular issue. But the combination of environment issues and logistics system is rarely found in the previous researches. Therefore, environment-oriented logistics system design becomes the topic described here.</p><p>The purpose of the thesis is to see potential of integrating environment issues into logistic system by literature review and case study. With the help of our supervisors, two Swedish companies Sandvik SMT and FLB Logistik become case companies in the thesis. The analysis is based on literature review about logistics and environment, the information from both companies‟ websites as well as face-to-face interviews.</p><p>In analysis part, how logistics systems and environmental issues interact with each other is illustrated firstly. A proposed model based on logistics system decision-making model is shown. SWOT analysis is used to explain the outcomes and challenges of implementing EMS in Sandvik SMT. At last, the conditions such as customer environmental requirement and the cost for using EMS are briefly described.</p><p>Based on the research, further study should begin with the collection of quantitative data about environmental performance from manufacturing companies, suppliers, as well as retailers. More recommendations are given in the conclusion part.</p></strong></p>

Over the last decades, industrial development has brought prosperity and wealth together with triggering unintended ecological degradation. Therefore, a modern society has increasingly demanded companies to take responsibilities for the effects of those business activities that have a negative impact on the environment. Among businesses this has increased the interest towards adopting proactive approaches and practices which aim to reduce these negative impacts. Therefore, the topic of proactive integration of environmental concerns into or-ganizational structure and day-to-day operations is highly relevant and deserves to be investigated. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze why and how companies integrate environmental concerns in their business operations and organizational structure as well as to investigate the critical factors that enable such integration. In this thesis, the integrated deductive and inductive research approaches are applied and the qualitative study is selected in order to better understand the motivations, challenges and perceived benefits for companies when proactively integrating environmental concerns into their business operations and organizational framework. Moreover, the multiple cases study of three Swedish manufacturing companies, namely: Volvo Buses, Trelleborg and Kinnarps is selected as the research strategy. By conducting semi-structured in-depth interviews with the environmental managers, there has not been found a generic pattern as for the ways of incorporating environmental concerns into the operational activities and organizational structure. Nevertheless, the evidence of performing environmentally-conscious design and manufacturing (ECD&amp;M) as well as implementing environmental management systems (EMSs) for achieving improvements in material utilization, hazardous waste and emissions reduction, efficient energy consumption and the use of different systems to prevent possible accidents and environmental emergencies have been identified in the studied manufacturing companies. The thesis concludes with the essence of main reasons and benefits from adopting the environmental practices and eco-efficient strategies. Furthermore, the empirical results focus on the tools and methodologies supporting this proactive adoption. Thus, while Design for Environment (DFE) has gained much attention in theory, still only some elements of this methodology are being experienced by studied companies. In line with this, material selection process is recognized in all three organizations as a vital component in product design. As for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), although is the most reliable method for outlining the environmental performance of products still its use and implementation is disadvantaged by its complexity, comprehensive scope and time-intensive application. The empirical results also show that the focus on products, unlike manufacturing processes and manufacturing facili-ties, is still neglected to a certain degree. Furthermore, products are still not within the main focus of ISO 14001. Consequently, from an environmental point of view, EMS covering a wider scope would be preferable and a more useful tool when striving for a sustainable development. Finally, some critical factors for a successful integration of the environmental concerns in business practices are also identified.

Ambulance response time is a key measure used to assess EMS system performance. However, the speed with which ambulances respond to emergencies can be highly variable. In some cases, this is due to geography. In dense urban areas for example, the distances traveled are short, but traffic and other hindrances such as traffic calming measures and high rise elevators cause delays, while rural areas involve greater distances and longer travel times. There are two major components of response time: first, pre-travel delay to prepare for ambulance dispatch, and second the actual travel time to the callers location. Response time standards are often established in order to provide fast and reliable service to the most severely ill patients. Standards typically specify the percentage of time an emergency response team can get to a call within a certain time threshold. This is referred to as “coverage”. This thesis deals with the development of a new response time model that predicts not only the mean response time, but estimates its variability. The models are developed based on historical data provided by the Region of Waterloo EMS and will permit the Region to predict EMS coverage. By analyzing the historical data, we found that response times from EMS stations to geographical locations within the Region of Waterloo are characterized by lognormal distributions. For a particular station – location pair we can thus use this information to predict coverage if we are able to specify the parameters of the distribution. We do this by characterizing the travel time and pre-travel delay times separately, and then adding the two to estimate coverage. We will use a previously proposed model that estimates the mean travel time from a station to a demand point as a function of road types traversed. We also compare the results of this model with another well known model and show that the first model is suitable to apply to the Region of Waterloo. In order to estimate the standard deviation of the response time, we propose a simple but effective model that estimates the standard deviation as a function of mean response time.

Environmental issues have been highly in focus for several years. With the development of EMS, many companies get environmental improvements through implementing EMS. Also, "green logistics" turns out to be a popular issue. But the combination of environment issues and logistics system is rarely found in the previous researches. Therefore, environment-oriented logistics system design becomes the topic described here. The purpose of the thesis is to see potential of integrating environment issues into logistic system by literature review and case study. With the help of our supervisors, two Swedish companies Sandvik SMT and FLB Logistik become case companies in the thesis. The analysis is based on literature review about logistics and environment, the information from both companies‟ websites as well as face-to-face interviews. In analysis part, how logistics systems and environmental issues interact with each other is illustrated firstly. A proposed model based on logistics system decision-making model is shown. SWOT analysis is used to explain the outcomes and challenges of implementing EMS in Sandvik SMT. At last, the conditions such as customer environmental requirement and the cost for using EMS are briefly described. Based on the research, further study should begin with the collection of quantitative data about environmental performance from manufacturing companies, suppliers, as well as retailers. More recommendations are given in the conclusion part.

Ambulance response time is a key measure used to assess EMS system performance. However, the speed with which ambulances respond to emergencies can be highly variable. In some cases, this is due to geography. In dense urban areas for example, the distances traveled are short, but traffic and other hindrances such as traffic calming measures and high rise elevators cause delays, while rural areas involve greater distances and longer travel times. There are two major components of response time: first, pre-travel delay to prepare for ambulance dispatch, and second the actual travel time to the callers location. Response time standards are often established in order to provide fast and reliable service to the most severely ill patients. Standards typically specify the percentage of time an emergency response team can get to a call within a certain time threshold. This is referred to as “coverage”. This thesis deals with the development of a new response time model that predicts not only the mean response time, but estimates its variability. The models are developed based on historical data provided by the Region of Waterloo EMS and will permit the Region to predict EMS coverage. By analyzing the historical data, we found that response times from EMS stations to geographical locations within the Region of Waterloo are characterized by lognormal distributions. For a particular station – location pair we can thus use this information to predict coverage if we are able to specify the parameters of the distribution. We do this by characterizing the travel time and pre-travel delay times separately, and then adding the two to estimate coverage. We will use a previously proposed model that estimates the mean travel time from a station to a demand point as a function of road types traversed. We also compare the results of this model with another well known model and show that the first model is suitable to apply to the Region of Waterloo. In order to estimate the standard deviation of the response time, we propose a simple but effective model that estimates the standard deviation as a function of mean response time.

Computer and communication OEM companies worldwide adopt outsourcing strategy in 1990 - 2000. European & American large EMS providers grow very quickly accordingly. But Taiwan don¡¦t have a position in this trend, even we think we are very good at manufacturing. We take this chance to review what we think about manufacturing in the past 10 years and take this lesson to see our next 10 years. We also take the largest Taiwan EMS provider, OSE¡¦s FP Group as an example to see her strategy. As OSE¡¦s FP Group go into niche market before year 2000, she even turn loss to earning from the bad year 2000 to year 2002

3C industries have been developing for 30 years in Taiwan. Taiwan corporations are putting hugh resources within these industries. Moreover, Taiwan Government is also putting hugh resources to support. Due to concentration to support the value chain of European, American and Japanese International brands and corporations, made the big success of Taiwan economy. Recent years, Taiwanese corporations are losing competitions, therefore, Taiwanese plants are moving to China, even South East Asia. These movements are enforcing Chinese and South East Asian industries, so letting Taiwan to face hugh challenges. Recent years, European, American and Japanese brands are very successful. Most of them are having the help from the OEM business model with Taiwanese corporations. In the meantime, some Taiwanese corporations are building their own brand and on the other hand dealing OEM business with these international brands. As already have big influence to the international brands¡¦ business, so Taiwanese corporations are requesting to select building brands or OEM business. This is a very difficult choice. What kinds of product are making by Taiwanese OEM corporation? Taiwanese OEM products are a lot of kinds, from screws, screw drivers, shoes, umbrarella, cloths, computer, laptop, TV sets, TV shows¡K even Satellite business. Why Taiwanese corporations are so successful in OEM business? What kind of strategy is/are using? I am working in professional OEM TV cooperation for international famous brands. So, I want to study brand and OEM strategy, and use LCD TV as example.