Background/aims The stochastic arrival of patients at hospital emergency departments complicates their management. More than 50% of a hospital's emergency department tends to operate beyond its normal capacity and eventually fails to deliver high-quality care. To address this concern, much research has been carried out using yearly, monthly and weekly time-series forecasting. This article discusses the use of hourly time-series forecasting to help improve emergency department management by predicting the arrival of future patients. Methods...

Advection by ocean currents modifies phytoplankton size structure at small scales (1–10 cm) by aggregating cells in different regions of the flow depending on their size. This effect is caused by the inertia of the cells relative to the displaced fluid. It is considered that, at larger scales (greater than or equal to 1 km), biological processes regulate the heterogeneity in size structure. Here, we provide observational evidence of heterogeneity in phytoplankton size structure driven...