introduction: medicine is an inseparable link of health chain; a flaw in health process for high expenditures of the medicine or inappropriate access shall certainly bring higher costs in the mentioned procedure. the present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the households’ income, geographical access, patients’ direct payment, physician's visit and insured' inpatient rate on the amount of ...

BACKGROUND There are many different potential strategies for identification of patients eligible for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The ability to use a more efficient strategy has a value. This paper models the costs and benefits of a number of identification strategies and estimates the additional value of an information-based strategy. DESIGN Modelling study. METHODS Ten-y...

Suppose we are given a planar graph G with edge costs and we want to find a 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph of minimum cost. We present a polynomial time approximation scheme (PTAS) for this problem when the costs are uniform, or when the total cost of G is within a constant factor of the optimal.

This article explores two neglected questions: (1) Does the relationship between hospital concentration and costs vary between urban and rural markets? and (2) Do hospital costs in non-metropolitan areas vary with rurality? Covariance model results using 1992 data reveal that: (1) Although metropolitan and urban markets exhibit a negative relationship between hospital average costs and market c...

We present an efficient algorithm for shortest path computation in road networks with turn costs. Each junction is modeled as a node, and each road segment as an edge in a weighted graph. Turn costs are stored in tables that are assigned to nodes. By reusing turn cost tables for identical junctions, we improve the space efficiency. Preprocessing based on an augmented node contraction allows fas...

Retaining users and facilitating their continuance usage are essential for mobile service providers to increase both revenues and profits. This research integrates the perspectives of network externality and switching costs to propose a model for investigating the continuance usage of mobile instant messaging services. Network externality arises from both direct and indirect sources and is conc...

The ratio in [A.3′] is the factor increase in the cost by an increase in the bidding expenditure by a factor of δ > 1. As wealth increases both costs decrease. Our assumption simply posits that the cost at the higher level of bidding does not fall faster than the lower cost. In particular, this assumption excludes the possibility that the costs of expending δr and r tend to converge to each oth...

An Entrepreneur’s Problem Under Perfect Foresight Consider a firm characterized by the following: kt Firm’s capital stock at the beginning of period t f(k) The firm’s total output depends only on k it Investment in period t j(i, k) AdJustment costs associated with investment i given capital k ξt = it + jt eXpenditures (purchases plus adjustment costs) on investment β = 1/R Discount factor for f...

Title of dissertation: ESSAYS ON FACTOR ADJUSTMENT DYNAMICS Juan M. Contreras, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor John P. Rust Professor John C. Haltiwanger Department of Economics This study analyzes dynamic production input factor decisions using the annual Census of Manufacturing firms from Colombia and monthly production data from a glass mould firm. It proposes ...