BACKGROUND Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) support clinical documentation at the bedside and have demonstrated effects on completeness of patient charting and the time spent on documentation. These systems are costly and raise the question if such a major investment pays off. We tried to answer the following questions: How do costs and revenues of an intensive care unit develop before an...

The main goal in this paper is to propose an optimization model for determining the structure of a series-parallel system. Regarding the previous studies in series-parallel systems, the main contribution of this study is to expand the redundancy allocation parallel to systems that have repairable components. The considered optimization model has two objectives: maximizing the system mean time t...

Hip hemiarthroplasties are frequently performed for displaced femoral neck fractures. The purpose of this study was to identify the costs associated with cementless and cemented hemiarthroplasties, compare operative times, and identify complications. The hypothesis was that cementless hemiarthroplasties cost less than cemented hemiarthroplasties, require less operative time, and have fewer peri...

abstarct precise knowledge of all components of water balance is essential to optimize water use in irrigated agriculture. however, water balance components are difficult to measure in required time intervals because their measuring is time consuming and costly. unsaturated zone simulator models are useful tools for predicting the effects of agricultural management on crop water use and can be ...

A set of modular components is presented for use in reconfigurable robotic construction systems. The set includes passive and active components. The passive components can be formed into static structures and adaptable grids carrying electrical power and signals. Passive and active components canbe combined into general purpose mobile manipulators which are able to augment and reconfigure the g...

Cost is a factor in the choice of prosthetic components in joint replacement. For a given performance, the least expensive components are the most cost-effective. When evaluating a new prosthesis with an unknown outcome, the use of an economic model allows estimation of potential cost-effectiveness. We used published data for the survival of cemented total hip replacements from Sweden, and cost...

Chinese software companies are increasingly using open source software (OSS) components in software development. Development with OSS components faces challenges with respect to component selection, component integration, licensing compliance, and system maintenance. Although these issues have been investigated in the industry in other countries, few similar studies have been performed in China...

In this article we develop a model for determining the appropriate level of inspection sampling for any manufacturing process. The model is useful for manufacturers, who naturally are concerned with profits and therefore with minimizing the cost of production. The model design aims to reduce total manufacturing cost and has general applicability to various manufacturing operations. The model co...