We define an auction inspired procedure through which an agent A (the so called initial auctioneer) allocates a chore to one agent from a predefined set of sub-agents by letting them arrange the things among themselves including the definition of the compensation for the losing sub-agent. The compensation is a multiple of the fee f that A fixes at his will and the selected sub-agents are called...

OBJECTIVE To study the effect of an educational videotape about poliovirus vaccines and choices of schedules for parents/guardians of children starting the polio vaccination series. DESIGN Prospective, randomized trial comparing two educational interventions. SETTING Five pediatric offices (two university-based, two health maintenance organization staff models, and one private practice) and...

INTRODUCTION There is a shortage of general practitioners (GPs) in many countries, especially in rural areas. There are several reasons for this shortage. Over the last decade, fewer medical students in Germany have decided to work in patient care, even fewer in general practice and fewer still in general practice in rural areas. The aim of this study was to explore the 'pros and cons' of GPs' ...

In a perfectly-periodic schedule, time is divided into time-slots, and each client gets a time slot precisely every predefined number of time slots. The input to a schedule design algorithm is a frequency request for each client, and its task is to construct a perfectly periodic schedule that matches the requests as “closely” as possible. The quality of the schedule is measured by the ratios be...

background: the prevalence and complications of type2 diabetes showed that traditional educations are not effective. in this trial, we evaluated the effect of electronic self-care education and continue case in compare to the traditional training methods on the practice and fasting blood sugar of diabetic patients. methods: 170 type 2 diabetic patients were randomly allocated into two groups an...

introduction: the need for global health training for early-career family medicine physicians is greater than the supply. this paper details the formation of a one-year, self-funded global health fellowship for early-career family medicine physicians. methods: in august of 2012, the university of washington department of family medicine established a self-funded, non-acgme (accreditation counci...

Despite the fact that there have been many reports on benzodiazepine (BZD) dependence, consensus about its definition has not been reached. Reliable prevalence data to estimate the dependence liability of BZDs are therefore lacking. This study is the first to assess the prevalence of BZD dependence in out-patient BZD users (115-general practice (GP) patients, 124 psychiatric out-patients and 33...