Information systems (IS) projects are famous for experiencing severe cost overruns, which amongst others are often caused by inaccurate ex-ante cost estimations. Against this background, this article presents a descriptive case study located in an IS transformation program at a major German financial services provider. In this case study, a multi-stage cost estimation process, which was applied...

This paper presents an overview of microsimulation as a method to evaluate health and health care policies and interventions. After presenting a brief survey of microsimulation models and applications we describe the main features of the approach and how these are implemented in practice. We pay particular attention to the innovative features of dynamic microsimulation as a method of ex-ante po...

The introduction of Enterprise Identity Management Systems (EIdMS) in organisations is a costly and challenging endeavour, beyond the technological level. Especially for decision makers it seems difficult to fully understand the impacts and potentials from introducing EIdMS, such as the relevant aspects, for an ex-ante evaluation. The qualitative expert interview study presented in this paper w...

BACKGROUND Although ante natal care and institutional delivery is effective means for reducing maternal morbidity and mortality, the probability of giving birth at health institutions among ante natal care attendants has not been modeled in Ethiopia. Therefore, the objective of this study was to model predictors of giving birth at health institutions among expectant mothers following antenatal ...

Introduction: Humerus shaft fractures in adults can be managed conservatively with functional braces or operatively with plate osteosynthesis or with intramedullary nailing. Conventionally humerus intramedullary nailing is done either using humerus interlocking nails or Enders nails. In this study we analyse the outcome of humerus shaft fractures (upper and middle third) managed with closed ant...

The use of a 10-day observation to determine whether a dog is rabid is standard practice. This study was conducted in order to look for evidence of rabies vius in saliva and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of suspected live rabid dogs at the time of quarantine by using a SYBR Green real-time RT-PCR based assay for the detection of rabies virus RNA. Saliva and CSF of dogs were collected once on the da...

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of transverse acetabular ligament (TAL) as a guide for acetabular cup ante version during total hip arthroplasty and its effect on postoperative hip dislocation. Methods: This descriptive case series was on 117 patients suffering from Hip pathologies underwent elective primary total hip arthroplasties (THA). Patients were examined radiologically postoperat...

BACKGROUND Sentinel surveillance for HIV in ante-natal clinics (ANC) remains the primary method for collecting timely trend data on HIV prevalence in most of sub-Saharan Africa. We describe prevalence of HIV and syphilis infection and trends over time in HIV prevalence among women attending ante-natal clinics (ANC) in Magu district and Mwanza city, part of Mwanza region in Northern Tanzania. HI...

BACKGROUND Renal cystic diseases are important causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD). OBJECTIVES We report the pattern of renal cystic disease in children and evaluate the outcome of children with multicystic dysplastic kidney (MCDK). PATIENTS AND METHODS Retrospective study of all children with cystic kidney diseases at King Abdulaziz University hospital from 2006 to 2014. RESULTS Total...

In this paper we investigate whether technical efficiency is an important ex-ante predictor of business failure. We use samples of French textiles, wood, and R&D companies to obtain efficiency estimates for individual firms in each industry. These efficiency measures are derived from a directional technology distance function constructed empirically using non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysi...