BACKGROUND Reported as a public health problem since the 1960s in Sri Lanka, dengue has become a high priority disease for public health authorities. The Ministry of Health is responsible for controlling dengue and other disease outbreaks and associated health care. The involvement of large numbers of public health staff in dengue control activities year-round and the provision of free medical ...

This paper studies the dynamic optimization problem of a household when portfolio adjustment is costly. The analysis is motivated by the observation that on a monthly basis, less than 10% of stockholders typically adjust their portfolio of common stocks. We use this, and related observations, to estimate the parameters of household preferences and portfolio adjustment costs. We find significant...

When increases in influenzalike illnesses were first detected during the 1984 to 1985 and 1985 to 1986 influenza seasons, throat swab specimens were mailed by physicians across the United States to one hospital laboratory, and each specimen was inoculated into a single tube of cell culture. Of 165 specimens, 52 (32%) were positive for influenza A or B virus within 3 days of receipt when tested ...

UNLABELLED In 2005 the Althaia Foundation Allergy Department performed its daily activity in the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu of Manresa. Given the increasing demand for allergy care, the department's performance was analysed and a strategic plan (SP) for 2005-2010 was designed. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of the application of the SP on the department's operations and...

BACKGROUND The economic benefits of healthcare research require study so that appropriate resources can be allocated to this research, particularly in developing countries. As a first step, we performed a systematic review to identify the methods used to assess the economic impact of healthcare research, and the outcomes. METHOD An electronic search was conducted in relevant databases using a...

Objective. To evaluate if early cholecystectomy (EC) is the most appropriate treatment for acute cholecystitis compared to delayed cholecystectomy (DC). Patients and Methods. A retrospective cohort study of 1043 patients was carried out, with a group of 531 EC cases and a group of 512 DC patients. The following parameters were recorded: (1) postoperative hospital morbidity, (2) hospital mortali...

Christian Zehnder, and workshop participants at MIT and Harvard are gratefully acknowledged. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies. 2 A mechanism with low direct cost of use may be preferred to alternatives implementing more efficient allocations. We show this experimentally by giving pairs of subjects the option to agree on a single average price for a sequence of trades – in effect pooling ...