An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. Frameworks are introduced to reduce the cost of a product line (i.e., family of products that share the common features) and to increase the maintainability of software products through the deployment of reliable large-scale reusable components. A key challenge with frameworks is the develop...

BACKGROUND Vaccination is currently the most effective means of preventing influenza infection. Yet evidence of vaccine performance, and the impact and value of seasonal influenza vaccination across risk groups and between seasons, continue to generate much discussion. Moreover, vaccination coverage is below recommended levels. METHODS A model was generated to assess the annual public health ...

This paper presents a new and efficient method based on evolutionary algorithms to address the multi-stage (dynamic) planning of open loop structured distribution networks under uncertainty taking into account distributed generation connected to distribution system. The proposed model can cope with important features implicit in planning studies such as time-phased representation and uncertaint...

BACKGROUND Heart failure (HF) disease management programs have shown impressive reductions in hospitalizations and mortality, but in studies limited to short time frames and high-risk patient populations. Current guidelines thus only recommend disease management targeted to high-risk patients with HF. METHODS This study applied a new technique to infer the degree to which clinical trials have...

Using panel data from the 2007-09 Survey of Consumer Finances, this research explores channels through which the Great Recession affected households’ demand for life insurance policies. Existing literature suggests that the economic downturn induced changes in insurance coverage due to both financial and psychological shocks. This paper utilizes Probit regressions with differenced explanatory v...

The objective of this study is to assess fulfillment of the oral health goals of the Children's Preventive Health Care Initiative in 12 Health Units (HU) of a Primary Health Care Service, in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, through a cross-sectional analytical study on the annual dental visit coverage in early childhood. The study was comprised of 660 children born in 2010. In r...

BACKGROUND The National Health Service Cervical Screening Programme was established to decrease the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer in England. METHODS To identify socioeconomic and general practice factors associated with cervical screening coverage in England, a national cross-sectional study was conducted using data on 26 497 476 female patients registered with 7970 practices in...

OBJECTIVE To assess the cost-effectiveness of community-based practitioner programmes in Ethiopia, Indonesia and Kenya. METHODS Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for the three programmes were estimated from a government perspective. Cost data were collected for 2012. Life years gained were estimated based on coverage of reproductive, maternal, neonatal and child health services. For Ethio...

Autonomous mobile nodes in mobile wireless sensor networks (MWSN) allow self-deployment and self-healing. In both cases, the goals are: (i) to achieve adequate coverage; and (ii) to extend network life. In dynamic environments, nodes may use reactive algorithms so that each node locally decides when and where to move. This paper presents a behavior-based deployment and self-healing algorithm ba...

BACKGROUND The aim of prenatal care is to promote good maternal and foetal health and to identify risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes in an attempt to promptly manage and solve them. Although high prenatal care attendance is reported in most areas in Brazil, perinatal and neonatal mortalities are disproportionally high, raising doubts about the quality and performance of the care provid...