The paper applies a computer-based method involving stochastic search, multi-criteria optimization and color filtering to investigate the tradeoff between the life-cycle profitability of highrise commercial office buildings and their load-path safety against progressive collapse under abnormal loading. The study was motivated by the progressive-collapse failure of the twin towers of the World T...

BACKGROUND Medicare Part D provides insurance coverage for prescription drugs to elderly and disabled consumers. Part D accounted for 24% of prescriptions dispensed by independent pharmacies in the first year of the program (2006). To date, the impact of Part D on independent pharmacies has been explored only in small, qualitative, or non-peer-reviewed studies. OBJECTIVE To develop preliminar...

The Goswami combined power/cooling cycle is an appropriate way to convert energy efficiently. However, in the conventional (CGC), refrigeration not available when absorber temperature high. In present study, a mechanically driven compressor used compress vapors leaving turbine. This design creates line independent of temperature. An idealized approach was with assumptions adopted by Goswami. As...

BACKGROUND In Finland like in many other countries, employers are legally obliged to organize occupational health services (OHS) for their employees. Because employers bear the costs of OHS it could be that in spite of the legal requirement OHS expenditure is more determined by economic performance of the company than by law. Therefore, we explored whether economic performance was associated wi...

The objective of this study was to use audited hospital financial statements to identify predictors of payer mix and financial performance in safety net hospitals prior to the Affordable Care Act. We analyzed the 2010 financial statements of 98 large, urban safety net hospital systems in 34 states, supplemented with data on population demographics, hospital features, and state policies. We used...