Large investments are made annually to develop and maintain IT systems. Successful outcome of IT projects is therefore crucial for the economy. Yet, many IT projects fail completely or are delayed or over budget, or they end up with less functionality than planned. This article describes a Bayesian decision-support model. The model is based on expert elicited data from 51 experts. Using this mo...

Why irradiate food products? Approximately 25% of all food products are lost after harvesting due to insects, vermin, and spoilage. Currently, a significant number of chemicals are used on food products for preserving/preventing insect losses. In roots and tubers, sprouting can be a major cause of losses. In developing countries where handling, transportation, and storage conditions are less ad...

METHODS: This is a retrospective uncontrolled study in eyes with progressive KC. In all 62 eyes from 48 patients, BSCVA, mean K, corneal irregularity at 3 mm and 5 mm were measured before CXL, at six months, and then annually until the last visit. For data analysis, patients were divided into three groups according to their mean preoperative K: group 1 included 12 patients with mean K value les...

Several hundred organizations are now using prediction markets to forecast sales, project completion dates, and more. This number has been doubling annually for several years. Most, however, are simple prediction markets, with one market per number forecast, and several traders per market. In contrast, a single combinatorial prediction market lets a few traders manage an entire combinatorial sp...

The use of a separate fall lambing group is feasible for spreading lamb production out through the year, especially with the use of mature animals. If each lambing group is uniquely identified, the two groups could be commingled for much of the year to make best use of feed resources. The lambing groups only need to be separate at breeding and lambing time, making management less complicated. L...

Despite federally mandated safety standards, occupational lung disease remains one of the most common work-related injuries. Inhaled dust can result in a range of tissue injury in the lung and can lead to significant respiratory insufficiency causing death. Although silicosis and coal worker's pneumoconiosis are becoming less common, hypersensitivity pneumonitis is increasingly recognized as an...

This study estimates a fixed effects ordered logit model physician office visit billing using claims data from South Carolina Medicaid and the State Employees Health Plan. The results find code creep increasing expenditures on physician office visits at a rate of 2.2 percent annually for both programs, with no significant difference in the rate between the two. The models also indicate that phy...

Aquaculture development in Africa has lagged far behind that seen in Asia. It currently produces less than 5% of Africa's fish. Over the past decade, however, growing demand, the availability of suitable technologies and growing capacity has produced aquaculture success stories in several countries. In Egypt, for example, aquaculture production has grown 10 fold since the 1990s. In Uganda produ...

In the United States, acute cardiac ischemia (ACI), including both unstable angina pectoris and acute myocardial infarction (AMI), is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and an enormous consumer of health care resources. Accordingly, the use of hospital and intensive care beds for patients suspected to have ACI is a major health care expense. Yet of the approximately three million pat...