In this paper, a new method to review the role of wind units as an energy-producer in the scheduling problem of unit commitment is presented. Today, renewable energy sources due to lack of environmental pollution, absence of dependence on fossil fuels, and consequently a very low marginal cost, have been receiving considerable attention in power system. But these sources are associated with unc...

An overview is given on selected cost-drivers within an assisted reproduction technology (ART) laboratory, such as procedural costs; sperm preparations; laboratory supplies including embryo culture media and cryopreservation. Depending on the nature of an ART unit, i.e. private vs. public/tertiary, the structure of the unit will differ with regards to costs, services offered, and general patien...

Cardiovascular conditions account for more medical costs than any other diagnostic category in the United States. Increasingly, economic constraints will shape policy related to health care and research. Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular condition, and despite low unit health care costs, the aggregate costs are considerable. However, the unit and aggregate costs of the complication...

This paper presents a novel hardware architecture for principal component analysis. The architecture is based on the Generalized Hebbian Algorithm (GHA) because of its simplicity and effectiveness. The architecture is separated into three portions: the weight vector updating unit, the principal computation unit and the memory unit. In the weight vector updating unit, the computation of differen...

OBJECTIVE To explore the independent effects of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) on maternity care and costs. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Estimates for maternity care resource activity and costs for 4,372 women, of whom 354 (8.1%) were diagnosed with GDM, were generated from data from the Atlantic Diabetes in Pregnancy (ATLANTIC DIP) database. Multivariate regression analysis was applied t...

This paper describes the application of activity-based costing (ABC) to cal­ culate unit costs for a healthcare or­ ganization in a developing country. It also describes the ways in which these calculations can provide infor­ mation for improving the efficiency and quality of healthcare services. The study was conducted from June 1, 1997 through May 31, 1998 at the MaxSalud Institute for High Q...

BACKGROUND Technical efficiency of hospital services is debated since performance has been heterogeneous. Staff time represents the main resource in patient care and its inappropriate allocation has been identified as a key factor of inefficiency. The aim of this study was to analyse the utilisation of physicians' work time stratified by staff groups, tasks and places of work. A further aim was...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether Telemedicine intervention can affect hospital mortality, length of stay, and direct costs for progressive care unit patients. DESIGN Retrospective observational. SETTING Large healthcare system in Florida. PATIENTS Adult patients admitted to progressive care unit (PCU) as their primary admission between December 2011 and August 2016 (n = 16,091). INTERVEN...

Dental fillings represent an established procedure to treat tooth decay. The present paper provides a cost comparison of dental filling procedures across nine European countries. More specifically, the paper aims to estimate the costs and prices (i.e. reimbursement fees) of a single dental filling procedure in an approximately 12-year-old child with a toothache in a lower molar who presents at ...

STUDY DESIGN Retrospective study of benchmarking database. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the variability in direct costs of spinal implants across various academic medical centers, determining variability between and within specific manufacturers, and to measure the relationship between purchasing volume and price. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA Spinal implants are a significant component of the cost o...