Primary health-care costs associated with special health care needs up to age 7 years: Australian population-based study.

We studied infants and children with and without special health care needs (SHCN) during the first 8 years of life to compare the (i) types and costs to the government's Medicare system of non-hospital health-care services and prescription medication in each year and (ii) cumulative costs according to persistence of SHCN.

Critical environmental factors for transportation cycling in children: a qualitative study using bike-along interviews

Environmental factors are found to influence transport-related physical activity, but have rarely been studied in relation with cycling for transport to various destinations in 10-12 yr old children. The current qualitative study used 'bike-along interviews' with children and parents to allow discussion of detailed environmental factors that may influence children's cycling for transport, while cycling in the participant's neighborhood.

Problems in seawater industrial desalination processes and potential sustainable solutions: a review

Seawater desalination has significantly developed towards membrane technology than phase change process during last decade. Seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) in general is the most familiar process due to higher water recovery and lower energy consumption compared to other available desalination processes. Despite major advancements in SWRO technology, desalination industry is still facing significant amount of practical issues. Therefore, the potentials and problems faced by current SWRO industries and essential study areas are discussed in this review for the benefit of desalination industry. It is important to consider all the following five components in SWRO process i.e. (1) intake (2) pre-treatment (3) high pressure pumping (4) membrane separation (performance of membranes and brine disposal) and (5) product quality. Development of higher corrosion resistant piping materials or coating materials, valves, and pumps is believed to be in higher research demand. Furthermore, brine management, that includes brine disposal and resource recovery need further attention. Pre-treatment sludge management and reduced cleaning in place flush volume will reduce the capital costs associated with evaporation ponds and the maintenance costs associated with disposal and transportation reducing the unit cost of water. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Substantial reductions in the number of diabetic ketoacidosis and severe hypoglycaemia episodes requiring emergency treatment lead to reduced costs after structured education in adults with Type 1 diabetes

To determine the impact of structured education promoting flexible intensive insulin therapy on rates of diabetic ketoacidosis, and the costs associated with emergency treatment for severe hypoglycaemia and ketoacidosis in adults with Type 1 diabetes.

Patient costs during tuberculosis treatment in Bangladesh and Tanzania: the potential of shorter regimens

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the costs incurred by patients during the intensive and continuation phases of the current 6-month tuberculosis (TB) regimen in Bangladesh and Tanzania, and thus identify potential benefits to patients of a shorter, 4-month treatment regimen. DESIGN: The validated Stop TB patient cost questionnaire was adapted and used in interviews with 190 patients in the continuation phase of treatment with current regimens. RESULTS: In both countries, overall patient costs were lower during 2 months of the continuation phase (US$74 in Tanzania and US$56 in Bangladesh) than during the 2 months of the intensive phase of treatment (US$150 and US$111, respectively). However, continuation phase patient costs still represented 89% and 77% of the 2-month average national income in the respective countries. Direct travel costs in some settings were kept low by local delivery system features such as community treatment observation. Lost productivity and costs for supplementary foods remained significant. CONCLUSIONS: Although it is not a straightforward exercise to determine the exact magnitude of likely savings, a shorter regimen would reduce out-of-pocket expenses incurred by patients in the most recent 2 months of the continuation phase and allow an earlier return to productive activities. © 2014 The Union.

The collaborative economy: a disruptive innovation or much ado about nothing?

An economy based on the exchange of capital, assets and services between individuals has grown significantly, spurred by proliferation of internet-based platforms that allow people to share underutilized resources and trade with reasonably low transaction costs. The movement toward this economy of “sharing” translates into market efficiencies that bear new products, reframe established services, have positive environmental effects, and may generate overall economic growth. This emerging paradigm, entitled the collaborative economy, is disruptive to the conventional company-driven economic paradigm as evidenced by the large number of peer-to-peer based services that have captured impressive market shares sectors ranging from transportation and hospitality to banking and risk capital. The panel explores economic, social, and technological implications of the collaborative economy, how digital technologies enable it, and how the massive sociotechnical systems embodied in these new peer platforms may evolve in response to the market and social forces that drive this emerging ecosystem.

Costs of bronchoalveolar lavage-directed therapy in the first 5 years of life for children with cystic fibrosis.

To determine whether bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL)-directed therapy for infants and young children with cystic fibrosis (CF), rather than standard therapy, was justified on the grounds of a decrease in average costs and whether the use of BAL reduced treatment costs associated with hospital admissions.

Managing ICT costs in e-commerce organizations with the time-driven activity-based costing model: a note

As online business activities continue to grow, it is important for organizations to understand the implications of being an e-commerce organization and the appropriateness of applying existing business techniques to e-commerce organizations. This paper examines issues in managing information and communication technologies (ICT) costs in e-commerce organizations and the potentials of the Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) model as a solution to these issues. The reliance on ICT in value creation, the unique natures of ICT costs and the need to maintain updated costing models present new challenges to e-commerce organizations in management of ICT costs. The TDABC model, as a variant of the Activity-Based Costing (ABC) model, inherits the strengths of activity-based paradigm and has unique features that can provide additional benefits to e-commerce organizations.

An amoeboid algorithm for solving linear transportation problem

Transportation Problem (TP) is one of the basic operational research problems, which plays an important role in many practical applications. In this paper, a bio-inspired mathematical model is proposed to handle the Linear Transportation Problem (LTP) in directed networks by modifying the original amoeba model Physarum Solver. Several examples are used to prove that the provided model can effectively solve Balanced Transportation Problem (BTP), Unbalanced Transportation Problem (UTP), especially the Generalized Transportation Problem (GTP), in a nondiscrete way. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How does the cookie crumble? legal costs under a uniform interpretation of the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods

A family owned Mexican company, Zapata Hermanos Sucesores, S.A. ("Zapata"), sold approximately US$950,000 worth of cookie tins over a period of four years to the Maurice Lenell Cooky Company ("Lenell"), an American company that produced baked goods. Lenell failed to pay Zapata for the cookie tins so Zapata sought legal advice and instituted legal proceedings against Lenell for breach of contract in the Federal District Court of Illinios. The cookie tin sale contracts were governed by the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods ("CISG"). Zapata succeeded in its Federal District Court claim and, as part of the Court's order, was awarded US$550,000 as foreseeable loss under Article 74 of the CISG, being the amount of legal fees incurred by Zapata in bringing proceedings against Lenell. On appeal to the Federal Appellate Court, however, the award of legal fees was overturned. The parties now find themselves contesting a leave application to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States of America in a much anticipated debate over who should pay the lawyers.

Quantifying the short-term costs of conservation interventions for fishers at Lake Alaotra, Madagascar

Artisanal fisheries are a key source of food and income for millions of people, but if poorly managed, fishing can have declining returns as well as impacts on biodiversity. Management interventions such as spatial and temporal closures can improve fishery sustainability and reduce environmental degradation, but may carry substantial short-term costs for fishers. The Lake Alaotra wetland in Madagascar supports a commercially important artisanal fishery and provides habitat for a Critically Endangered primate and other endemic wildlife of conservation importance. Using detailed data from more than 1,600 fisher catches, we used linear mixed effects models to explore and quantify relationships between catch weight, effort, and spatial and temporal restrictions to identify drivers of fisher behaviour and quantify the potential effect of fishing restrictions on catch. We found that restricted area interventions and fishery closures would generate direct short-term costs through reduced catch and income, and these costs vary between groups of fishers using different gear. Our results show that conservation interventions can have uneven impacts on local people with different fishing strategies. This information can be used to formulate management strategies that minimise the adverse impacts of interventions, increase local support and compliance, and therefore maximise conservation effectiveness.

Health-care costs of underweight, overweight and obesity: Australian population-based study

AIM: Child health varies with body mass index (BMI), but it is unknown by what age or how much this attracts additional population health-care costs. We aimed to determine the (1) cross-sectional relationships between BMI and costs across the first decade of life and (2) in longitudinal analyses, whether costs increase with duration of underweight or obesity. METHODS: Participants: Baby (n = 4230) and Kindergarten (n = 4543) cohorts in the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. OUTCOME: Medicare Benefits Scheme (including all general practitioner plus a large proportion of paediatrician visits) plus prescription medication costs to federal government from birth to sixth (Baby cohort) and fourth to tenth (Kindergarten cohort) birthdays. PREDICTOR: biennial BMI measurements over the same period. RESULTS: Among Australian children under 10 years of age, 5-6% were underweight, 11-18% overweight and 5-6% obese. Excess costs with low and high BMI became evident from age 4-5 years, with normal weight accruing the least, obesity the most, and underweight and overweight intermediate costs. Relative to overall between-child variation, these excess costs per child were very modest, with a maximum of $94 per year at age 4-5 years. Nonetheless, this projects to a substantial cost to government of approximately $13 million per annum for all Australian children aged less than 10 years. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial excess population costs provide further economic justification for promoting healthy body weight. However, obese children's low individual excess health-care costs mean that effective treatments are likely to increase short-term costs to the public health purse during childhood.

Healthcare costs associated with language difficulties up to 9 years of age: Australian population-based study

PURPOSE: This study aimed to quantify the non-hospital healthcare costs associated with language difficulties within two nationally representative samples of children. METHOD: Data were from three biennial waves (2004-2008) of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (B cohort: 0-5 years; K cohort: 4-9 years). Language difficulties were defined as scores ≤ 1.25 SD below the mean on measures of parent-reported communication (0-3 years) and directly assessed vocabulary (4-9 years). Participant data were linked to administrative data on non-hospital healthcare attendances and prescription medications from the universal Australian Medicare subsidized healthcare scheme. RESULT: It was found that healthcare costs over each 2-year age band were higher for children with than without language difficulties at 0-1, 2-3, and 4-5 years, notably 36% higher (mean difference = $AU206, 95% CI = $90, $321) at 4-5 years (B cohort). The slightly higher 2-year healthcare costs for children with language difficulties at 6-7 and 8-9 years were not statistically different from those without language difficulties. Modelled to the corresponding Australian child population, 2-year government costs ranged from $AU1.2-$AU12.1 million (depending on age examined). Six-year healthcare costs increased with the persistence of language difficulties in the K cohort, with total Medicare costs increasing by $192 (95% CI = $74, $311; p = .002) for each additional wave of language difficulties. CONCLUSION: Language difficulties (whether transient or persistent) were associated with substantial excess population healthcare costs in childhood, which are in addition to the known broader costs incurred through the education system. It is unclear whether healthcare costs were specifically due to the assessment and/or treatment of language difficulties, as opposed to conditions that may be co-morbid with or may cause language difficulties.