Rijia Ding¹, Xingyao Zhou^1,*, Rui Zhang¹, Wanqiu Lu²

Energy Engineering, Vol.117, No.1, pp. 27-39, 2020, DOI:10.32604/EE.2020.010372 - 28 February 2020

Abstract Coal is the main energy source in China. At present, the coal overcapacity is still serious in China. Accurately measuring the degree of China’s coal overcapacity can scientifically resolve the overcapacity, and is the premise of guiding the healthy development of coal industry and energy system. Using the translog cost function and the panel data of coal industry in all provinces of China from 2002 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2016, the research measures and compares the coal production capacity of “golden decade” and “cold winter” in China. The results show that: (1) The More >

Nicholas J. Farber, Nadiya Chuchvara, Parth K. Modi, Joshua Sterling, Sammy E. Elsamra

Canadian Journal of Urology, Vol.26, No.1, pp. 9660-9663, 2019

Abstract Introduction: To assess whether urologists are able to accurately estimate the cost of commonly used endourologic disposable devices.
Materials and methods: An anonymous questionnaire was presented to resident and attending urologists in one academic healthcare system. Respondents estimated the cost of 15 disposable devices commonly used in ureteroscopy. Twenty-five surgeons (9 residents and 16 attending urologists) participated, for a response rate of 96.2%. Respondents’ cost estimates were compared to actual institutional costs and considered accurate if the absolute percentage error was within 20%. Additional information obtained included: years in practice, participation in purchasing activities, practice setting, number… More >

Jordan Hill¹, Mike Paulden², Christopher McCabe², Scott A. North³, Peter Venner³, Nawaid Usmani¹

Canadian Journal of Urology, Vol.26, No.6, pp. 10045-10053, 2019

Abstract Introduction: Enzalutamide (Enza) is an effective treatmentformetastaticcastrate-resistantprostatecancer (mCPRC). However, Enza is not cost-effective (CE) at willingness to pay (WTP) thresholds from $0-$125 000/quality adjusted life years (QALYs) and is therefore a strain on valuable health care dollars. Metformin (Met) isinexpensive(~$8.00/month)andisthoughttoimprove prostate cancer specifc and overall survival compared to thosenottakingMet.Wehypothesizedthattheremustbe an added effect Met could provide that would make Enza CEtherebyalleviatingthisfnancialstrainongovernment health care budgets.
Materials and methods: We constructed a Markov model and performed a threshold analysis to narrow in on the added effect needed to make such a combination therapy cost-effective at various WTP thresholds.
Results:… More >

Sarah Tweddell, Rohit S. Loomba, David S. Cooper, Alexis L. Benscoter

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.5, pp. 785-790, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12779

Abstract Introduction: Health care‐associated infections (HAIs) increase mortality, length of stay, and cost in hospitalized patients. The incidence of and risk factors for developing HAIs in the pediatric population after cardiac surgery have been studied. This study evaluates the impact of HAIs on length of stay, inpatient mortality, and cost of hospitalization in the pediatric population after cardiac surgery.
Methods: TheKids’InpatientDatabasewasqueriedforanalysis.Patientsunder18years of age who underwent cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2012 were included. HAIs were defined as central line‐associated blood stream infections, catheter‐associated urinary tract infections, ventilator‐associated pneumonias, and surgical wound infections. Univariate analysis compared admissions with and… More >

Patrick D. Evers^1,*, Tarek Alsaied^1,2,*, Jeffrey B. Anderson¹, James F. Cnota¹, Allison A. Divanovic¹

Congenital Heart Disease, Vol.14, No.2, pp. 221-229, 2019, DOI:10.1111/chd.12713

Abstract Objective: Maternal anti-Ro/SSA and anti-La/SSB antibodies can lead to fetal complete heart block (CHB). Current guidelines recommend weekly echocardiographic screening between 16 and 28 weeks gestation. Given the cost of screening and the rarity of conduction abnormalities in fetuses of mothers with low anti-Ro levels (<50 U/mL), we sought to identify a strategy that optimizes resource utilization.
Design: Decision analysis cost-utility modeling was performed for three screening paradigms: “standard screening” (SS) in which mid-gestation mothers are screened weekly, “limited screening” (LS) in which fetal echocardiograms are avoided unless the fetus develops bradycardia, and “targeted screening by maternal… More >

Wen Tian¹, Xiaopeng Ji^1,*, Weiwei Liu¹, Guangjie Liu¹, Rong Lin^1,2, Jiangtao Zhai³, Yuewei Dai³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.60, No.1, pp. 193-211, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.05290

Abstract Cyber-physical system (CPS) is an advanced system that integrats physical processes, computation and communication resources. The security of cyber-physical systems has become an active research area in recent years. In this paper, we focus on defensive strategies against network attacks in CPS. We introduce both low- and highinteraction honeypots into CPS as a security management tool deliberately designed to be probed, attacked and compromised. In addition, an analysis resource constraint is introduced for the purpose of optimizing defensive strategies against network attacks in CPS. We study the offensive and defensive interactions of CPS and model… More >

Filipe L. A. Ribeiro^1,*, Andre R. Barbosa², Luis C. Neves³

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.120, No.3, pp. 657-676, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmes.2019.06296

Abstract Although pre-Northridge earthquake steel moment resisting frame buildings have been shown to be susceptible to brittle connection failures, they still represent a large fraction of the existing steel buildings in the United States of America. In this study, the performance of the 3- and 9-story Los Angeles pre-Northridge SAC buildings are analyzed considering ductile and brittle beam-column connection failures, and their uncertainty. This paper contributes to understanding the influence of uncertainty associated with connections brittle fracture on building interstory deformation capacity and its impact on bias and variability of fragility functions and loss assessment. The More >

Daojian Zeng^1,2, Yao Xiao^1,2, Jin Wang^2,*, Yuan Dai^1,2, Arun Kumar Sangaiah³

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.60, No.3, pp. 1251-1261, 2019, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2019.06100

Abstract Recently, many researchers have concentrated on distant supervision relation extraction (DSRE). DSRE has solved the problem of the lack of data for supervised learning, however, the data automatically labeled by DSRE has a serious problem, which is class imbalance. The data from the majority class obviously dominates the dataset, in this case, most neural network classifiers will have a strong bias towards the majority class, so they cannot correctly classify the minority class. Studies have shown that the degree of separability between classes greatly determines the performance of imbalanced data. Therefore, in this paper we More >

Karen L. Stern, Manoj Monga

Canadian Journal of Urology, Vol.25, No.3, pp. 9313-9316, 2018

Abstract Introduction: The Moses technology of the holmium laser has been shown to decrease retropulsion in the ureter and procedural time in kidney stones during laser lithotripsy. Theoretically, these improvements could lead to cost savings for the patient.
Materials and methods: All patients with total laser energy data recorded who underwent ureteroscopy with laser lithotripsy by a single surgeon at a tertiary care center were included. Total lasing time was calculated from the total laser energy. Sub-analyses were done on stone size and stone composition. The procedure time using Moses technology was projected to be approximately 35% less… More >

Peter Chang^1,2,*, Peter Renehan^2,*, Kimberly N. Taylor¹, Lauren E. Dewey¹, Kyle C. McAnally¹, Sara Hyde¹, Catrina M. Crociani¹, Arie Carneiro^3,4, Lisa T. Beaule⁵, Andrew A. Wagner^1,2

Canadian Journal of Urology, Vol.25, No.4, pp. 9401-9406, 2018

Abstract Introduction: Hospital-related costs of renal cancer surgery have been described, but the societal costs of surgery-related lost productivity are poorly understood. We estimated the societal cost of renal cancer surgery by assessing surgery-related time off work (TOW) taken by patients and their caretakers.
Materials and methods: A total of 413 subjects who underwent partial or radical nephrectomy enrolled in an IRB-approved prospective study received an occupational survey assessing employment status, work physicality, income, surgery-related TOW, and caretaker assistance. We excluded subjects with incomplete occupational information or metastatic disease. We estimated potential wages lost using individual income and… More >