Rate Of Increase In Costs Research Articles

Способи зниження складності обчислень при розрахунках потокорозподілу в мережах нестисливої рідини при фіксованих коефіцієнтах гідравлічного опору

Based on the analysis of the process of solving the problem of flow distribution calcula-tion in compressible fluid systems, which boils down to finding the root of a nonlinear system of equations using the Newton — Raphson method, methods of reducing the complexity of calculations at the stages of the iterative process are proposed. The studies belong to the class of hydraulic systems for which the total pressure change on the branch elements is a monotonic smooth function of the flow rate G. For the iterations of the Newton-Raphson method, the stages are analyzed: linearization of the nonlinear system of equations, determination of the discrepancy and error estimation, determination of cost growth and obtaining a new iterative cost value. A method and algorithm for determining the discrepancy and estimating the error with linear complexity relative to the number of branches of graph E is proposed. A method of reducing the number of unknowns in the system of flow distribution equations at the stage of forming a system of linear equations based on the use of the nodal convolution method is described. A number of variants of heuristic algorithms for determining the parameter that takes into account the rate of in-crease in costs when forming a new iterative value of costs and their analysis are present-ed.

Reverse milk run – the logistics retrenchment strategy

Learning outcomes After completion of the case study, students will be able to understand the concept of clustering and identify clusters for improving capacity utilization, analyse transport routes to optimize logistics resources, analyse the impact of a full truckload on resource optimization, evaluate unused capacity and ascertain the impact of reverse milk run to reduce the same and apply clustering and reverse milk run to optimize the logistics resources. Case overview/synopsis The case study is about a freight forwarding company that offered end-to-end logistics solutions for the exporters based in India. Within a short time span, the company became one of the sought-after service providers for its clients. However, when the company planned to expand its business by expanding its client base, the efficiencies reduced and hurt the profitability of the company. It was all excellent with the limited number of clients, but as the number of distantly located clients surged, the operating costs increased. Trucks were running with partial loads, thus reducing efficiency. The rate of increase in cost surpassed the rate of revenue every time. The cost per mile of transportation was on the rise. The surging fuel prices were adding to the heat. In spite of being one of the first choices for clients, the company could not generate good profit margins. If they chose to increase prices, the company would have lost customers to the cheaper unorganized players in the market. It was time to choose between growth and survival. The company could not sustain itself without devising a mechanism to reduce costs. The company would not have sustained itself without devising a mechanism to reduce costs. To sustain in the business, the company had to device a mechanism to reduce costs. Whether to continue operating the conventional way or to transform? Was there a logistics strategy that would have improved transportation efficiency and reduced the costs for the company? Complexity academic level The case study is suitable for teaching post-graduate management courses in operations and logistics, supply chain management and supply chain analytics, as well as entrepreneurship-related courses. Supplementary material Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CCS 9: Operations and logistics.

Project Managers Selection in the Construction Industry: Towards the Integration with Artificial Emotional Intelligence and Technology

Emotional intelligence (EI) comes almost automatically to humans when we respond instinctively. This basic level of intelligence tells us how to behave in certain scenarios. However, can this understanding be used with the help of technology in selecting efficient managers in the construction industry where the rate of increase in costs and delays in the construction project never ends and even increases? This conceptual paper proposes a study exploring the theory of artificial emotional intelligence in the construction industry to reduce the increase in cost and time overrun in the project using mixed-method research. The indicators of construction project management success were collected from the literature. The questionnaire was prepared for the second phase, and sample data will be collected from construction project managers nationwide through an online survey to form the new model. Finally, the data will be tested and analysed to see the relationship between construction project managers' EI and project success using artificial intelligence technology. Later, they will be validated with a group of certified project managers in an appropriate workshop. This study will conclude whether selecting an excellent project manager can be achieved with the help of artificial intelligence, characterised by emotional intelligence theory. The study will also verify if there is a significant correlation between the performance of construction project managers with elements in the EI theory by using artificial technology and the success of construction projects.

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS OF VIROBNICHESKY STOCK DYNAMIC MODELS

The statistic provides an assessment of the rationalization of the assortment of aromatic carbohydrates in terms of their current characteristics, an increase in the rate of new products in naphtha chemistry with the development of a life cycle, which has been accelerated by new products. The increase in the number of investments in the market and the increase in the arrival of investments on the market is intertwined with an insignificant rate of increase in costs in the innovation activity due to the rapid growth of a part of the industry on the market of aromatic carbohydrates. It’s broken down, but there is no need to organize the process of securing, especially when the production of good quality products is not necessary, it’s not necessary to get effective robotics in the minds of the hospitality competition. A comprehensive approach to nutritional differentiation of the power of the entire assortment of products has been introduced, hourly, when I go to the market with free carbohydrates and the needs of the competitors and the behavior of competitors. The decision has been made to predict the production rate, the value of the most economical value of the party and the point of replacement of the three types of products for the victorious dynamic model of inventory management. Methods of evaluating the mathematical costs for the sake of loss and expense for the time being, not satisfied with the drink, because of the details of the detailed picture of the technological process for the product. Organizational aspects of the establishment of a progressive brand of carbohydrates on the basis of the advanced technology of rectification of catalytic reforming of flavored gasoline. The task of the calendar scheduling of the production and of the quick delivery to the residents is of the utmost importance for the delivery of the item of unimportance to the issue in the previous period and of the number of tasks, which were not given until the end of the deadline. The stochastic nature of the process of securing is secured with an effective strategic reserve, which falls into the type of imaging in the supply.

Rainfed agriculture in India: An analysis of performance and implications

The paper examines the trend in the performance of rainfed agriculture in India across major crops during pre- and post-liberalisation period; and ascertains the trend in net income of crop groups of different water requirements in rainfed regions. The major crop groups considered in the analysis are coarse cereals, oilseeds, pulses and cotton. The results indicate that the growth in production of oilseeds and pulses during 1980s and early 1990s weaned out during the subsequent period, probably due to the dilution of some of the policy initiatives like mission mode operation for these crops and adverse terms of trade. However, the yield of most of the crops has increased during the post- liberalisation period. This was also associated with a sharp increase in cost of cultivation. The rate of increase in cost of cultivation was severer for traditional rainfed crops compared to water intensive crops like sugarcane and paddy. Also, the growth in value of production has been lower than the growth in cost of cultivation for the rainfed crops during the post-liberalisation period. The parity of the net income also favoured cultivation of water intensive crops in rainfed lands. Rainfed regions need to focus on yield enhancement through natural resource conservation notably, water; and, incentivise rainfed agriculture through price policies and market opportunities. The study calls for increased investment for rainfed regions for creation of affordable technologies for water conservation and increasing water use efficiency; creation of institutions for better water management and spreading water literacy for sustainable crop production.

Management Forecasts in Japan: Do Managers Accurately Estimate Costs When They Issue Management Forecasts?

Virtually all firms listed on Japanese stock exchanges report point forecasts of sales and earnings in their annual press releases. The availability of management forecasts in Japan provides a unique research opportunity to investigate managers’ prediction of cost behavior of their company. Forecasted costs are available by subtracting forecasted earnings from forecasted sales. Using recent “sticky cost” research methods, the forecasted rate of change in costs can be compared with the actual rate of change in costs. Specifically, I describe the forecasted rate of change in costs as a function of the forecasted rate of change in sales, and comparing the forecasted rate of change in costs with the actual rate of change in costs. The rationale for this approach is, in theory, that costs are resources sacrificed to generate sales; hence, it is generally expected that costs increase (decrease) as sales increase (decrease). Basically, focusing on the relationship between forecasted sales and costs provide deeper insights into management earnings forecasts than focusing on the forecasted earnings because earnings are the aggregated measure of sales and costs. The major findings of this paper are that managers underestimate the rate of increase in costs when sales are expected to increase; however, they tend to overestimate the rate of decrease in costs when sales are expected to decrease, indicating that costs are underestimated regardless of the forecasted direction of change in sales. These findings imply that optimistic bias in management earnings forecasts can partly be attributed to the forecast error of rate of change in costs.

Bridging the Divide Between Health and Health Care

The US health care system can do a better job of providing patient care while moderating the rate of increase in cost, but it can do little about improving overall population health. This is because health care delivery accounts for only 10% of preventable deaths, with the remainder attributable to personal behaviors, social and environmental determinants, and genetic predisposition

Why Baylor Health Care System Would Like to File for Medicare Shared Savings Accountable Care Organization Designation but Cannot

National focus on health care reform is being driven by recognition of the simultaneous needs to improve quality, reduce costs, and increase access. Multiple stakeholders in our society, from governmental authorities to payers, employers, and patients, are raising their voices in the call for answers to these problems, in what the Institute for Healthcare Improvement termed the Triple Aim: “better care for individuals, better health for populations, and lower per capita costs.”1 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) subsequently adopted this aim, in particular as the mission of the newly formed Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.2 Congress, too, has weighed in on the issue, with one of the primary goals of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) being substantial reduction in the number of Americans without health insurance, to be achieved largely through expansion of the state Medicaid programs and creation of health benefit exchanges.3 Most health care experts recognize that the problems of cost, quality, and access must be solved. The unsustainable costs and the relentless rates of increase in costs,4 in particular, are driving health care organizations to find solutions.

New and improved channel cross section with piecewise linear or smooth sides

This paper presents a new and improved channel cross section with m-segment linear sides and horizontal bottom (MSLS). For large m, the section sides become smooth curves, thus providing the designer with flexibility in using either piecewise linear or smooth channel sides with the same formulation. General simple formulas for the area and perimeter are presented for section sides with m linear segments. An optimization model, which implements the general formulas and minimizes the construction cost, is presented and applied using an example. For sections with piecewise linear sides, where the surface lining unit cost increases as the number of sides increases, the MSLS section was found to be more economical than a section with two-segment linear sides when the rate of increase in cost is not large. The smooth MSLS was found to be always more economical than the two-segment parabolic side section and the parabolic side section. The MSLS, which is more economical, yet simpler, than other section types is useful for a wide range of applications involving small and large channels.

High-Value, Cost-Conscious Health Care: Concepts for Clinicians to Evaluate the Benefits, Harms, and Costs of Medical Interventions

Health care costs in the United States are increasing unsustainably, and further efforts to control costs are inevitable and essential. Efforts to control expenditures should focus on the value, in addition to the costs, of health care interventions. Whether an intervention provides high value depends on assessing whether its health benefits justify its costs. High-cost interventions may provide good value because they are highly beneficial; conversely, low-cost interventions may have little or no value if they provide little benefit. Thus, the challenge becomes determining how to slow the rate of increase in costs while preserving high-value, high-quality care. A first step is to decrease or eliminate care that provides no benefit and may even be harmful. A second step is to provide medical interventions that provide good value: medical benefits that are commensurate with their costs. This article discusses 3 key concepts for understanding how to assess the value of health care interventions. First, assessing the benefits, harms, and costs of an intervention is essential to understand whether it provides good value. Second, assessing the cost of an intervention should include not only the cost of the intervention itself but also any downstream costs that occur because the intervention was performed. Third, the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio estimates the additional cost required to obtain additional health benefits and provides a key measure of the value of a health care intervention.

Journal Prices, Book Acquisitions, and Sustainable College Library Collections

Library collections are economically sustainable only if the rate of increase in costs is no greater than the rate of increase in the library acquisitions budget. Because book prices increase at a much lower rate than journal prices, undergraduate libraries can achieve economic sustainability through a renewed emphasis on books rather than journals. Book-centered collections are consistent with the goals of many undergraduate colleges, and books rather than journals may provide the best teaching resources even in those fields that rely heavily on journals for the communication of original research results.

A retrospective claims analysis of the direct costs of stress urinary incontinence.

The aim of this study was to evaluate direct expenditures associated with urinary incontinence and overall medical expenditures incurred by women diagnosed with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The study design was a retrospective analysis of administrative claims data. We identified women with a diagnosis of SUI and no stress, urge or mixed urinary incontinence in the preceding 12 months using the MarketScan 1996-1999 databases. Total expenditures, as well as urinary incontinence-related expenditures, were summarized during the 12 months before and after the initial SUI diagnosis. We also compared expenditures for SUI patients receiving surgical treatment to expenditures for those who did not. There were 8126 patients who met the eligibility criteria. Total healthcare expenditures in the year prior to the initial SUI diagnosis were approximately half of those in the year following the initial diagnosis ($4478 vs $9147). For the subset of patients treated with surgery there was a threefold increase ($4575 vs $14129) in costs. A sensitivity analysis in patients with no comorbid urinary diagnoses found somewhat lower costs but a similar rate of increase in costs between the pre-period and the study period ($3884 vs $7075). Among women with no comorbid urinary diagnoses, approximately 11% ($769; SD $1180) of total mean regression-adjusted annual expenditures ($6892; SD $5067) was attributable to UI. Predicted total expenditures for surgery patients without comorbid urinary diagnoses were $13 212 (SD $7967), 28% of which ($3640;SD $681) were for UI-related costs. We concluded that after diagnosis, annual expenditures for patients were roughly twice those in the year prior to diagnosis. Multivariate analysis suggests that in the year after SUI diagnosis, UI treatment costs represented approximately 10% of total expenditures for all SUI patients, and 26%-28% of total expenditures for the subset of surgically treated patients.

Realigning incentives in fee-for-service Medicare.

This paper proposes Medicare payment reform built on the fee-for-service system, with incentive payments to eligible provider organizations determined by their rate of increase in cost per patient compared to the overall growth rate in the community. By planning and monitoring how care patterns are altered to achieve greater efficiency, policy-makers can align the incentives of Medicare and the provider organization better than using either fee-for-service or capitation alone. This reform, unlike capitation, maintains Medicare's historical role as insurer and focuses providers on managing care.

Michigan to Start Restrictive Medicaid Drug Formulary

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Health Care EconomicsFull AccessMichigan to Start Restrictive Medicaid Drug FormularyKate MulliganKate MulliganSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:18 Jan 2002https://doi.org/10.1176/pn.37.2.0013Michigan has joined the ranks of state governments that are developing new tools in their efforts to contain the fiscal burden from the rising cost of drugs prescribed for patients receiving Medicaid.The Urban Institute estimates that Medicaid spending for outpatient prescribed drugs increased by an average of 18.1 percent per year from 1997 to 2000, compared with 7.7 percent for all Medicaid expenditures. The increase reflects both higher prices for drugs and an increase in the number of prescriptions used by beneficiaries.The amount of money spent on these drugs and the rate of increase in cost is “unsustainable,” said Ray Hanley, Arkansas’s Medicaid director and chair of the Pharmacy Committee for the National Association of Medicaid Directors.In an interview with Psychiatric News he estimated that states collectively will spend about $27 billion on prescription drugs for Medicaid patients this year. Approximately 25 percent of that total, Hanley said, will be spent on drugs related to mental illness.Linda Elam, senior policy analyst at the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, said, “Almost every state government is trying something to rein in costs. Michigan, Oregon, and Louisiana are using a formulary approach in which only drugs on a list developed under state auspices can be ordered without prior authorization.”Michigan has garnered the most attention by taking on the entire pharmaceutical industry. In fact, on December 7, 2001, a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal claimed, “Michigan’s experiment. . .takes dead aim at drug companies’ freedom to set prices. Instead of taking as a starting point the prices offered to companies’ most-favored customers, the Michigan experiment seeks to drive all prices down to a low common denominator.”Committee Chose DrugsA committee of physicians and pharmacists chose so-called best-in-class drugs in 40 categories covering a range of illnesses across all of medicine. If a physician wants to prescribe a drug not on the list, he or she must “call a state technician and get approval,” which will be granted only if the drug is considered “medically necessary.”The reasoning behind the state’s action is somewhat murky. Faced with a statewide $1 billion shortfall, the Michigan legislature budgeted for $42 million in pharmacy savings. James Haveman Jr., director of the state’s Department of Community Health (DCH), wrote to the leaders of the state legislature that two key policy changes would be necessary to capture those savings: “expansion of prior authorization for single-source drugs and obtaining additional rebates on drugs provided through the Medicaid program, as well as on state-funded pharmacy programs.”The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) claims that the state’s Department of Community Health (DCH) “will no longer routinely pay for drugs in the Medicaid or other state-funded programs unless the manufacturer agrees to pay the state steep rebates over and above what the state already receives.” It has filed suit to halt implementation of the pharmacy program.Policy DefendedIn a position paper, however, DCH defends prior authorization for psychiatric drugs by saying that general practitioners with no specialized training in psychiatry are prescribing atypical antipsychotic drugs. DCH’s second justification is that beneficiaries in the state’s Medicaid managed care program are subject to drug formularies, while the 350,000 beneficiaries in the state’s Medicaid fee-for-service program are not. DCH states that “it is unfair to have dramatic differences” in the drug-coverage programs.The Michigan Psychiatric Society (MPS), assisted by APA and other advocacy groups, opposes DCH’s recent actions on formularies. Jonathan G.A. Henry, M.D., medical director of the Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Community Mental Health Board, testified last December 11 on behalf of MPS before the state Senate’s Subcommittee on Appropriations for Community Mental Health.Henry noted the lack of data about the capability of the new drug policies to generate savings. He testified that new drugs with proven value such as nefazodone and venlafaxine would require preauthorization. Preauthorization requirements also result in a decrease in physician productivity, he noted.“To authorize a state bureaucrat to overrule a physician’s medical judgment is simply wrong public policy in both human and economic terms,” commented Jay Cutler, J.D., director of the APA Division of Government Relations. “This policy seems to have lacked both serious legislative and public review of its impact on the most vulnerable patients, namely, the seriously mentally ill.” ▪ ISSUES NewArchived

Measuring Improvements in Performance of Steers and Heifers During Finishing Phases

Abstract Changes in steer and heifer finishing performance impact the relative competitiveness of the beef industry. This study examined improvements in the finishing performance of steers and heifers from January 1990 to December 1998. Data were obtained from monthly issues of the Focus on Feedlots newsletter. Steer and heifer performance were measured using ADG, feed efficiency, the rate of technological change, and the rate of change in total feeding cost. The rate of technological change measured shifts in the production frontier for steers and heifers. The rate of change in total feeding cost measured shifts in the cost frontier. ADG improved 0.99% per year for steers and 0.96% per year for heifers. Feed efficiency improved 0.60% per year for steers and 0.72% per year for heifers. The rate of technological change averaged 0.58% per year for steers and 1.01% per year for heifers. The positive rates of technological change indicated that the rate of change in BW gain was greater than the rate of change in feed fed. Total feeding cost for heifers increased by 0.63% per year. For steers, the rate of change in total feeding costs was positive, but insignificant. The higher rate of cost increase for heifers was the result of relatively large increases in BW gain for heifers during the study.

Cost Analysis For Development of Risk Management Method Relationship between the rate of contract increase and the rate of cost increase

This story report is making a try to study out the relationship between the rateof contract increase and the rate of cost increase through the quantitative analysis, whichwa conducted with use of the available information on cost and construction conditions store in the information data base for the Project Experience & Construction Record.In the analysis, the first step was to compute the rate of contract increase and the rate of cost increase in all the cases of 169 Projects obtained in the information data base, putting use of the amounts at the time of preparing the budget and those at the time of completion.Then, the regression analysis was made using the former as the explanatoryvariable and the latter as the object variable.After sorting all the Project construction data according to the conditions suchas contract method, tendering classification, etc., the analytical examination was carriedout as to the rate of cost increase to the increase of contracted amount.As a result, it has been verified that the traditional non-quantitativeempirical rules can be represented numerically, and that the results gained by the analysis are theinformative source of great significance as a basic and fundamental tools and means foranalysis in developing risk management method.

How has fundholding in Northern Ireland affected prescribing patterns? A longitudinal study

Objective: To compare prescribing patterns in general practices before and after the introduction of fundholding in April 1993 to determine whether fundholding changed prescribing patterns among practices that joined the...

Hospital Cost Containment in the 1980s

A key strategy used to contain hospital costs during the 1980s was to reduce the total number of admissions and average lengths of stay. We assessed the magnitude of the savings achieved, the effect of the reductions on the rate of increase in costs, and the prospects for future savings through reductions in the number of days patients spend in the hospital (inpatient days). Using data from the American Hospital Association and the Health Care Financing Administration, we calculated the savings in the total number of inpatient days as the deviation from the historical increase in the number of inpatient days per year. We then estimated the real increase in costs that would have been observed if the reduction in the number of inpatient days had not occurred; we defined this value as the "underlying" rate of increase in costs. Finally, we compared the rates of increase in hospital reimbursement for Medicare beneficiaries and patients not covered by Medicare (non-Medicare patients). The total number of inpatient days per year decreased by 28 percent, in aggregate, between 1981 and 1988. The annual reduction was greatest in 1984 and 1985 and became progressively smaller in each subsequent year; by 1988 there was virtually no further reduction in the total number of inpatient days. The brief slowing of the increase in costs in the mid-1980s can be attributed entirely to the reduction in the number of inpatient days per year. The underlying rate of increase in costs was thus unaffected by efforts to contain spending. An increased number of outpatient visits partially offset the savings that resulted from the reduction in the number of inpatient days. This increase persisted even when the savings due to the lower number of inpatient days dwindled, and it virtually eliminated any dollar savings during the latter part of the 1980s. Between 1976 and 1982, Medicare spending on services provided by acute care hospitals rose by 9.2 percent per year in real terms, whereas non-Medicare expenditures rose by only 4.6 percent. This pattern has been reversed in recent years; in 1987-1988, Medicare spending rose by only 0.6 percent per year, whereas non-Medicare spending rose by 9 percent. Our findings suggest that the era of easy reductions in the number of inpatient days, with the associated attenuation of rising costs, is largely over. If further reductions in inpatient days are accompanied by an increase in the amount of ambulatory care similar to that during the past few years, the net savings will probably be negligible. Once the potential savings due to reductions in the number of inappropriate inpatient days has been exhausted, real hospital costs can be expected to rise, unless other effective measures to contain costs are implemented.

Explaining the scaling of transport costs: the role of stride frequency and stride length

The mechanisms which enable large animals to transport a unit of body mass through a unit distance at a lower metabolic cost than smaller animals have been the subject of numerous studies. Recent investigations have concluded that stride frequency is a main determinant. We examine the role of both stride frequency and stride length in determining the scaling of the cost of transport.Slopes for regressions between stride frequency and speed and stride length and speed were determined in four species of rodents. These data were pooled with literature values for the slopes of stride frequency, stride length and cost of locomotion (all vs. speed) for a total of 17 species ranging in size from 30 g to 250 kg. Interspecific equations were calculated for each of these slopes versus body mass, and residuals from these allometric lines were calculated. Residuals were compared to see if variation in the rate of cost increase at a given size is related to variation in the rates of stride frequency and/or stride length increase.The residual analysis revealed that the variation in transport cost is explicable only in terms of the interaction of stride frequency and stride length slopes. The product of the scaling exponents for stride frequency slope and stride length slope is not significantly different from the scaling exponent for the cost of transport. A model seeking to explain the scaling of the cost of transport must therefore consider the influence of both stride length and stride frequency.We propose that absolutely longer limbs allow large animals to minimize the rate of increase of stride frequency and stride length with speed, and that this allows utilization of muscles with lower intrinsic rates of contraction, which in turn results in a lower mass‐specific cost of transport.

Competition, Regulation, and Hospital Cost

To the Editor. — A recent article by Drs Robinson and Luft 1 shows that the increasein hospital costs per adjusted admission in Massachusetts from 1982 through 1986 was 16.3% lower than that observed in 43 control states. On the basis of these figures, they conclude that Massachusetts was one of the state programs most successful in controlling hospital cost inflation. Unfortunately, this assertion is highly misleading on account of two aspects of their methodology. First, the study looks only at the period during which cost containment was in effect; success in controlling cost inflation is defined as the difference between the rate of increase in costs in Massachusetts and the rise in the country as a whole during this period. However, to assess the impact of the legislation, it is also necessary to consider the rate of increase in costs observed before cost containment was imposed. The