An experiment was conducted with 144 broiler chicks (Cobb 500) from day-old to five weeks of age to investigate the efficacy of a water additive in broiler production. The chicks were randomly distributed into four different treatments namely T1 (control), T2 (water additive as per recommended level of the manufacturer), T3 (25% less than the recommendation) and T4 (25% more than the recommenda...

In this paper, a new hybrid methodology is introduced to design a cost-sensitive fuzzy rule-based classification system. A novel cost metric is proposed based on the combination of three different concepts: Entropy, Gini index and DKM criterion. In order to calculate the effective cost of patterns, a hybrid of fuzzy c-means clustering and particle swarm optimization algorithm is utilized. This ...

Physicians, health plans, and health systems are increasingly evaluated and rewarded based on Health Plan Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) and HEDIS-like performance measures. Concurrently, employers and health plans continue to try to control expenditures by increasing out-of-pocket costs for patients. The authors use fixed-effect logit models to assess how rising copayment rates...

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is unparalleled in its ability to visualize anatomical structure and function non-invasively with high spatial and temporal resolution. Yet to overcome the low sensitivity inherent in inductive detection of weakly polarized nuclear spins, the vast majority of clinical MRI scanners employ superconducting magnets producing very high magnetic fields. Commonly found...