BACKGROUND Although the number of infected persons receiving highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in low- and middle-income countries has increased dramatically, optimal disease management is not well defined. METHODS We developed a model to compare the costs and benefits of 3 types of human immunodeficiency virus monitoring strategies: symptom-based strategies, CD4-based strategies, ...

As public and private demand for food safety grows, firms need to be able to evaluate the optimal (least-cost) combinations of interventions to reduce pathogens. We use data from input suppliers to hog packing firms and from meat science studies to examine the cost function for pathogen reduction. An economic optimization model is used to explore the trade offs in achieving multiple pathogen re...

Our central proposition is that monitoring costs increase with physical distance, and hence, direct investments located further from the foreign investor’s home base should be more likely formed as joint ventures. Tests on a data set of Taiwanese direct investments in Mainland China provide robust support to the hypothesis. A project that was located 1000 kilometers further away was 13-17% more...

Drinking water quality monitoring programs aim to support provision of safe drinking water by informing water quality management. Little evidence or guidance exists on best monitoring practices for low resource settings. Lack of financial, human, and technological resources reduce a country's ability to monitor water supply. Monitoring activities were characterized in Cambodia, Colombia, India ...

Background Panel tests are a predetermined group of tests commonly requested together to provide a comprehensive and conclusive diagnosis, for example, liver function test (LFT). South African HIV antiretroviral treatment (ART) guidelines recommend individual tests for toxicity monitoring over panel tests. In 2008, the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) request form was redesigned to li...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the costs and benefits of alternative systems of coronary heart disease monitoring in Scotland. DESIGN An option appraisal was conducted to evaluate the costs and benefits of implementing a coronary heart disease monitoring system. This involved a review of existing Scottish datasets and relevant reports, specification of options, definition and weighting of benefit crit...

Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology, Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, 3508 TB, Utrecht, The Netherlands, Brocacef Ziekenhuisfarmacie, 3600 AB, Maarssen, The Netherlands, Department of Clinical Chemistry and Department of Hematology, University Medical Center Utrecht, 3508 GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands, and Clinical Pharmacy, University Med...

BACKGROUND Vascular access morbidity results in suboptimal patient outcomes and costs more than $8000 per patient-year at risk, representing approximately 15% of total Medicare expenditures for ESRD patients annually. In recent years, the rate of access thrombosis has improved following the advent of vascular access blood flow monitoring (VABFM) programs to identify and treat stenosis prior to ...

Condition monitoring and diagnosis systems capable of identifying machining system defects and tiieir location are essential for unmanned machining Unattended (or minimally manned) machining would result in increased capital equipment utilization, thus substantially reducing the manufacturing costs. A review of tool monitoring systems and techniques and their components and the Multiple Princip...

BACKGROUND To guide future need for cheap resistance tests for use in low income settings, we assessed cost-effectiveness of drug resistance testing as part of monitoring of people on first line ART - with switching from first to second line ART being conditional on NNRTI drug resistance mutations being identified. METHODS An individual level simulation model of HIV transmission, progression ...