Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Approach for Life-Cycle Carpet Profit

This paper proposes an mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to accurately represent a product life-cycle design considering profit maximization. The model that takes into account the effects on the demand lev-el and a measure of the customer utility considering recycled raw materials and prices of the traditional and modular products. Demand functions for traditional and modular products are considered. Given the presence of bilinear terms in the formulation (for example due to the multiplication of product price for the demand), the multi-parametric disaggregation technique is used to obtain a line-ar model. The developed model is applied to a company that produces tradition-al carpets and it wants to manufacture carpets based on a new modular design where recycled materials must be incorporated. The objective of the company is to maximize the total profit taking into account the design specifications and the selling prices for traditional and modular carpets. In addition, the amount of square meters of traditional carpets must be determined and the take-back rate must be considered. The practical behavior of the formulation is analyzed through computational experiments exploring the analyzed case-study.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Approach for Life-Cycle Carpet Profit

This paper proposes an mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to accurately represent a product life-cycle design considering profit maximization. The model that takes into account the effects on the demand lev-el and a measure of the customer utility considering recycled raw materials and prices of the traditional and modular products. Demand functions for traditional and modular products are considered. Given the presence of bilinear terms in the formulation (for example due to the multiplication of product price for the demand), the multi-parametric disaggregation technique is used to obtain a line-ar model. The developed model is applied to a company that produces tradition-al carpets and it wants to manufacture carpets based on a new modular design where recycled materials must be incorporated. The objective of the company is to maximize the total profit taking into account the design specifications and the selling prices for traditional and modular carpets. In addition, the amount of square meters of traditional carpets must be determined and the take-back rate must be considered. The practical behavior of the formulation is analyzed through computational experiments exploring the analyzed case-study.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Approach for Life-Cycle Carpet Profit

This paper proposes an mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to accurately represent a product life-cycle design considering profit maximization. The model that takes into account the effects on the demand lev-el and a measure of the customer utility considering recycled raw materials and prices of the traditional and modular products. Demand functions for traditional and modular products are considered. Given the presence of bilinear terms in the formulation (for example due to the multiplication of product price for the demand), the multi-parametric disaggregation technique is used to obtain a line-ar model. The developed model is applied to a company that produces tradition-al carpets and it wants to manufacture carpets based on a new modular design where recycled materials must be incorporated. The objective of the company is to maximize the total profit taking into account the design specifications and the selling prices for traditional and modular carpets. In addition, the amount of square meters of traditional carpets must be determined and the take-back rate must be considered. The practical behavior of the formulation is analyzed through computational experiments exploring the analyzed case-study.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Respiratory research networks in Europe and beyond: aims, achievements and aspirations for the 21st century

Healthcare-associated infection, such as intensive care unit (ICU)-related respiratory infections, remain the most frequently encountered morbidity of ICU admission, prolonging hospital stay and increasing mortality rates. The epidemiology of ICU-related respiratory infections, particularly nonventilated ICU-associated pneumonia and ventilator-associated tracheobronchitis, appears to be quite different among different countries. European countries have different prevalence, patterns and mechanism of resistance, as well as different treatments chosen by different attending physicians. The classical clinical research process in respiratory infections consists of the following loop: 1) identification of knowledge gaps; 2) systematic review and search for adequate answers; 3) generation of study hypotheses; 4) design of study protocols; 5) collection clinical data; 6) analysis and interpretation of the results; and 7) implementation of the results in clinical practic

Peripheral Sensory Neuropathy Associates With Micro- or Macroangiopathy: Results from a population-based study of type 2 diabetic patients in Sweden

OBJECTIVE—To assess associations between peripheral sensory neuropathy (PSN) and other diabetes-related complications

What influences national and foreign physicians’ geographic distribution? An analysis of medical doctors’ residence location in Portugal

Background The debate over physicians’ geographical distribution has attracted the attention of the economic and public health literature over the last forty years. Nonetheless, it is still to date unclear what influences physicians’ location, and whether foreign physicians contribute to fill the geographical gaps left by national doctors in any given country. The present research sets out to investigate the current distribution of national and international physicians in Portugal, with the objective to understand its determinants and provide an evidence base for policymakers to identify policies to influence it. Methods A cross-sectional study of physicians currently registered in Portugal was conducted to describe the population and explore the association of physician residence patterns with relevant personal and municipality characteristics. Data from the Portuguese Medical Council on physicians’ residence and characteristics were analysed, as well as data from the National Institute of Statistics on municipalities’ population, living standards and health care network. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, negative binomial and logistic regression modelling were applied to determine: (a) municipality characteristics predicting Portuguese and International physicians’ geographical distribution, and; (b) doctors’ characteristics that could increase the odds of residing outside the country’s metropolitan areas. Results There were 39,473 physicians in Portugal in 2008, 51.1% of whom male, and 40.2% between 41 and 55 years of age. They were predominantly Portuguese (90.5%), with Spanish, Brazilian and African nationalities also represented. Population, Population’s Purchasing Power, Nurses per capita and Municipality Development Index (MDI) were the municipality characteristics displaying the strongest association with national physicians’ location. For foreign physicians, the MDI was not statistically significant, while municipalities’ foreign population applying for residence appeared to be an additional positive factor in their location decisions. In general, being foreigner and male resulted to be the physician characteristics increasing the odds of residing outside the metropolitan areas. However, among the internationals, older doctors were more likely to reside outside metropolitan areas. Being Spanish or Brazilian (but not of African origin) was found to increase the odds of being based outside the Lisbon and Oporto metropolitan areas. Conclusions The present study showed the relevance of studying one country’s physician population to understand the factors driving national and international doctors’ location decisions. A more nuanced understanding of national and foreign doctors’ location appears to be needed to design more effective policies to reduce the imbalance of medical services across geographical areas.The study was supported by a research grant from the Portuguese High Commission for Health to the International Health Department of the Institute of Hygiene and Tropical. Medicine

Toward an operative diagnosis in sepsis: a latent class approach

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Recent data have suggested that 18 million of new sepsis cases occur each year worldwide, with a mortality rate of almost 30%. There is not consensus on the clinical definition of sepsis and, because of lack of training or simply unawareness, clinicians often miss or delay this diagnosis. This is especially worrying; since there is strong evidence supporting that early treatment is associated with greater clinical success. There are some difficulties for sepsis diagnosis such as the lack of an appropriate gold standard to identify this clinical condition. This situation has hampered the assessment of the accuracy of clinical signs and biomarkers to diagnose sepsis.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>Cross-sectional study to determine the operative characteristics of three biological markers of inflammation and coagulation (D-dimer, C-reactive protein and Procalcitonin) as diagnostic tests for sepsis, in patients admitted to hospital care with a presumptive infection as main diagnosis.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>There are alternative techniques that have been used to assess the accuracy of tests without gold standards, and they have been widely used in clinical disciplines such as psychiatry, even though they have not been tested in sepsis diagnosis. Considering the main importance of diagnosis as early as possible, we propose a latent class analysis to evaluate the accuracy of three biomarkers to diagnose sepsis.</p

Genética de populações naturais.

Em um cenário de fragmentação de habitats, populações anteriormente contínuas são subdivididas em conjuntos de populações locais menores que podem estar isoladas em maior ou menor grau, dependendo da distribuição espacial dos fragmentos e do poder de dispersão inerente às espécies. Técnicas moleculares, além de permitirem a identificação dos efeitos da fragmentação sobre o complemento genético das populações remanescentes, também têm sido úteis em programas de manejo para conservação genética de populações

Failure to reduce C-reactive protein levels more than 25% in the last 24 hours before intensive care unit discharge predicts higher in-hospital mortality: A cohort study

Purpose: To discharge a patient from the intensive care unit (ICU) is a complex decision-making process because in-hospital mortality after critical illness may be as high as up to 27%. Static C-reactive protein (CRP) values have been previously evaluated as a predictor of post-ICU mortality with conflicting results. Therefore, we evaluated the CRP ratio in the last 24 hours before ICU discharge as a predictor of in-hospital outcomes. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed in 409 patients from a 6-bed ICU of a university hospital. Data were prospectively collected during a 4-year period. Only patients discharged alive from the ICU with at least 72 hours of ICU length of stay were evaluated. Results: In-hospital mortality was 18.3% (75/409). Patients with reduction less than 25% in CRP concentrations at 24 hours as compared with 48 hours before ICU discharge had a worse prognosis, with increased mortality (23% vs 11%, P = .002) and post-ICU length of stay (26 [7-43] vs 11 [5-27] days, P = .036). Moreover, among hospital survivors (n = 334), patients with CRP reduction less than 25% were discharged later (hazard ratio, 0.750; 95% confidence interval, 0.602-0.935; P = .011). Conclusions: In this large cohort of critically ill patients, failure to reduce CRP values more than 25% in the last 24 hours of ICU stay is a strong predictor of worse in-hospital outcomes. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved