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This paper contributes to the effort to model and measure how the method of financing of health expenditure affects the efficiency with which better health can be achieved. The focus [...]

Data envelopment analysis methods using linear programming were used to evaluate the performance and productivity of individual operations of 257 Swedish pharmacies for the years 1990-1991. Only data on input and output quantities of the pharmacies were incorporated into the production model. These criteria were used together with ratio of distance functions to determine the service quality of the pharmacies.

Article examines the output allocative and technical efficiency for a sample of small banks operating in 1982. Data was obtained from the Federal Reserve's Functional Cost Analysis program. Information on quantities and prices of outputs and quantities of inputs were required for the study. Inputs included labor, interest bearing small deposits, occupancy expense and purchased or borrowed funds. Outputs included property and commercial loans, consumer loans and investments in US securities. Results indicated that the banks in the sample were output inefficient.

[ReNCl2(PPh3)2] and [ReNCl2(PMe2Ph)3] react with the N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC) 1,3,4‐triphenyl‐1,2,4‐triazol‐5‐ylidene (HLPh) under formation of the stable rhenium(V) nitrido complex [ReNCl(HLPh)(LPh)], which contains one of the two NHC ligands with an additional orthometallation. The rhenium atom in the product is five‐coordinate with a distorted square‐pyramidal coordination sphere. The position transto the nitrido ligand is blocked by one phenyl ring of the monodentate HLPhligand. The Re–C(carbene) bond lengths of 2.072(6) and 2.074(6) Å are comparably long and indicate mainly σ‐bonding between the NHC ligand and the electron deficient d2metal atom.

The present paper is concerned with deriving conditions on technology which are required for additive separability of the associated profit function. The appropriate representation of technology in this case is the Luenberger shortage function. The paper shows that this function must be simultaneously input-and-output translation homothetic.

The aim of several projects at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics is the development of new analysis, visualization and interaction tools and their integration into an advanced operating theatre (OP 2000). These components are intended to assist not only in surgery planning but also to offer online surgery support. For this reason it is essential to provide not only powerful and accurate tools, but an environment as intuitive and familiar to the surgeon as possible ensuring maximum computer support. This can be achieved by an optimal synthesis of real and computer-generated data and by engaging different human senses (e.g. visual, acoustic, haptic). A demonstration system has been constructed. CT, MR and images of anatomical sections have been used as input data for the reconstruction of a three-dimensional human reference model. This model is presented in a virtual reality environment equipped with advanced interaction tools.

In a study of 843 independent-living men and women aged between 60 and 87 in Perth, Western Australia, stepwise multiple regression, after correction for initial levels of systolic blood pressure, showed that postural fall in systolic blood pressure was positively related to alcohol intake of more than 20 ml/day, the use of sleeping tablets and higher levels of anxiety on the Spielberger state-trait scale, and negatively related to body mass index. Postural fall in blood pressure was not significantly related to treatment for hypertension, age, sex, patterns of usual physical activity, tea or coffee drinking, or the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. This analysis is the first to examine the relationship between lifestyle factors and the magnitude of the fall in systolic blood pressure on standing after adjustment for the association between the change in a variable and its initial level. Our analysis suggests the need for further study of the possible role of lifestyle factors such as the use of sleeping tablets and alcohol in postural hypotension in the elderly.

In this paper the relative productive performance of a sample of Illinois grain farms was gauged using Farrell-type measures of technical efficiency. Mathematical programming methods were used to envelop the data to form a multiple output, multiple input technology relative to which the performance of individual farms was assessed. Using a decomposition of those measures developed by Fare, Grosskopfand Lovell, it was found that the major source of inefficiency was deviation from most productive size of the large farms in the sample.