A disposable choice for hospital waste

"On-site incineration is becoming an increasingly important alternative for the treatment and disposal of institutional waste. Incineration reduces the weight and volume of most institutional solid waste by 90 to 95 percent, sterilizes pathogenic waste, detoxifies chemical waste, converts obnoxious waste (such as animal carcasses) into innocuous ash, and provides a substantial reduction in off-site disposal costs, making on-site incineration highly cost effective. Many systems have payback periods of less than one year. In addition, on-site incineration reduces the need to depend on off-site disposal contractors, which, in turn, minimizes potential exposures and liabilities associated with illegal or improper waste disposal activities." At this time, the hospital has found its best method for the treatment of infectious and noninfectious medical waste. It is not a perfect method, but all current technologies have limitations. There are several promisingly innovative approaches being pursued; however, they are only in developmental stages. "Winston-Salem, Forsyth Memorial Hospital is reducing infectious wastes ... with an innovative microwave system being used for the first time in the United States. Once the waste is run through the microwave system, the infectious content is destroyed. As a result, ninety percent of the hospital's infectious waste can be sent to the local landfill, which saves more than $200,000 a year in transport and disposal costs. The hospital hopes the $650,000 German system will pay for itself in three years." It is hoped that these new technologies will progress into reliable treatment options for medical waste during the 1990s. In the meantime, our hospital will continue to pursue refinements in its on-site operation, which is already providing cost savings, improved safety, and environmental benefits.     

Optimal design of trade institutions

We model an economy with social institutions that facilitate trade and induce three types of costs: establishment costs, access costs, and use costs. Use costs are specific transaction costs related to the use of these trade institutions. We assume that a trade institution is economically completely determined by the costs it imposes and by the effects on the trades it facilitates. We extend the Pareto efficiency concept to include various modes of organization of social institutions: the costs and benefits of these organizations are expressed in the trades they facilitate.Within this setting we discuss a valuation equilibrium concept, in which all agents use a common conjectural price system that assigns to every trade institution the price vector that would prevail under it. This feature of the equilibrium is important in securing the second welfare theorem, and is new to the analysis of economies with costly trade. Since the use costs can be nonlinear, there are non-convexities that prevent the second welfare theorem from obtaining in a finite economy, but we show it for large economies.Received: 3 April 2002, Accepted: 30 April 2003, JEL Classification: D59, D70, H49Robert P. Gilles: donewhile visiting the Center for Economic Research, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. Financial support from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), grant B46-390, is gratefully acknowledged.Dimitrios Diamantaras: Part of this research wasSupport from Temple University via a Fuller research fellowship is gratefully acknowledged.The authors would like to thank Suzanne Scotchmer, Andreu Mas-Colell, Marcus Berliant, Shlomo Weber, Hans Haller, Dhanajay Gokhale, Julian Manning, and two anonymous referees for their valuable comments and discussions of previous drafts of this paper. A previous version of this paper was circulated as Equilibria of economies with costly trade.     

异地大学科技园区功能定位和创新机制研究——以浙大科技园区宁波分园为例

异地大学科技园是大学科技园主园以外,在不同城市建立起来的大学科技园。异地大学科技园的主要功能是孵化企业和创业支持,作为连接大学、企业、政府的载体,异地大学科技园承担着多重角色,充分发挥大学的创新辐射作用。在促进大学科技成果产业化的同时,培育了许多高新技术企业,推动了区域经济的创新发展。大学科技园借助政府推动创新发展的利好政策以及自身的创新机制的建立,充分实现各项功能,为大学产学研以及区域的创新发展提供了良好的平台。     

Modeling emergency evacuation with time and resource constraints: A case study from Gujarat

This study develops an off-site emergency response plan for a nuclear power plant in Gujarat, India subject to time constraints with resource limitations and risk of radiation exposure to victims. We formulate an optimization model to capture the effect of delay in evacuation, limited resource availability, and costs associated with resource allocation. A single chain closed queuing network model with class switching is used to model traffic congestion during evacuation. The throughput measures from the queuing network are used as inputs in the optimization model. Further, two resource allocation strategies are suggested and genetic algorithm is used for optimizing resource utilization and evacuation risk. The results indicate that pooling resources among a cluster of affected areas is most suitable for evacuation. Numerical experiments are conducted to analyze the time trade-offs and the effect of service time variability on the expected evacuation time. The proposed model can serve as an important resource planning and allocation tool for emergency evacuation.     

公司发行可转换债券融资的动机分析

公司使用可转换债券筹集外部资金既是作为普通债券的替代,增加转换特性来降低利息率从而保持现金流量,也是转换条款建立“延迟股权”,通过转换,以高于现行股票的价格出售。本文研究发现,公司发行可转换债券是为了减少由于股东和管理者以及股东和债权人之间冲突所引起的代理成本;为了降低由发行普通债券带来的高额预期财务危机成本和普通股发行中经常出现的严重负面公告效应;以及在投资者和管理者对公司面临的风险认识不同时,使其价值不易受公司风险变化的影响。     

A framework for stabilizing the euro/yen/dollar triplet

The current debate on exchange rate regimes is shaped by the so-called inconsistency triangle. In this paper I show that the discussion has overlooked a “third way” which combines capital mobility with monetary policy autonomy, and an exchange rate path determined by interest rate differentials. My scheme relies on interventions that are always carried out by the central bank with the strong currency, and a full sterilization of interventions with the instrument of a deposit facility. Thus the G3 central banks could set a band for their bilateral exchange rates with the floor and the ceiling defended by the respective strong central bank. As exchange rates bands are adjusted according to short-term interest rate differentials, there are no sterilization costs for the intervening central bank. Over the medium and long run interest rates are mainly determined by inflation differentials. Thus, the exchange rate band would follow a PPP path.     

医疗器械灭菌方法、灭菌工艺验证及无菌检查

文章阐述了湿热灭菌、干热灭菌、环氧乙烷灭菌、辐射灭菌、低温等离子体灭菌等5种医疗器械灭菌方法,并介绍了灭菌工艺验证和无菌检查方面的内容。     

Distinguishing external from internal scale effects: The case of public infrastructure

The recent applied production theory literature focusing on the economic performance of firms has increasingly recognized the importance of scale effects on costs and therefore efficiency. These scale effects may include short run returns due to fixity of privately demanded inputs (i.e., capital, long run internal returns to scale, and external factors affecting costs. Since these different types of scale effects can be thought of as shifts in and movements along cost curves, the different cost effects of such factors can be identified in a framework which explicitly takes them into account in the definition ofscale.In this article we formalize such a framework, and then use it to measure short run, long run (internal) and external scale effects from fixity of private capital, nonconstant returns to scale and public infrastructure. We then use these measures to identify the impacts of these different scale factors on productivity growth. The focus on public infrastructure as an important external scale factor is motivated by the current theoretical and policy interest in this issue; we show how a structural production theory model provides a rich basis for the analysis of the cost effects of infrastructure investment.     

Paying For Joint Costs in Health Care

The paper analyzes a regulatory game between a public and a private payer to finance hospital joint costs (mainly capital and technology expenses). The public payer (inspired by the federal Medicare program) may both directly reimburse for joint costs ("pass-through" payments) and add a margin over variable costs paid per discharge, while the private payer can only use a margin policy. The hospital chooses joint costs in response to payers' overall payment incentives. Without pass-through payments, under provision of joint costs results front free-riding behavior of payers and the first-mover advantage of the public payer. Using pass-through policy in its self-interest, the public payer actually may moderate the under provision of joint costs; under some conditions, the equilibrium allocation may be socially efficient. Our results bear directly on directly Medicare policy, which is phasing out pass-through payments.     

Use of donor‐specified donation splitting: a technique to understand the impact of financial management on donor trust

• Two experiments investigated donors' willingness to split their donation into a proportion that the charity could use for administration costs and a portion that could be used to deliver the charity's services. Experiment 1 found that participants in the condition given the opportunity to split their donation into an amount for administration costs and an amount for service delivery gave a significantly smaller proportion of their overall donation to administration costs, when compared with participants in another condition who were simply asked what proportion of their donation they would be happy for the organization to use for administration costs. Experiment 2 manipulated the amount of information participants (donors) received about the breakdown of a charity's administration costs but found no significant change in the amount donated to administration. Both experiments show that donors were willing to donate approximately 15% of their donation directly to charity administration costs. Results are discussed in terms of understanding how a charity's financial management might be influencing donor's trust in the charity and providing charities with a degree of certainty in the proportion of donations they can spend on administration costs.

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Profit-Volume-Exchange-Rate Analysis for Planning International Operations

We extend the conventional Profit-Volume (P-V) analysis to develop a new model of Profit-Exchange-Rate (P-ER) analysis to evaluate how exchange rate fluctuations impact profit. We begin by classifying costs as either "global cost" or "local cost" according to whether or not input prices are exchange-rate sensitive. This classification is analogous to the familiar variable/fixed cost classification based on the cost sensitivity to volume change. Data for the U.S. and Japanese steel industries are used to illustrate the approach. We then combine the conventional Profit-Volume analysis with the Profit-Exchange-Rate analysis to form a composite model, called Profit-Volume-Exchange-Rate (P-VER) analysis, where both volume and exchange rate vary. We show that this composite approach suggests the use of a single rate-volume variable, similar to "person-hours," as the key planning-control variable for international operations.     

水浴式灭菌柜停电处理方法的模拟验证

确定并建立最终灭菌的无菌制剂在灭菌过程中出现停电状况时的处理方法。采用在产品灭菌过程中人为断电进行模拟验证,结果发现：在停电时,通过采用后备电源给灭菌柜的监控系统提供不间断供电的方式,可使灭菌柜监控系统持续监控产品的灭菌状态并记录数据,并能够在一定时间内保持灭菌状态。验证得出结论：在正常生产过程中出现停电情况,通过采用后备电源给灭菌柜的监控系统提供不间断供电的方式,可使灭菌柜监控系统在外界停止供电的情况下,实现持续对正在灭菌的产品的状态监控、实时记录灭菌数据,并且不用将灭菌的控制模式由自动切换到手动,避免了F_0值的归零,从而使F_0值的计算得以延续。在保温和密封良好的情况下,在一定的时间范围内被灭菌产品能维持灭菌状态,并达到灭菌要求。     

基于入侵杂草算法的城市生鲜配送优化研究

针对实际道路阻抗下的城市"最后一公里"生鲜配送路径优化问题,在保证骑手安全情况下,又能够以最快速度将货物送到客户手上,降低配送成本,从配送过程中电动车遇到的实际道路阻抗因素出发,建立了以最大化顾客满意度,最小化配送成本的多目标优化模型,并利用入侵杂草算法和遗传算法对模型进行分别求解。实验结果验证了模型和入侵杂草算法的有效性。     

公共财政体制下行政成本控制的经济效率研究

本文认为，行政成本作为政府对经济资源的消耗，可以按不同的标准进行分类研究。在当前不断深化公共财政体制改革的特殊时期，党中央提出可持续发展观和“以人为本”的理念，客观上要求控制行政成本、建立廉价政府，以减轻民众负担，重塑党政威望。     

转换成本、网络规模与信用卡产业竞争策略比较

近年来，我国信用卡产业呈现出市场集中度逐年下降的趋势。信用卡市场的竞争融合了网络效应、兼容性及转换成本等因素，而在兼容性一定的环境下，不同银行的竞争策略往往不同。本文通过防降价均衡模型估计出2010—2012年我国九家上市银行的信用卡转换成本，并对网络规模扩张、转换成本定位以及竞争成效等进行分组比较。结果表明，股份制商业银行利用较低的转换成本吸引新客户，实现了更高的业务规模增长率；四大国有商业银行则利用高转换成本锁定其已有客户，并以高速扩张网络规模来竞争新客户，使其同股份制商业银行的业务规模增长率差异逐年下降。这说明网络产业中不同市场地位的厂商可将转换成本定位与网络规模扩张作为差异化策略，以此实现竞争优势。     

环境成本核算与应用问题研究

环境成本在会计核算方面主要涉及环境成本的确认依据和确认原则，以及环境成本的分配问题。环境成本可在费用效果分析、环境治理和资源综合利用以及构建企业战略开发和产品绿色流程等方面得到应用。我国企业在环境成本核算上尚缺乏规范，应用方面也存在局限，需要建立相关的会计规范，转变观念，构建环境成本控制系统和责任中心。     

The Dangers of Misclassifying “Employees”: Microsoft Litigation Emphasizes Distinctions Between Employees and Nontraditional Workers

In the past decade, businesses, for reasons such as greater flexibility and lower total costs, have increased their use of nontraditional workers such as independent contractors and temporary agency employees. The Internal Revenue Service's crackdown on misclassifying employees slowed this growth. Additionally, recent lawsuits by nontraditional workers against employers such as Microsoft Corporation have resulted in some client employers being forced to pay more benefits to nontraditional employees because of employment misclassification and coemployment rulings. Such rulings might reduce or even eliminate the use of some types of nontraditional employees. This paper analyzes the vast array of types of workers that have evolved into the nontraditional work force and the difficulty of defining employee with respect to entitlement to employer benefits. Possible recommendations for employers include auditing present use of nontraditional workers, accurately classifying employees, and taking proper actions to minimize problems in the future.     

水浴式灭菌柜停电处理方法的模拟验证

确定并建立最终灭菌的无菌制剂在灭菌过程中出现停电状况时的处理方法。采用在产品灭菌过程中人为断电进行模拟验证,结果发现:在停电时,通过采用后备电源给灭菌柜的监控系统提供不间断供电的方式,可使灭菌柜监控系统持续监控产品的灭菌状态并记录数据,并能够在一定时间内保持灭菌状态。验证得出结论:在正常生产过程中出现停电情况,通过采用后备电源给灭菌柜的监控系统提供不间断供电的方式,可使灭菌柜监控系统在外界停止供电的情况下,实现持续对正在灭菌的产品的状态监控、实时记录灭菌数据,并且不用将灭菌的控制模式由自动切换到手动,避免了F_0值的归零,从而使F_0值的计算得以延续。在保温和密封良好的情况下,在一定的时间范围内被灭菌产品能维持灭菌状态,并达到灭菌要求。     

The Joint Commission and quality patient outcomes: role of materiel management

Again, employee orientation and ongoing education are crucial. The orientation should include not only cover protection of the employee but protection and management of supplies as they reach the consumer. The consultative role of the infection control person is also valuable, especially with regard to sterilizers and to sterilization and equipment management. Employees also need to understand the principles of effective sterilization, disinfection, and basic sanitation. There also need to be documented maintenance and surveillance of sterilization equipment.     

厦门区域性物流中心发展问题初探

文中在描述厦门地理环境、外贸基础设施建设以及厦门近几年"以港立市"政策的基础上,分析了厦门发展区域物流中心的有利条件和不利条件,提出厦门应利用自身优势建立区域性物流中心,依靠发展现代物流来降低企业的成本,提高厦门企业的市场竞争力,为厦门持续稳定地发展做出贡献.