Medical savings accounts: opportunities for cost savings?

Interest in medical savings accounts (MSAs) as a potential tool to reduce healthcare costs has been widespread. A small number of countries have either implemented or run pilot programs of MSAs, and vigorous policy debates have taken place in several other countries about the potential merits of introducing MSAs as a method of paying for health care. In this paper we develop a model to assess the cost saving potential of MSAs in a publicly funded healthcare system. We assume that the public healthcare payer may choose between reimbursing healthcare expenditures through an MSA or through a form of third‐party payer insurance. We use the model to identify the conditions under which MSAs may reduce costs. We illustrate using data on healthcare expenditures from Canada.     

Specifying concurrent systems with TSL

The Task Sequencing Language (TSL), which lets programmers specify constraints on the behavior of concurrent programs, is described. The constraints, specified by high-level annotations to Ada programs, are monitored at runtime; when a violation is detected, control is returned to the user, along with information about the nature of the violation. It is argued that such a tool is a necessary crutch for human reasoning capabilities when dealing with the complexities of concurrent process interaction. The first large-scale application of TSL, the specification and validation of a distributed tasking supervisor for Ada, is described     

Attention, the intersection of cost and quality in health care

A method for assessing health care technology that models the demand on the clinician's attention exerted by patients' data (diagnostic and therapeutic) can provide a means for simultaneously reducing the cost and improving the quality of health care. The attentional demand exerted by patients' data can be measured by the amount of uncertainty in the data. Uncertainty can be expressed mathematically by the concept of entropy in information theory.     

Surface tension as a controlled variable in mechanical dishwashing

Using a continuous, in-line, nondestructive technique based on the maximum bubble pressure method, the surface tension of the wash water in a mechanical dishwashing machine has been monitored. This technique has enabled surface tension to be used as a controlled variable, providing feedback to regulate the amount of surfactant added. Assuming the mechanical force of the water spray is adequate to remove bound soil from the dish surface, the food soil may be titrated against surfactant, providing an indirect indication as to when the dishes are clean. This technique also could be applied to a recirculated wash solution for in-place cleaning.     

Subreflector shaping to improve multiple-beam performance of a Cassegrain antenna

A method of designing multiple-beam antennas based on shaping the subreflector of an offset Cassegrain antenna is described. It is applied to a compact system having a diameter of 300? that is required to produce beams up to 4-6°either side of boresight. The performance is shown to be only slightly less than that obtainable by also shaping the main reflector, indicating that efficient multiple-satellite-access antennas can be designed without specially shaped main reflectors.     

High-resolution electron microscopy of the twinning and intergrowth in Ca4Al6SO16 and Ca3SrAl6SO16

The microstructures of unhydrated calcium aluminosulphate Ca₄Al₆SO₁₆ and Ca₃SrAl₆SO₁₆ have been studied by high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM). The results showed that twinning and twinned slabs could be introduced taking the [1 1 2] direction as the twin axis so that it seems to be coincident with the law of twinning formed in body-centred cubic structures. A previously reported superlattice with a repeat period twice that of the fundamental structure along the 〈1 1 0〉 direction has also been found in both matrix and twin variants. The close intergrowth of Ca₃SrAl₆SO₁₆ and another phase, possibly Sr₃Al₂O₆ existing as an inclusion between these two twin variants, was determined and clearly revealed by electron diffraction and HREM images. The coherent interphase boundaries and orientation relationship between them can also be deduced.     

An artificial neural network approach on parametric optimization of laser micro-machining of die-steel

In the present research, laser micro machining (LMM) of tungsten-molybdenum general purpose high speed steel (Rex M2) has been studied. Selection of optimum machining parameter combinations for obtaining higher depth of groove and smaller height of recast layer is a challenging task in LMM due to the presence of a large number of process variables. There is no perfect combination of parameters which can simultaneously result in both the highest depth of groove and lowest height of recast layer. This paper presents an attempt to develop a strategy for predicting the optimum machining parameter setting for the generation of the maximum depth of groove with minimum height of recast layer. A feed forward back-propagation neural network has been developed to model the machining process. The model, after proper training, is capable of predicting the response parameters as a function of four different control parameters. Experimental results demonstrate that the machining model is suitable and the optimization strategy satisfies practical requirements. The developed model has been found to be quite unique, powerful and flexible.     

Prony-Based Optimal Bayes Fault Classification of Overcurrent Protection

The development of deregulation and demand for high-quality electrical energy has lead to a new requirement in different fields of power systems. In the protection field, this means that high sensitivity and fast operation during the fault are required while maltripping of relay protection is not acceptable. One case that may lead to a maltrip of the high-sensitive overcurrent relay is the starting current of the induction motor or inrush current of the transformer. This transient current has the potential to affect the correct operation of protection relays close to the component being switched. In the case of switching events, such transients must not lead to overcurrent relay operation; therefore, a reliable and secure relay response becomes a critical matter. Meanwhile, proper techniques must be used to prevent maltripping of such relays, due to transient currents in the network. In this paper, the optimal Bayes classifier is utilized to develop a method for discriminating the fault from nonfault events. The proposed method has been designed based on extracting the modal parameters of the current waveform using the Prony method. By feeding the fundamental frequency damping and ratio of the 2nd harmonic amplitude over the fundamental harmonic amplitude to the classifier, the fault case is discriminated from the switching case. The suitable performance of this algorithm is demonstrated by simulation of different faults and switching conditions on a power system using PSCAD/EMTDC software.     

Influence of inhibitor addition on the corrosion protection performance of sol–gel coatings on AA2024

Sol–gel films are actively investigated during the last decade as possible candidates for environmentally friendly pre-treatments. However, the important drawback in this case is the lack of active corrosion protection and self-healing ability.