Dental Amalgams and the Incidence Rate of Arthritis among American Adults

This hypothesis-testing study evaluated the relationship between mercury (Hg)-based dental amalgams and arthritis diagnoses among adults in the United States (US). A total of 86 305 425 weighted-persons with ⩾1 dental amalgam filling surface (DAFS) (exposed group) and 32 201 088 weighted-persons with ⩾1 other dental filling surface (ODFS) (no DAFS, unexposed group) were examined in the 2015 to 2016 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES). All persons were 20 to 80 years-old with known demographic characteristics and arthritis status. Survey logistic regression and survey frequency modeling in SAS were employed with and without adjustment of covariates. The arthritis rate was significantly increased in the exposed group compared to the unexposed group in the unadjusted (7.68-fold) and adjusted (4.89-fold) models. Arthritis (per 10 000 weighted-person-years) was 6.0-fold significantly increased in the exposed group (6.2) compared to the unexposed group (1.06). A significant bimodal dose-dependent relationship between DAFS and arthritis rate was observed. The arthritis rate increased with increasing DAFS (peak among persons with 4-7 DAFS) and, subsequently, decreased among those with >6 DAFS. A significant decrease in arthritis rate among persons with >13 DAFS as compared to those persons with 4 to 7 DAFS was observed. A significant association between DAFS and arthritis risk and a dose-dependent DAFS associated immune-stimulation/immune-suppression with arthritis risk were observed. An estimated additional $96 835 814 US dollars (USD) are spent on annual medical costs and $184 797 680 USD are lost in annual wages from reported new onset arthritis attributably associated with DAFS (annual total cost = $281 633 494 USD).

OP0262-HPR COST OF ILLNESS IN PATIENTS WITH PSORIASIS AND PSORIATIC ARTHRITIS. COEPSO STUDY

Background:Psoriasis (Ps) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have a major impact on patients’ health-related quality of life. Cost of illness of patients with Ps, PsA and both diseases (PsA+Ps) is an important subject as they are associated with a substantial economic impact, with implications from a health management perspective.Objectives:To describe the economic burden of direct non-healthcare and indirect resources of patients with Ps, PsA and PsA+Ps in Spain.Methods:COEPSO (“Evaluation of Costs in patients with Psoriatic Disease”) was an observational, retrospective, cross-sectional study performed in 22 Spanish centers (17 Dermatology and 14 Rheumatology Services), from February 2017 to February 2018, including moderate to severe Ps and PsA patients (with or without Ps), naive to biologics. Direct non-healthcare (social services, home care, physical adaptations, private health and non-health professionals, non-reimbursed and non-pharmaceutical therapies), indirect (loss of productivity) and total costs (direct non-healthcare and indirect costs) related to the disease during the previous year to the study were obtained. Unitary costs (€, 2018) were calculated: out-of-pocket costs were specified directly by patients and loss of productivity costs by means of average salaries based on occupation specified by patients. The information was collected through a case report form filled out by the investigators and a telephone survey administered to the patients.Results:A total of 318 patients were included (196 Ps; 43 PsA and 79 PsA+Ps), mean age 48.7 years and 51.3% males. Metabolic syndrome was the most frequent comorbidity in all groups. The average annual total cost per patient was 1,042.71€ (SD 3,817.55), 1,137.84€ (SD 3,070.39) and 1,830.26€ (SD 5,835.81) for Ps, PsA and PsA+Ps, respectively. The average annual direct non-healthcare cost per patient was 749.57€ (SD 2,393.77), 750.50€ (SD 1,641.82) and 1,247.56€ (SD 4,467.19) for Ps, PsA and PsA+Ps, respectively. The average annual indirect cost per patient was 293.14€ (SD 2,855.27), 387.35€ (SD 2,409.63) and 582.71€ (SD 3,842.12) for Ps, PsA and PsA+Ps, respectively.Patients with combined PsA+Ps had higher annual total cost (direct non-healthcare and indirect costs) than patients with only one of these manifestations separately (75.5% and 60.9% above patients with Ps and PsA, respectively). Total costs in patients with Ps and PsA were similar. Direct non-healthcare costs represent between 66.0% (patients with PsA) to 71.9% (patients with Ps) of total cost. Indirect costs represent between 28.1% (patients with Ps) to 34.0% (patients with PsA) of total cost.Conclusion:PsA and Ps have proved to be diseases with a high economic burden, and the total costs were mainly driven by direct non-healthcare costs. Moreover, although annual total costs in patients with PsA were similar to those of Ps patients, the combination of both manifestations yielded the highest costs suggesting the importance of the increased disease load.Disclosure of Interests:Santos Castañeda: None declared, Esther Vicente Speakers bureau: BMS, Roche., Mar Llamas Velasco: None declared, Javier Sanchez Perez: None declared, José Pardo: None declared, Rita Cabeza-Martínez: None declared, Mercedes Miranda-Fontes: None declared, Juan Márquez: None declared, Jaime Calvo Grant/research support from: Lilly, UCB, Consultant of: Abbvie, Jansen, Celgene, susana armesto: None declared, Isabel Belinchón: None declared, Alejandro Gómez: None declared, María Dolores Miranda: None declared, Silvia Martinez Pardo: None declared, Leticia Merino-Meléndez: None declared, Miguel Angel Casado Consultant of: UCB Pharma, María Yébenes: None declared, Araceli Casado: None declared

A Concept on Order Quantity at Varying Cost in Variable Rate of Production Situation

The concept of EOQ is simply to tackle the management issues of inventory in various types of production systems. This is amongst the most popularly used models in the production houses for inventory. A major issue faced by stock manager is to design an effective policy for replacement, resulting outcome as lowest cost of inventory units. Traditional EOQ theory, assumes majorly two factors that is demand and per unit cost. It is assumed that demand remains constant and can be determined at any level. Secondly that per unit production cost does is not dependent on quantity of order for production. This study is based on a model for stock with multi-item and when per unit cost is dependent on demand and crashing cost of leading time is dependent on lead time. Hence, model has been formulated having constraints of orders and production cost. Unit cost of production is considered fuzzy variable. The jist problem for optimizing the annual total cost has been considered with Karush Kuhn-Tucker conditions method. Mathematical derivations and analysis have been made for one unit, along with testing done from Sensitivity analysis. Illustrations have been taken on random basis

Livelihood improvement of poor farmers through goat rearing in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh

The study aimed to examine the feeding, management, income and livelihood improvement through goat rearing in Mymensingh district. The study was conducted at different unions namely Gazirvita, Koichapur and Norail of Haluaghat Upazila in Mymensingh district. Total 45 respondents were randomly selected from three unions where 15 from each union. The respondents were classified into three distinct groups. The farmers belonged to Group-G, who lives in Gazirvita union, Group-K, who lives in Koichapur union and Group-N, belonged to the farmers who lives in Norail union. The period of data collection was from April to June, 2011. The farmer’s families were poorest of the poor and illiterate. The annual total cost of production of Black Bengal goat was Tk. 2154, while gross return and net return per household were Tk. 4296 and Tk. 2142, respectively. Educational status, employment for men, employment for women, social dignity and social acceptance were increased at 35, 24, 58, 26 and 23% through goat rearing in the study area. The result clearly indicates that livelihood increases dramatically through goat rearing in the study area.Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2017. 46 (1): 29-34

Socio-economic status of buffalo farmers and the management practices of buffaloes in selected areas of Bagerhat District of Bangladesh

The study was conducted to investigate the socio-economic status of the buffalo farmers and the management practices of buffaloes at different villages of Boraikhali, Hoglabunia and Khawlia union of Morrelgonj upazilla in Bagerhat district of Bangladesh. A total of 60 respondents (20 from each union) were randomly selected from three unions. The data was collected through personal interviewing with pre-tested questioner. The investigation revealed that buffalo rearing was practiced by the middle (30-40 years) and old (>40 years) aged farmers than the young (<30 years). Majority (82%) of the buffalo farmers are educated but only 12% are illiterate. The major occupation of the selected farmers are buffalo rearing (50%) followed by crop production, dairying and poultry rearing. The buffalo farmers basically have no training skills but practiced buffalo rearing as their family profession and 30% of them are influenced by the neighboring buffalo farmers. The buffalo farmers purchased usually one pair of buffalo and reared at least for 2 years. The farmers fed their buffalos with locally available roughages and tree leaves but they did not practice concentrate feeding. The CP contents of the available feedstuffs are comparable and even higher and the CF content was found lower compared to other unconventional feedstuffs indicated the availability of good quality feeds for buffaloes in the studied areas. Semi-intensive feeding system was practiced for rearing buffaloes followed by extensive feeding system. Majority of the buffalo farmers allowed wallowing buffaloes for once or twice in a day for at least 1-2 hours. The major diseases of buffaloes found in the studied areas were foot and mouth followed by black quarter, anthrax and hemorrhagic septicemia. Most of the buffalo farmers practiced vaccination and de-worming regularly. The average cost of one pair of buffalo was 60000-200000 BDT. The annual total cost of production was Tk 5,070, while a gross return was Tk 15,630 per buffalo. The annual food and cloth purchasing capacity of the buffalo farmers were found to be increased to 62.85 and 58.33%, respectively. Similarly, the ability to maintain social status, health care, education and housing of the buffalo farmers were also increased through buffalo rearing. Considering all this parameters related to livelihood, it was clearly found that the socio-economic status of the buffalo farmers was improved through buffalo rearing although the management practices need to be improved with scientific approaches. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjas.v42i2.18505 Bang. J. Anim. Sci. 2013. 42 (2): 158-164

Cascade Utilization of Waste Heat in Heavy Oil Exploitation by SAGD Technology

SAGD technology is utilized to exploit heavy oil in Du 84 block Shu 1 area of Liaohe Oilfield, the temperature of wellhead produced fluid can reach up to 170-180°C. To avoid wasting the thermal energy, a set of scheme of cascade utilization of waste heat was proposed to combine the generation of electrical energy and heating in this paper. The generating capacity, heating area and its economic efficiency are calculated and analyzed in this scheme. In addition, taking the annual total cost of the condenser as the objective function, the parameters of the condenser are optimized by using optimal function in MATLAB software. The results can be used to conduct the design of the waste heat utilization system in practical project. Keywords-; Energy saving; optimal design; low temperature waste heat; SAGD

Technical and Economic Analysis of CCHP System in a Building

Combined Cooling，Heating and Power system(CCHP system) has potential advantages in areas of energy reliability, environment and economics. This paper analyses the system's principles and puts forward internal combustion engine CCHP system and builds a series of mathematical models of each part. The main purpose of this paper is the analysis of the annual total cost and energy saving rate, the results show that, compared with the conventional supply system, the CCHP system can save 1,060,000￥annual, the save rate is amounted to 22.1% and relative energy saving ratio could reach 13%. This study may provide with some reliable foundations on the application of the CCHP system.

The Optimization of ITD in Direct Air-Cooled System

In order to improve the technical economy of direct air-cooled system, based on the thermodynamic model of the air-cooled system, taking the annual total cost as the objective function, the face velocity of air and the ITD (initial temperature difference) value as parameters, this article has researched the optimal ITD of direct air-cooled system in theory, and given the uncertainty analysis in the end to reflect the influence of economic parameters. The results shows that the technical economy of direct air-cooled system can achieve optimal under the condition of economic parameters change. Thus, the results of studying will provide helpful guidance for the optimization of direct air-cooled system.

The Optimization of ITD in Direct Air-Cooled System

In order to improve the technical economy of direct air-cooled system, based on the thermodynamic model of the air-cooled system, taking the annual total cost as the objective function, the face velocity of air and the ITD (initial temperature difference) value as parameters, this article has researched the optimal ITD of direct air-cooled system in theory, and given the uncertainty analysis in the end to reflect the influence of economic parameters. The results shows that the technical economy of direct air-cooled system can achieve optimal under the condition of economic parameters change. Thus, the results of studying will provide helpful guidance for the optimization of direct air-cooled system.

Optimal Layout of Pipe Network of District Cooling System in Shanghai EXPO Park

The layout of district cooling pipeline network is a typical combinational optimization problem. Taking the minimum annual total cost of pipeline network as the optimization target, this article applied the single parent genetic algorithm in optimum arrangement of aqueous cooling system pipe network of the First Energy Station in Shanghai Expo Park, which has given a scheme of arrangement with minimum tentative investment and operation cost to provide basis for scheme assessment and decision-making. The study shows that the application can provide not only many optimal arrangements for pipe network which has the same refrigeration station to make basis for scheme assessment and decision-making, but also the basis for choosing the best position of refrigeration station.