Estimation of the Direct Cost of Management of Venous Thromboembolism in Three Reference Hospitals in the City of Yaoundé: A Retrospective Study over a Three-Year Period

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a major public health problem due to its increasing frequency, mortality and management cost. This cost may require major financial efforts from patients, especially in developing countries like ours where less than 7% of the population has health insurance. This study aimed to estimate the direct cost of managing VTE in three reference hospitals in Yaoundé. Methods: This was a cross-sectional retrospective study over a three-year period (from January 1st 2018 to December 31 2020) carried out in the Cardiology departments of the Central and General Hospitals, and the Emergency Centre of the city of Yaoundé. All patients managed during the study period for deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism confirmed by venous ultrasound coupled with Doppler and computed tomography pulmonary angiography respectively were included. For each patient, we collected sociodemographic and clinical data as well as data on the cost of consultation, hospital stay, workups and medications. These data were analysed using SPSS version 23.0. Results: A total of 92 patient’s records were analysed. The median age was 60 years [48 - 68] with a sex ratio of 0.53. The median direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism was 766,375 CFAF [536,455 - 1,029,745] or $1415 USD. Management of pulmonary embolism associated with deep vein thrombosis was more costly than isolated pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Factors influencing the direct cost of management of venous thromboembolism were: hospital structure (p = 0.015), health insurance (p 0.001), type of pulmonary embolism (p = 0.021), and length of hospital stay (p = 0.001). Conclusion: Management of VTE is a major financial burden for our patients and this burden is influenced by the hospital structure, health insurance, type of pulmonary embolism and length of hospital stay.

Analysis of the Current Situation of Cost Management and Control of Highway Construction Projects

The highway engineering process is complex,coupled with a relatively long construction period,hence requires increased coordination between participating units to prevent economic disputes and efficiency losses.The main body of the construction project needs to strengthen the management and control of funds.In this regard,this paper analyzes the importance of cost management in highway projects by clarifying and analyzing the current cost management status quo problems and causes.The highway engineering cost control strategy and implementation methods are summarized to provide references for improving the quality of highway engineering.

Whole-Process Project Cost Management Based on Building Information Modeling (BIM)

The whole-process project cost management based on building information modeling(BIM)is a new management method,aiming to realize the comprehensive optimization and improvement of project cost management through the application of BIM technology.This paper summarizes and analyzes the whole-process project cost management based on BIM,aiming to explore its application and development prospects in the construction industry.Firstly,this paper introduces the role and advantages of BIM technology in engineering cost management,including information integration,data sharing,and collaborative work.Secondly,the paper analyzes the key technologies and methods of the whole-process project cost management based on BIM,including model construction,data management,and cost control.In addition,the paper also discusses the challenges and limitations of the whole-process BIM project cost management,such as the inconsistency of technical standards,personnel training,and consciousness change.Finally,the paper summarizes the advantages and development prospects of the whole-process project cost management based on BIM and puts forward the direction and suggestions for future research.Through the research of this paper,it can provide a reference for construction cost management and promote innovation and development in the construction industry.

Crystallization management of CsPbI_(2)Br perovskites by PbAc_(2)-incorporated twice spin-coating process for efficient and stable CsPbI_(2)Br perovskite solar cells

CsPbI_(2)Br perovskite solar cell has been extensively studied due to its exceptional thermal stability and relatively stable perovskite phase structure.However,the presence of bromine leads to a rapid crystallization rate of CsPbI_(2)Br films,resulting in small grain size and high defect density.Additionally,CsPbI_(2)Br demonstrates poor light absorption due to its wide bandgap.Therefore,it is crucial to control the crystallization rate and increase the film thickness to reduce defect density,enhance light absorption,and improve photovoltaic performance.In this study,we utilized a PbAc_(2)-incorporated twice spincoating(PTS) process to address these issues.Initially,PbAc_(2) was added to the CsPbI_(2)Br precursor solution to form a CsPbI_(2)Br film,which was then coated with the CsPbI_(2)Br precursor solution to produce the PTS film,Ac^(-)can delay the perovskite crystallization,leading to the formation of thicker and denser CsPbI_(2)Br films.Moreover,lone-pair electrons of the oxygen atom provided by Ac^(-)formed coordination bonds with under-coordinated Pb~(2+) ions to fill halogen ion vacancies,thereby reducing the defect density.Ultimately,the PTS CsPbI_(2)Br device achieved a peak power conversion efficiency(PCE) of 16.19% and maintained 96.7% of its initial PCE over 1500 h at room temperature under 25% relative humidity without any encapsulation.

Development and Application of Procedures for the Management of Skin Toxicity Related to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors in Patients with Lung Cancer

Objective: To establish the procedures for the management of skin toxicity related to immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with lung cancer and explore the effect of application. Methods: A total of 24 evidence-based evidences were collected from 7 aspects, including risk factors, baseline screening, ICIs monitoring, daily skin care, multidisciplinary management, symptom management and health education. A total of 157 lung cancer patients and 94 nurses from 8 wards of the Oncology department of our hospital from November 2022 to May 2023 were selected by convenience sampling. A total of 77 patients and 46 nurses from ward 1 - 4 were divided into the baseline group. There were 80 patients and 48 nurses in Ward 5 - 8 as the evidence-based practice group. In the baseline group, patients were treated with routine methods such as assessing skin symptoms, taking medication according to symptoms, guiding to keep skin clean and moist, eating a light diet, and avoiding scratching. The evidence-based practice group adopts an evidence-based continuous improvement model for nursing. The differences in the severity of symptoms of skin toxicity in the second cycle of medication and the knowledge and practice of self-care of skin toxicity were compared between the two groups before and after the use of the syndrome, as well as the differences in the implementation rate of review indicators, evidence-based ability and knowledge and practice of skin toxicity care before and after the use of the syndrome. Results: The incidence and severity of cutaneous toxicity were significantly lower after treatment than before treatment (P P < 0.05). Conclusion: The implementation of immune checkpoint inhibitor-related skin toxicity management procedures can effectively reduce the incidence and severity of skin toxicity symptoms, optimize the clinical pathway, and improve the quality of care.

AI-Driven Learning Management Systems:Modern Developments, Challenges and Future Trends during theAge of ChatGPT

COVID-19 pandemic restrictions limited all social activities to curtail the spread of the virus.The foremost and most prime sector among those affected were schools,colleges,and universities.The education system of entire nations had shifted to online education during this time.Many shortcomings of Learning Management Systems(LMSs)were detected to support education in an online mode that spawned the research in Artificial Intelligence(AI)based tools that are being developed by the research community to improve the effectiveness of LMSs.This paper presents a detailed survey of the different enhancements to LMSs,which are led by key advances in the area of AI to enhance the real-time and non-real-time user experience.The AI-based enhancements proposed to the LMSs start from the Application layer and Presentation layer in the form of flipped classroom models for the efficient learning environment and appropriately designed UI/UX for efficient utilization of LMS utilities and resources,including AI-based chatbots.Session layer enhancements are also required,such as AI-based online proctoring and user authentication using Biometrics.These extend to the Transport layer to support real-time and rate adaptive encrypted video transmission for user security/privacy and satisfactory working of AI-algorithms.It also needs the support of the Networking layer for IP-based geolocation features,the Virtual Private Network(VPN)feature,and the support of Software-Defined Networks(SDN)for optimum Quality of Service(QoS).Finally,in addition to these,non-real-time user experience is enhanced by other AI-based enhancements such as Plagiarism detection algorithms and Data Analytics.

Variable and Invariable,Explore the Value-Creation Techniques of Management Accounting by Benchmarking the Financial Management of Large Enterprises

With the development of information technology such as ChatGPT,artificial intelligence,5G,and so on,technological innovation brings about a qualitative change in the economic business.This change is embodied in breakthroughs in the field of science and technology and the iterative upgrading process of products.The traditional business model undoubtedly fails to adapt to the management needs of modern enterprises,while traditional financial practices and knowledge reserves cannot meet these needs.Faced with sudden technological changes and the emergence of financial sharing,financial robots,etc.,there is an urgent need for financial practitioners to transform from traditional financial accounting to value-creating management accounting.In the future,financial professionals with the ability to embrace uncertainty,adapt to environmental changes,and find breakthroughs in uncertain environments will be the most sought-after by enterprises.This paper aims to benchmark the excellent financial management models of large enterprises and conduct thematic research on financial management in large enterprises.It seeks to explore,in the era of big data management accounting,the road and art of creating value in enterprises.The objective is to provide references for colleagues in the financial field and to explore effective ways to generate value for enterprise management ideas,thus serving as a reference point in the financial transformation journey.

Cost Control Strategies in the Pre-Construction Period of Highway Construction

Effective cost control in the investment and design phases of highway construction is crucial for managing project expenses.However,current management practices often overlook pre-construction cost management,leading to budget overruns and project delays during later stages.To ensure the smooth execution and cost control of highway construction projects,this paper examines the significance of cost control,evaluates the current state and challenges of highway construction,and proposes strategies for cost management.These strategies aim to establish a robust foundation for cost management in highway projects.

Cost Management and Cost Control of Photovoltaic Projects

With the rapid development of the photovoltaic(PV)industry and policy support,photovoltaic engineering has attracted much attention as a clean energy project.However,the complexity and huge investment scale of photovoltaic projects make cost management and cost control the key to project success.The purpose of this paper is to discuss the cost management and cost control strategies of photovoltaic projects,analyze their importance and challenges in the process of project implementation,and discuss the common cost control methods and techniques in photovoltaic projects,to improve cost management and cost control in photovoltaic projects,and to provide a reference for the sustainable development of the industry.

Research on Intelligent Cost Estimation of Engineering Foundation Projects Based on CSIs Theory

Against the backdrop of rapid development in China’s construction and infrastructure sectors,discrepancies between project budgets and actual costs have become pronounced,manifesting in project overruns and suspensions,posing significant challenges.To address inaccuracies in investment targets and operational complexities,this study focuses on a beam-bridge construction project in a district of Shijiazhuang city as a case study.Drawing upon historical analogs,the project employs a Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)to decompose the engineering works.Building on theories of Cost Significant(CS)and Whole Life Costing(WLC),the study constructs Cost Significant Items(CSIs)and develops a CNN-BiLSTM-Attention neural network for nonlinear prediction.By identifying significant cost drivers in engineering projects,this paper presents a streamlined cost estimation method that significantly reduces computational burdens,simplifies data collection processes,and optimizes data analysis and forecasting,thereby enhancing prediction accuracy.Finally,validation with real-world cost fluctuation data demonstrates minor errors,meeting predictive requirements across project execution phases.

Application Analysis of BIM Technology in Construction Engineering Cost Management

With the rapid development of information technology,Building Information Modeling(BIM)technology has gradually occupied an important position in the construction industry.With the introduction of BIM technology,the cost control of construction projects can be greatly improved[1].The use of this technology can not only reduce the project approval time but also improve the quality of the project.In addition,it can also help the construction personnel to solve the project changes,maintenance costs,insurance rates,and other related issues,so that the operation of the project is more efficient and economical.This paper will discuss the role of BIM technology in depth,and explore the advantages and disadvantages of each link through the research of the project,to provide a reference for the promotion of this new project.By constantly adjusting the application strategy,the goal is to meet the current market demand.

Analytic Hierarchy Process for Technological Risks in the Process of Innovative Drug Development in China

Objective To identify the critical risks in the process of innovative drug research and development,and to provide reference for improving the efficiency of innovative drug development and risk control in China.Methods Expert investigation and analytic hierarchy process were used to determine the weights of different risks.Results and Conclusion The research and analysis results showed that the risks at different stages of development had different effects on the success rate of drug development,among which the risk at the drug discovery stage influenced the most.In the drug discovery stage,inappropriate target selection had the greatest impact on the success rate of drug development.The lack of appropriate cell tissue or animal models had the greatest impact on the success rate of drug development from the discovery of a compound to the application for clinical trials.The difference in changes between nonclinical and clinical studies had the greatest impact on the success rate of drug development from early clinical studies to pivotal clinical studies.Incorrect dose selection had the greatest impact on the success rate of drug development from pivotal clinical studies to marketing authorization applications.The biggest impact from the marketing authorization application to the approval stage was inadequate communication with regulators.After investigating the weight of risk factors in the process of innovative drug development based on scientific methods,a new perspective for the risk control of new drug development and improving the research and development efficiency is provided.

Analysis of Enterprise Cost Management from the Perspective of Management Economics

In view of economic globalization,China’s economy has entered a stage of normalized development.In the post pandemic era,the costs of raw materials,production,sales,and labor in Chinese enterprises continue to increase,leading to severe competitive pressure among the enterprises.Therefore,it is of great theoretical and practical significance to actively apply the relevant theories of management economics to guide the cost management of Chinese enterprises,improve their economic benefits,and promote healthy and sustainable development.Currently,there are still many problems in terms of cost management in Chinese enterprises.Therefore,it is crucial to address these problems and further improve the effectiveness of cost management.This paper presents an overview of cost management and an analysis of the specific problems and provide corresponding countermeasures,in hopes of to providing a reference for cost management in enterprises and achieve the goal of stable and sustainable development of China’s economy.

The Management of Environment Cost Caused by Ballast Water

According to classical economic theory,external cost is the indirect,and uncompensated,social or environmental cost caused to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party’s activity.In light of this,the environmental cost caused by ballast water is considered as a negative externality.This paper aims to contribute by proposing that the environmental cost caused by ballast water can be determined through questionnaires,and that the imposition of a Pigouvian retributive tax is required to compensate for the environmental damage caused.The paper proceeds as follows.Firstly,ballast water management is discussed.Second,the environmental cost is discussed and it is asserted that it is important to have clear regulations and to update them frequently to prevent or minimize ballast water’s negative impact on the environment.Finally,it is suggested that the environmental cost caused by ballast water can be determined by questionnaires and,more specifically,by the WTP(Willingness to Pay)method,and that a special Pigouvian corrective taxation which can internalize this cost should be imposed.

Research on Contract Management and Control in the Process of Project Cost

In the current economic situation, strengthening the contract management of the construction cost has a beautifully role. At the same time, according to construction project cost management, the scientific management of the contract, can promote the reasonable and balanced investment cost allocation in the quality and safety and other aspects of the project, so that the construction project can obtain higher added value, and to further promote China＇ s economic construction and accelerate the pace of the city. This paper first briefly elaborates our construction project cost of the contract management on the present situation, and some problems are analyzed and discussed, and then puts forward some suggestions on the measures and countermeasures for cost management of construction engineering contract.

A digital twin model-based approach to cost optimization of residential community microgrids

This paper presents a peer-to-peer community cost optimization approach based on a single-prosumer energy management system.Its objective is to optimize energy costs for prosumers in the community by enhancing the consumption efficiency.This study was conducted along two main axes.The first axis focuses on designing a digital twin for a residential community microgrid platform.This phase involves data collection,cleaning,exploration,and interpretation.Moreover,it includes replicating the functionality of the real platform and validating the results.The second axis involves the development of a novel approach that incorporates two distinct prosumer behaviors within the same community microgrid,while maintaining the concept of peer-to-peer energy trading.Prosumers without storage utilize their individual PV systems to fulfill their energy requirements and inject excess energy into a local microgrid.Meanwhile,a single prosumer with a storage system actively engages in energy exchange to maximize the community’s profit.This is achieved by optimizing battery usage using a cost optimization solution.The proposed solution is validated using the developed digital twin.

Mapping Climate Services for Disaster Risk Management: A Systematic Review and Research Gaps from a Policy Process Perspective

Climate services (CS) are crucial for mitigating and managing the impacts and risks associated with climate-induced disasters. While evidence over the past decade underscores their effectiveness across various domains, particularly agriculture, to maximize their potential, it is crucial to identify emerging priority areas and existing research gaps for future research agendas. As a contribution to this effort, this paper employs the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology to review the state-of-the-art in the field of climate services for disaster risk management. A comprehensive search across five literature databases combined with a snowball search method using ResearchRabbit was conducted and yielded 242 peer-reviewed articles, book sections, and reports over 2013-2023 after the screening process. The analysis revealed flood, drought, and food insecurity as major climate-related disasters addressed in the reviewed literature. Major climate services addressed included early warning systems, (sub)seasonal forecasts and impact-based warnings. Grounded in the policy processes’ theoretical perspective, the main focus identified and discussed three prevailing policy-oriented priority areas: 1) development of climate services, 2) use-adoption-uptake, and 3) evaluation of climate services. In response to the limitations of the prevalent supply-driven and top-down approach to climate services promotion, co-production emerges as a cross-cutting critical aspect of the identified priority areas. Despite the extensive research in the field, more attention is needed, particularly pronounced in the science-policy interface perspective, which in practice bridges scientific knowledge and policy decisions for effective policy processes. This perspective offers a valuable analytical lens as an entry point for further investigation. Hence, future research agendas would generate insightful evidence by scrutinizing this critical aspect given its importance to institutions and climate services capacity, to better understand intricate facets of the development and the integration of climate services into disaster risk management.

An Edge-Fog-Cloud Computing-Based Digital Twin Model for Prognostics Health Management of Process Manufacturing Systems

The prognostics health management(PHM)fromthe systematic viewis critical to the healthy continuous operation of processmanufacturing systems(PMS),with different kinds of dynamic interference events.This paper proposes a three leveled digital twinmodel for the systematic PHMof PMSs.The unit-leveled digital twinmodel of each basic device unit of PMSs is constructed based on edge computing,which can provide real-time monitoring and analysis of the device status.The station-leveled digital twin models in the PMSs are designed to optimize and control the process parameters,which are deployed for the manufacturing execution on the fog server.The shop-leveled digital twin maintenancemodel is designed for production planning,which gives production instructions fromthe private industrial cloud server.To cope with the dynamic disturbances of a PMS,a big data-driven framework is proposed to control the three-level digital twin models,which contains indicator prediction,influence evaluation,and decisionmaking.Finally,a case study with a real chemical fiber system is introduced to illustrate the effectiveness of the digital twin model with edge-fog-cloud computing for the systematic PHM of PMSs.The result demonstrates that the three-leveled digital twin model for the systematic PHM in PMSs works well in the system’s respects.

HV Process Model of Software Development

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is one of the major ingredients for the development of efficient software systems within a time frame and low-cost involvement. From the literature, it is evident that there are various kinds of process models that are used by the software industries for the development of small, medium and long-term software projects, but many of them do not cover risk management. It is quite obvious that the improper selection of the software development process model leads to failure of the software products as it is time bound activity. In the present work, a new software development process model is proposed which covers the risks at any stage of the development of the software product. The model is named a Hemant-Vipin (HV) process model and may be helpful for the software industries for development of the efficient software products and timely delivery at the end of the client. The efficiency of the HV process model is observed by considering various kinds of factors like requirement clarity, user feedback, change agility, predictability, risk identification, practical implementation, customer satisfaction, incremental development, use of ready-made components, quick design, resource organization and many more and found through a case study that the presented approach covers many of parameters in comparison of the existing process models. .

Research on Procurement Cost Control Based on Supply Chain Management

In modern enterprise management,strengthening the control and management of procurement processes can effectively reduce operational costs.However,with the continuous reform and improvement of China’s market economy system,competition among supply chain enterprises has intensified.The traditional procurement management model is no longer able to meet the needs of enterprise development in the current era.As a result,procurement management based on supply chain management has emerged,offering significant improvements in the scientific management of procurement processes.It has become an important means of promoting the long-term development of enterprises.This paper primarily analyzes and studies procurement cost control based on supply chain management,providing insights for reference.