scholarly journals Strategies for Effective Home Modification in Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 215145932110207
Author(s):  
Yuki Kato ◽  
Ken Muramatsu ◽  
Yoshinori Yamamoto ◽  
Yoshie Suzuki ◽  
Ryo Momosaki

There are various barriers to home modifications to prevent falls among the older population. Several strategies may be necessary to overcome these barriers and implement effective home modifications. The need for home modification should be assessed, which requires a home evaluation by a specialist. In Japan, welfare housing environment coordinators have been trained to provide advice on home modifications suitable for people with disabilities. In addition, in Japan, home assessment and advice on home modification before discharge from acute care hospitals for older people is allowed as a medical reimbursement, and a system for effective home modification is well established. Human resource training and medical policy arrangements on home modifications could improve the cost-effectiveness. In Japan, a system has been established to support the costs of home modification and environmental maintenance. Financial support has reduced the barrier to home modification. Fixed grab bars or shower chairs can be rented, which may be more cost-effective than purchasing them and may shorten the time required for installation. There may be psychological barriers to home modification for older population. Since many older people do not recognize the importance of home modification, promotion to convey the value of home modification may be necessary. Training of staff to engage in home modification, public financial support for modification, and ideas for reducing psychological hesitation may help to reduce the barriers for home modification and to enable effective home modification.

Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 503-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belen Corbacho ◽  
Sarah Cockayne ◽  
Caroline Fairhurst ◽  
Catherine E. Hewitt ◽  
Kate Hicks ◽  
...  

Background: Falls are a major cause of morbidity among older people. Multifaceted interventions may be effective in preventing falls and related fractures. Objective: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness alongside the REducing Falls with Orthoses and a Multifaceted podiatry intervention (REFORM) trial. Methods: REFORM was a pragmatic multicentre cohort randomised controlled trial in England and Ireland; 1,010 participants (> 65 years) were randomised to receive either a podiatry intervention (n = 493), including foot and ankle strengthening exercises, foot orthoses, new footwear if required, and a falls prevention leaflet, or usual podiatry treatment plus a falls prevention leaflet (n = 517). Primary outcome: incidence of falls per participant in the 12 months following randomisation. Secondary outcomes: proportion of fallers and quality of life (EQ-5D-3L) which was converted into quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) for each participant. Differences in mean costs and QALYs at 12 months were used to assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention relative to usual care. Cost-effectiveness analyses were conducted in accordance with National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence reference case standards, using a regression-based approach with costs expressed in GBP (2015 price). The base case analysis used an intention-to-treat approach on the imputed data set using multiple imputation. Results: There was a small, non-statistically significant reduction in the incidence rate of falls in the intervention group (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0.88, 95% CI 0.73–1.05, p = 0.16). Participants allocated to the intervention group accumulated on average marginally higher QALYs than the usual care participants (mean difference 0.0129, 95% CI –0.0050 to 0.0314). The intervention costs were on average GBP 252 more per participant compared to the usual care participants (95% CI GBP –69 to GBP 589). Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios ranged between GBP 19,494 and GBP 20,593 per QALY gained, below the conventional National Health Service cost-effectiveness thresholds of GBP 20,000 to GBP 30,000 per additional QALY. The probability that the podiatry intervention is cost-effective at a threshold of GBP 30,000 per QALY gained was 0.65. The results were robust to sensitivity analyses. Conclusion: The benefits of the intervention justified the moderate cost. The intervention could be a cost-effective option for falls prevention when compared with usual care in the UK.


2012 ◽  
Vol 488-489 ◽  
pp. 1624-1630
Author(s):  
Wen An Yang ◽  
Wen He Liao ◽  
Yu Guo

A method of determining the optimal number of inspectors and/or working time required on a specific SPC activity is presented in the study. The issue of inspection manpower planning is handled as a constrained optimization problem. The optimization strategy is not only to minimize the avoidable surplus quality loss due to failure of detecting the out-of-control states but to determine the cost of inspection manpower from the perspective of deploying an appropriate amount of inspection manpower in a cost-effective manner, and meanwhile the values of sample size, sampling interval and control limits of control charts are also determined. The result obtained indicates that the total cost (or loss) can be substantially reduced if implementing control charts was equipped with adequate inspection manpower.


1982 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 935-938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Rapp ◽  
Catherine L. Bannon ◽  
Brack A. Bivins

The influence of the number of daily doses on the overall cost of antibiotic therapy is examined in a general surgery patient population. Patients receiving a single first-generation cephalosporin are compared with patients receiving two or three antibiotics (including an aminoglycoside) in terms of (1) the cost of the drug and the supplies, (2) time required for nursing and pharmacy personnel to prepare and administer the doses, and (3) the influence of agent toxicity (renal function) on physician-ordered laboratory tests. On the whole, combination therapy including an aminoglycoside was four times as expensive as single-agent (first-generation cephalosporin) therapy. If future studies demonstrate that single-agent antibiotic therapy is as effective as traditional combination therapy for specific infectious diseases, the influence of the number of daily doses of drug and agent toxicity may support the cost-effective use of the newer agents.


Author(s):  
Rachel Nicholls-Lee ◽  
Simon Hindley ◽  
Richard Parkinson

In order for tidal stream technology to develop into a viable and cost effective energy solution, the overall cost of tidal array installation, operations and maintenance must be driven down. The key issues which drive the cost are the time required to conduct operations and susceptibility to weather risk coupled with the expense of marine assets. Current vessels have limited operational windows due to weather and tidal constraints, which result in considerable cumulative costs due to high charges for such vessels. The marine renewable industry is currently reliant on vessels of opportunity from the offshore oil and gas sector; which, while sufficient for single device demonstration deployments, are not viable for array installations. De-coupling the tidal sector from this market place offers the opportunity to reduce the volatility of vessel day rates. This paper presents the concept design of an efficient and economic, fit for purpose installation vessel for tidal stream energy converters. The vessel has good dynamic positioning capabilities for operation in strong tidal currents thus broadening the operational window. The environmental impact of the vessel is reduced when compared to existing vessels. A key criterion throughout the design process is minimizing the cost of the vessel to tidal turbine site developers.


Geophysics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. WC223-WC234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Greenwood ◽  
Christian J. Dupuis ◽  
Milovan Urosevic ◽  
Anton Kepic

Seismic imaging in hard rock environments is gaining wider acceptance as an exploration technique and as a mine-planning tool. To date, 13 successful case studies have been acquired in Australia. The images generated from hard rock targets exhibit large levels of complexity and their interpretations remain an active area of study. To assist the imaging and better understand the source of the reflections observed, vertical seismic profiling (VSP) can be employed. This technique is not readily applied to hard rock environments because cost and operational issues often prove prohibitive. We propose the use of hydrophone arrays as a cost effective solution to VSP acquisition. We highlight the key challenges in using these receivers and propose solutions to overcome them. By careful acquisition methodologies and refined signal processing techniques, the tube waves that have up to now compromised the use of hydrophones for VSP acquisition can be effectively mitigated. We show that the data acquired with hydrophones compare favorably to that acquired with conventional 3C geophones. The data acquired with hydrophones come at a fraction of the cost and deployment time required for conventional acquisition procedures. Our results show that hydrophone vertical seismic acquisition is a viable, cost effective, and efficient solution that should be employed more routinely in hard rock environments to enhance the value of the surface data sets being acquired.


1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1037-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. C. McShane ◽  
D. W. Carlile ◽  
W. T. Hinds

Litter fall is commonly collected for a variety of ecological studies. This study was designed to test the effect of collector size on the precision of forest litter-fall estimates and on the time involved in laboratory sample sorting. Collectors varied in size from 0.010 to 0.933 m2 and were physically nested, the smaller units within larger units. Ten of these collector combinations were randomly placed on a 1-ha plot in a Douglas-fir/western hemlock (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco/Tsugaheterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) stand in H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Collections were made monthly and records were kept of the time required to sort the litter into needles, epiphytes, and miscellaneous categories. Based on a definition of precision as ±10% of the mean, 90% of the time, results indicate (i) that the cost of obtaining precise estimates of needle fall decreases with decreasing collector size to 0.010 m2, (ii) that collectors of any size can be used to obtain estimates of total litter fall if the number of collectors required to obtain precise results is determined, and (iii) that precise estimates of epiphyte biomass require large numbers of samplers and are not cost effective.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asad Ali ◽  
Kevin Maley ◽  
Seonyeob Li ◽  
Ahmed Al Owaid ◽  
Abdulla Al Shehhi

Abstract Asset integrity management system (AIMS) consisting of risk based inspection (RBI) and inspection management system (IMS) coupled with digitized equipment records and use of inspection tablets/mobiles will make paperless system for fast and timely decisions & actions. This paper provides a roadmap for implementation of an efficient and cost effective asset integrity management system that will increase the plant reliability & availability, decrease the time and efforts required for inspection, thus ultimately reducing the associated costs of operations. In this paper, the focus is towards digitalized AIMS that should make a company move to digital transformation and enabling it to adapt to industry 4.0 technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, data analytics, machine learning etc. First step is to perform a gap assessment of existing system to compare what is currently available within organization and what is required for going fully digital for AIM. Next step is to identify software features that are required for AIM digitalization and establish them as point based rating system which are used for rating best suitable software available in the market. Unique features for RBI module, inspection management module and field interface (tablet) module are identified with appropriate weightage to influence the software selection decision. Finally, an estimation of required resources, manpower timeline is provided that will guide in all phases of the implementation. Return on investment on such projects is manifolds. The digitalized AIM will greatly reduce the cost of day to to asset integrity management operations as it will no longer be needed to use multiple paper based reports and separate systems for RBI and IMS functions. Use of field tablet/mobile with possibility of artificial intelligence tools, will significantly reduce the time required for inspectors to do the on site inspection/testing & reporting. Interfacing of digitalized system with ERP/CMMS will automate the work order/notification system. Thus it will reduce an overall effort both in terms of time & money. The roadmap for digitalization of AIMS system will help any organization to make its AIMS digital and achieve the benefits of such system. The methodology provided is unique and can be adopted as best practices by the industry for digitally transforming the AIMS.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. Bellott ◽  
Ting-Jan Cho ◽  
Jennifer F. Hughes ◽  
Helen Skaletsky ◽  
David C. Page

AbstractReference sequence of structurally complex regions can only be obtained through highly accurate clone-based approaches. We and others have successfully employed Single-Haplotype Iterative Mapping and Sequencing (SHIMS 1.0) to assemble structurally complex regions across the sex chromosomes of several vertebrate species and in targeted improvements to the reference sequences of human autosomes. However, SHIMS 1.0 was expensive and time consuming, requiring the resources that only a genome center could command. Here we introduce SHIMS 2.0, an improved SHIMS protocol to allow even a small laboratory to generate high-quality reference sequence from complex genomic regions. Using a streamlined and parallelized library preparation protocol, and taking advantage of high-throughput, inexpensive, short-read sequencing technologies, a small group can sequence and assemble hundreds of clones in a week. Relative to SHIMS 1.0, SHIMS 2.0 reduces the cost and time required by two orders of magnitude, while preserving high sequencing accuracy.


Weed Science ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (6) ◽  
pp. 667-673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori J. Wiles ◽  
Edward E. Schweizer

Bioeconomic weed management models help growers achieve appropriate weed management with less herbicide by matching management to the weed population in a field. Growers, however, will not use bioeconomic models unless cost-effective methods to sample their weed populations are identified. Counting and identifying seeds and seedlings is the most time-consuming and costly part of sampling weed populations. The time required for this process was investigated and modeled as a first step in developing sampling plans for growers using WEEDCAM, a bioeconomic model for weed management inZea maysL. in Colorado. The time required to count and identify seeds or seedlings was recorded for 9,405 soil cores (5 cm in diameter and 10 cm deep) and 9,726 quadrats (18-cm band over 1.52 m of crop row) collected or examined in eight corn fields in eastern Colorado. The time required to count and identify seeds was best described using a log-linear regression with time increasing with the number of seeds and species and the amount of sand in the core. The average cost of determining there are no seeds in a core is $1.07 for a core from a field with 37% sand and $4.32 if the field has 88% sand. The average cost of counting and identifying 36 seeds of four species is $2.70 and $10.88 for cores with 37 and 88% sand, respectively. The time required to count and identify seedlings was best described using a log-linear regression with time increasing with the number of seedlings and species. Classifying seedlings as grass or broadleaf did not improve the model. The average cost of determining that a quadrat is weed-free is $0.02. The average cost of counting and identifying 37 seedlings is $0.05, $0.07, $0.19, and $0.26 per quadrat for 1, 2, 4, and 6 species, respectively. The cost of identifying seeds and seedlings in eastern Colorado Z.maysfields to use WEEDCAM is estimated as $2.71 per core for the seed bank and $0.08 per quadrat for seedlings.


Author(s):  
James F. Mancuso

IBM PC compatible computers are widely used in microscopy for applications ranging from control to image acquisition and analysis. The choice of IBM-PC based systems over competing computer platforms can be based on technical merit alone or on a number of factors relating to economics, availability of peripherals, management dictum, or simple personal preference.IBM-PC got a strong “head start” by first dominating clerical, document processing and financial applications. The use of these computers spilled into the laboratory where the DOS based IBM-PC replaced mini-computers. Compared to minicomputer, the PC provided a more for cost-effective platform for applications in numerical analysis, engineering and design, instrument control, image acquisition and image processing. In addition, the sitewide use of a common PC platform could reduce the cost of training and support services relative to cases where many different computer platforms were used. This could be especially true for the microscopists who must use computers in both the laboratory and the office.


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