The question of how to measure and classify people´s risk preferences is of substantial importance in the field of Economics. Inspired by the multitude of ways used to elicit risk preferences, we conduct a holistic investigation of the most prevalent method, the multiple price list (MPL) and its derivations. In accordance with previous literature, we find that revealed preferences differ under various and even the same versions of the MPL. Thus, an arbitrary selection of a particular risk assessment method can lead to biased results especially if researchers investigate its connection to other phenomena. In order to resolve this issue, we determine the most stable version of the MPL by using multiple measures of within-method consistency, and the version with the highest forecast accuracy by using behavior in two economically relevant games as benchmarks. A derivation of the well-known method by Holt and Laury (2002), where the highest payoff is varied instead of probabilities, emerges as the best MPL method in both dimensions. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-06-30 / Objetivos: Descrever as alteracoes cromossomicas em policitemia vera (PV), trombocitemia essencial (TE) e mielofibrose primaria (MF). Verificar se a taxa de anormalidades cromossomicas e ampliada pela FISH nos casos com cariotipo normal e ausencia de metafases. Detectar a incidencia da mutacao JAK2 V617F em PV, TE e MF; de mutacoes no exon 12 do JAK2 em PV e de mutacoes MPL W515K/L em TE e MF. Correlacionar as alteracoes citogeneticas e moleculares encontradas com o grau de fibrose medular nos casos de MF; numero de leucocitos, plaquetas, hemoglobinas; e idade, ao diagnostico, em todos pacientes. Metodo: O estudo foi realizado em 20 casos de PV, 17 de TE e 21 de MF. O cariotipo por banda G foi realizado em amostras de medula ossea, semeadas em cultura de curta duracao (24h), sem mitogenos e processadas de forma habitual (Chauffaille, 2006). Parte da amostra (1mL) foi destinada a FISH, com sondas para as regioes: 20q12, 20q13.12, 13q14.3, 13qter (subtelomerica), 8p11.1-q11.1 (ƒ¿-satellite) e 9q12 (satellite III). A pesquisa das mutacoes JAK2V617F e MPL W515K/L foi realizada em DNA de sangue periferico, por PCR em tempo real, utilizando-se o kit JAK2 MutaScreenTM (Ipsogen). A pesquisa de mutacoes no exon 12 do JAK2 foi realizada por sequenciamento direto. Resultados: As alteracoes cromossomicas foram observadas em 11,8% das PV, 17,6% das MF e nenhuma das TE, nao havendo relacao entre dados clinicos avaliados e alteracoes cromossomicas. As anormalidades cromossomicas nao foram ampliadas pela FISH. JAK2 V617F foi observada em 90% das PV, 42,8% das MF e 47% das TE. Os pacientes com PV JAK2 V617F negativos apresentaram menores niveis de plaquetas em relacao aos PV V617F positivos (p<0,0001). MF V617F positivos apresentaram maiores graus de fibrose do que os V617F negativos (p=0,003). Nao foi detectada a presenca de mutacoes no exon 12 do JAK2 em pacientes com PV. MPL W515L foi observada em um caso de MF e em um de TE. Nao foi encontrada a mutacao MPL W515K nos pacientes com TE e MF. A paciente com TE MPL W515L positivo nao apresentou quadro clinico diferente dos demais pacientes com TE, enquanto que a paciente com MF MPL W515L positivo apresentou quadro clinico mais agressivo quando comparada aos demais pacientes com MF. O numero de alteracoes clonais nao mostrou diferenca quanto aos dados clinicos avaliados. Conclusoes: Os diferentes tipos de alteracoes clonais em neoplasias mieloproliferativas exaltam seus diferentes mecanismos fisiopatogenicos, auxiliando no diagnostico e compreensao da biologia destas doencas. Este estudo permitiu a caracterizacao citogenetica e molecular de PV, MF e TE. / Introcuction: Polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET) and myelofibrosis (MF) are clonal disorders of hematopoietic stem cell and clinical and biological aspects have in common that hinder their diagnosis, however, cytogenetic and molecular studies represent important tools to assist in this procedure. Therefore, the investigation of the presence of JAK2 V617F, mutations in exon 12 of JAK2, MPL W515K of MPLW515L and cytogenetic alterations per karyotype and FISH can provide a more detailed view for the diagnosis and prognosis of these diseases. In this study such cytogenetic and molecular changes were correlated with degree of fibrosis in cases of MF, the number of leukocytes, platelets, hemoglobin and age at diagnosis in PV, ET and MF Method: The karyotype by G-band was performed on samples of bone marrow, grown in culture for short duration (24h) without mitogens and processed as usual (Chauffaille, 2006). The sample (1 ml) was intended to FISH with probes for the regions: 20q12, 20q13.12, 13q14.3, 13qter, 8p11.1-q11.1 and 9q12. The investigation of JAK2 V617F and MPL W515K/L mutations was performed on DNA from peripheral blood by real time PCR, using the kit MutaScreenTM JAK2 (IPSOGEN). The search for mutations in exon 12 of JAK2 was performed by direct sequencing. Results: Chromosomal abnormalities were observed in 11.8% of PV, 17.6% of MF and none of the ET, no relation between clinical data and assessed chromosomal alterations. Chromosomal abnormalities were not amplified by FISH. JAK2 V617F was observed in 90% of PV, 42.8% of MF and 47% of ET. Patients with JAK2 V617F negative PV showed lower levels of platelets in relation to V617F positive PV (p <0.0001). MF V617F negative and MPL W515L positive showed higher degrees of fibrosis than V617F negative (p =0.003). Was not detected the presence of mutations in exon 12 of JAK2 in PV patients. MPL W515L was observed in a case of MF and a TE. No MPL W515K mutation was found in patients with ET and MF. The ET patient MPL W515L positive showed no clinical different from other patients with ET, whereas the patient with MF MPL W515L showed positive clinical more aggressive when compared to other patients with MF. The number of clonal abnormalities showed no difference in the clinical data evaluated. Conclusions: Different types of clonal abnormalities in myeloproliferative neoplasms exalt their different pathophysiological mechanism, aiding in the diagnosis and understanding of the biology of these diseases. This study allowed the cytogenetics and molecular characterization of PV, MF and ET. / TEDE / BV UNIFESP: Teses e dissertações

Companies from multiple branches use as one way to offer their products and services network of sales representatives. This thesis study mainly designing process of such network and process of planning day to day routes of sales representatives with focus on minimizing cost caused by their work. For designing such network set covering problem model and matching problem model were used. For planning sales representatives routes travelling salesman problem, multiple salesperson travelling salesman problem, vehicle routing problem, nearest neighbor heuristic and authors own solution were used. Usage of multicriterial decision making is briefly mentioned as tool for managing such network on examples of equipment selection. As demonstration on real case, data from Tata Global Beverages (Jemča) company were used.

The theme of this thesis is high school timetabling. The built mathematical model is based on bivalent programming. The model uses multicriteria linear programming too, because a timetable has to fill legal and school's requests and student's and teacher's wishes. Firstly, there are given theoretical basics. Then there is described economic model with school's characteristics and it continues by mathematical model. For optimization, tool MPL for Windows with using Gurobi. Finally, export of optimization is transferred using VBA to form for end users.

Diploma thesis deals with the evaluation of the efficiency using DEA models focusing on the use of dedicated software tools. There are four chapters in the thesis where different approaches to efficiency are briefly presented. The method of data envelopment analysis (DEA) with its modifications is described in detail -- basic models, CCR, BCC and additive model. The main part of the work is presented in the second part of this thesis where I describe how to work with each program and summarize its advantages and disadvantages. The last chapter applies prior knowledge on real situation -- the evaluation of the efficiency of the regional police stations in the Czech Republic.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein neues Konzept für die Lastregelung in zentralisierten Transaktionsystemen untersucht. Grundlage des Konzeptes ist die automatische Einhaltung von extern vorgegebenen Antwortzeitzielen für einzelne Transaktionsklassen. Bei Verfehlung der Antwortzeitziele unternimmt das System Regelungsmaßnahmen, um eine bestmögliche Zielerreichung zu gewährleisten. Als 'Steuerungsinstrumente' werden die Verwendung des MPL-Wertes und der Einsatz von Prioritäten untersucht. Die MPL-Verfahren lassen sich in die Steuerung mit globalen und lokalen MPL-Werten unterteilen. Beim globalen Verfahren wird nur der über alle Transaktionsklassen gültige globale MPL-Wert verändert. Bei der lokalen Regelung wird zusätzlich noch vor der eigentlichen Regelung untersucht, ob der Engpaß oder die Engpässse für die Mehrzahl oder nur für eine Minderheit der Transaktionsklassen vorhanden ist. Je nach dem Resultat wird dann entweder eine Regelung des globalen MPL- Wertes oder eine Regelung des transaktionsklassenspezifischen lokalen MPL-Wertes vorgenommen. Der Einsatz von Prioritäten wird nur beim CPU-Engpaß untersucht. Gegenstand der Analyse sind die Varianten Earliest-Deadline und Performance-Index. In der ersten Simulationsreihe wird die CPU-Engpass-Behandlung untersucht, und der zweite Hauptkomplex der Untersuchung stellt die Behandlung von Sperrengpaessen dar.

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Increasing health care costs is an international problem from which South Africa is not excluded. Prescription medication contributes most to these high health care costs, and methods to reduce their costs to society are implemented worldwide. In South Africa, such a method is a managed care reference medicine price list, as introduced by a PBM (pharmacy benefit management) company. This step had some cost implications in the private health sector in South Africa, and these implications were investigated in this study. Central nervous system (CNS) medicine items are among the top ten medicine items claimed and represent a substantial amount of the costs of all medicine items claimed during the study period. Antidepressants, a subdivision of the CNS agents, comprise the largest share of CNS agents claimed and CNS costs, and were therefore investigated more closely. The objective of this study was to analyse the usage patterns and costs of central nervous system medicine items, and more specifically, the antidepressants, against the background of the implementation of a managed care reference medicine price list in the private sector of South Africa. This study was conducted as a retrospective, non-experimental quantitative research project. The study population consisted of all medicine items claimed as observed on the database over the two-year study period of May 2001 to April 2002 (pre-MPL) and May 2002 to April 2003 (post-MPL). Data were provided by MedschemeTM/lnterpharm, and the Statistical Analysis System® SAS 8.2® was used to extract the data from the database. The central nervous system agents had a prevalence of 8.10% (N=49098736) and a total cost of R757576976.72 over the two-year study period. The cost per CNS item increased by 5.98% or R11.50 per CNS item in the year after MPL implementation, and the cost per prescription containing CNS medicine items increased by 4.09% or R9.07 per prescription. CNS agents are classified into ten sub-pharmacological groups, according to the MIMSC3 (Snyman, 2003:13a). One of these sub-pharmacological groups, antidepressants, comprised 33.97% of all CNS medicine items claimed (N=3978364) and 45.53% of all costs associated with CNS medicine items (N=R757576976.72) over the study period. The number one antidepressant claimed was amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant. Of the antidepressants with generic substitutes, all with the exception of clomipramine, were prescribed at generic substitution rates of more than 50%. After the MPL implementation, generic antidepressant products were more frequently prescribed (16.48% increase, N=617190), although patient co-payments did not decrease immediately. Some innovator products had price reductions after the implementation of the MPL. This study indicates that cost minimisation analyses and retrospective drug utilisation reviews are valuable tools in the evaluation of managed care medicine price lists. / Thesis (M. Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.

Increasing health care costs is an international problem from which South Africa is not excluded. Prescription medication contributes most to these high health care costs, and methods to reduce their costs to society are implemented worldwide. In South Africa, such a method is a managed care reference medicine price list, as introduced by a PBM (pharmacy benefit management) company. This step had some cost implications in the private health sector in South Africa, and these implications were investigated in this study. Central nervous system (CNS) medicine items are among the top ten medicine items claimed and represent a substantial amount of the costs of all medicine items claimed during the study period. Antidepressants, a subdivision of the CNS agents, comprise the largest share of CNS agents claimed and CNS costs, and were therefore investigated more closely. The objective of this study was to analyse the usage patterns and costs of central nervous system medicine items, and more specifically, the antidepressants, against the background of the implementation of a managed care reference medicine price list in the private sector of South Africa. This study was conducted as a retrospective, non-experimental quantitative research project. The study population consisted of all medicine items claimed as observed on the database over the two-year study period of May 2001 to April 2002 (pre-MPL) and May 2002 to April 2003 (post-MPL). Data were provided by MedschemeTM/lnterpharm, and the Statistical Analysis System® SAS 8.2® was used to extract the data from the database. The central nervous system agents had a prevalence of 8.10% (N=49098736) and a total cost of R757576976.72 over the two-year study period. The cost per CNS item increased by 5.98% or R11.50 per CNS item in the year after MPL implementation, and the cost per prescription containing CNS medicine items increased by 4.09% or R9.07 per prescription. CNS agents are classified into ten sub-pharmacological groups, according to the MIMSC3 (Snyman, 2003:13a). One of these sub-pharmacological groups, antidepressants, comprised 33.97% of all CNS medicine items claimed (N=3978364) and 45.53% of all costs associated with CNS medicine items (N=R757576976.72) over the study period. The number one antidepressant claimed was amitriptyline, a tricyclic antidepressant. Of the antidepressants with generic substitutes, all with the exception of clomipramine, were prescribed at generic substitution rates of more than 50%. After the MPL implementation, generic antidepressant products were more frequently prescribed (16.48% increase, N=617190), although patient co-payments did not decrease immediately. Some innovator products had price reductions after the implementation of the MPL. This study indicates that cost minimisation analyses and retrospective drug utilisation reviews are valuable tools in the evaluation of managed care medicine price lists. / Thesis (M. Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2005.