Cost effectiveness

About: Cost effectiveness is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 69775 publications have been published within this topic receiving 1531477 citations.

Cost Effectiveness of Internet Interventions: Review and Recommendations

Abstract: Background Internet interventions have a large potential for public health impact, and their efficacy has been established over the past 10–15 years. Cost effectiveness of Internet interventions is one of the most frequently cited reasons for developing such treatments.

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of e-learning in Corporate Training Programs

Abstract: Corporate managers are constantly looking for more cost-effective ways to deliver training to their employees. E-learning is less expensive than traditional classroom instruction. In addition, many expenses - booking training facilities, travel costs for employees or trainers, plus employee time away from the job - are greatly reduced. However, some firms that have spent large amounts of money on new e-learning efforts have not received the desired economic advantages.

Levelized cost of CO2 mitigation from hydrogen production routes

Abstract: Different technologies produce hydrogen with varying cost and carbon footprints over the entire resource supply chain and manufacturing steps. This paper examines the relative costs of carbon mitigation from a life cycle perspective for 12 different hydrogen production techniques using fossil fuels, nuclear energy and renewable sources by technology substitution. Production costs and life cycle emissions are parameterized and re-estimated from currently available assessments to produce robust ranges to describe uncertainties for each technology. Hydrogen production routes are then compared using a combination of metrics, levelized cost of carbon mitigation and the proportional decarbonization benchmarked against steam methane reforming, to provide a clearer picture of the relative merits of various hydrogen production pathways, the limitations of technologies and the research challenges that need to be addressed for cost-effective decarbonization pathways. The results show that there is a trade-off between the cost of mitigation and the proportion of decarbonization achieved. The most cost-effective methods of decarbonization still utilize fossil feedstocks due to their low cost of extraction and processing, but only offer moderate decarbonisation levels due to previous underestimations of supply chain emissions contributions. Methane pyrolysis may be the most cost-effective short-term abatement solution, but its emissions reduction performance is heavily dependent on managing supply chain emissions whilst cost effectiveness is governed by the price of solid carbon. Renewable electrolytic routes offer significantly higher emissions reductions, but production routes are more complex than those that utilise naturally-occurring energy-dense fuels and hydrogen costs are high at modest renewable energy capacity factors. Nuclear routes are highly cost-effective mitigation options, but could suffer from regionally varied perceptions of safety and concerns regarding proliferation and the available data lacks depth and transparency. Better-performing fossil-based hydrogen production technologies with lower decarbonization fractions will be required to minimise the total cost of decarbonization but may not be commensurate with ambitious climate targets.

Predictive value of normal sperm morphology: a structured literature review

Abstract: The aim of the study was to conduct a structured review of the literature published on the use of normal sperm morphology, as an indicator of male fertility potential in the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) situation, and to establish the universal predictive value of this semen parameter. Published literature in which normal sperm morphology was used to predict fertilization and pregnancy, during the period 1978-1996, was reviewed. A total of 216 articles were identified by the sourcing methodology, but only 49 provided data that could be tabulated and analysed. Of these, only 18 provided sufficient data for statistical analysis. Fifteen studies used the strict criteria to evaluate sperm morphology, two used World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and one used both the strict criteria and the WHO guidelines. All the studies (n = 10) using the 5 and 14% normal sperm morphology thresholds (strict criteria) produced positive predictive values for IVF success. In the prediction of pregnancy, 82% (9/11) and 75% (6/8) of the studies produced positive predictive values when using the 5% and 14% thresholds respectively. Aggregating the data produced around the 5% normal sperm morphology threshold (strict criteria), the overall fertilization rates were 59.3% (1979/3337; per oocyte) for the 4% group, and the overall pregnancy rates were 15.2% (60/395; per cycle) and 26.0% (355/1368; per cycle) respectively. The no-transfer rates across the 5% threshold were 24.0% (86/359; per cycle) in the 4% group. The inclusion of an accurately evaluated normal sperm morphology count as an integral part of the standard semen analysis makes this analysis still the most cost-effective means of evaluating the male factor.