Pricing and assembly rate decisions for a prefabricated construction supply chain under subsidy policies.

Prefabricated construction has attracted worldwide concern and promotion due to its environmental friendliness, high quality, and high efficiency. In China, the application of prefabricated construction still lags due to its high cost. To improve prefabricated construction development, the Chinese government and provinces have launched subsidy policies for different objects that offer subsidies to the assembler, the manufacturer, or consumers. Subsidy policies for different subsidy objects have different impacts on the manufacturer wholesale price and assembler retail price and assembly rate and make their decisions more complicated. Therefore, this study uses game theory and builds three models to analyze the effects of government subsidies on manufacturer pricing, assembler pricing, assembly rate decisions, and profit. We find that government subsidy policies can bring more profit to prefabricated construction enterprises, reduce their costs, and benefit the promotion of prefabricated construction. Through comparison and numerical analysis, we also find that when the government subsidizes enterprises more, it is better to subsidize the assembler, because it is good for all three parties. First, consumers can obtain a lower retail price. Second, enterprises can obtain more profits. Finally, for the government, this approach can increase the demand for prefabricated construction and increase the assembly rate, which is conducive to the promotion of prefabricated construction. When the government subsidizes customers more, it is better for the assembler and the manufacturer to subsidize customers, because they can obtain more profits. It is better for the government and customers to subsidize the assembler or the manufacture, because consumers can get the lower retail price. Although the assembly rate and enterprises' profits are not optimal, they have also been improved. In addition, when the government directly subsidizes enterprises, the enterprises will actively cooperate with the subsidy policy and are more willing to adopt prefabricated construction. This approach will benefit the promotion of prefabricated construction.

Economic burden and its associated factors of hospitalized patients infected with A (H7N9) virus: a retrospective study in Eastern China, 2013-2014.

BACKGROUND: H7N9 continues to cause human infections and remains a pandemic concern. Understanding the economic impacts of this novel disease is important for making decisions on health resource allocation, including infectious disease prevention and control investment. However, there are limited data on such impacts. METHODS: Hospitalized laboratory-confirmed H7N9 patients or their families in Jiangsu Province of China were interviewed. Patients' direct medical costs of hospitalization were derived from their hospital bills. A generalized linear model was employed to estimate the mean direct medical costs of patients with different characteristics. RESULTS: The mean direct cost of hospitalization for H7N9 was estimated to be ¥ 71 060 (95 % CI, 48 180-104 820), i.e., US$ 10 996 (95 % CI, 7 455-16 220), and was ¥12 060 (US$ 1 861), ¥136 120 (US$ 21 001) and ¥218 610 (US$ 33 728) for those who had mild or severe symptoms or who died, respectively. The principal components of the total fees differed among patients with different disease severity, although medication fees were always the largest contributors. Disease severity, proportion of reimbursement and family member monthly average income were identified as the key factors that contributed to a patient's direct medical cost of hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: The direct medical costs of hospitalized patients with H7N9 are significant, and far surpass the annual per capita income of Jiangsu Province, China. The influencing factors identified should be taken into account when developing related health insurance policies and making health resource allocation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable. This is a survey study with no health care intervention implemented on human participants.

Risk assessment on the epidemics of human infection with a novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in Jiangsu Province, China.

A novel avian influenza A (H7N9) virus was discovered in February 2013 in China and has resulted in more than 100 comfirmed human infections including 26 fatal cases as of May 2, 2013. The situation raises many urgent questions and global public health concerns. In this study, epidemiologic characteristics of infected human cases in Jiangsu province were analyzed and risk assessment was undertaken based on the information available. Briefly, it is highly unlikely that a pandemic of human infection with avian influenza A (H7N9) virus will happen in Jiangsu Province in the near future. In the end, some measures are recommended to prevent the situation from becoming worse.

Magnetic targeting after femoral artery administration and biocompatibility assessment of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles.

Ferrofluids are attractive candidates for magnetic targeting system because of their fluidity and magnetism. The magnetic nanoparticles in ferrofluids should have combined properties of superparamagnetic behavior, target localization, and biocompatibility. The magnetic targeting and biocompatibility of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles stabilized by alginate (SPION-alginate) was investigated in vitro and in vivo. The localization of SPION-alginate by an external magnetic field in vitro was quantitatively evaluated by determining the iron content, and the results revealed that the localization ratio of SPION-alginate was 56%. Magnetic targeting of the SPION-alginate after femoral artery administration with the magnetic field in rats was quantitatively investigated by iron content and qualitatively confirmed by histological evaluation and magnetic resonance imaging. The ratio of iron content between the target site and the nontarget site were 8.88 at 0.5 h and 7.50 at 2 h, respectively. The viability of RAW264.7 cells and L929 cells was apparently unaltered upon exposure to SPION-alginate. The incubation with erythrocytes indicated that the SPION-alginate did not induce erythrocytes hemolysis and aggregation. In conclusions, the SPION-alginate had magnetic targeting with an external magnetic field and did not be detained at the injection site without the magnetic field. The SPION-alginate was generally considered to be biocompatible in cytotoxicity and hemolysis aspects.