Optimum Level Of Efficiency Research Articles

Determination of expression level of AP1S1, CDK9, FIGF and HDAC11 genes in bladder tumors for aggressive phenotype characterization

Bladder cancer holds a steady 10th place among oncological diseases. Follow-up and timely diagnosis of recurrence and progression of bladder cancer are still based on regular but outdated cystoscopy followed by cytological examination. To reduce the number of cystoscopy procedures, new and reliable biomarkers for predicting tumor behavior must be developed. The aim of this study was to confirm our previous results that demonstrated overexpression of AP1S1, CDK9, FIGF and HDAC11 in muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The project management was performed using iterative flexible project work (Flexible Methodology for Innovative Projects in Scientific Organizations, FMIPSO). Gene expression analysis of the AP1S1, CDK9, FIGF and HDAC11 genes was evaluated in 39 newly collected non-invasive and muscle-invasive bladder tumors. Differential gene expression was calculated using the ΔΔCt method with GPDH as a housekeeping gene. The 4,0-fold change in gene expression was used as a cutoff to determine up- or down-regulation compared to the negative control. Our results demonstrate the involvement of the FIGF, CDK9 and HDAC11 in tumor progression and their potential use as candidate biomarkers to characterize invasive tumor phenotype and muscle progression, as well as potentially reduce the number of cystoscopies. We used FMIPSO to be able to achieve the results at the optimum level of efficiency and control of the project with all possible constraints in scientific organizations.

ANALYSIS OF THE FACTORS INFLUENCING TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN INTEGRATED CROP-LIVESTOCK FARMING SYSTEM IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted to determine the best efficient integrated crop-livestock farming system in Kaduna state, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained through structured questionnaire and interview schedule. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select 7 LGAs (Ikara, Kubau, Kudan, Lere, Soba, Sabon-Gari and Zaria) purposively in stage I for prevalence of integrated crop-livestock farming, 28 villages were selected purposively also for the same reason in stage II while at last stage 400 crop-livestock farmers were randomly selected. Descriptive statistics, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit regression model were used to achieve the objective of this study. Results of the socio-economic characteristics revealed that about 92% of the integrated crop-livestock farmers were found to be male with mean age of 44 years and household size of 7 persons per farmer. Results from the DEA showed that the mean total efficiency, pure efficiency and scale efficiency were found to be 0.74, 0.89 and 0.83, respectively. The DEA results further revealed that farmers can reduce the quantity of farm size, labour, seed, fertilizer, manure and agrochemical inputs by 0.18%, 10.97%, 14.43%, 5.28%, 26.93% and 18.48%, respectively. Furthermore, the findings revealed that 19.9, 30.19 and 65.11% of farmers operated at optimal, sub-optimal and super-optimal scale, respectively. Tobit regression model used to determine factors influencing technical efficiency established that coefficients of age (0.201), household size (0.0204), education level (0.206), farming experience (0.321), extension contact 0.311) and cooperative membership (0.1801) were statistically significant variables at different level of probability. There should be synergy between crop and animal scientists; extension agents and agricultural economists to bring into bearing the needs for farmers to imbibe integrated crop-livestock farming to achieve optimum level of efficiency.

Analisis Efisiensi Kinerja Unit Usaha Syariah Di Indonesia Dengan Metode Data Envelopment Analysis Dan Rasio Eagles

This research is motivated by global competition that occurs in economic life which requires every institution to determine the appropriate strategy from the point of view of Efficiency and Performance Levels. The purpose of this study is to measure the level of efficiency and performance of the Sharia Business Unit and to see the factors that affect the level of efficiency and performance of the Sharia Business Unit. The research method used in this research is descriptive quantitative using secondary data. Secondary data comes from the documents of Sharia Business Units included in the National Private Commercial Bank. DEA analysis is used to measure the level of efficiency by analyzing internal factors in the form of efficiency targets on total assets, third party funds, labor costs, total financing and revenue sharing, while the EAGLES analysis is used to measure performance which consists of earning ability, asset quality, growth rate, liquidity, equity and strategic management. The results of the analysis using the DEA approach can be seen that the Sharia Business Units in Indonesia have not reached the optimum level of efficiency, this is due to the target on the input variable consisting of total assets, third party funds and labor costs that are still experiencing waste and have not met the efficiency target, while the results of the EAGLES analysis show that the performance of the Sharia Business Unit is in a good performance condition to become an alternative choice for the community.

Formative Assessment is a Scaffold for ELs to Reach ZPD’s Second Layer: A Literature Review Study

Learning and teaching can’t function well without assessing students’ performance. More so, formative assessment is the most essential sort of evaluation in academic contexts. Teachers and students alike benefit from the dynamic nature of this evaluation as it brings students and English teachers closer together, instructors are better able to encourage and assist student learning. Both teachers and students benefit from this assessment process, which helps them better understand each other’s strengths and flaws. Instructors can provide input to students based on their needs, similar to how a building is built. As a result, formative assessment appears to be a scaffold for ELs, assisting them when they encounter difficulties and preparing them to move to an optimum level of efficiency. The purpose of this critical review is to (i) explain formative assessment from major theoretical perspectives. (ii) Conceptualize formative assessment and Scaffolding. (iii) Reiterate my belief that formative assessment propels learners to the second layer of ZPD.

Yardstick Regulation in a Competitive Context? The Case of the Italian Airports

Over the past years, airport regulation has been generating a lot of interest in Europe, and despite the passing of Airport Charges Directive in 2009, there is ongoing debate on the need for introducing tighter airport regulations. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, acknowledging that regulation is usually applied in markets where competition is weak or absent, we evaluate the ex-ante need for price regulation in the air transport industry. By focusing on the Italian airport industry, our analysis provides evidence of a high level of competitive pressure faced by airports (both inside and outside the industry), suggesting that tighter price regulation may not be the optimal solution. Second, assuming that stricter regulation of the airport industry is necessary, we empirically investigate the applicability of yardstick regulation to the Italian airport system, outlining critical challenges and issues that may arise when applying benchmarking techniques in setting the optimum level of efficiency at regulated airports. According to current literature, applicability of empirical benchmarking techniques requires some basic research requirements to be met, such as high-quality data, a homogeneous production function, and a sufficient number of comparable observations. We find that both heterogeneity and the relatively small number of comparable airports, along with the complexity of gathering proper data, may compromise the applicability of a regulation scheme based on yardstick principles at the national level.

Design of Galfenol and Alfenol microstructures for bending mode energy harvesters

The present work addresses the microstructural design of Galfenol and Alfenol, which are magnetostrictive materials used in bending mode energy harvesters. Galfenol and Alfenol have been attracting much interest during the last few decades as they provide bi-directional coupling between mechanical and magnetic properties. This magneto-mechanical coupling generates electrical energy in distinctive energy harvesting mechanisms that use mechanical or magnetic input. One favorable approach would be enhancing the energy efficiency by optimizing the material properties through the control and design of the underlying microstructure. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no effort for designing Galfenol and Alfenol microstructures to maximize energy efficiency. Therefore, we present a computational design study to find the optimum Galfenol and Alfenol microstructures that can maximize the energy efficiency for bending mode energy harvesters. We model the effects of the crystallographic texture on the mechanical and magnetic properties and develop a computational model to represent the magneto-mechanical coupling. The outcomes of our computational strategy revealed that the optimum design solutions are highly textured polycrystals. Moreover, the optimum Galfenol and Alfenol microstructures are found to provide around 80% and 32% energy efficiency, which are higher than the known optimum efficiency level for the same materials.

Analysis and definition of a ZEB building at optimum level of efficiency and costs

Analysis and definition of a ZEB building at optimum level of efficiency and costs

A STUDY OF TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Teaching effectiveness means perfection, optimum level of efficiency and productivity on the part of the teacher. It refers to the height of maturity and learning that teachers grows with experience and learns more and more. This study was conducted on 148 teachers selected randomly from 8 secondary schools located in Bareilly District of Uttar Pradesh. The data was collected by self made teaching effectiveness scale. This scale consists of 38 items of 6 dimensions. Collected data was analysed using statistical techniques such as mean, standard deviation and t-test. The study revealed that there is significant difference between the teaching effectiveness of male and female teachers working in secondary school. But no significant difference was found teaching effectiveness of CBSE Board female and UP Board female teachers and CBSE Board male and UP Board male teachers working in secondary schools.

Impact of Microfinance on the Efficiency of Maize Producers in Nigeria

The study applies descriptive analysis, Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) of efficiency model and fractional regression model to data collected in 2016 using cross-sectional survey of maize producers in Nigeria. The purpose was to determine the impact of microfinance on the technical efficiency of maize producers and evaluates factors that influence inefficiency among credit beneficiaries and non-credit beneficiaries. Results show that the respective mean technical efficiency of credit beneficiaries and non-credit beneficiaries were 79 and 69%, which is far from the frontier technology. This means that technical efficiency can be improve by 21 and 31% respectively, with the same set of inputs. Slacks analysis shows that in order to attain optimum efficiency, credit beneficiaries should reduce fertilizer usage by 32.34%, seeds by 6.03%, labour by 7.79% and agrochemicals by 2.44% per hectare. Similarly, non-credit beneficiaries should reduce the usage of fertilizer slacks by about 19.48%, seeds by 2.73%, labour by 2.54% and agrochemicals slacks by 1.76% per hectare. Microfinance credit, household size, years of farming experience and education increases efficiency, while drought and age declines efficiency. Findings are useful to the farmers as appropriate input reduction for inefficient farms can be set to enable them attain optimum efficiency level. Maize producers should be encouraged to collect microfinance loan in order to increase their scale of operations and government in collaboration with research institutes should educate farmers on the actual input quantities to apply. This could help to reduce production costs, increase the farmers’ efficiency and provide maize to consumers at an affordable rate.

Aerobic efficiency is associated with the improvement in maximal power output during acute hyperoxia.

This study investigated the relationship between aerobic efficiency during cycling exercise and the increase in physical performance with acute hyperoxic exposure (FiO2 ~31%) (HOX) and also tested the hypothesis that fat oxidation could be increased by acute hyperoxia. Fourteen males and four females were recruited for two sessions, where they exercised for 2 × 10 min at 100 W to determine efficiency. HOX and normoxia (NOX) were administered randomly on both occasions to account for differences in nitrogen exchange. Thereafter, a progressive ramp test was performed to determine VO2max and maximal power output (W max). After 30 min rest, workload was set to 80% of maximal power output (W max) for a time to exhaustion test (TTE). At 100W gross efficiency was reduced from 19.4% during NOX to 18.9% during HOX (P ≤ 0.0001). HOX increased fat oxidation at 100 W by 52% from 3.41 kcal min‐1 to 5.17 kcal min‐1 (P ≤ 0.0001) with a corresponding reduction in carbohydrate oxidation. W max increased by 2.4% from 388.8 (±82.1) during NOX to 397.8 (±83.5) during HOX (P ≤ 0.0001). SaO2 was higher in HOX both at the end of the maximal exercise test and TTE. Subjects with a high level of efficiency in NOX had a larger improvement in Wmax with HOX, in agreement with the hypothesis that an optimum level of efficiency exists that maximizes power production. No association between mitochondrial excess capacity and endurance performance was found; increases in oxygen supply seemed to increase maximal aerobic power production and maintain/increase endurance capacity at the same relative workload.

Kajian Efisiensi Bank Umum Syariah di Indonesia

The aim of this study is to measure the efficiency of Islamic Bank in Indonesia and to analyze the factors that affect the level of efficiency. The objects of this study are ten Islamic Bank (BUS) in Indonesia which analyzes from the second quarter of 2012 until the first quarter of 2016. There are three method which are used in this study, two in first stage, namely non parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and parametric method of Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) then the second stage is Tobit estimaton. Overall, the results showed that the efficiency level of Islamic banks in Indonesia during the time period in this study have not reached the optimum level of efficiency yet. Tobit estimation showed that total financing, total wadiah funds, CAR, ROE, total overhead cost significantly affect the Islamic bank`s efficiency in Indonesia.

EFISIENSI BANK UMUM SYARIAH MENGGUNAKAN PENDEKATAN TWO-STAGE DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

The aim of this study is to measure the efficiency of Islamic Bank in Indonesia, to analyze the factors that affect the level of efficiency which is known as Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis method and to propose measurement of Bank Soundness with modified CAMELS. The objects of this study are 10 (ten) Islamic Bank (BUS) in Indonesia which analyzes from the second Quarter of 2010 until the fourth Quarter of 2012. There are 2 (two) methods which are used in this study, namely non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on the first stage and Tobit model on the second stage. In addition, this study will illustrate the formulation of the financial factors of CAELS instead of CAMEL by integrating the results of efficiency level measurement using DEA in CAELS formulation. Overall, the results, show that the efficiency level of Islamic banks in Indonesia during the time period in this study, have not yet reach the optimum level of efficiency. In addition, modification of CAELS for the bank performance level method by integrating the result of DEA shows that the modification of CAELS could be more accurate in describing the bank performance level, particularly for Islamic Bank in Indonesia. Keywords: Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Tobit Model, CAELS + DEAJEL Classification: C02, C14, C54,G21

Efficiency of Islamic Banks Using Two Stage Approach of Data Envelopment Analysis

The aim of this study is to measure the efficiency of Islamic Bank in Indonesia, to analyze the factors that affect the level of efficiency which is known as Two-Stage Data Envelopment Analysis method and to propose measurement of Bank Soundness with modified CAMELS. The objects of this study are 10 (ten) Islamic Bank (BUS) in Indonesia which analyzes from the second Quarter of 2010 until the fourth Quarter of 2012. There are 2 (two) methods which are used in this study, namely non-parametric method of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on the first stage and Tobit model on the second stage. In addition, this study will illustrate the formulation of the financial factors of CAELS instead of CAMEL by integrating the results of efficiency level measurement using DEA in CAELS formulation. Overall, the results, show that the efficiency level of Islamic banks in Indonesia during the time period in this study, have not yet reach the optimum level of efficiency. In addition, modification of CAELS for the bank performance level method by integrating the result of DEA shows that the modification of CAELS could be more accurate in describing the bank performance level, particularly for Islamic Bank in Indonesia. Keywords: Efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Tobit Model, CAELS + DEAJEL Classification: C02, C14, C54,G21

Effects of Nonuniform Incident Illumination on the Thermal Performance of a Concentrating Triple Junction Solar Cell

A numerical heat transfer model was developed to investigate the temperature of a triple junction solar cell and the thermal characteristics of the airflow in a channel behind the solar cell assembly using nonuniform incident illumination. The effects of nonuniformity parameters, emissivity of the two channel walls, and Reynolds number were studied. The maximum solar cell temperature sharply increased in the presence of nonuniform light profiles, causing a drastic reduction in overall efficiency. This resulted in two possible solutions for solar cells to operate in optimum efficiency level: (i) adding new receiver plate with higher surface area or (ii) using forced cooling techniques to reduce the solar cell temperature. Thus, surface radiation exchanges inside the duct and Re significantly reduced the maximum solar cell temperature, but a conventional plain channel cooling system was inefficient for cooling the solar cell at medium concentrations when the system was subjected to a nonuniform light distribution. Nonuniformity of the incident light and surface radiation in the duct had negligible effects on the collected thermal energy.

Performance Evaluation of Levenberg-Marquardt Technique in Error Reduction for Diabetes Condition Classification

This paper aims to provide a case study to classify diabetes medical condition amongst patients. The study examines the performance of the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm on a single dataset, the Pima Indian Diabetes dataset, attempting to minimize error in classifying the patients as diabetes positive or negative. The learning algorithm is applied on dynamically constructed neural network to minimize the error by continuously training the network until the optimum efficiency level is obtained. The performance of the approach is verified by performing a comparison study. The comparison study involves testing of the dynamically constructed network and presents a critical analysis of the classification output. The performance of the network is measured in terms of sensitivity and specificity for different learning algorithms. The study reveals that the LM algorithm outperforms other techniques in these tests and consequently concludes it to be the best ANN learning rule in providing optimum output results when applied to a dynamically constructed neural network.

A comparison of the technical efficiencies of health districts and hospitals in Botswana

An attempt is made here to construct and present relative efficiency indices for the services rendered by health districts and specific hospitals in Botswana, using Stochastic Frontier Regression analysis and Data Envelopment Analysis. The analysis indicated that three districts - Kweneng East, Kgalagadi and Boteti - have efficiency scores below the optimum level. Among the 13 hospitals considered, Tsabong Primary Hospital was found to have an efficiency score of less than one. Since the health services involve a number of factors, these indices ought to serve as indicators for further scrutiny of those units (health districts and hospitals) that fall below the optimum efficiency level. The data used for the analysis are from the published material by the Central Statistics Office, Botswana for the year 1997. Health is considered one of the major concerns of the government of Botswana. As a consequence, the authors feel that this study will be useful to policy makers and health planners in giving them some kind of relative ranking among health districts and hospitals.

Stress Management

The opportunities in the new millennium is closely associated with the challenges in the work place not, only to excel but to maintain the optimum level of efficiency. This article highlights the consequences of stress at the work place and hence the need for both the employees and the management to ensure a healthy relationship within the organisation.

Pump function of the feline left heart: changes with heart rate and its bearing on the energy balance.

Pump function of the feline left heart was determined by measuring the relationship between mean left ventricular pressure and mean left ventricular output, obtained by changing the arterial load on a beat-to-beat basis. The effect of a change in heart rate from 120 to 160 beats . min-1 was studied and a parallel shift of the pump function graph was found. Care was taken to keep left ventricular end-diastolic pressure constant with the change in frequency. If the mean pressure and output values obtained at 160 beats . min-1 were multiplied by the ratio between the two frequencies (0.75), almost complete superposition of the two graphs was obtained. Changes in arterial load also caused changes in oxygen consumption, mean external power and external efficiency of the heart. We plotted these variables, altered them as a function of mean left ventricular output for easy comparison with the pump function graph. It was found that oxygen consumption decreases with increasing output. Mean external power and efficiency attain maxima for different values of mean output. If the left heart in the intact animal is controlled to function at its maximum power output, this can therefore not be achieved at the optimum efficiency level. The results of the present study and those obtained earlier were compared with the behaviour of a time varying compliance model.