Weak Identification Research Articles

An Energy-Water-Food Nexus-based Decision-making Framework to Guide National Priorities in Qatar

• A dynamic decision-making framework is developed to set national priorities in qatar. • The analytical hierarchy process is adopted to design composite indicators. • The performance of a local energy-water-food nexus is assessed for future policy directions. • Sustainability, security and resilience are the performance pillars adopted to assess nexus sectors. Efficient resource management and the development of resilient societies begins with an accurate identification of strengths and weaknesses of systems involved. Conducting a holistic performance analysis considering multiple assessment criteria permits the detection of discrepancies hindering systems productivity. In this study, an integrative assessment tool, based on the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and the energy, water, and food (EWF) nexus is used to design a decision-making scheme that guides policymakers in establishing national priorities and sectorial strategies. The tool considers critical systems of the economy that necessitate urgent management by investigating their sustainability, security, and resilience levels. The developed methodology has been applied to assess the performance of the EWF sectors in the State of Qatar. From a national level perspective, findings of this research indicate that the resilience pillar outweighs in criticality the security and sustainability of the overall EWF nexus, which implies the need to further develop risk mitigation plans and response strategies. Considering sectorial level performances, results of this work have unveiled the vulnerability of the three nexus sectors, particularly water and food, faced to internal and external risks. This is represented by integrated resilience indexes of 0.21, 0.17 and 0.10 for the food, water, and energy sectors, respectively. The water system has also displayed a low security level, represented by a high criticality score of 0.14 in comparison with the food and energy sectors. As for the sustainability pillar, the food system, due to its continuous agricultural intensification is the least sustainable with an integrated index of 0.13. Those findings provide an impetus for policymakers to deploy future investments that secure stable and resilient availability of water and food resources. The energy sector, backed by abundant natural gas reserves, does not necessitate significant attention, however, it requires a continuous monitoring being an essential driver for both the water and food systems. Results of this study offer a generic roadmap that can be followed by countries to set national priorities based on evidence-informed performance assessments reflecting resources ‘conditions optimal and cost-effective decisions that meet the need of the targeted population.

Identification of muscle weakness in older adults from normalized upper and lower limbs strength: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundTo propose cut-off points for older adults’ weakness for upper and lower limbs muscle strength normalized by body size with the ratio standard/muscle quality and allometric scaling.MethodsNinety-four community-dwelling older adults (69.1% women) were assessed for 49 body-size variables (anthropometry, body composition and body indexes), handgrip strength (HGS), one maximum repetition measurement for knee extensors (1RM), isokinetic knee extension peak torque at 60°/s (PT), and six-minute walk test (6MWT). Ratio standard or muscle quality (muscle strength/body size) and allometric scaling (muscle strength/body sizeb; when b is the allometric exponent) were applied for body-size variables significantly correlated with HGS, 1RM and PT. Cut-off points were computed according to sex based on mobility limitation (6MWT < 400 m) with ROC curve and Youden index.ResultsAbsolute HGS, 1RM and PT cut-off points were not adequate because they were associated with body size (r > 0.30). But it was corrected with muscle strength normalization according to body size-variables: HGS (n = 1); 1RM (n = 24) and PT (n = 24). The best cut-off points, with the highest area under the curve (AUC), were found after normalization for men: HGS/forearm circumference (1.33 kg/cm, AUC = 0.74), 1RM/triceps skinfold (4.22 kg/mm, AUC = 0.81), and PT/body mass*height0.43 (13.0 Nm/kg*m0.43, AUC = 0.94); and for women: HGS/forearm circumference (1.04 kg/cm, AUC = 0.70), 1RM/body mass (0.54 kg/kg, AUC = 0.76); and PT/body mass0.72 (3.14 Nm/kg0.72; AUC = 0.82).ConclusionsUpper and lower limbs muscle weakness cut-off points standardized according to body size were proposed for older adults of both sexes. Normalization removes the effect of extreme body size on muscle strength (both sexes) and improves the accuracy to identify weakness at population level (for women, but not in men), reducing the risk of false-negative/positive cases.

Detecting Service quality influence using DINESERV model: A study with the reference to restaurants in Dhaka city

Number of studies related to assessing service quality through Service quality gap model, known as SERVQUAL model in tourism and hospitality industries is seen either originally or with developed version. The main aim of this study is focused assessing empirically on the developed version of SERVQUAL model for measuring the service quality for restaurant services known as DINESERV, in the context of restaurant services in Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The comprised 29 attributes of SERVQUALL model is DINESERV, that is used for designing the questionnaires in this study, which aimed to measure the gap between expectation and perception level of customers in restaurant service. However, 110 valid questionnaires from 150 has been statistically analyzed in SPSS20. This empirical study makes a glance that 25 indicators have rooms to make more improvement due to persisting gap between expectations and perceptions, meanwhile, results and findings have been complied with the identification of strength and weakness of service quality of selected oldest restaurants of Dhaka city, who can uphold their dignity through the possible suggestions from this study

Research on Distribution Network Harmonic Source and Weak Points Identification Based on Data Association Analysis

Research on Distribution Network Harmonic Source and Weak Points Identification Based on Data Association Analysis

The Importance-Performance Analysis of the Quality of Services Provided for Patients in Hospitals Affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Science

Background: Quality is a key factor in the distinction of services, and it is a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage to increase productiveness and patient satisfaction. The identification of strengths and weaknesses in quality of provided services can help to recognize priorities and develop improvement strategies.&#x0D; Objectives: Using importance-performance analysis (IPA) method, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of services provided in hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran.&#x0D; Methods: Using stratified random sampling, this descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional study included 307 patients admitted to five Educational Hospitals affiliated to Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in 2016. Data collection tool was a standard questionnaire proposed by Tomes &amp; Chee Peng Ng (1995), which included demographic information and questions regarding the quality of services provided in seven factors. In addition to IPA, data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson’s correlation, and chi squared test in SPSS software version 21.&#x0D; Results: Total scores of quality factors were estimated as “important” in our research. In quality performance, “food”, “physical environment” and “dignity” factors were estimated as “relatively inappropriate” by mean scores of 2.50 ± 0.95, 2.90 ± 0.97 and 2.94 ± 1.05, respectively. These three factors were located in the second region of the IPA matrix. While the other four factors, including “empathy”, “relationship of mutual respect”, “understanding of illness” and “religious needs,” with mean scores higher than 3 were estimated as “appropriate” and located in the first region of this matrix. In all quality factors, scores of performance were lower than importance, and the gap between importance and performance in these seven factors ranged from 0.82 to 1.52. There was a significant relationship between age and education of respondents with the quality of services.&#x0D; Conclusions: Given that the largest gap was related to the tangible dimensions of quality (including food and physical environment) and in order to improve the quality of services and competitive position, hospital managers must consider tangible dimension as a priority. Keywords: Quality of Services; Importance-Performance Analysis; Hospital; Hospital Services.

Graduate Students’ Identification With Science: Differences by Demographics, Experiences, and Discipline

Research examining high school and undergraduate students has demonstrated the importance of identity formation for students’ confidence, retention, and aspirations in science. While we know some of the key predictors of science identity formation among these populations, relatively little work has looked at these issues among graduate students. The study presented here utilizes data from a survey of over 1,300 graduate students in the United States in five disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and sociology. A structural equation model is estimated to assess the demographic, experiential, and disciplinary correlates of graduate student identification with science and, separately, identification with their discipline. The analysis finds that, relative to men, women have weaker identification with science but do not differ in the strength of their identification with their discipline. Experiences, such as the quality of students’ relationship with their advisor and publishing research, are positively associated with the strength of their science and disciplinary identity. Students in psychology and sociology have weaker identification with science relative to biology students, while sociology students also have weaker identification with their discipline.

Rational Design of Pepsin for Enhanced Thermostability via Exploiting the Guide of Structural Weakness on Stability

Enzyme thermostability is an important parameter for estimating its industrial value. However, most naturally produced enzymes are incapable of meeting the industrial thermostability requirements. Software programs can be utilized to predict protein thermostability. Despite the fast-growing number of programs designed for this purpose; few provide reliable applicability because they do not account for thermodynamic weaknesses. Aspartic proteases are widely used in industrial processing; however, their thermostability is not able to meet the large-scale production requirements. In this study, through analyzing structural characteristics and modifying thermostability using prediction software programs, we improved the thermostability of pepsin, a representative aspartic protease. Based on the structural characteristics of pepsin and the experimental results of mutations predicted by several energy-based prediction software programs, it was found that the majority of pepsin’s thermodynamic weaknesses lie on its flexible regions on the surface. Using computational design, mutations were made based on the predicted sites of thermodynamic weakness. As a result, the half-lives of mutants D52N and S129A at 70°C were increased by 200.0 and 66.3%, respectively. Our work demonstrated that in the effort of improving protein thermostability, identification of structural weaknesses with the help of computational design, could efficiently improve the accuracy of protein rational design.

A practical framework for performance measurement of facilities management services in developing countries’ public hospitals

PurposeFacilities management (FM) plays a vital role toward creating the hospitable environment that supports the core clinical business of rendering quality health care. To ensure optimal performance of FM, public hospitals require a performance measurement (PM) framework that could guide and assist facilities managers in their operations. This paper aims to respond to this need by developing a performance measurement framework useful to improve FM performance within the context of developing countries hospital FM services delivery.Design/methodology/approachThe paper synthesizes knowledge from a comprehensive review of FM performance measurement literature and the results of an earlier PhD research on FM performance measurement in Ghana’s public hospitals.FindingsThe paper presents a simplified performance measurement framework which demonstrates four key performance measurement tasks: establishing performance goals; measuring the FM service delivery; evaluating FM outcomes; and performance review and reporting. The study suggests the establishment of a central coordination point to enhance performance measurement activities of public hospitals’ FM practices.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough reference is made to research on key performance indicators (KPIs), future study is recommended to develop appropriate methodology for selecting relevant KPIs. The author also intends to pilot the framework to a health facility in Ghana to leverage its usefulness, given the fact that it has not been tested empirically.Practical implicationsThe application of the framework is expected to lead to the identification of performance gaps and weakness which when acted upon could lead to operational effectiveness and efficiency of the FM process, ultimately leading to improved FM performance.Originality/valueThe paper develops a novel performance measurement framework useful within the context of the nascent FM industry in the developing world.

Estimating the Production Function Under Input Market Frictions

Abstract Behind many production function estimators lies a crucial assumption that the firm's choice of intermediate inputs depends only on observed choices of other inputs and on unobserved productivity. This assumption fails when market frictions distort the firm's input choices. I derive a test for the assumption, which is rejected in several industries. Using weak identification asymptotics, I show that when the assumption fails, a simplified dynamic panel estimator can be used instead of choice-based methods because it requires choices to be distorted. I propose criteria for choosing between estimators, which in simulations yield lower error than either estimator alone.

Physical activity of patients with critical illness undergoing rehabilitation in intensive care and on the acute ward: An observational cohort study

BackgroundThere are limited published data on physical activity of survivors of critical illness engaged in rehabilitation in hospital, despite it plausibly influencing outcome. ObjectiveThe aims of this study were to measure physical activity of patients with critical illness engaged in rehabilitation in the intensive care unit (ICU) and on the acute ward and report discharge destination, muscle strength, and functional outcomes. MethodsThis was a single-centre, prospective observational study. Adults with critical illness, who received ≥48 h of invasive mechanical ventilation, and who were awake and able to participate in rehabilitation were eligible. To record physical activity, participants wore BodyMedia SenseWear Armbands (BodyMedia Incorporated, USA), during daylight hours, from enrolment until hospital discharge or day 14 of ward stay (whichever occurred first). The primary outcome was time (minutes) spent performing physical activity at an intensity of greater than 1.5 Metabolic Equivalent Tasks. Secondary outcomes included discharge destination, muscle strength, and physical function. ResultsWe collected 807 days of physical activity data (363 days ICU, 424 days ward) from 59 participants. Mean (standard deviation) duration of daily physical activity increased from the ICU, 17.8 (22.8) minutes, to the ward, 52.8 (51.2) minutes (mean difference [95% confidence interval] = 35 [23.8–46.1] minutes, P < .001). High levels of activity in the ICU were associated with higher levels of activity on the ward (r = .728), n = 48, P < .001. ConclusionsPatients recovering from critical illness spend less than 5% of the day being physically active throughout hospital admission, even when receiving rehabilitation. Physical activity increased after discharge from intensive care, but had no relationship with discharge destination. Only the absence of ICU-acquired weakness on awakening was associated with discharge directly home from the acute hospital. Future studies could target early identification of ICU-acquired weakness and the preservation of muscle strength to improve discharge outcomes.

Exact and asymptotic identification-robust inference for dynamic structural equations with an application to New Keynesian Phillips Curves

Many models in econometrics involve endogeneity and lagged dependent variables. We start by observing that usual identification-robust (IR) tests are unreliable when model variables are nonstationary or nearly nonstationary. We propose IR methods which are also robust to nonstationarity: one Anderson-Rubin type procedure and two split-sample procedures. Our procedures are also robust to missing instruments. For distributional theory, three different sets of assumptions are considered. First, on assuming Gaussian structural errors, we show that two of the proposed statistics follow the standard F distribution. Second, for more general cases, we assume that the distribution of errors is completely specified up to an unknown scale factor, allowing the Monte Carlo test method to be applied. This assumption enables one to deal with non-Gaussian error distributions. For example, even when errors follow heavy-tailed distribution, such as the Cauchy distribution or more generally the family of stable distributions—which may not have moments and thus make inference difficult—our procedures provide simple and exact solutions. Third, we establish the asymptotic validity of our procedures under quite general distributional assumptions. We present simulation results showing that our procedures control their level correctly and have good power properties. The methods are applied to an empirical example, the New Keynesian Phillips curve, in which both weak identification and nonstationarity present challenges. The results of this empirical study suggest forward-looking behavior of U.S. inflation.

Development and Validation of Elements for the Construction Risk Maturity Assessment (CRMA)

ABSTRACT Construction organizations should always look for areas of improvement. Managing risk effectively on construction projects demonstrates expertise, improves customer satisfaction, and increases the likelihood for future work with the client. Construction organizations can improve risk management by measuring their perceptions and practices with identifying, analyzing, and managing risk, also known as risk maturity. Effective measurements will lead to the identification of strengths and weaknesses and can lead to improved performance. Risk Maturity Models (RMM) have been developed in the past to measure risk management practices and perceptions. These previous RMMs were developed in industries outside of construction management. This study aimed to validate the necessary elements for measuring construction risk maturity with industry risk management experts. A three-round Delphi method study was conducted with 28 construction risk management practitioners. The study resulted in a consensus of the key elements for measuring risk maturity. Twenty-five elements were identified and ranked in order of importance. New elements with risk maturity were identified in this study that were not observed in previous RMMs and are unique to the construction industry. All elements were combined to develop the Construction Risk Maturity Assessment (CRMA) for measuring and improving risk maturity in construction organizations.

On the instrument functional form with a binary endogenous explanatory variable

I demonstrate that, in a linear regression model with a binary endogenous explanatory variable, a two-step IV estimation procedure could avoid the weak identification issue caused by a first-stage linear projection onto the linear instruments.

Legitimization of income of clients as a factor of financial stability of banks

Prevention and counteraction to money laundering by bank clients are the most important links in the fight against money laundering among all entities of primary financial monitoring: reports of banks on suspicious financial transactions account for 96–98 % of the total number of reports to the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine. An important step in further development and improvement of the system of prevention and counteraction to money laundering of the banks clients is its evaluation and identification of weaknesses. Cash transactions and cash flows through the accounts of bank clients are the most risky group of services of banking institutions in terms of money laundering. The analysis of statistical characteristics of the series of dynamics of cash turnover, turnover of funds on accounts at the request of economic entities, turnover of funds on accounts at the request of individuals of 96 banks of Ukraine showed that banks in which activity the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) detect fraudulent operation with signs of money laundering, have significantly higher values of the coefficient of variation of cash flows, on average 46 %, compared to banks in which the NBU did not detect fraudulent operations, but did detect violations, for which it applied measures of influence, and in comparison with banks to which no measures of influence were applied. The results of the analysis proved that the coefficient of variation can be used as an indicator of the level of risk of money laundering by the bank clients, which allows to significantly facilitate and reduce the duration of analysis of bank financial performance within rapid testing for money laundering.

The sorting benefits of discretionary adjustment to performance-based pay

We use an experiment to test the hypothesis that adding discretionary adjustment to performance-based pay strengthens the sorting of employees based on how strongly they identify with the organization’s objectives. Our conceptualization of identification is grounded in identity economics, which predicts that employees who identify strongly with the organization’s objectives exert greater effort toward those objectives than employees who identify weakly with those objectives. Building on this conceptualization, we expect that employees anticipate that managers will adjust performance-based pay more (less) favorably when employees reveal strong (weak) identification with the organization’s objectives. Thus, when managers can adjust performance-based pay, performance-based pay contains a feature that benefits (disadvantages) employees with strong (weak) identification, which we expect to strengthen the sorting of employees based on their identification. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find that the difference in preferences for performance-based pay between employees with strong and weak identification is larger when discretionary adjustment accompanies performance-based pay than when it does not. Our results also confirm that employee identification increases employee costly effort exertion toward the organization’s objectives. We contribute to the management accounting literature on discretion in performance evaluation by documenting a previously undocumented benefit of discretionary adjustment.

Identification of volatility proxies as expectations of squared financial returns

Volatility proxies like realised volatility (RV) are extensively used to assess the forecasts of squared financial returns produced by volatility models. But are volatility proxies identified as expectations of the squared return? If not, then the results of these comparisons can be misleading, even if the proxy is unbiased. Here, a tripartite distinction is introduced between strong, semi-strong, and weak identification of a volatility proxy as an expectation of the squared return. The definition implies that semi-strong and weak identification can be studied and corrected for via a multiplicative transformation. Well-known tests can be used to check for identification and bias, and Monte Carlo simulations show that they are well sized and powerful—even in fairly small samples. As an illustration, 12 volatility proxies used in three seminal studies are revisited. Half of the proxies do not satisfy either semi-strong or weak identification, but their corrected transformations do. It is then shown how correcting for identification can change the rankings of volatility forecasts.

Forearm rolling test in precentral gyrus cerebral infarction

AbstractThe forearm rolling test, rapidly rotating each forearm around the other, is a useful neurological physical examination test for the identification of slight muscle weakness in the unilateral upper limb.

Maritime Robotics and Autonomous Systems Operations: Exploring Pathways for Overcoming International Techno-Regulatory Data Barriers

The current regulatory landscape that applies to maritime service robotics, aptly termed as robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), is quite complex. When it comes to patents, there are multifarious considerations in relation to vessel survey, inspection, and maintenance processes under national and international law. Adherence is challenging, given that the traditional delivery methods are viewed as unsafe, strenuous, and laborious. Service robotics, namely micro aerial vehicles (MAVs) or drones, magnetic-wheeled crawlers (crawlers), and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), function by relying on the architecture of the Internet of Robotic Things. The aforementioned are being introduced as time-saving apparatuses, accompanied by the promise to acquire concrete and sufficient data for the identification of vessel structural weaknesses with the highest level of accuracy to facilitate decision-making processes upon which temporary and permanent measures are contingent. Nonetheless, a noticeable critical issue associated with RAS effective deployment revolves around non-personal data governance, which comprises the main analytical focus of this research effort. The impetus behind this study stems from the need to enquire whether “data” provisions within the realm of international technological regulatory (techno-regulatory) framework is sufficient, well organized, and harmonized so that there are no current or future conflicts with promulgated theoretical dimensions of data that drive all subject matter-oriented actions. As is noted from the relevant expository research, the challenges are many. Engineering RAS to perfection is not the end-all and be-all. Collateral impediments must be avoided. A safety net needs to be devised to protect non-personal data. The results here indicate that established data decision dimensions call for data security and protection, as well as a consideration of ownership and liability details. An analysis of the state-of-the-art and the comparative results assert that the abovementioned remain neglected in the current international setting. The findings reveal specific data barriers within the existing international framework. The ways forward include strategic actions to remove data barriers towards overall efficacy of maritime RAS operations. The overall findings indicate that an effective transition to RAS operations requires optimizing the international regulatory framework for opening the pathways for effective RAS operations. Conclusions were drawn based on the premise that policy reform is inevitable in order to push the RAS agenda forward before the emanation of 6G and the era of the Internet of Everything, with harmonization and further standardization being very high priority issues.

Scaling an Enhanced Recovery Program to an Institution-Wide Initiative: It Takes a Village.

With the inclusion of Enhanced Recovery Programs (ERPs) into routine clinical practice, scaling programs across an institution is important to drive sustainable change in a patient-centric care delivery paradigm. A review of ERP implementation within a large institution was performed to understand key components that hinder or facilitate success of scaling an ERP. From January 2018 to March 2018, a needs assessment was completed to review implementation of enhanced recovery across the institution. Implementation progress was categorized into one of 5 phases including Define, Implement, Measure, Analyze, and Optimize. Only 25% of service line ERPs reached the optimization phase within 5 years. One hundred percent of respondents reported more strengths (n = 41) and opportunities (n = 41) than weaknesses or threats (n = 25 and 14, respectively). Commonly identified strengths included established enhanced recovery pathways, functional team databases, and effective provider education. Weaknesses identified were inconsistencies in data quality/collection and a lack of key personnel participation including buy-in and time availability. Respondents perceived the need for data standardization to be an opportunity, while personnel factors were viewed as key threats. Identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats could prove beneficial in helping scale an ERP across an institution. Successful optimization and expansion of ERPs require robust data management for continuous quality improvement efforts among clinicians, administrators, executives, and patients.

A Zero Trust Hybrid Security and Safety Risk Analysis Method

Abstract Designing complex, socio-technical, cyber-physical systems has become increasingly challenging in recent years. Interdependencies between engineering domains can lead to emergent behavior that is difficult to predict and manage. The recent shift toward model-based design has demonstrated significant advantages for minimizing these challenges (McDermott et al. 2020. Benchmarking the benefits and current maturity of model-based systems engineering across the enterprise. results of the model-based systems engineering (MBSE) maturity survey, part 1: Executive summary. Technical Report SERC-2020-SR-001, Systems Engineering Research Center.). Further, the early identification of safety and security design weaknesses in safety-critical systems leads to reduced redesign costs in later design phases (Yang and EI-Haik, 2003. Design for Six Sigma. McGraw-Hill, New York City; Clausing and Frey, 2005. Improving system reliability by failure-mode avoidance including four concept design strategies. Systems Engineering, 8(3), pp. 245–261.). As a result, this article contributes the Multidisciplinary Early Design Risk Assessment Framework (MEDRAF) methodology for early combined safety and security assessment based on interdisciplinary dependency models of a system. The focus is on factors contributing to the estimation of the probabilities of successful attacks on system components. The Zero Trust paradigm is applied in which all humans, hardware, and processes interacting with the system are considered to pose a security risk. A calculation of security-related probability estimates is presented which is dependent on the current global security environment. Subsequently, security and safety probability estimates are combined to present an overall safety-security risk calculation using hybrid safety-security trees. The risk values help designers assess the loss of specific key components and safety functions. The methodology is demonstrated with a case study of a spent fuel pool cooling system in a nuclear reactor. The results of the case study show that the risk of losing one key system component doubles when combining security and safety compared to only assessing safety events. This paper is based on a paper presented at the CIE 2020 conference (Papakonstantinou et al., 2020. Towards a zero trust hybrid security and safety risk analysis method. In International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, American Society of Mechanical Engineers.).