Yardstick Of Success Research Articles

Does Court Type, Size and Employee Satisfaction Affect Court Speed?. Hierarchical Linear Modelling With Evidence from Kenya

In most judicial institutions, well-functioning courts are usually expected to process a large volume of work within demanding timelines. For courts to have played their role of enhancing access to justice, the yardstick of success is often viewed through the lens of the speed attained in rendering justice. In Kenya, despite the desirable timeline for finalizing most of the cases being ‘within 360 days’ from the date of case filing in courts, by the end of June 2020, 58 per cent of the unresolved cases had surpassed this timeline and subsequently classified as backlog. In the period 2018/19, the percentage of civil cases that were resolved within the set timeline by High Court and Magistrate Court, the two largest court types by volume of work, was 37 and 42 per cent respectively. Over the same period, the percentage of criminal cases that were resolved within the set timeline was 42 and 84 per cent for the two court types respectively. Evidently therefore, the Kenyan courts had not managed to resolve cases within the desirable timeline. To unearth the reasons that could be occasioning the delay, this study investigated the factors that were potentially affecting court speed. Specifically, the study set out to determine the variation in court speed attributable to court type, and further analyze the effect of court size and employee satisfaction on court speed. This was achieved through the use of Hierarchical Linear Modelling, cross sectional data for the period 2018/19 and estimation using Restricted Maximum Likelihood technique. The results revealed the existence of relatively high variation in court speed that is attributable to court type, and that the smaller the court size, the higher the court speed. Further, high level of employee satisfaction was found to increase timely resolution of cases. Consequently, diverse strategies and policy actions for enhancing court speed have been suggested. Keywords: Court Speed, Court Type, Court Size, Employee Satisfaction, Hierarchical Linear Modelling DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/110-02 Publication date: June 30 th 2021

Success indicators among black owned informal Small Micro and Medium Enterprises’ (SMMEs) in South Africa

ABSTRACT South Africa lags behind among other developing and emerging market economies on business start-ups. Businesses that fail in a year is averaging between 50% and 60%, a figure quite high for a country struggling with achieving sustainable economic growth to reduce unemployment, inequality and poverty. This study identifies issues hurting SMMEs that need attention from both businesses themselves as well as from policymakers. The objective of this study is to identify key business success determinants using cross-sectional data that was randomly collected from informal businesses in Johannesburg/Pretoria in South Africa from 390 informal SMMEs. Using assets ownership as a yardstick for success in an ordered logistic regression, the study finds education status, income, employment growth, centre of operation, financial inclusion, experience, financial literacy and advertising budget were significant in explaining assets ownership (success) in South Africa. This study recommends that the government through its various institutions that deal specifically with small businesses come up with radical business training programmes so as to improve the finance literacy among small business. Also, small business owners should budget to fund their advertising budgets since it is found that advertising has a positive impact of firm success.

Things we do not yet understand about solar driving of the radiation belts

AbstractThis commentary explores how close we are to predicting the behavior of the radiations belts—the primary science objective of NASA's Van Allen Probes mission. Starting with what we know or think we know about competing sources, enhancement, transport, and loss, I walk through recent papers that have improved our understanding and then focus on flux dropouts as one particular yardstick of success. I mention a new paradigm for electrons and the importance of reliably matching models and observations for different solar inputs. Although the case for prediction remains a work in progress, there are encouraging signs of progress.

Mapping the Terrain of Graduate Medical Education: A Patient's Perspective

Mapping the Terrain of Graduate Medical Education: A Patient's Perspective

Assessing the Results of Electricity Liberalization for Consumers in Spain

This article examines the impact on consumers of the regulatory reform of the Spanish power industry that started in 1998. Given the complexity of assessing regulatory reforms, this article argues that the effect on electricity prices must continue to be the main yardstick of success in industry liberalization. To this end, the article builds a detailed reconstruction of the former regulated system, whose results are then compared with actual performance under liberalization. The results show that, in high commodity price scenarios, consumers would have been better off under the regulated system. Some lessons are drawn from this analysis, as well as suggestions to improve liberalization processes.

Exploring the promise of mandatory random student drug testing by comparing it to other school drug prevention strategies

Exploring the promise of mandatory random student drug testing by comparing it to other school drug prevention strategies

Role of measurement of nasal mucociliary clearance by saccharine test as a yard stick of success of functional endoscopic sinus surgery

The present study was done to establish normal nasal mucociliary clearance time (NMCT) in people of our region, study variations in NMCT in patients of chronic rhinosinusitis, to see change in NMCT after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) and to see whether saccharine test can be used as a yard stick of success of FESS. NMCT of 100 normal individual was measured twice to establish control value. Fourtythree patients of chronic rhinosinusitis were divided into polypoidal and non-polypoidal. Their symptom score, endoscopic appearance score, CT scan score and NMCT was measured preoperatively and postoperatively. NMCT in control group was 6.61 ± 0.84 minutes, in unilateral (u/l) polypoidal sinusitis 13.45 ± 2.07 minutes, in bilateral (b/l) polypoidal sinusitis 21.31 ± 0.76 minutes, u/l non-polypoidal sinusitis 9.54 ± 1.00 minutes and in b/l non-polypoidal sinusitis 11.34 ± 0.93 minutes. Linear relationship was seen between preoperative NMCT and preoperative symptom score, endoscopic appearance score, CT scan score. NMCT improved significantly after FESS. NMCT measurement helps in selection of appropriate patients for surgery. It can be used as preoperative indicator of success of FESS.

Pre- and Postoperative Mucociliary Clearance in Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery

The advent of functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) has revolutionized the treatment of chronic sinusitis over the last decade. Although it has been well-established that FESS is more efficacious than conventional surgery, the lack of a quantifiable means of assessing results remains one of the major shortcomings of the technique, and hence a source of criticism. Since the pathophysiology of chronic sinusitis is intimately related to the mucociliary mechanism of the nose and sinuses, it seems logical to use this parameter as a yardstick of success. We undertook a prospective, controlled study of 40 patients and measured their "saccharin times" before and after surgery. The results show a marked reduction in clearance times postoperatively, corresponding well with improvement in symptom profile. We therefore propose this technique as a simple, safe and reliable method of assessing the results of surgery. Furthermore, the method could act as a preoperative indicator of ciliary motility disorders, as the prognosis in these patients is distinctly poor.

New yardstick for success

New yardstick for success

The Yardstick of Success

The Yardstick of Success