GIS-based irrigation evaluation strategy for a rice production region, A

Presented during the Third international conference on irrigation and drainage held March 30 - April 2, 2005 in San Diego, California. The theme of the conference was "Water district management and governance."Includes bibliographical references.Water shortage has become an international problem and this is especially true in China. This paper will detail the process of constructing a GIS-based information system to complete large-scale evaluation for water irrigation efficiency in a rice production region in China. A GIS-based system is built to integrate evaluation models and manage irrigation region actively and present the evaluation result in this paper. The research region is divided into several sub-regions and each sub-region is irrigated differently. After comparison of the results of different irritation methods, the suitable way of irrigation for a certain region can be selected. In this study, each rice production farm field located in sub-regions will be regarded as a basic unit and is digitalized to form spatial database. We monitor all growing stage of paddy rice and record water irrigation and rice yield. The goal is to find region-fit irrigation strategy and thus to enhance the profitability of irrigation water.Sponsored by USCID; co-sponsored by Association of California Water Agencies and International Network for Participatory Irrigation Management

Overview of key indicators of the development of the academic industry in China

The efficiency of China's economic development depends on investment in human capital, in particular investment in higher education. This article presents the main trends in the development of higher education over the past 10 years. Based on a comparative analysis of world rankings and domestic university rankings, combined with the actual situation in China, the current development of the academic industry is analyzed. According to the results of the analysis, the current performance of some universities has reached the level of world-class universities, especially in the field of basic scientific research. But there is a big gap with world-class universities in cutting-edge research, internationalization and talent development. Analyzing the key indicators of the development of the academic industry in China, the author draws attention to the need to increase the international competitiveness of China's scientific research and international public recognition. To do this, it is necessary to balance the distribution of resources between regions and universities in the field of education; evaluate the weight of scientific research achievements, the impact of scientific research and the conditions for conducting scientific research, optimize the evaluation of the effectiveness of scientific research; increase investment in the development and motivation of academic staff

Performance evaluation of inpatient service in Beijing: a horizontal comparison with risk adjustment based on Diagnosis Related Groups

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The medical performance evaluation, which provides a basis for rational decision-making, is an important part of medical service research. Current progress with health services reform in China is far from satisfactory, without sufficient regulation. To achieve better progress, an effective tool for evaluating medical performance needs to be established. In view of this, this study attempted to develop such a tool appropriate for the Chinese context.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data was collected from the front pages of medical records (FPMR) of all large general public hospitals (21 hospitals) in the third and fourth quarter of 2007. Locally developed Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) were introduced as a tool for risk adjustment and performance evaluation indicators were established: Charge Efficiency Index (CEI), Time Efficiency Index (TEI) and inpatient mortality of low-risk group cases (IMLRG), to reflect respectively work efficiency and medical service quality. Using these indicators, the inpatient services' performance was horizontally compared among hospitals. Case-mix Index (CMI) was used to adjust efficiency indices and then produce adjusted CEI (aCEI) and adjusted TEI (aTEI). Poisson distribution analysis was used to test the statistical significance of the IMLRG differences between different hospitals.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using the aCEI, aTEI and IMLRG scores for the 21 hospitals, Hospital A and C had relatively good overall performance because their medical charges were lower, LOS shorter and IMLRG smaller. The performance of Hospital P and Q was the worst due to their relatively high charge level, long LOS and high IMLRG. Various performance problems also existed in the other hospitals.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is possible to develop an accurate and easy to run performance evaluation system using Case-Mix as the tool for risk adjustment, choosing indicators close to consumers and managers, and utilizing routine report forms as the basic information source. To keep such a system running effectively, it is necessary to improve the reliability of clinical information and the risk-adjustment ability of Case-Mix.</p

International competitiveness power and human development of countries

Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity and its aim should be healthier, longer, and fuller lives. It is expected that if the competitiveness of a country is suitably managed, human welfare will be enhanced as a consequence. The research described here seeks to explore the relationship between the competitiveness of a country and its use for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated using data envelopment analysis, where the global competitiveness indicators are taken as input variables and the human development index indicators as output variables. A detailed analysis is also conducted for the emerging economies

Incorporating Both Undesirable Outputs and Uncontrollable Variables into DEA: the Performance of Chinese Coal-Fired Power Plants

There are two difficulties in doing an objective evaluation of the performance of decision-making units (DMUs). The first one is how to treat undesirable outputs jointly produced with the desirable outputs, and the second one is how to treat uncontrollable variables, which often capture the impact of the operating environment. Given difficulties in both model construction and data availability, very few published papers simultaneously consider the above two problems. This article attempts to do so by proposing six DEA-based performance evaluation models based on a research sample of the Chinese coal-fired power plants. The finding of this paper not only contributes for the performance measurement methodology, but also has policy implications for the Chinese coal-fired power sector

China's energy consumption in the building sector: A Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet based splitting method

China's energy consumption in the building sector (BEC) is not counted as a separate type of energy consumption, but divided and mixed in other sectors in China's statistical system. This led to the lack of historical data on China's BEC. Moreover, previous researches' shortages such as unsystematic research on BEC, various estimation methods with complex calculation process, and difficulties in data acquisition resulted in “heterogeneous” of current BEC in China. Aiming to these deficiencies, this study proposes a set of China building energy consumption calculation method (CBECM) by splitting out the building related energy consumption mixed in other sectors in the composition of China Statistical Yearbook-Energy Balance Sheet. Then, China's BEC from 2000 to 2014 are estimated using CBECM and compared with other studies. Results show that, from 2000 to 2014, China's BEC increased 1.7 times, rising from 301 to 814 million tons of standard coal consumed, with the BEC percentage of total energy consumption stayed relatively stable between 17.7% and 20.3%. By comparison, we find that our results are reliable and the CBECM has the following advantages over other methods: data source is authoritative, calculation process is concise, and it is easy to obtain time series data on BEC etc. The CBECM is particularly suitable for the provincial government to calculate the local BEC, even in the circumstance with statistical yearbook available only

Multi-level DEA Approach in Research Evaluation

It is well known that the discrimination power of DEA models will be diminishing if too many inputs or outputs are used. It is a dilemma if the decision makers want to select comprehensive indicators to present a relatively holistic evaluation using DEA. In this work we show that by utilizing hierarchical structures of input-output data DEA can handle quite large numbers of inputs and outputs. We present two approaches in a pilot evaluation of 15 institutes for basic research in Chinese Academy of Sciences using DEA models

The Chinese position as a global player in international comparison with the WTO members: Efficiency analysis and 4IR

During the last quarter-century, globalisation processes affected changes in the world economy in the form of intensifying competition in the international and internal markets. The result is the creation of a global marketplace that is mostly indifferent to national borders and governmental influences. This development has generated widespread interest in competitiveness. Competitiveness affects international relations, especially nowadays, given the changing position of the global leaders and the growth of new economic powers such as China. China has come a long way and has the opportunity to be a global leader in several required fields that will be the cornerstones of global growth in the next decades. Led by China, emerging economies are increasing their share in the worldwide economy and intensifying competition in nearly all sectors. It creates new threats and challenges for players in the global economy, and growing competitiveness must be efficient. The article evaluates the Chinese competitiveness in comparison with the World Trade Organization members by the Data Envelopment Analysis in the pre-in-post crisis period and considering the Fourth Industrial Revolution shifting humanity into a new phase.Web of Science6148

The competitiveness of nations and implications for human development

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.Human development should be the ultimate objective of human activity, its aim being healthier, longer, and fuller lives. Thus, if the competitiveness of a nation is properly managed, enhanced human welfare should be the key expected consequence. The research described here explores the relationship between the competitiveness of a nation and its implications for human development. For this purpose, 45 countries were evaluated initially using data envelopment analysis. In this stage, global competitiveness indicators were taken as input variables with human development index indicators as output variables. Subsequently, an artificial neural network analysis was conducted to identify those factors having the greatest impact on efficiency scores

Health and economic benefits of building ventilation interventions for reducing indoor PM2.5 exposure from both indoor and outdoor origins in urban Beijing, China

China is confronted with serious PM2.5 pollution, especially in the capital city of Beijing. Exposure to PM2.5 could lead to various negative health impacts including premature mortality. As people spend most of their time indoors, the indoor exposure to PM2.5 from both indoor and outdoor origins constitutes the majority of personal exposure to PM2.5 pollution. Different building interventions have been introduced to mitigate indoor PM2.5 exposure, but always at the cost of energy expenditure. In this study, the health and economic benefits of different ventilation intervention strategies for reducing indoor PM2.5 exposure are modelled using a representative urban residence in Beijing, with consideration of different indoor PM2.5 emission strengths and outdoor pollution. Our modelling results show that the increase of envelope air-tightness can achieve significant economic benefits when indoor PM2.5 emissions are absent; however, if an indoor PM2.5 source is present, the benefits only increase slightly in mechanically ventilated buildings, but may show negative benefit without mechanical ventilation. Installing mechanical ventilation in Beijing can achieve annual economic benefits ranging from 200yuan/capita to 800yuan/capita if indoor PM2.5 sources exist. If there is no indoor emission, the annual benefits above 200yuan/capita can be achieved only when the PM2.5 filtration efficiency is no less than 90% and the envelope air-tightness is above Chinese National Standard Level 7. Introducing mechanical ventilation with low PM2.5 filtration efficiency to current residences in urban Beijing will increase the indoor PM2.5 exposure and result in excess costs to the resident