Benchmarking the operational efficiency of major U.S. trucking firms using data envelopment analysis

In an era of downsizing and financial cutbacks, the operational efficiency of trucking firms dictates their competitiveness and survival. In an effort to help trucking firms develop a winning formula in the fiercely competitive logistics industry, this research aims to develop a meaningful set of benchmarks that will set the tone for best practices. In particular, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) is described. DEA has proven to be useful for measuring the operational efficiency of various profit or non-profit organizations. Using the examples of major trucking businesses in the United States, the usefulness of data envelopment analysis for the continuous improvement of trucking services is illustrated

Design and Development of a Patient-Centered E-Health System to Improve Patient Understanding at Discharge

E-health systems are often designed without considering user-centered design principles. Past research on the topic of patient-centered e-health (PCEH) has lacked focus on the design and development of a PCEH artifact and the process for its development. In this study, information systems design theory (ISDT) is applied to design, develop, and evaluate an e-health system based on PCEH principles. The goal of the artifact in this study is to improve patient understanding of diagnoses, procedures, medications, and post-discharge instructions and empower patients with the information needed pre- and post-discharge to make informed healthcare decisions. The artifact justification, meta-requirements, meta-design, development, and evaluation are presented in multiple iterations—beginning with a simple picture book, and ending with a Web-based, mobile, multimedia system. Findings indicate that a PCEH approach can be useful for achieving multiple design goals. The artifact illustrates achievement of an important organizational quality improvement goal for the case study organization involved, a key physician goal to improve patient-physician engagement, and an important patient goal—to improve understanding about patient-specific diagnoses and health conditions prior to discharge from a hospital visit and initiation of home health care

Data Envelopment Analysis for establishing the financial benchmark of Korean hotels

In the wake of catastrophic natural disasters and rising threats of terrorism, the hotel industry has seen a decline in revenue and an increase in competition. To avoid a downward spiral, the hotel industry needs to develop more competitive business strategies in order to make its operations lean and robust. These strategies may include: customer relationship management, yield management, niche marketing and continuous improvement of financial health. The success of these strategies hinges on the ability of hotel managers to assess the financial efficiency of their hotel in comparison to competition. In an effort to help hotel management enhance its financial efficiency in an increasingly competitive hotel industry, this paper proposes a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which develops a meaningful set of benchmarks that will dictate best practices and form a successful hotel business model. Using the examples of 39 international and regional hotels in Korea, this paper illustrates the usefulness of DEA for the continuous improvement of hotel business practice

Analysis of Slab and Slab Heater Cover in a Compact Endless Cast and Rolling Mill Process using Finite Element Methods

Compact Endless cast and rolling Mill (CEM) processes were developed and used to fabricate steel products such as steel slabs. However, the coiling furnace in this process was very expensive, so a new layout was suggested. As the coiling furnace was removed, the interval among the slab heaters had to be increased. This led to a temperature drop in the slab. The temperature distribution of the slab impacts quality, so new layout was developed. This paper presents a Finite Element Method (FEM) simulation of thermal behavior in the slab employing slab heater covers. All of the simulation results were verified by comparing them with experimental results. The slab moving distance at which the temperature was saturated during the process was determined to consider the steady-state and analyze the temperature distribution of the slab and slab heater. Those results revealed that the efficiency of heat conservation increased by more than 50% using the slab heater cover. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of the slab heater cover was conducted with respect to the cover design. The effects of insulator thickness, the gap distance between the slab and cover, and material parameters such as density, and specific heat were investigated to optimize the design of the slab heater cover to produce the best quality slab.11Ysciescopuskc

Influencing air force logisticians' information seeking during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of organizational meetings in an expanded PRISM framework

Purpose – This research aims to understand how organizational workplace meetings surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic impacted logistics Airmen across the United States Air Force and how these meetings impacted their risk seeking behavior on social media. Design/methodology/approach – This survey research tested an extended Planned Risk Information Risk Seeking Model (PRISM) with organizational meetings as an antecedent to determine if current meetings influenced an Airman's perceived behavioral control, attitude toward seeking, subjective norms, knowledge sufficiency and intention to seek information regarding COVID-19. Findings – Results of the CFA showed that the expanded PRISM model had good model fit. Additionally, using a custom dialog PROCESS macro in SPSS, it was found that perceptions of existing meetings were directly, positively related to attitude toward seeking, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, and indirectly related to knowledge sufficiency threshold and information seeking. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Originality/value – This research adds to the limited body of knowledge of crisis communication and effectively expands the PRISM model to include an antecedent that helps explain information seeking during times of uncertainty

The Fruit Hull of Gleditsia sinensis

Lung cancer has substantial mortality worldwide, and chemotherapy is a routine regimen for the treatment of patients with lung cancer, despite undesirable effects such as drug resistance and chemotoxicity. Here, given a possible antitumor effect of the fruit hull of Gleditsia sinensis (FGS), we tested whether FGS enhances the effectiveness of cis-diammine dichloridoplatinum (II) (CDDP), a chemotherapeutic drug. We found that CDDP, when administered with FGS, significantly decreased the viability and increased the apoptosis and cell cycle arrest of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC) cells, which were associated with the increase of p21 and decreases of cyclin D1 and CDK4. Concordantly, when combined with FGS, CDDP significantly reduced the volume and weight of tumors derived from LLC subcutaneously injected into C57BL/6 mice, with concomitant increases of phosphor-p53 and p21 in tumor tissue. Together, these results show that FGS could enhance the antitumor activity of CDDP, suggesting that FGS can be used as a complementary measure to enhance the efficacy of a chemotherapeutic agent such as CDDP

Estimating baseline creatinine values to define acute kidney injury in critically ill pediatric patients

Background Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication in critically ill children. However, the common lack of baseline serum creatinine values affects AKI diagnosis and staging. Several approaches for estimating baseline creatinine values in those patients were evaluated. Methods This single-center retrospective study enrolled pediatric patients with documented serum creatinine measurements within 3 months before admission and more than two serum creatinine measurements within 7 days after admission to the pediatric intensive care unit of a tertiary care children’s hospital between January 2016 and April 2020. Four different approaches for estimating AKI using serum creatinine measurements were compared: 1) back-calculation using age-adjusted normal reference glomerular filtration rates, 2) age-adjusted normal reference serum creatinine values, 3) minimum values measured within 7 days after admission, and 4) initial values upon admission. Results The approach using minimum values showed the best agreement with the measured baseline value, with the largest intraclass correlation coefficient (0.623), smallest bias (–0.04), and narrowest limit of agreement interval (1.032). For AKI diagnosis and staging, the minimum values were 80.8% and 76.1% accurate, respectively. The other estimated baseline values underestimated AKI and showed poor agreement with baseline values before admission, with a misclassification rate of up to 42% (p < 0.001). Conclusion Minimum values of serum creatinine measured within 7 days after hospital admission showed the best agreement with creatinine measured within 3 months before admission, indicating the possibility of using it as a baseline when baseline data are unavailable. Further large-scale studies are required to accurately diagnose AKI in critically ill children

Synchrotron X-ray reflectivity studies of nanoporous organosilicate thin films with low dielectric constants

Quantitative, non-destructive X-ray reflectivity analysis using synchrotron radiation sources was successfully performed on nanoporous dielectric thin films prepared by thermal processing of blend films of a thermally curable polymethylsilsesquioxane dielectric precursor and a thermally labile triethoxy-silyl-terminated six-arm poly(epsilon-caprolactone) porogen in various compositions. In addition, thermogravimetric analysis and transmission electron microscopy analysis were carried out. These measurements provided important structural information about the nanoporous films. The thermal process used in this study was found to cause the porogen molecules to undergo efficiently sacrificial thermal degradation, generating closed, spherical nanopores in the dielectric film. The resultant nanoporous films exhibited a homogeneous, well defined structure with a thin skin layer and low surface roughness. In particular, no skin layer was formed in the porous film imprinted using a porogen loading of 30 wt%. The film porosities ranged from 0 to 33.8% over the porogen loading range of 0-30 wt%open131

Quality of life in patients in South Korea requiring special care after fixed implants: a retrospective analysis

Background The study on oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) of disabled patients is rare but critical for welfare of patients. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of fixed implants in edentulous areas on OHRQoL in Korean disabled patients. Methods The OHRQoL of 63 disabled individuals was evaluated using the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)-14 questionnaires and studied by potential affecting variables such as age, sex, disability severity, and time of disability acquisition. Wilcoxon-signed rank tests were used to examine the OHIP-14 scores for those who had pre/post-fixed implants. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationships between factors and OHIP-14 scores before and after implants. A partial correlation analysis was also performed to determine which variables influenced OHIP-14 scores before and after treatment. The Mann-Whitney test was employed for sex and time of disability acquisition analysis (α = 0.05). Results Significant improvement was found in OHIP-14 post-implant treatment scores (P < .001). After implant treatment, the severity of disability produced significantly different results (P = .009). Pearsons correlation coefficient between severity of disability and pre/post-implant OHIP-14 scores was 0.265 (P = .030). After controlling for severity of disability, the results showed older patients had lower OHIP-14 scores (P = .032). No differences were found for sex or time of disability acquisition (congenital vs. acquired). Conclusions Fixed implant treatment improved OHRQoL for disabled patients, and the severity of disability was positively correlated with improvement of OHRQoL. For patients with a similar level of disability, the OHRQoL decreased with age.This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2018R1D1A1B07042333) and by the Korea Medical Device Development Fund grant funded by the Korea government (the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety) (Project Number: 202011A02