Efficiency, technology and productivity change in Australian universities, 1998-2003

In this study, productivity growth in thirty-five Australian universities is investigated using nonparametric frontier techniques over the period 1998 to 2003. The inputs included in the analysis are full-time equivalent academic and non-academic staff, non-labour expenditure and undergraduate and postgraduate student load and the outputs are undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD completions, national competitive and industry grants and publications. Using Malmquist indices, productivity growth is decomposed into technical efficiency and technological change. The results indicate that annual productivity growth averaged 3.3 percent across all universities, with a range between -1.8 percent and 13.0 percent, and was largely attributable to technological progress. However, separate analyses of research-only and teaching-only productivity indicate that most of this gain was attributable to improvements in research-only productivity associated with pure technical and some scale efficiency improvements. While teaching-only productivity also contributed, the largest source of gain in that instance was technological progress offset by a slight fall in technical efficiency.Productivity; technical and scale efficiency; technological progress; Malmquist indices; universities.

The long-term prognostic significance of 6-minute walk test distance in patients with chronic heart failure

Background. The 6-minute walk test (6-MWT) is used to assess patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). The prognostic significance of the 6-MWT distance during long-term followup ( > 5 years) is unclear. Methods. 1,667 patients (median [inter-quartile range, IQR]) (age 72 [65-77] ; 75% males) with heart failure due to left ventricular systolic impairment undertook a 6-MWT as part of their baseline assessment and were followed up for 5 years. Results. At 5 years' followup, those patients who died (n = 959) were older at baseline and had a higher log NT pro-BNP than those who survived to 5 years (n = 708). 6-MWT distance was lower in those who died [163 (153) m versus 269 (160) m; P 360 m. 6-MWT distance was a predictor of all-cause mortality (HR 0.97; 95% CI 0.96-0.97; Chi-square = 184.1; P < 0.0001). Independent predictors of all-cause mortality were decreasing 6-MWT distance, increasing age, increasing NYHA classification, increasing log NT pro-BNP, decreasing diastolic blood pressure, decreasing sodium, and increasing urea. Conclusion. The 6-MWT is an important independent predictor of all-cause mortality following long-term followup in patients with CHF. © 2014 Lee Ingle et al

Global public health training in the UK: preparing for the future.

BACKGROUND: Many major public health issues today are not confined by national boundaries. However, the global public health workforce appears unprepared to confront the challenges posed by globalization. We therefore sought to investigate whether the current UK public health training programme adequately prepares its graduates to operate in a globalized world. METHODS: We used mixed methods involving an online cross-sectional survey of UK public health trainees on the international content of the Faculty of Public Health's written examination, a qualitative review of the Faculty's 2007 training curriculum and a questionnaire survey of all training deaneries in the UK. RESULTS: We found that global health issues are not addressed by the current training curriculum or in the written examination despite trainee interest for this. Many of the deaneries were also unreceptive to international placements. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the recognized educational legitimacy of global health placements and the favourable UK policy context, the opportunities and international content of public health training remain limited. In order to retain its position as a leader in the field of public health, the UK needs to adapt its training programme to better reflect today's challenges

Addressing Alcohol\u27s Role in Campus Sexual Assault: A Toolkit by and for Prevention Specialists

This toolkit provides specific guidance on addressing alcohol\u27s role in campus sexual assault, centering Sexual Assault Prevention Specialists as the intended audience

Malmquist Indices of Pre and Post-Deregulation Productivity, Efficiency and Technological Change in the Singaporean Banking Sector

By the end of the 1990s, the Singaporean government had recognised the need to open up its banking sector so as to remain competitive in the global economy. The Monetary Authority of Singapore thus began deregulation of the banking sector in 1999 to strengthening the competitiveness of local banks relative to their foreign competition through mergers. This paper employs a nonparametric Malmquist productivity index to provide measure of productivity, technological change and efficiency gains over the period 1995-2005. The findings reveal some total factor productivity growth associated with deregulation and scale efficiency improvement largely from mergers amongst the local banks.Efficiency, productivity; deregulation; Malmquist indices; banking

Progress on pricing with peering

This paper examines a simple model of how a provider ISP charges customer ISPs by assuming the provider ISP wants to maximize its revenue when customer ISPs have the possibility of setting up peering connections. It is shown that finding the optimal pricing is NP-complete, and APX-complete. Customers can respond to price in many ways, including throttling traffic as well as peering. An algorithm is studied which obtains a 1/4 approximation for a wide range of customer responses

Import Demand for Fresh Fruit in Japan and Uniform Substitution for Products from Different Sources

International Relations/Trade,

Predictive Efficiency Analysis : A Study of U.S. Hospitals

Workshop 2015 -Advances in DEA Theory and Applications (December 1-2, 2015)Healthcare costs are higher in the U.S. then anywhere else in the world. A significant portion of the costs are generated in hospitals. We investigate both the efficiency and the effectiveness of U.S. community hospitals using the Agency for healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project 2009-2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a data set which contains all discharges from an approximate 20% sample of hospitals. Here efficiency is the productivity of the hospital measured relative to the most productive hospitals and effectiveness is how closely the hospital produced relative to the forecasted services needed. We find the effectiveness levels are slightly higher than the efficiency levels in both 2010 and 2011 indicating that hospitals are producing closer to the forecasted level than the actual service level needed. Further, both efficiency and effectiveness levels are low indicating a large variability in the level of resources hospitals use to provide the same set of services. The low effectiveness scores indicate that many hospitals have a high level of resources even relative to the forecasted demand providing some evidence for a medical arms race.The workshop is supported by JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science), Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), #25282090, titled “Studies in Theory and Applications of DEA for Forecasting Purpose.本研究はJSPS科研費 基盤研究(B) 25282090の助成を受けたものです

Rapid iododeboronation with and without gold catalysis: application to radiolabelling of arenes

Radiopharmaceuticals incorporating radioactive iodine in combination with SPECT imaging play a key role in nuclear medicine, with applications in drug development and disease diagnosis. Despite this importance, there are relatively few general methods for incorporating radioiodine into small molecules. Here we describe a rapid, air- and moisture-stable ipso-iododeboronation procedure using NIS, in the non-toxic and green solvent dimethyl carbonate. The fast reaction and mild conditions of the gold-catalysed method led to the development of a highly efficient process for radiolabelling of arenes, which constitutes the first example of an application of homogenous gold catalysis to selective radiosynthesis. This has been exemplified with an effective synthesis of radiolabelled meta-[125I]iodobenzylguanidine, a radiopharmaceutical used for the imaging and therapy of human norepinephrine transporter-expressing tumours