Evaluation and Improvement of the Efficiency of Logistics Companies with Data Envelopment Analysis Model

The performance of global trade depends on the logistics industry to move products, information, finances, technology and human resources along the supply chain. The current situation during the pandemic relies on the logistics industry particularly in the courier, parcel and express service providers to deliver daily essentials. Product customization, customer demand, technological sophistication, threat of new entrants, border closure, compliance to Covid-19 regulations and global economic crisis have taken the logistics industry by storm. For the sustainment and growth of these companies, strategic decision making shall take place. A huge determinant of these decisions is the financial efficiency of the companies. Therefore, this paper aims to determine the efficiency of the logistics companies in Malaysia by analyzing their financial performances using current ratio, debt to assets ratio, debt to equity ratio, earnings per share, return on assets and return on equity with data envelopment analysis model. The results of this study found that five companies, COMPLET, GDEX, MISC, SURIA and WPRTS are efficient. This study fills the research gap by determining the efficiency scores of these companies and suggesting potential improvements for inefficient companies to enhance and optimize their financial positions

Optimizing the Asset and Liability Management of Telecommunication Company using Goal Programming Model

Since the telecommunications companies experience great competition, high churn rate, data traffic issues during the Covid-19 pandemic and the upgrade to 5G connectivity, the finance management of a telecommunications company should be analyzed to study the volatility and returns in the sector. This paper aims to develop a goal programming model to examine the asset and liability management of a telecommunication company, namely Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) in Malaysia. The result of this study shows that TM has achieved all the goals in maximizing assets, equities, profits, earnings and optimum management item while minimizing liabilities over the period of study from 2015 to 2019. Potential improvements on these goals have also been identified through this study. This paper has also contributed to the studies in financial management since past studies have not been done on asset and liability management in telecommunications companies which is rapidly growing and expanding even while the world is suffering from economy crisis during this pandemic

Targeted gene sanger sequencing should remain the first-tier genetic test for children suspected to have the five common X-linked inborn errors of immunity

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.To address inborn errors of immunity (IEI) which were underdiagnosed in resource-limited regions, our centre developed and offered free genetic testing for the most common IEI by Sanger sequencing (SS) since 2001. With the establishment of The Asian Primary Immunodeficiency (APID) Network in 2009, the awareness and definitive diagnosis of IEI were further improved with collaboration among centres caring for IEI patients from East and Southeast Asia. We also started to use whole exome sequencing (WES) for undiagnosed cases and further extended our collaboration with centres from South Asia and Africa. With the increased use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), we have shifted our diagnostic practice from SS to WES. However, SS was still one of the key diagnostic tools for IEI for the past two decades. Our centre has performed 2,024 IEI SS genetic tests, with in-house protocol designed specifically for 84 genes, in 1,376 patients with 744 identified to have disease-causing mutations (54.1%). The high diagnostic rate after just one round of targeted gene SS for each of the 5 common IEI (X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) 77.4%, Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome (WAS) 69.2%, X-linked chronic granulomatous disease (XCGD) 59.5%, X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (XSCID) 51.1%, and X-linked hyper-IgM syndrome (HIGM1) 58.1%) demonstrated targeted gene SS should remain the first-tier genetic test for the 5 common X-linked IEI.The Hong Kong Society for Relief of Disabled Children and Jeffrey Modell Foundation.http://www.frontiersin.org/Immunologyam2023Paediatrics and Child Healt

Performance Evaluation of the Efficiency of Logistics Companies with Data Envelopment Analysis Model

Malaysia has great geo-economic advantages, especially in becoming a major logistics and investment hub. However, as operational risk events create uncertainties, logistics companies suffer from supply and demand issues which affect their bottom lines, customer satisfaction and reputations. This is a pioneer paper to propose the optimization of the efficiency of listed logistics companies in Malaysia with operational risk factor using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The basic indicator approach (BIA) is used as an output indicator for the operational risk capital requirement factor in the proposed model. This paper has practical and managerial implications with the identification of potential improvements for the inefficient listed logistics companies based on the optimal solution of the DEA model. This proposed model can be applied in emerging fields such as finance and project-based construction companies, where operational risk is a high concern

Task shifting in primary care to tackle healthcare worker shortages:An umbrella review

Background Task shifting is an approach to help address the shortage of healthcare workers through reallocating human resources but its impact on primary care is unclear. Objectives To provide an overview of reviews describing task shifts from physicians to allied healthcare workers in primary care and its impact on clinical outcomes. Methods Six electronic databases were searched up to 15 December 2020, to identify reviews describing task shifting in primary care. Two reviewers independently screened the references for relevant studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality of included reviews using AMSTAR-2. Results Twenty-one reviews that described task shifting in primary care were included. Task shifted include provision of care for people with chronic conditions, medication prescribing, and health education. We found that task shifting could potentially improve several health outcomes such as blood pressure, HbA1c, and mental health while achieving cost savings. Key elements for successful implementation of task shifting include collaboration among all parties, a system for coordinated care, provider empowerment, patient preference, shared decision making, training and competency, supportive organisation system, clear process outcome, and financing. Conclusion Evidence suggests that allied healthcare workers such as pharmacists and nurses can potentially undertake substantially expanded roles to support physicians in primary care in response to the changing health service demand. Tasks include providing care to patients, independent prescribing, counselling and education, with comparable quality of care

The Studies on Gallium Nitride-Based Materials: A Bibliometric Analysis

Gallium nitride (GaN) has a wide energy band gap and a high power density, efficiency, switching frequency, and electron carrier mobility, having broad applications in digitization. Because GaN has high potentials, this study performed a bibliometric analysis on the publications of GaN indexed in the Web of Science database from 1970 to 2023. A performance analysis of the 15,634 publications was performed using Harzing’s Publish or Perish tool, while science mappings were performed with VOSviewer software. The results show that there has been an uptrend in the on-going research on GaN, especially in the past decade. Most of the documents are within the fields of physics, engineering, and materials science. The United States has the highest number of publications and the most impactful research. The United States is also actively collaborating with other countries to gain deeper insights into GaN. The analysis shows that the concentration of GaN research is slowly moving towards the development of high-voltage operations

Performance Evaluation of the Efficiency of Logistics Companies with Data Envelopment Analysis Model

Malaysia has great geo-economic advantages, especially in becoming a major logistics and investment hub. However, as operational risk events create uncertainties, logistics companies suffer from supply and demand issues which affect their bottom lines, customer satisfaction and reputations. This is a pioneer paper to propose the optimization of the efficiency of listed logistics companies in Malaysia with operational risk factor using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The basic indicator approach (BIA) is used as an output indicator for the operational risk capital requirement factor in the proposed model. This paper has practical and managerial implications with the identification of potential improvements for the inefficient listed logistics companies based on the optimal solution of the DEA model. This proposed model can be applied in emerging fields such as finance and project-based construction companies, where operational risk is a high concern

Evaluation on the performance of highway companies using goal programming model

Highway companies engage in projects with governments through the concession model in which the governments’ aim is in fulfilling public interest while the highway companies aim to increase their financial stability. However, highway companies face various operational risks that would impede their financial excellency. Therefore, this paper aims to assess the financial performances of the highway companies with the goal programming (GP) model. The GP model is a powerful tool in solving multi-objective issues. This paper studies the listed highway companies, namely LITRAK, TALIWRK, and EDGENTA from 2017 to 2022 using financial data. Based on the optimal solution of GP model, all three companies have reached the goals for assets, equities, and optimum management items. LITRAK, TALIWRK, and EDGENTA have underachievement for the goal of liability management. The GP model has identified the potential improvements for these highway companies for further improvement based on the benchmark values

A study on the accounting treatment of extraordinary item in Singapore.

Due to ambiguous definitions of extraordinary item and exceptional item as given in Statement of Accounting Standards (SAS) 8, there is a certain degree of discretion as to the classification of extraordinary item, hence, the issue of pushing the item ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’ is a much debated topic among the accounting profession.ACCOUNTANC

A Bibliometric Analysis of a Genetic Algorithm for Supply Chain Agility

As a famous population-based metaheuristic algorithm, a genetic algorithm can be used to overcome optimization complexities. A genetic algorithm adopts probabilistic transition rules and is suitable for parallelism, which makes this algorithm attractive in many areas, including the logistics and supply chain sector. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of the development in this area, this paper presents a bibliometric analysis on the application of a genetic algorithm in logistics and supply chains using data from 1991 to 2024 from the Web of Science database. The authors found a growing trend in the number of publications and citations over the years. This paper serves as an important reference to researchers by highlighting important research areas, such as multi-objective optimization, metaheuristics, sustainability issues in logistics, and machine learning integration. This bibliometric analysis also underlines the importance of Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II), sustainability, machine learning, and variable neighborhood search in the application of a genetic algorithm in logistics and supply chains in the near future. The integration of a genetic algorithm with machine learning is also a potential research gap to be filled to overcome the limitations of genetic algorithms, such as the long computational time, difficulties in obtaining optimal solutions, and convergence issues for application in logistics and supply chains