Encouraging Technology-Based Ventures: Entrepreneurship Education and Engineering Graduates

This article examines entrepreneurship courses offered by engineering faculties in Canada. The venturing rate of engineering students, whether the venturing rate increases if students have taken a course in entrepreneurship, and the type of ventures created are also explored. A recent census and an empirical study of two groups of engineering graduates from a Canadian university were utilized. Findings have implications for educators and administrators and for policy-makers interested in encouraging economic growth

Data Envelopment Analysis of Corporate Failure for Non-Manufacturing Firms Using a Slacks-Based Measure

Workshop 2015 -Advances in DEA Theory and Applications (December 1-2, 2015)The problem of predicting corporate failure has intrigued many in the investment sector, corporate decision makers, business partners and many others, hence the intense research efforts by industry and academia. The majority of former research efforts on this topic focused on manufacturing companies with considerable assets commensurate with their size. But there is a dearth of publications on predicting non-manufacturing firms’ financial difficulties since these firms typically do not have significant assets or, indeed, any need for them as their work does not rely heavily on assets as a key variable. Our research shows that the slack-based measure (SBM) DEA model has obvious advantages in predicting corporate financial stress.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

Sterol Intermediates of Cholesterol Biosynthesis Inhibit Hair Growth and Trigger an Innate Immune Response in Cicatricial Alopecia

Primary cicatricial alopecia (PCA) is a group of inflammatory hair disorders that cause scarring and permanent hair loss. Previous studies have implicated PPARγ, a transcription factor that integrates lipogenic and inflammatory signals, in the pathogenesis of PCA. However, it is unknown what triggers the inflammatory response in these disorders, whether the inflammation is a primary or secondary event in disease pathogenesis, and whether the inflammatory reaction reflects an autoimmune process. In this paper, we show that the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway is impaired in the skin and hair follicles of PCA patients. Treatment of hair follicle cells with BM15766, a cholesterol biosynthesis inhibitor, or 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC), a sterol precursor, stimulates the expression of pro-inflammatory chemokine genes. Painting of mouse skin with 7-DHC or BM15766 inhibits hair growth, causes follicular plugging and induces the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the interfollicular dermis. Our results demonstrate that cholesterologenic changes within hair follicle cells trigger an innate immune response that is associated with the induction of toll-like receptor (TLR) and interferon (IFN) gene expression, and the recruitment of macrophages that surround the hair follicles and initiate their destruction. These findings reveal a previously unsuspected role for cholesterol precursors in PCA pathogenesis and identify a novel link between sterols and inflammation that may prove transformative in the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders

A Distribution-Free Approach to Stochastic Efficiency Measurement with Inclusion of Expert Knowledge

This paper proposes a new efficiency benchmarking methodology that is capable of incorporating probability while still preserving the advantages of a distribution-free and nonparametric modeling technique. This new technique developed in this paper will be known as the DEA-Chebyshev model. The foundation of DEA-Chebyshev model is based on the model pioneered by Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes in 1978 known as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The combination of normal DEA with DEA-Chebyshev frontier (DCF) can successfully provide a good framework for evaluation based on quantitative data and qualitative intellectual management knowledge. The simulated dataset was tested on DEA-Chebyshev model. It has been statistically shown that this model is effective in predicting a new frontier, whereby DEA efficient units can be further differentiated and ranked. It is an improvement over other methods, as it is easily applied, practical, not computationally intensive, and easy to implement

Theoretical perspectives of trade-off analysis using DEA

Because of the piecewise linear nature of the frontier in data envelopment analysis (DEA), estimated marginal rates of substitution are only valid for infinitesimal, or small finite, changes in one or more variables. Analysing the impacts of very small changes is not adequate for many situations, where the consequences of substantial changes in variables are of interest to for instance managers. This paper develops methods for evaluating larger, i.e. non-marginal, tradeoffs between variables in DEA. The methods are capable of handling both scalar and additive changes. Finally, the approaches for evaluating basic pairwise tradeoffs are generalised in order to enable assessment of the impact on one or more throughputs of the change in one or more of the other throughputs.Data envelopment analysis (DEA) Rates of substitution Marginal Non-marginal Trade-off