The effect of methotrexate on spontaneous mammary adenocarcinomata in female C3H mice.

The effect of methotrexate on solid rodent tumours has been investigated using the spontaneous mammary adenocarcinoma of the female C3H/Bts mouse. As these tumours exhibit a wide range of volume doubling times, calculations of tumour response to methotrexate must be related to doubling time. When methotrexate is injected into the tumour a dose-dependent tumour response is obtained. Systemic citrovorum "rescue" prevents methotrexate lethalities but reduces tumour response by a factor of 2. Methotrexate-treated tumours have an increased volume doubling time post treatment

"What Makes the Indian Tick?" The Influence of Social Sciences on Canada's Indian Policy, 1947-1964

The continuing objective of state policy towards First Nations in Canada has been their assimilation into the dominant society. Until World War II the strategy had been to subjugate them through transparently harsh statutory and administrative measures. After the war, a new ostensibly more humane approach to assimilation was introduced. An analysis of archival documents from the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs reveals the role of the social sciences in influencing this approach. Knowledge from the social sciences, applied to Indian policy, reflected the biases of modern liberalism. The social sciences pointed to the required direction of Indian adaptation — the market, individualism, self-reliance, and the family — and to what aspects of Indian culture had to change — collectivism, extended kinship, and gendered roles reflective of traditional rather than modern cultures. Although these state policies enjoyed wide public support, First Nations refused to be mere objects of science and research.La politique de l’État a toujours visé l’assimilation des Premières nations du Canada à la société dominante. Jusqu’à la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, la stratégie avait été de les subjuguer par la prise de mesures législatives et administratives visiblement dures. Après la guerre, l’on a adopté une nouvelle approche ostensiblement plus humaine à l’assimilation. Une analyse de documents d’archives du ministère des Affaires indiennes et du Nord canadien révèle le rôle qu’ont joué les sciences sociales dans cette approche. Les connaissances des sciences sociales, appliquées à la politique relative aux Indiens, témoignaient de la partialité du libéralisme occidental. Les sciences sociales signalaient la voie à prendre pour assurer l’adaptation des Indiens — le marché, l’individualisme, l’autonomie et la famille — et les aspects de la culture indienne devant changer — le collectivisme, la parenté étendue et les rôles selon le sexe, reflet de cultures traditionnelles plutôt que modernes. Ces politiques de l’État jouissaient certes d’un vaste appui populaire, mais les Premières nations refusèrent d’être de simples objets de curiosité scientifique et de recherche

Finance Function Performance Measurement-A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach

 The practice of measuring performance of the finance function as a business support unit is not widespread. This study assessed the importance of measuring finance function performance, by ascertaining whether such measurement facilitates identification of the relative efficiency of business finance functions, and by establishing its impact, if any, on overall company performance. Focussing on a sample of companies in the South African Freight Forwarding industry, a performance metric was developed and implemented to measure finance function performance. Relative finance function efficiency was then evaluated using inputorientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) to identify ‘best in class’ performance and to benchmark participants’ performance. Further, value chain DEA (VC-DEA) was applied to evaluate finance function efficiency simultaneously with overall company efficiency. Results show that implementation of the performance metric together with DEA facilitated the benchmarking of the finance functions of the sample group and the establishment of improvement targets for the finance functions determined as inefficient. In addition, a link between overall company performance and finance function performance in terms of inputs was confirmed; however, this link was not conclusively established as regards finance function performance in terms of outputs. The contribution of the study includes confirmation that implementation of the performance metric together with DEA facilitates the critical evaluation of finance function performance, thus establishing the importance of measuring the performance of the finance functions. In addition, incorporating the use of DEA in a performance framework for the finance function as a business support unit has extended the range of applications of DEA. &nbsp

Probabilistic Analysis of Temporal and Sequential Aspects of Activities of Daily Living for Abnormal Behaviour Detection

This paper presents a probabilistic approach for the identification of abnormal behaviour in Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) from dense sensor data collected from 30 participants. The ADLs considered are related to preparing and drinking (i) tea, and (ii) coffee. Abnormal behaviour identified in the context of these activities can be an indicator of a progressive health problem or the occurrence of a hazardous incident. The approach presented considers the temporal and sequential aspects of the actions that are part of each ADL and that vary between participants. The average and standard deviation for the duration and number of steps of each activity are calculated to define the average time and steps and a range within which a behaviour could be considered as normal for each stage and activity. The Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) is used to obtain the probabilities of abnormal behaviours related to the early and late completion of activities and stages within an activity in terms of time and steps. Analysis shows that CDF can provide precise and reliable results regarding the presence of abnormal behaviour in stages and activities that last over a minute or consist of many steps. Finally, this approach could be used to train machine learning algorithms for abnormal behaviour detection.status: publishe

Data envelopment analysis in performance measurement: a critical analysis of the literature

This study examines the benefits of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in evaluating the performance of decision making units (DMUs). DEA is a mathematical programming tool applied in performance measurement. The problem identified is establishing business support units as value adding business units. A case is made for applying DEA when evaluating the performance of such business support units. To this end, a literature review of the results of applications of DEA to the evaluation of information technology and purchasing supply chain management functions was conducted. The findings indicate the benefits of DEA are that the method identifies efficient performers in a given population and, therefore, allows for benchmarking against the ’best in class’ performer. This as opposed to more commonly used parametric methods, such as regression analysis, which result in a comparator that represents the average performance for a given population, therefore, allowing only for measurement against the average. In addition, the findings indicate that in respect of business support units, the DEA methodology allows for the incorporation of intermediate outcomes, which facilitates the measurement of the contribution of these units to overall company performance. Although the DEA methodology has been widely applied, it is still not as well known or generally applied as the more common approaches. The recommendations made in this paper will be beneficial in bringing DEA to the attention of decision-makers. The recommendations will also raise awareness of the potential benefits to be realised when applying the method in developing performance measurement frameworks for business support units. Keywords: performance measurement, data envelopment analysis, decision making units, business support units. JEL Classification: C61, L2