A Mathematical Programming Approach to Brand Efficiency of Smartphones in the US Market

This study applied mathematical programming approach to investigate the brand efficiency of smartphone brands by collecting data of 2013–2015 from Consumer Report. The brand efficiency was completed by employing the slack-based measure in data envelopment analysis. The degree of inefficiency of each brand was evaluated, and each brand’s metatechnology ratio was calculated using the metafrontier concept. The results revealed that the sampled smartphone brands reach the highest average brand efficiency in 2013, where Apple exhibited the highest brand efficiency among the sampled brands. The high brand efficiency in 2013 was attributed to the small number of product types at beginning of the growth period of smartphones. Finally, this study examined the efficiency of smartphone brands among four major telecommunications operators in the United States. It was found that Apple demonstrated the highest efficiency with all four operators, while no significant difference was noted among operators and smartphone brands

The effects of a mindfulness-based family psychoeducation intervention for the caregivers of young adults with first-episode psychosis: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: In this study, we investigated the effects of a mindfulness-based family psychoeducation (MBFPE) program on the mental-health outcomes of both caregivers and young adults with first-episode psychosis with an onset in the past three years through a multi-site randomized controlled trial. We also studied the outcomes of three potential mediating effects of interpersonal mindfulness, expressed emotions, and non-attachment on the program. Method: We randomly assigned 65 caregivers of young adults with psychosis to MBFPE (n = 33) or an ordinary family psychoeducation (FPE) program (n = 32); among them, 18 young adults in recovery also participated in the evaluation of outcomes. Results: Intent-to-treat analyses were conducted. No significant time × group interaction effects of MBFPE and FPE programs were found in any of the caregivers’ outcomes. However, the young adults with psychosis reported higher levels of recovery after the MBFPE program than after the ordinary FPE program (F = 8.268, p = 0.012, d = 1.484). They also reported a larger reduction in over-involvement of their caregivers (F = 4.846, p = 0.044, d = 1.136), showing that MBFPE had a superior effect to FPE in promoting recovery and reducing over-involvement. Conclusions: A brief psychoeducation program may not reduce the burden on or improve the mental-health outcome of caregivers of individuals with recent-onset psychosis. However, integrating mindfulness into a conventional family psychoeducation program may reduce the expressed emotions of caregivers, especially over-involvement. Further studies should explore how psychoeducation programs can reduce the impact of psychosis on family through sustainable effects in terms of reducing their burden and expressed emotions, using a rigorous study and adequate sample size

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Riociguat treatment in patients with chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension: Final safety data from the EXPERT registry

Objective: The soluble guanylate cyclase stimulator riociguat is approved for the treatment of adult patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and inoperable or persistent/recurrent chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) following Phase

Analysis of the Development Strategy of Late-entrants in Taiwan and Korea’s TFT-LCD Industry

[[abstract]]The strong and sustained growth performance over the last few decades of the emerging economies in Southeast Asia, including Korea and Taiwan, has stimulated an extensive literature. The ‘miracle’ explanation of economic growth in the Asian region is now discredited but the phenomenon remains the subject of several important economic debates in an extensive literature. These debates include the issue of whether there is a distinct Asian ‘model’ of growth, the extent to which their success marks the triumph of market-oriented solutions over government intervention and the sources of their competitiveness and productivity growth. This study examines the development strategy of late entrants in Taiwan and Korea’s TFT-LCD industry. It was suggested that Korea, under the full support of its government, tends to challenge the first mover in the TFT-LCD technology and compete with the frontier-Japan. On the other hand, Taiwan did not attempt to challenge the technology leadership in a confrontational manner, but focused on being a superior quick follower. In addition, the research paper also addresses the competitive strategies of both countries. The niche strategy for Korea can be attributed to global networking, production, investment, and innovation capability, while the niche strategy and the core competence of Taiwan’s TFT-LCD industry is mainly from system integration capability, quality, cost, and flexibility. The approaches of Taiwan and Korea may shed light on the strategies to be followed by developing countries when they seek to enter knowledge-intensive, high-technology sectors

<smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"><smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"> Evaluating profitability and marketability of Taiwan’s IC fabless firms: An DEA approach </smarttagtype></smarttagtype>

851-857This study characterizes performance of IC fabless firms via a two-stage production process emphasizing profitability and marketability. A data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is employed to determine operating performance of 40 leading IC fabless firms in Taiwan. About 10% of firms (9 out of 40) are found efficient in profitability performance model. In this study, marketability performance is found better than profitability performance for fabless firms. New approach identifies areas for improved IC design performance over two-stage production process

Exploring the operating efficiency of semiconductor industry by a sustainable development approach

This study attempts to characterise performance in terms of a simple indicator (revenue) to a multi-dimensional systems perspective, which includes the development of eco-efficiency and the sustainable development indicator. The influence of Perfluorocompounds (PFCs) on the operating performance of the semiconductor industry is studied by using data envelopment analysis (DEA), which inherently recognises tradeoffs among various measures. Samples used in this study included 14 global semiconductor firms, each of which was treated as a decision making units (DMUs) under DEA analysis. The empirical result reveals that the overall technical inefficiencies of the firms are due primarily to pure technical inefficiencies rather than the scale inefficiencies. In addition, the results in this study indicate that the operating efficiency ranking changes when the amount of PFCs emission is considered in the analysis.sustainable development; semiconductor industry; perfluorocompounds; PFCs; data envelopment analysis; DEA; sustainability; revenue; eco-efficiency; decision making units; technical inefficiency; scale inefficiencies; operating efficiency; PFC emissions.