Dealing with Interval Scale Data in Data Envelopment Analysis

This papaer considers the problem of interval scale data in the most widely used models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the CCR, and the BCC models. Radial models require inputs and outputs measured on the ratio scale. Our focus is on how to deal with interval scale variables especially when the interval scale variable is a difference of two ratio scale variables like profit or the decrease/increase in bank accounts. Using these ratio scale variables as variables in the DEA model we suggest radial models. An approach to how to deal with interval scale variables when we relax the radiality assumption is also discussed

Value Efficiency Analysis for Incorporating Preference Information in Data Envelopment Analysis

We develop a procedure and the requisite theory for incorporating preference information in a novel way in the efficiency analysis of Decision Making Units. The efficiency of Decision Making Units is defined in the spirit of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), complemented with Decision Maker's preference information concerning the desirable structure of inputs and outputs. Our procedure begins by aiding the Decision Maker in searching for the most preferred combination of inputs and outputs of Decision Making Units (for short, Most Preferred Solution) which are efficient in DEA. Then, assuming that the Decision Maker's Most Preferred Solution maximizes his/her underlying (unknown) value function at the moment when the search is terminated, we approximate the indifference contour of the value function at this point with its possible tangent hyperplanes. Value Efficiency scores are then calculated for each Decision Making Unit comparing the inefficient units to units having the same value as the Most Preferred Solution. The resulting Value Efficiency scores are optimistic approximations of the true scores. The procedure and the resulting efficiency scores are immediately applicable to solving practical problems

Katsaus ongelmapelaamisen ja patologisen pelaamisen hoitoa koskevaan vaikuttavuustutkimukseen: tutkimus on vähäistä ja tulokset epävarmoja

Rahapelaamisen liittyvät ongelmat ja niiden hoitaminen ovat viime vuosina nousseet laajan kiinnostuksen kohteiksi Suomessa. Katsauksessa tarkastellaan diagnosoidusta pelaamishäiriöstä eli patologisesta pelaamisesta kärsiville tarkoitettujen hoitojen vaikuttavuutta kansainvälisten meta-analyysien ja katsausten perusteella. Katsauksessa tarkastellaan myös aihepiirin peruskäsitteitä. Katsauksen päätulos on, että mitään yhtä peliongelmaisten hoitomuotoa ei nykytiedon perusteella voida nimetä erityisen vaikuttavaksi, joskin kognitiivis-behavioraalisia menetelmiä voidaan pitää lupaavina. Tutkimusten perusteella ei voida kuitenkaan täsmällisesti sanoa, mikä tietty kognitiivis-behavioraalisten menetelmien suuntaus tai hoidon komponentti on vaikuttava. Lääkehoito havaitaan tutkimuksissa vaikuttavammaksi kuin lumehoito, mutta eri lääkeaineilla ei havaita keskimääräisiä eroja vaikutuksessa. Lisäksi peliongelmaisten hoitoon hakeutumisen aste on matala ja omaehtoinen toipuminen suhteellisen yleistä, minkä vuoksi on syytä panostaa myös erilaisten kevyiden interventioiden ja oma-apujärjestelmien kehittämiseen

Corporate philanthropy through the lens of ethical subjectivity

The dynamic organisational processes in businesses dilute the boundaries between the individual, organisational, and societal drivers of corporate philanthropy. This creates a complex framework in which charitable project selection occurs. Using the example of European tour operators, this study investigates the mechanisms through which companies invest in charitable projects in overseas destinations. Inextricably linked to this is the increasing contestation by local communities as to how they are able to engage effectively with tourism in order to realise the benefits tourism development can bring. This research furthers such debates by exploring the processes through which tour operators facilitate community development through charitable giving. Findings show, with no formal frameworks in existence, project selection depends upon emergent strategies that connect the professional with the personal, with trust being positioned as a central driver of these informal processes. Discretionary responsibilities are reworked through business leaders’ commitment to responsible business practises and the ethical subjectivity guiding these processes

Cognitive frames in corporate sustainability: managerial sensemaking with paradoxical and business case frames

Corporate sustainability confronts managers with tensions between complex economic, environmental, and social issues. Drawing on the literature on managerial cognition, corporate sustainability, and strategic paradoxes, we develop a cognitive framing perspective on corporate sustainability. We propose two cognitive frames—a business case frame and a paradoxical frame—and explore how differences between them in cognitive content and structure influence the three stages of the sensemaking process—that is, managerial scanning, interpreting, and responding with regard to sustainability issues. We explain how the two frames lead to differences in the breadth and depth of scanning, differences in issue interpretations in terms of sense of control and issue valence, and different types of responses that managers consider with regard to sustainability issues. By considering alternative cognitive frames, our argument contributes to a better understanding of managerial decision making regarding ambiguous sustainability issues, and it develops the underlying cognitive determinants of the stance that managers adopt on sustainability issues. This argument offers a cognitive explanation for why managers rarely push for radical change when faced with complex and ambiguous issues, such as sustainability, that are characterized by conflicting yet interrelated aspects

Immune activation in the small intestine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives: To determine whether inflammation in the gut associated immune system is activated in rheumatoid arthritis ( RA). The expression of chemokine receptor- (CCR4, CCR5) and cytokine- ( interleukin (IL) 2, IL10, interferon gamma (IFNgamma), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), and transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta)) specific mRNA in intestinal biopsy samples from patients with RA was examined. Methods: Duodenal biopsy samples from 13 patients with RA and 15 control subjects were studied. The mRNA expression of CCR4, CCR5, IL2, IL10, IFNgamma, TNFalpha, and TGFb in intestinal biopsy samples was demonstrated by real time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Results: The mRNA expression of CCR4, CCR5, and IL10 in intestinal biopsy samples was increased in patients with RA in comparison with control subjects ( p = 0.001, p = 0.046, p = 0.019). No difference in the expression levels of IL2, IFNgamma, TNFalpha, or TGFbeta was seen between patients with RA and controls. Conclusions: The increased intestinal mRNA expression of IL10, CCR5, and CCR4 suggests that gut associated immune cells are activated in patients with RA.Peer reviewe

Integrating Health and Social Services in Finland: Regional Approaches and Governance Models

Introduction: The study explores regional approaches to integrated care, focusing on regions with regular municipality-based and integrated unified health and social care administration. The aim is to describe a governance approach that supports care integration in the regions. Methods: The study draws on analysis of integrated care governance using an extensive collection of administrative documents (n = 176) on regional health and social services within 20 specialised care authorities. The document data were supplemented with interviews of national health and social system evaluation officers. In our analysis, we used deductive content analysis and identified conceptual approaches of social and health care integration according to elements of integrated care governance. Results: Overall, integrated care governance was relatively well advanced. All regional authorities had established at least some preconditions for integrated governance. The stage of integration varied in the different elements of integrated care governance. The regions with unified integrated administrations enabled the more advanced models of integrated care. Conclusions: Various models for cooperation between regional health and social care authorities have emerged in the regions to identify good integrated care practices. The study suggests that the applied theoretical framework and presented elements of integrated care governance can be used to monitor development of care integration

Charge Transport and Photocurrent Generation Characteristics in Dye Solar Cells Containing Thermally Degraded N719 Dye Molecules

By deliberately introducing the thermally degraded form of the dye solar cell sensitizer N719 in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using synthetically prepared N719-TBP ([Ru(L-H)(2)(NCS)(4-tert-butylpyridine)](-+)N-(Bu)(4)), we have investigated the devastating influence of this ligand substitution product (N719-TBP) on the performance parameters of the cells. Two types of dyed solar cells, based on either N719 or N719-TBP, have been characterized employing standard current-voltage (I-V) performance test, UV-vis optical spectroscopy, incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The performance tests show a drastic efficiency reduction of similar to 50% in the N719-TBP containing cells as compared to N719-dyed cells. The lower performance of N719-TBP was caused by lower overall light harvesting efficiency due to ca. 30 nm blue shift in the absorption spectrum of the dye, ca. 50% shorter electron diffusion length due to lower electron recombination resistance, and ca. 14% lower charge separation efficiency, which most likely can be ascribed to decreased dye regeneration efficiency caused by the replacement of one NCS ligand with TBP in the substitution product. The observations made in this study of DSC cells dyed with the substitution product, representing a worst case scenario of cells with 100% degraded dye, are in agreement with the characteristics of N719-dyed solar cells degraded at 85 degrees C, where the effect of ligand substitution is somewhat less pronounced

Rahapelaamisen tiheys on yhteydessä terveysriskeihin työikäisillä suomalaisilla

Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin, miten rahapelaamisen tiheys oli yhteydessä päivittäiseen tupakointiin sekä alkoholin viikkokulutukseen ja humalajuomiseen työikäisillä suomalaisilla. Suomalaisen aikuisväestön terveyskäyttäytyminen ja terveys (AVTK) -postikyselytutkimuksen vuoden 2008 vastausaktiivisuus oli 64 prosenttia (n=3216, otoskoko 5000). Täman tutkimuksen aineiston koko oli 3203. Menetelminä käytettiin ristiintaulukointeja ja logistisia regressiomalleja, joiden avulla tutkittiin miten rahapeleihin osallistuminen ja rahapelaamisen tiheyden eri tasot olivat yhteydessä päivittäiseen tupakointiin, alkoholin suurkulutukseen, humalajuomiseen ja itsearvioituun terveyteen. Pelanneet olivat pelaamattomia useammin päivittäisiä tupakoitsijoita, mutta alkoholin suurkulutuksessa ei ollut eroa. Rahapelejä pelanneilla (68 % vastaajista) päivittäinen tupakointi ja alkoholin suurkulutus olivat sitä yleisempiä mitä tiheämmin henkilö pelasi. Runsasta rahapelaamista onkin syytä tarkastella kansanterveydellisenä huolenaiheena