Efficiency Analytics of NCAA Division I College Football Programs

College athletics are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, but how well do university athletic programs employ their resources? The question is germane in light of increasing costs of higher education and scrutiny of university budgets. This study furnishes a template to weigh the tradeoffs inherent in collegiate sports, which is the main contribution of the paper. A dataset of 117 American college football programs from 2011-2015 is analyzed using DEA and AHP methods to assess the efficiency and perception of these programs. The result is the aforementioned framework measuring the programs\u27 success and answers the question of program efficiency

Carbon Emission Cost Affects Location Decision: CO2 Efficient Area Yields to the Less Efficient

Due to the global warming problem, it is more urgent than ever to take carbon emission problem seriously. It is needed to take carbon emission cost into consideration. Gravity method is used to do location selection. Three aspects of work have been done. First, the carbon emission cost of a certain kind of truck is calculated. Second, the comparison between considering and not considering carbon emission is done. Third, a distance parameter is added to transfer straight-line distance to real distance. The research gets the result in two cases: case 1 single mode transportation tools are used, the best site has no changes with total cost rising case 2 multi-mode transportation tools are used, the best site coordination has changed with cost rising in general except extraordinary case. At the end, we show the application of the model. The carbon emission cost affects the location modeling, the cost like carbon dioxide tax will drive the location center to move a little bit in the direction of the CO2 efficient area towards less efficient area.nbs

Misplaced Inventory and Lead-Time in the Supply Chain: Analysis of Decision-Making on RFID Investment with Service Level

Radio-frequency identification (RFID), as the key technology of Internet of Things (IoT), has been hailed as a major innovation to solve misplaced inventory and reduce lead-time. Many retailers have been pushing their suppliers to invest this technology. However, its associated costs seem to prohibit its widespread application. This paper analyzes the situation of service level in a retail supply chain, which has resulted from misplaced inventory and lead-time. By newsvendor model, we analyze the difference between with- and without-RFID technologies in service level of centralized and decentralized supply chains, respectively. Then with different service levels, we determine the tag cost thresholds at which RFID technology investment becomes profitable in centralized and decentralized supply chains, respectively. Furthermore, we apply a linear transfer payment coefficient strategy to coordinate with the decentralized supply chain. It is found that whether the adoption of RFID technology improves the service level depends on the cost of RFID tag in the centralized system, but it improves the service level in the decentralized system when only the supplier bears the cost of RFID tag. Moreover, the same cost thresholds of RFID tag with different service levels exist in both the centralized and the decentralized cases

An Investigation into the Cytotoxic Effects of 13-Acetoxysarcocrassolide from the Soft Coral Sarcophyton crassocaule on Bladder Cancer Cells

Active compounds from natural products have been widely studied. The anti-tumor effects of 13-acetoxysarcocrassolide isolated from Formosan soft coral Sarcophyton crassocaule on bladder cancer cells were examined in this study. An MTT assay showed that 13-acetoxysarcocrassolide was cytotoxic to bladder female transitional cancer (BFTC) cells. We determined that the BFTC cells underwent cell death through apoptosis by flow cytometry. Due to the highly-migratory nature of the BFTC cells, the ability of 13-acetoxysarcocrassolide to stop their migration was assessed by a wound healing assay. To determine which proteins were affected in the BFTC cells upon treatment, a comparative proteomic analysis was performed. By LC-MS/MS analysis, we identified that 19 proteins were up-regulated and eight were down-regulated. Seven of the proteins were confirmed by western blotting analysis. This study reveals clues to the potential mechanism of the cytotoxic effects of 13-acetoxysarcocrassolide on BFTC cells. Moreover, it suggests that PPT1 and hnRNP F could be new biomarkers for bladder cancer. The results of this study are also helpful for the diagnosis, progression monitoring and therapeutic strategies of transitional cell tumors

Business Volatility and Employee Performance

This study examines the impact of business volatility on employee performance. We posit that employees work harder in a more volatile business environment as prior research links business volatility to increased use of performance-based compensation systems, which may result in better employee performance. Our results suggest that business volatility has a significant and positive impact on employee performance. Furthermore, we find that the relationship between business volatility and employee performance is stronger for larger firms and firms with higher labor intensity