An Arctic-Tibetan Connection on Subseasonal to Seasonal Time Scale

Recent research indicates the great potentials of springtime land surface temperature (LST) as a new source of predictability to improve the subseasonal to seasonal climate prediction. In this study, we explore the initial cause of the springtime large-scale LST in Tibetan Plateau (TP) and disentangle its close connection with the February wave activities from the Arctic region. Our Maximum Covariance Analysis show that the spring LST in TP is significantly coupled with the regional snow cover in the preceding months. The latter is further strongly coupled with the February atmospheric circulation and wave activities in mid-to-high latitudes. When the atmospheric circulation is in a combined pattern of Arctic Oscillation and West Pacific teleconnection pattern, wave trains from the Arctic can propagate and reach the TP through northern and southern pathways. This brings dynamical and moisture conditions for the TP snowfall and builds a bridge for Arctic-Tibetan connection

Service Co-Production, Customer Efficiency and Market Competition

Customers’ participation in service co-production processes has been increasing with the rapid development of self-service technologies and business models that rely on self-service as the main service delivery channel. However, little is known about how the level of participation of customers in service delivery processes influences the competition among service providers. In this paper, a game-theoretic model is developed to study the competition among service providers when selfservice is an option. The analysis of the equilibria from this model shows that, given a certain level of customer efficiency, the proportion of the service task outsourced to the customer is a decisive factor in the resulting competitive equilibria. In the long run, two extreme formats of service delivery are expected to prevail rather than any mixture of both: either complete employee service or complete self-service. In the two-firm queuing game, we find that both firms are better off when they both deliver their service through self-service. It is also shown that full-service providers dominate the market if firms providing service products featuring self-service fail to have enough market demand at a profitable price. Meanwhile, the limited ranges of customer efficiency and the price for the self-service-only product are shown to be essential conditions for the coexistence of the different types of service providers.

Overcoming the Inherent Dependency of DEA Efficiency Scores: A Bootstrap Approach

This chapter summarizes a multi-year research effort to understand the role of process performance in the overall efficiency of banks. By focusing on the process as the unit of analysis, the authors consider how technology, human resources, and most importantly, the interaction between these factors of production contribute to overall performance. The results of this paper lead to a set of recommendations to managers of financial service organizations as to the most effective approaches for designing and managing their key service delivery processes.

Extensions of Modified DEA

Andersen and Petersen (1993) presented an extension of the basic DEA methodology, called modified DEA, which has the desirable feature of ranking not only the inefficient DMUs, but the e ficient ones as well. However, when their basic approach is extended to the cases of variable returns to scale and non-discretionary inputs, several conceptual problems arise. This paper addresses these problems, and illustrates the proposed extensions to the modified DEA method using data from a major U.S. bank.

Stem-root flow effect on soil–atmosphere interactions and uncertainty assessments

Abstract. Soil water can rapidly enter deeper layers via vertical redistribution of soil water through the stem–root flow mechanism. This study develops the stem–root flow parameterization scheme and coupled this scheme with the Simplified Simple Biosphere model (SSiB) to analyze its effects on land–atmospheric interactions. The SSiB model was tested in a single column mode using the Lien Hua Chih (LHC) measurements conducted in Taiwan and HAPEX-Mobilhy (HAPEX) measurements in France. The results show that stem–root flow generally caused a decrease in the moisture content at the top soil layer and moistened the deeper soil layers. Such soil moisture redistribution results in significant changes in heat flux exchange between land and atmosphere. In the humid environment at LHC, the stem–root flow effect on transpiration was minimal, and the main influence on energy flux was through reduced soil evaporation that led to higher soil temperature and greater sensible heat flux. In the Mediterranean environment of HAPEX, the stem–root flow significantly affected plant transpiration and soil evaporation, as well as associated changes in canopy and soil temperatures. However, the effect on transpiration could either be positive or negative depending on the relative changes in the moisture content of the top soil vs. deeper soil layers due to stem–root flow and soil moisture diffusion processes