The cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart is widely used in industry for the detection of small and moderate shifts in process location and dispersion. For efficient monitoring of process variability, we present several CUSUM control charts for monitoring changes in standard deviation of a normal process. The newly developed control charts based on well-structured sampling techniques - extreme ranked set sampling, extreme double ranked set sampling and double extreme ranked set sampling, have significantly enhanced CUSUM chart ability to detect a wide range of shifts in process variability. The relative performances of the proposed CUSUM scale charts are evaluated in terms of the average run length (ARL) and standard deviation of run length, for point shift in variability. Moreover, for overall performance, we implore the use of the average ratio ARL and average extra quadratic loss. A comparison of the proposed CUSUM control charts with the classical CUSUM R chart, the classical CUSUM S chart, the fast initial response (FIR) CUSUM R chart, the FIR CUSUM S chart, the ranked set sampling (RSS) based CUSUM R chart and the RSS based CUSUM S chart, among others, are presented. An illustrative example using real dataset is given to demonstrate the practicability of the application of the proposed schemes.
Accessibility of research done locally to clinicians remains limited unless it is in the published form. The publication rate of research presentations at the Annual Malaysian Paediatric Association, Perinatal Society of Malaysia and Academy of Medicine Malaysia in 1997 and 1998 was determined. One hundred and five (95.5%) of 110 research presentations were carried out in Malaysia. Thirty-seven (35.2%) presentations were published. University-affiliated institutions were more likely to publish their research presentations as compared to Ministry of Health hospitals (OR 3.1 95% CI 1.4-6.8, p < 0.01). There is a need to encourage publication of local research presentations. University-affiliated institutions performed better due to institution pressure for career advancement.
The stock market is considered essential for economic growth and expected to contribute to improved productivity. An efficient pricing mechanism of the stock market can be a driving force for channeling savings into profitable investments and thus facilitating optimal allocation of capital. This study investigated the technical efficiency of selected groups of companies of Bangladesh Stock Market that is the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) market, using the stochastic frontier production function approach. For this, the authors considered the Cobb-Douglas Stochastic frontier in which the technical inefficiency effects are defined by a model with two distributional assumptions. Truncated normal and half-normal distributions were used in the model and both time-variant and time-invariant inefficiency effects were estimated. The results reveal that technical efficiency decreased gradually over the reference period and that truncated normal distribution is preferable to half-normal distribution for technical inefficiency effects. The value of technical efficiency was high for the investment group and low for the bank group, as compared with other groups in the DSE market for both distributions in time-varying environment whereas it was high for the investment group but low for the ceramic group as compared with other groups in the DSE market for both distributions in time-invariant situation.
The caesarean section rate in Malaysian public hospitals has increased to 15.7% from 10.5% in the year 2000. There are inter-state variations in the rate ranging from a high of 25.4% in Melaka to 10.9% in Sabah. The West Coast states generally had a higher caesarean section rate than the East Coast states as well as East Malaysia. It would be prudent for Malaysia to implement stringent caesarean audits to ensure that rising caesarean section rates are kept in check.
Researchers can adopt one of many different measures of central tendency to examine the effect of a treatment variable across groups. These include least squares means, trimmed means, M-estimators and medians. In addition, some methods begin with a preliminary test to determine the shapes of distributions before adopting a particular estimator of the typical score. We compared a number of recently developed adaptive robust methods with respect to their ability to control Type I error and their sensitivity to detect differences between the groups when data were non-normal and heterogeneous, and the design was unbalanced. In particular, two new approaches to comparing the typical score across treatment groups, due to Babu, Padmanabhan, and Puri, were compared to two new methods presented by Wilcox and by Keselman, Wilcox, Othman, and Fradette. The procedures examined generally resulted in good Type I error control and therefore, on the basis of this critetion, it would be difficult to recommend one method over the other. However, the power results clearly favour one of the methods presented by Wilcox and Keselman; indeed, in the vast majority of the cases investigated, this most favoured approach had substantially larger power values than the other procedures, particularly when there were more than two treatment groups.
This paper examines the intellectual structure of evaluation by means of citation analysis. By using various article attributes and citation counts in Google Scholar and (Social) Science Citation Index Web of Science, we analyze all articles published in Evaluation and Program Planning from 2000 until 2012. We identify and discuss the characteristics and development of the field as reflected in the history of those citations.
Matched MeSH terms: Program Evaluation/statistics & numerical data*; Program Development/statistics & numerical data*
A survey of Essential National Health Research (ENHR) was conducted between December 1997 and November 1998 in nine developing countries. A total of 27 respondents from seven South East Asian and two Caribbean countries completed questionnaires. Respondents included 14 men and 13 women with a median age of 48 years (range 25-69 years); 15 were researchers, seven were health providers, three policy makers and one a community representative (one no response). ENHR was formally adopted in five countries mainly through public policy statements. Seven countries had a mechanism in place for promotion of ENHR and national meetings were held in five countries in the year prior to the survey. A special activity was conducted in order to define health research priorities in eight countries and a list of these priorities was available in seven countries. The level of ENHR activity was ranked as low or moderate in most countries except India and Malaysia which were rated as moderate to high. Three countries reported that the process resulted in new or additional funds being made available for research, while India reported available funds being reallocated to meet the priorities defined. The respondents of six countries said that ENHR networking had led to tangible results, including improved collaboration among researchers and research institutions and the sharing of resources among different organizations (five countries). The ENHR process had resulted in research findings being used to formulate or change health policy in five countries. Most countries had not produced any new research protocols through the ENHR process. However, there were 250 new research protocols in India and 68 in Pakistan, of which 20 and between 25 and 35, respectively, were funded and 15 peer reviewed articles had been published from India. This survey does suggest that the ENHR process may be promoting health research on priority health problems and the use of results to formulate policy in selected countries. However, it is too early to assess the contribution of ENHR to health and development and a variety of different studies would be needed to conduct this assessment.
The innovation of a particular company benefits the whole industry when innovation technology transfers to others. Similarly, the development and innovation in internet companies influence the development and innovation of the industry. This investigation has applied a unique approach of meta-frontier analysis to estimate and analyze the innovation in internet companies in China. A unique dataset of Chinese internet companies from 2000 to 2017 has been utilized to estimate and compare the innovation over the period of study. The change in technology gap ratio (TGR) and a shift in production function have translated into innovation which was overlooked by previous studies. It is found that the production function of internet companies is moving upward in the presence of external factors such as smartphones invention, mobile internet, mobile payments, and artificial intelligence, etc. Consequently, a sudden increase in TGR is captured due to the innovation of some companies. Hence, the average TE of the industry falls caused by the increased distance of other companies form industry production function. However, the innovation advantage defused when other companies start imitating and the average TE elevates. A steady increase in the TGR index revealed that the continuous innovation-based growth of some companies lifting the production frontier upward. This provides the opportunity for other companies to imitate and provides continuous growth in the industry. This study provides a novel methodological approach to measure innovation and also provide practical implication by empirical estimation of innovation in Chinese internet companies.
A novel technique has been introduced in this research which lends its basis to the Directional Slack-Based Measure for the inverse Data Envelopment Analysis. In practice, the current research endeavors to elucidate the inverse directional slack-based measure model within a new production possibility set. On one occasion, there is a modification imposed on the output (input) quantities of an efficient decision making unit. In detail, the efficient decision making unit in this method was omitted from the present production possibility set but substituted by the considered efficient decision making unit while its input and output quantities were subsequently modified. The efficiency score of the entire DMUs will be retained in this approach. Also, there would be an improvement in the efficiency score. The proposed approach was investigated in this study with reference to a resource allocation problem. It is possible to simultaneously consider any upsurges (declines) of certain outputs associated with the efficient decision making unit. The significance of the represented model is accentuated by presenting numerical examples.
Matched MeSH terms: Statistics as Topic/methods*; Resource Allocation/statistics & numerical data
It was the aim of this work to assess and track the workload, working conditions and professional recognition of radiation oncology medical physicists (ROMPs) in the Asia Pacific region over time. In this third survey since 2008, a structured questionnaire was mailed in 2014 to 22 senior medical physicists representing 23 countries. As in previous surveys the questionnaire covered seven themes: 1 education, training and professional certification, 2 staffing, 3 typical tasks, 4 professional organisations, 5 resources, 6 research and teaching, and 7 job satisfaction. The response rate of 100% is a result of performing a survey through a network, which allows easy follow-up. The replies cover 4841 ROMPs in 23 countries. Compared to 2008, the number of medical physicists in many countries has doubled. However, the number of experienced ROMPs compared to the overall workforce is still small, especially in low and middle income countries. The increase in staff is matched by a similar increase in the number of treatment units over the years. Furthermore, the number of countries using complex techniques (IMRT, IGRT) or installing high end equipment (tomotherapy, robotic linear accelerators) is increasing. Overall, ROMPs still feel generally overworked and the professional recognition, while varying widely, appears to be improving only slightly. Radiation oncology medical physics practice has not changed significantly over the last 6 years in the Asia Pacific Region even if the number of physicists and the number and complexity of treatment techniques and technologies have increased dramatically.
A home care Hospice programme was set up to provide care to the patients with advanced diseases and their families in Singapore. After office-hour, the service is managed by a doctor on weekdays, with the assistance of a nurse during daytime on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. The doctor on-call made an average of 3.1 phone calls and 1.3 visits each weekday evening. Over the weekends and public holidays, there were a mean of 16.7 phone calls and 6 visits each day. More than half of the visits (50.3%) were made for certification of death. The commonest symptoms that prompted visits were dyspnoea (20%) and pain (12.2%). The busiest period during weekdays was between 6.00 pm and 11.00 pm, when our doctors did most of their visits. The workload of the hospice home care service is likely to increase and resources such as family health physicians can be explored to help to meet this increasing demand. This can be achieved through the provision of comprehensive training and easy accessibility to medical records which are kept with patients.
Matched MeSH terms: Home Care Services/statistics & numerical data*; Hospice Care/statistics & numerical data*; After-Hours Care/statistics & numerical data*