The central concept of strategic benchmarking is resource management efficiency,which ultimately results in profitability.However,little is known about performance measurement from resource-based perspectives.This stu...The central concept of strategic benchmarking is resource management efficiency,which ultimately results in profitability.However,little is known about performance measurement from resource-based perspectives.This study uses the data envelopment analysis(DEA)model with a dynamic network structure to measure the resource management and profitability efficiencies of 287 US commercial banks from 2010 to 2020.Furthermore,we provide frontier projections and incorporate five variables,namely capital adequacy,asset quality,management quality,earning ability,and liquidity(i.e.,the CAMEL ratings).The results revealed that the room for improvement in bank performance is 55.4%.In addition,we found that the CAMEL ratings of efficient banks are generally higher than those of inefficient banks,and management quality,earnings quality,and liquidity ratios positively contribute to bank performance.Moreover,big banks are generally more efficient than small banks.Overall,this study continues the current heated debate on performance measurement in the banking industry,with a particular focus on the DEA application to answer the fundamental question of why resource management efficiency reflects benchmark firms and provides insights into how efficient management of CAMEL ratings would help in improving their performance.展开更多
New renewable energy exploitation technologies in offshore structures are vital for future energy production systems.Offshore hybrid wind-wave power generation(HWWPG)systems face increased component failure rates beca...New renewable energy exploitation technologies in offshore structures are vital for future energy production systems.Offshore hybrid wind-wave power generation(HWWPG)systems face increased component failure rates because of harsh weather,significantly affecting the maintenance procedures and reliability.Different types of failure rates of the wind turbine(WT)and wave energy converter(WEC),e.g.,the degradation and failure rates during regular wind speed fluctuation,the degradation and failure rates during intense wind speed fluctuation are considered.By incorporating both WT and WEC,the HWWPG system is designed to enhance the overall amount of electrical energy produced by the system over a given period under varying weather conditions.The universal generating function technique is used to calculate the HWWPG system dependability measures in a structured and efficient manner.This research highlights that intense weather conditions increase the failure rates of both WT and WEC,resulting in higher maintenance costs and more frequent downtimes,thus impacting the HWWPG system’s reliability.Although the HWWPG system can meet the energy demands in the presence of high failure rates,the reliance of the hybrid system on both WT and WEC helps maintain a relatively stable demand satisfaction during periods of high energy demand despite adverse weather conditions.To confirm the added value and applicability of the developed model,a case study of an offshore hybrid platform is conducted.The findings underscore the system’s robustness in maintaining energy production under varied weather conditions,though higher failure rates and maintenance costs arise in intense scenarios.展开更多
The development of rural tourism and the construction of ecological civilization complement each other, but there are some contradictions between them. The focus of rural tourism development is marketing, while the co...The development of rural tourism and the construction of ecological civilization complement each other, but there are some contradictions between them. The focus of rural tourism development is marketing, while the construction of ecological civilization tends to be unprofitable, so the integration of the two is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of rural economy. Based on this, the current development situation of rural tourism industry in China and seven classical models of rural tourism were expounded in this study, and the problems and drawbacks in the process of planning and development were deeply analyzed, then the integration method was proposed, so as to achieve the integration of rural tourism development and ecological civilization construction from the perspectives of tourism ecology and ecotourism.展开更多
The present study aimed to clarify the smoking cessation motivations, challenges and coping strategies among pregnant couples. A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was applied. Data were collected by ...The present study aimed to clarify the smoking cessation motivations, challenges and coping strategies among pregnant couples. A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was applied. Data were collected by individual semi-structured interviews with 39 married individuals(21 non-smoking pregnant women and 18 smoking or ever-smoking men with a pregnant wife) and 3 imams in an ethnically diverse region of far western China. The most common theme for smoking cessation motivation was 'embryo quality'(i.e., a healthier baby), followed by family's health. Most interviewees reported that husband's withdrawal symptoms were the greatest challenge to smoking cessation, followed by the Chinese tobacco culture. Coping strategies given by the pregnant women typically involved combining emotional, behavioral and social interventions. Social interventions showed advantages in helping to quit smoking. Pregnancy appears to be a positive stimulus for pregnant couples' smoking cessation. Our results suggest that pregnancy, a highly important life event, may help to reduce barriers to smoking cessation at the social level(e.g., limiting access to cigarettes, avoiding temptation to smoke), but does little to help with the withdrawal symptoms. Professional guidance for smoking cessation is still necessary.展开更多
Synergetic energy-water-carbon pathways are key issues to be tackled under carbon-neutral target and high-quality development worldwide,especially in ecologically vulnerable regions(EVRs).In this study,to explore the ...Synergetic energy-water-carbon pathways are key issues to be tackled under carbon-neutral target and high-quality development worldwide,especially in ecologically vulnerable regions(EVRs).In this study,to explore the synergistic pathways in an EVR,a water-energy-carbon assessment(WECA)model was built,and the synergistic effects of water-energy-carbon were comprehensively and quantitatively analyzed under various scenarios of regional transition.Shaanxi Province was chosen as the representative EVR,and Lower challenge(LEC)and Greater challenge(GER)scenarios of zerocarbon transition were set considering the technological maturity and regional energy characteristics.The results showed that there were limited effects under the zero-carbon transition of the entire region on reducing water withdrawals and improving the water quality.In the LEC scenario,the energy demand and CO_(2) emissions of Shaanxi in 2060 will decrease by 70.9%and 99.4%,respectively,whereas the water withdrawal and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential(FAETP)will only decrease by 8.9%and 1.6%,respectively.This could be attributed to the stronger demand for electricity in the energy demand sector caused by industrial transition measures.The GER scenario showed significant growth in water withdrawals(16.0%)and FAETP(36.0%)because of additional biomass demand.To promote the synergetic development of regional transition,EVRs should urgently promote zero-carbon technologies(especially solar and wind power technologies)between 2020 and 2060 and dry cooling technology for power generation before 2030.In particular,a cautious attitude toward the biomass energy with carbon capture and storage technology in EVRs is strongly recommended.展开更多
In this paper, we examine methods that can provide accurate results in a form of a recommender system within a social networking framework. The social networking site of choice is Twitter, due to its interesting socia...In this paper, we examine methods that can provide accurate results in a form of a recommender system within a social networking framework. The social networking site of choice is Twitter, due to its interesting social graph connections and content characteristics. We built a recommender system which recommends potential users to follow by analyzing their tweets using the CRM114 regex engine as a basis for content classification. The evaluation of the recommender system was based on a dataset generated from real Twitter users created in late 2009.展开更多
As a result of 30 years of an internal armed conflict, women and children not only lost male relatives in struggle, but comprised of the displaced. Most of the households in Sri Lanka are now headed exclusively by wom...As a result of 30 years of an internal armed conflict, women and children not only lost male relatives in struggle, but comprised of the displaced. Most of the households in Sri Lanka are now headed exclusively by women. The micro finance institutions help the poor people in effective ways in order to generate income to enhance their standard of living in the rural areas. This study focuses on women entrepreneurship development through micro credit programme under post war development in Jaffna District selecting four rural areas which are Kopay, Chavakachcheri, Varani and Kodikamam. The main objective of this study is to identify the linkage with micro credit programmes and entrepreneurship development. Further it has an objective to identify the impact of micro credit on entrepreneurship development. The information has been gathered by primary data which has been distributed through the close ended questionnaire to the rural women in the above selected areas and seventy seven （77） responded out of 100. The relation between the micro credit programmes and women entrepreneurship development is examined using Statistical Package for Social Sciences （SPSS）. It is concluded that the Entrepreneurship development has a significant relationship （p〈0.05） with the microcredit programme and its impact on entrepreneurship development is crucial. It is suggested that the microcredit facilities are essential in women entrepreneurship development under post war development.展开更多
This paper is devoted to the applications of classical topological degrees to nonlinear problems involving various classes of operators acting between ordered Banach spaces. In this framework, the Leray-Schauder, Brow...This paper is devoted to the applications of classical topological degrees to nonlinear problems involving various classes of operators acting between ordered Banach spaces. In this framework, the Leray-Schauder, Browder-Petryshyn, and Amann-Weiss degree theories are considered, and several existence results are obtained. The non-Archimedean case is also discussed.展开更多
The central question of this study concerns the emergence of the Russian development model over the past decade.It highlights that this development model could be a blueprint for other emerging markets.Russia is one o...The central question of this study concerns the emergence of the Russian development model over the past decade.It highlights that this development model could be a blueprint for other emerging markets.Russia is one of the leaders of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,having improved its standing in international ratings for quality of life,human development,sustainable development,innovation,and high technology.Russia's experience can be helpful to developing countries.We study and evaluate innovation in a digital business society amid technological turmoil competing with artificial intelligence.We focus on the digital competitiveness index,the density of robots in industry,and unemployment,thereby building a novel comprehensive dataset of the economy's systemic socioeconomic and technological development under the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.We draw attention to Russia's new business environment that exhibits valuable specifics(e.g.,emerging institutions and imperfect competition as clouds in the business landscape)shaped by its current transitional character.We estimate that technological progress will ensure digitalization,the prevention of extended unemployment,and the achievement of full-scale automation.Russia's innovation policy has substantial advantages for emerging market settings.This study also shows that institutionalizing the new approach provides enduring digital economy advantages for emerging markets,including effectiveness,progressiveness,and sustainability.展开更多
The growing importance of the service economy during the last 40 years has raised the need for new tools for designing and managing services. As a result, several authors have developed service classification systems,...The growing importance of the service economy during the last 40 years has raised the need for new tools for designing and managing services. As a result, several authors have developed service classification systems, in order to better understand the nature of service operations and provide methods and tools to improve service efficiency and quality. This paper exploits the work resulting from service classification systems and identifies the principal attributes to be considered in service management. The tool introduced for this purpose is the Service Attribute-Process Matrix （SAPM）, which uses selected results from existing service classification schemes to investigate the importance of the significant service attributes to major processes of the service life cycle.展开更多
基金provided by Ministry of Science and Technology(Grant No.MOST 107-2410-H-034-056-MY3).
文摘The central concept of strategic benchmarking is resource management efficiency,which ultimately results in profitability.However,little is known about performance measurement from resource-based perspectives.This study uses the data envelopment analysis(DEA)model with a dynamic network structure to measure the resource management and profitability efficiencies of 287 US commercial banks from 2010 to 2020.Furthermore,we provide frontier projections and incorporate five variables,namely capital adequacy,asset quality,management quality,earning ability,and liquidity(i.e.,the CAMEL ratings).The results revealed that the room for improvement in bank performance is 55.4%.In addition,we found that the CAMEL ratings of efficient banks are generally higher than those of inefficient banks,and management quality,earnings quality,and liquidity ratios positively contribute to bank performance.Moreover,big banks are generally more efficient than small banks.Overall,this study continues the current heated debate on performance measurement in the banking industry,with a particular focus on the DEA application to answer the fundamental question of why resource management efficiency reflects benchmark firms and provides insights into how efficient management of CAMEL ratings would help in improving their performance.
文摘New renewable energy exploitation technologies in offshore structures are vital for future energy production systems.Offshore hybrid wind-wave power generation(HWWPG)systems face increased component failure rates because of harsh weather,significantly affecting the maintenance procedures and reliability.Different types of failure rates of the wind turbine(WT)and wave energy converter(WEC),e.g.,the degradation and failure rates during regular wind speed fluctuation,the degradation and failure rates during intense wind speed fluctuation are considered.By incorporating both WT and WEC,the HWWPG system is designed to enhance the overall amount of electrical energy produced by the system over a given period under varying weather conditions.The universal generating function technique is used to calculate the HWWPG system dependability measures in a structured and efficient manner.This research highlights that intense weather conditions increase the failure rates of both WT and WEC,resulting in higher maintenance costs and more frequent downtimes,thus impacting the HWWPG system’s reliability.Although the HWWPG system can meet the energy demands in the presence of high failure rates,the reliance of the hybrid system on both WT and WEC helps maintain a relatively stable demand satisfaction during periods of high energy demand despite adverse weather conditions.To confirm the added value and applicability of the developed model,a case study of an offshore hybrid platform is conducted.The findings underscore the system’s robustness in maintaining energy production under varied weather conditions,though higher failure rates and maintenance costs arise in intense scenarios.
文摘The development of rural tourism and the construction of ecological civilization complement each other, but there are some contradictions between them. The focus of rural tourism development is marketing, while the construction of ecological civilization tends to be unprofitable, so the integration of the two is conducive to promoting the sustainable development of rural economy. Based on this, the current development situation of rural tourism industry in China and seven classical models of rural tourism were expounded in this study, and the problems and drawbacks in the process of planning and development were deeply analyzed, then the integration method was proposed, so as to achieve the integration of rural tourism development and ecological civilization construction from the perspectives of tourism ecology and ecotourism.
基金supported by the National Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of China(No.15ZDC037)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(key program)(No.71333005)
文摘The present study aimed to clarify the smoking cessation motivations, challenges and coping strategies among pregnant couples. A qualitative design using a grounded theory approach was applied. Data were collected by individual semi-structured interviews with 39 married individuals(21 non-smoking pregnant women and 18 smoking or ever-smoking men with a pregnant wife) and 3 imams in an ethnically diverse region of far western China. The most common theme for smoking cessation motivation was 'embryo quality'(i.e., a healthier baby), followed by family's health. Most interviewees reported that husband's withdrawal symptoms were the greatest challenge to smoking cessation, followed by the Chinese tobacco culture. Coping strategies given by the pregnant women typically involved combining emotional, behavioral and social interventions. Social interventions showed advantages in helping to quit smoking. Pregnancy appears to be a positive stimulus for pregnant couples' smoking cessation. Our results suggest that pregnancy, a highly important life event, may help to reduce barriers to smoking cessation at the social level(e.g., limiting access to cigarettes, avoiding temptation to smoke), but does little to help with the withdrawal symptoms. Professional guidance for smoking cessation is still necessary.
基金funded by the Department of Science and Technology of Zhejiang Province in China(“Pioneer”and“Bellwethers”R&D Projects,No.2022C03119)the Environmental Defense Fund(Nos.EDF-B-5282019 and 20220023).
文摘Synergetic energy-water-carbon pathways are key issues to be tackled under carbon-neutral target and high-quality development worldwide,especially in ecologically vulnerable regions(EVRs).In this study,to explore the synergistic pathways in an EVR,a water-energy-carbon assessment(WECA)model was built,and the synergistic effects of water-energy-carbon were comprehensively and quantitatively analyzed under various scenarios of regional transition.Shaanxi Province was chosen as the representative EVR,and Lower challenge(LEC)and Greater challenge(GER)scenarios of zerocarbon transition were set considering the technological maturity and regional energy characteristics.The results showed that there were limited effects under the zero-carbon transition of the entire region on reducing water withdrawals and improving the water quality.In the LEC scenario,the energy demand and CO_(2) emissions of Shaanxi in 2060 will decrease by 70.9%and 99.4%,respectively,whereas the water withdrawal and freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential(FAETP)will only decrease by 8.9%and 1.6%,respectively.This could be attributed to the stronger demand for electricity in the energy demand sector caused by industrial transition measures.The GER scenario showed significant growth in water withdrawals(16.0%)and FAETP(36.0%)because of additional biomass demand.To promote the synergetic development of regional transition,EVRs should urgently promote zero-carbon technologies(especially solar and wind power technologies)between 2020 and 2060 and dry cooling technology for power generation before 2030.In particular,a cautious attitude toward the biomass energy with carbon capture and storage technology in EVRs is strongly recommended.
文摘In this paper, we examine methods that can provide accurate results in a form of a recommender system within a social networking framework. The social networking site of choice is Twitter, due to its interesting social graph connections and content characteristics. We built a recommender system which recommends potential users to follow by analyzing their tweets using the CRM114 regex engine as a basis for content classification. The evaluation of the recommender system was based on a dataset generated from real Twitter users created in late 2009.
文摘As a result of 30 years of an internal armed conflict, women and children not only lost male relatives in struggle, but comprised of the displaced. Most of the households in Sri Lanka are now headed exclusively by women. The micro finance institutions help the poor people in effective ways in order to generate income to enhance their standard of living in the rural areas. This study focuses on women entrepreneurship development through micro credit programme under post war development in Jaffna District selecting four rural areas which are Kopay, Chavakachcheri, Varani and Kodikamam. The main objective of this study is to identify the linkage with micro credit programmes and entrepreneurship development. Further it has an objective to identify the impact of micro credit on entrepreneurship development. The information has been gathered by primary data which has been distributed through the close ended questionnaire to the rural women in the above selected areas and seventy seven （77） responded out of 100. The relation between the micro credit programmes and women entrepreneurship development is examined using Statistical Package for Social Sciences （SPSS）. It is concluded that the Entrepreneurship development has a significant relationship （p〈0.05） with the microcredit programme and its impact on entrepreneurship development is crucial. It is suggested that the microcredit facilities are essential in women entrepreneurship development under post war development.
文摘This paper is devoted to the applications of classical topological degrees to nonlinear problems involving various classes of operators acting between ordered Banach spaces. In this framework, the Leray-Schauder, Browder-Petryshyn, and Amann-Weiss degree theories are considered, and several existence results are obtained. The non-Archimedean case is also discussed.
文摘The central question of this study concerns the emergence of the Russian development model over the past decade.It highlights that this development model could be a blueprint for other emerging markets.Russia is one of the leaders of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,having improved its standing in international ratings for quality of life,human development,sustainable development,innovation,and high technology.Russia's experience can be helpful to developing countries.We study and evaluate innovation in a digital business society amid technological turmoil competing with artificial intelligence.We focus on the digital competitiveness index,the density of robots in industry,and unemployment,thereby building a novel comprehensive dataset of the economy's systemic socioeconomic and technological development under the conditions of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.We draw attention to Russia's new business environment that exhibits valuable specifics(e.g.,emerging institutions and imperfect competition as clouds in the business landscape)shaped by its current transitional character.We estimate that technological progress will ensure digitalization,the prevention of extended unemployment,and the achievement of full-scale automation.Russia's innovation policy has substantial advantages for emerging market settings.This study also shows that institutionalizing the new approach provides enduring digital economy advantages for emerging markets,including effectiveness,progressiveness,and sustainability.
文摘The growing importance of the service economy during the last 40 years has raised the need for new tools for designing and managing services. As a result, several authors have developed service classification systems, in order to better understand the nature of service operations and provide methods and tools to improve service efficiency and quality. This paper exploits the work resulting from service classification systems and identifies the principal attributes to be considered in service management. The tool introduced for this purpose is the Service Attribute-Process Matrix （SAPM）, which uses selected results from existing service classification schemes to investigate the importance of the significant service attributes to major processes of the service life cycle.
