Dam-trapping efficiency can be estimated by using the hydraulic residence time. On the regional scale, the global impact of several dams can be assessed by taking into account the spatial organization of dams along the river network. Therefore, in this study, a method is proposed to estimate the global-trapping efficiency, TEw, for any watershed containing more than one dam. This method is appl...

This paper uses a fully nonparametric approach to estimate efficiency measures for primary care units incorporating the effect of (exogenous) environmental factors. This methodology allows us to account for different types of variables (continuous and discrete) describing the main characteristics of patients served by those providers. In addition, we use an extension of this nonparametric appro...

BACKGROUND Reliable exposure data is a vital concern in medical epidemiology and intervention studies. The present study addresses the needs of the medical researcher to spend monetary resources devoted to exposure assessment with an optimal cost-efficiency, i.e. obtain the best possible statistical performance at a specified budget. A few previous studies have suggested mathematical optimizati...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the reliability, accuracy, and time efficiency of automated hearing assessment using a computer-based telemedicine-compliant audiometer. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty normal-hearing subjects and eight hearing-impaired subjects were tested with pure-tone air conduction audiometry (125-8,000 Hz) in a manual and automated configuration in a counterbalanced manner...

The efficiency of screening for Wilson's disease by serum caeruloplasmin determination was assessed by analysing the epidemiologic data of 289 affected families in Japan. The estimated gene frequency was 5.2 x 10(-3). The sensitivity of the screening test was 93% at a proposed cut-off level of 120 mg/l and the specificity was 99.83%. In Japan 1 500 000 children are born every year of whom 50 wo...

In this paper, a Network DEA approach to assess the efficiency of NBA teams is proposed and compared with a black-box (i.e. single-process) DEA approach. Both approaches use a Slack-Based Measure of efficiency (SBM) to evaluate the potential reduction of inputs consumed (team budget) and outputs produced (games won by the team). The study considers the distribution of the budget between first-t...

The UK EPC scheme was established in 2007 as a response to the European Union Directive 2002/91/EC (Council of the European Union 2002), which aims to promote improvements on building energy efficiency and requires member states to develop their own scheme of evaluating and labelling the energy performance of buildings (UK Government 2007; Department for Communities and Local Government 2014b)....

The increase in global trade is driving growth in both the size and number of ships. However, this increased demand is leading to greater contributions from shipping to air pollution. This is leading designers and operators to propose and adopt novel powering and propulsion systems. However, there is a challenge with assessing the actual benefit from using a certain retrofit technology or chang...

Japanese energy efficiency standards program for appliances is a unique program which sets and revises mandatory standards based on the products of the highest energy efficiency in the market. This study assessed the cost-effectiveness of the standard settings for an air conditioner as a major residential appliance or typical example in the program. Based on analysis of empirical data, the net ...

OBJECTIVE THE AIMS OF THIS STUDY WERE TO: (1) evaluate the caries risk in young adults using Cariogram and (2) compare the efficiency of Cariogram with the regression risk models created using the same variables in Cariogram by examining the actual caries progression over a 2-year period. METHODS This study included 100 subjects that were either twenty or twenty-one years-old. Data on general...