Grid benchmarking is an important and challenging topic of Grid computing research. In this paper, we present an overview of the key challenges that need to be addressed for the integration of benchmarking practices, techniques, and tools in emerging Grid computing infrastructures. We discuss the problems of performance representation, measurement, and interpretation in the context of Grid benc...

BACKGROUND Although benchmarking may improve hospital processes, research on this subject is limited. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of publications on benchmarking in specialty hospitals and a description of study characteristics. METHODS We searched PubMed and EMBASE for articles published in English in the last 10 years. Eligible articles described a project stating bench...

The 2006 Commercial End Use Survey (CEUS) database developed by the California Energy Commission is a far richer source of energy enduse data for non-residential buildings than has previously been available, and opens the possibility of creating new and more powerful energy benchmarking processes and tools. In this article—Part 2 of a two-part series—we describe the methodology and selected res...

Benchmarking and peer review are essential elements of the so-called EU open method of coordination (OMC) which has been contested in the literature for lack of effectiveness. In this paper we compare benchmarking and peer review procedures as used by the EU with those used by the OECD. Different types of benchmarking and peer review are distinguished and pitfalls for (international) benchmarki...

OBJECTIVES Benchmarking statements provide a mechanism for making academic standards explicit within a subject area. They allow comparisons between courses to be based on learning outcomes rather than by defining a curriculum. No such statement has been produced for informatics. In the absence of any established benchmarking statements for informatics a new biomedical informatics course at St. ...

Benefits are indissolubly associated to cost, as specific cost levels will always raise questions regarding the accompanying benefit levels. Contrary to cost benchmarking, the benchmarking of benefits, and especially the benefit constituents which should be measured, seem hardly developed. This study presents the IT benchmarking of housing associations over a period of seven years. Although cos...

Best practice benchmarking is now relatively common in all sectors of the economy, including the voluntary and public sectors. It is even being adopted by small and medium sized enterprises, although seldom by very small firms. The gains in terms of improved performance of key processes are often assumed to be self-evident, yet systematic evaluation of the costs and benefits of benchmarking is ...

The incentive regulation of costs related to physical and cyber security in electricity networks is an important but relatively unexplored and ambiguous issue. These costs can be part of a cost efficiency benchmarking or alternatively dealt separately. This paper discusses the issues and proposes on the options for incorporating network security costs within incentive regulation in a benchmarki...

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and describe a new Ruby benchmarking tool. We will describe the background of Ruby benchmarking and the advantages of the new tool. The paper documents the benchmarking process as well as methods used to obtain results and run tests. To illustrate the provided tool, results that were obtained by running a developed benchmarking tool on existing and avai...