Directional distance function (DDF) is a recognized technique for measuring efficiency while incorporating undesirable outputs. This approach allows for desirable outputs to be expanded while undesirable outputs are contracted simultaneously. A drawback of the DDF approach is that the direction vector to the production boundary is fixed arbitrarily, which may not provide the best efficiency mea...

To identify the proteins induced by Fe deficiency, we have compared the proteins of Fe-sufficient and Fe-deficient barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) roots by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Peptide sequence analysis of induced proteins revealed that formate dehydrogenase (FDH), adenine phosphoribosyltransferase, and the lds3 gene product (for Fe deficiency-specific) increased in F...

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH) is a rare inherited genodermatosis with an X-linked dominant trait. FDH is associated with skin defects and other abnormalities of bone, nails, hair, limbs, teeth and eyes. We present the case of a 26-year-old female in the 27th pregnancy week and a previous history of miscarriage. After careful physical examination and dermal biopsy, histopathology revealed that t...

This research proposes a parametric estimation of the structural dynamic efficiency measures proposed by Silva and Oude Lansink (2009). Overall, technical and allocative efficiency measurements are derived based on a directional distance function and the duality between this function and the optimal value function. The applicability of the parametric proposal is illustrated by assessing dynamic...

This paper develops a slack-based decomposition of profit efficiency based on a directional distance function.

This paper considers alternative proofs of the Hotelling ́s Lemma and Shephard ́s Lemma using new relations of duality in the theory of the production. The proofs proposals possess two advantages, relatively to the usual demonstrations, which are, not the use of the known Enveolpe Theorem and the validity of the demonstration for interior points to the production set

We explore the relationship between R. W. Shephard's input distance function (``Cost and Production Functions,'' Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, 1953) and D. G. Luenberger's benefit function (J. Math. Econ. 21 (1992a), 461 481). We point out that the latter can be recognized in a production context as a directional input distance function which can exhaustively characterize technologies in bo...

In productivity analysis, the performance of production units is measured through the distance of the individual decision making units (DMU) to the technology which is defined as the frontier of the production set. Most of the existing methods, Farrell-Debreu and Shephard radial measures (input or output oriented) and hyperbolic distance functions, rely on multiplicative measures of the distanc...

Familial dysalbuminemic hyperthyroxinemia (FDH) is a familial autosomal dominant disease caused by mutation in the albumin gene that produces a condition of euthyroid hyperthyroxinemia. In patients with FDH, serum-free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) concentrations as measured by several commercial methods are often falsely increased with normal thyrotropin (TSH). Therefore, sev...