A simulation based methodology for modeling a university Research Support Service System

The paper presents a methodology for modeling a university Research Support Service System (RSSS). RSSS effectiveness is measured in terms of net research time available to researchers, response time of support services, and the cost to provide services. The model consists essentially of delineating each function of the RSSS as a network and simulating flow of researcher generated inputs through the network in order to collect statistics necessary to compute performance measures. The analysis concerns system performance changes in response to procedural modifications in the institution, removal of external procedural constraints imposed on the system, and changes in organizational configuration. The model can prove to be a valuable asset to the present-day RSSS managements in examining their Research Support Service Systems or developing similar models.     

大学毕业生求职简历作假行为的探索性研究

文章分析了探讨大学毕业生求职简历作假行为的内容结构,在开放式问卷调查、项目分析的基础上,编制了大学毕业生求职简历作假行为问卷,并对305名2013届大学毕业生进行了调查。结果表明:大学毕业生求职简历作假行为包含对原有真实信息的修饰、对没有的信息的伪造、省略不利信息三个因素。大学毕业生求职简历作假行为在简历制作时间及人口学上存在差异。     

浅析大数据在高校毕业生就业信息系统中的智能化应用

大数据技术以其全样本分析、多维度描述、交叉验证、非因果相关联系等先进特征,被全世界的先进业态所广泛应用。我国的高校毕业生就业信息系统建设,也应该积极应用大数据技术,来解决目前存在的历史数据沉默、数据库孤岛、依赖随机抽样调查等问题,争取早日实现系统在就业信息推送、就业形势研判以及毕业生就业和培养质量评估等方面的智能化。     

Too few university graduates. Inclusiveness and effectiveness of the Italian higher education system

Despite the absence of formal entry barriers, Italy is lagging behind the majority of the developed countries in the share of young individuals with tertiary education. Exploiting the administrative data of a large public Italian institution, we analyze student academic careers across recent matriculation cohorts. We propose a flexible discrete-time competing risks estimation that allows overcoming some major limitations of conventional competing risks models. We find that student pathways vary tremendously across prior schooling profiles: for example, the within 4-year dropout probability ranges between 10% and 77%. We observe improvements over time in retention and time-to-degree, and by decomposing changes into components related to the composition of the enrolled population, the choice of the field of study and ‘individual behavior’ after enrolment, we find that the latter plays a major role. However, the improvement is limited in size and does not interest students from the vocational track. Since this progress is not accompanied by an increase in the share of students making the transition from high school to university, altogether our results call for great concern over the inclusiveness and effectiveness of the Italian university system.     

A model for university enrollment planning

The expansion to year-round university operation by the addition of a summer term makes enrollment planning both more complex and more critical. Unless the summer term's effects on enrollment levels in the conventional terms are controlled, the potential financial benefits from year-round university operation can be greatly diminished. A mathematical programming model is developed to determine the admissions policies necessary to maintain optimal enrollment levels in all terms in the academic year. The model is used to analyze admission policies for Yale University under conventional (i.e. two-term) operation, and with the proposed summer term.     

A step-by-step methodology for enterprise interoperability projects

Enterprise interoperability is one of the key factors for enhancing enterprise competitiveness. Achieving enterprise interoperability is an extremely complex process which involves different technological, human and organisational elements. In this paper we present a framework to help enterprise interoperability. The framework has been developed taking into account the three domains of interoperability: Enterprise Modelling, Architecture and Platform and Ontologies. The main novelty of the framework in comparison to existing ones is that it includes a step-by-step methodology that explains how to carry out an enterprise interoperability project taking into account different interoperability views, like business, process, human resources, technology, knowledge and semantics.     

A methodology for determining public investment criteria

Cost-benefit analysis is a popular method of evaluating both public and private investments. This paper explores the theoretical basis of cost-benefit analysis, the methodology of its application and the policy ramifications arising from its application in terms of public investments. The discussion presented in this paper is relevant to public investments undertaken at all levels of government. A main conclusion of this paper is that the social conscience of the planner or decision-maker and his knowledge of the benefits and shortcomings of cost-benefit analysis are key factors in successfully implementing public investments.     

A methodology for cluster analysis of citation histories

Citations to all the papers (558) published from 1955 to 1964 by a multidisciplinary (natural sciences) research institute within a ‘scientific periphery’ were collected for the 11-year period after a 10-year lapse since the publication years. All the papers were grouped into 31 research topics, three of which had no such late citations at all. For the remaining 28 groups of papers three indicators were defined: ALPHA, the ratio of the number of papers with citations, to the number of all papers of the particular research topic, indicating thus an overall CITATION EFFICACY; BETA, the ratio of the sum of all citations, to the number of the cited papers, indicating CITATION INTENSITY, and GAMMA, expressing the CITATION LONGEVITY for a given research topic as the incidence (number) of cited papers (irrespective of the number of citations) within the 11-year citing period. In addition, three normalized transformations of the indicator BETA were checked. Two-dimensional (without ALPHA) and three dimensional (with ALPHA, GAMMA, and one of the BETA variants) graphical representations together with a pairwise correlation analysis served as preliminary guidance in the latter statistical analyses by (a) Ward's Hierarchical Cluster Analysis and (b) Polar Taxons Analysis. Both of them resulted in good agreement. Thus, the 28 research topics were found to belong to three clusters. Their composition varied slightly for the original BETA and its three normalized values. It was concluded that ALPHA is not a redundant but quite useful indicator, and that one of the normalized BETA-variants appears most suitable for this kind of studies. In the three-dimensional graphs the clusters may be related to scientific merit as judged in a composite way by all the three indicators. This is done with regard to the diagonal joining the indicators' maximal with their minimal values. The citation LONGEVITY (GAMMA) appears to be most important. Cluster stability tests showed fluctuations of few research topics, which was related to their specific features within the given research setting. It emerges on the whole that the research merit of this (peripheral) scientific production is determined neither by the journals status the papers were published in, nor by the authors' institutional status. Rather, it is the very scientific quality of individual papers within a given research topic that is decisive for the citation ‘survival’.     

A strategy for the cost containment of surgical implant purchases

Although the experience of the Hospital for Joint Diseases is unique in terms of size of market controlled, the cost-containment techniques described above are applicable to almost any hospital. A crucial factor in any such process is enlisting the active participation of the surgical staff at every stage. On the basis of the success, this cost-containment procedure is being applied to other components of the medical device purchases.     

A methodology for the assessment of ridesharing program benefits and impacts

Due to the increased cost and decreased availability of energy, many cities are developing experimental ridesharing programs. The evaluation of such public transportation programs often involves some form of benefit/cost analysis. In this paper we review a methodology proposed by Wagner for calculating ridesharing program benefits. We propose a modification for calculating vehicle-miles reduction and suggest a survey instrument for collecting the appropriate data. In addition, we present a surrogate measure which is simpler to compute and allows sensitivity analysis for incorporating certain intangible factors. Data from a survey conducted in the Greater Cincinnati area is used to illustrate the calculations. The results can be useful in evaluating other ridesharing programs.     

A proposed mechanism for commercializing university technology

Numerous successful small companies have been created in recent years based on technology developed within universities. Often the companies are direct spin-offs from the university, involving faculty members who participated in the research and development programs which created the technology. These companies present interesting problems as well as opportunities for both the university and the faculty members involved. The paper discusses several aspects of these problems and suggests a mechanism to help the universities become more effective in encouraging such companies and sharing in the economic rewards, while maintaining their own integrity.     

Institutional and negotiated order perspectives on cost allocations: The case of the Swedish university sector

Abstract

A growing number of studies of the issue of cost allocations based on different institutional theories have recently emerged in the management accounting literature. These provide an alternative to efficiency-centred explanations of the evolution of cost allocation practices and have increasingly drawn attention to the roles of competing interests, power, agency and politics in the more or less continuous (re-)construction of cost allocation rules. This paper extends this literature by combining an institutional perspective with insights gleaned from the negotiated order (NO) literature, using recent developments in the Swedish university sector as an empirical illustration. This draws attention to the role of negotiations in the political regulation of costing in a highly institutionalised environment. Adopting a comparative, embedded case study design we contrast three recent attempts to re-negotiate cost allocation rules with varying outcomes. It is concluded that the role of institutional factors as well as socio-political negotiations in framing the ambiguity associated with cost allocations is important in explaining why and how change in cost allocation rules is mobilised or diverted. Especially, the NO perspective enriches institutional explanations of the stabilising role of power in this respect by drawing attention to how power relationships and coalitions of interests are formed around the specific issues at stake. This leads to a more dynamic and less atomistic conceptualisation of power and agency than in much prior research on the institutionalisation of accounting.     

A simulation-based methodology for optimization of ambulance service policies

A simulation-based methodology for the evaluation of the emergency ambulance system in the Vancouver, Canada, metropolitan area has been created. Outputs from the simulation of the system are utilized in the creation of the objective function of a branch and bound optimization procedure. The solutions are thus obtained at a significantly lower cost than if only simulation were used. The final solutions were verified by simulation runs.     

A methodology for comparing manufacturing industry costs at the state level

This article develops and applies a methodology for a comparative cost analysis for manufacturing industries. Location variations in labor, energy, transportation and tax costs are analyzed for representative firms constructed for the twenty two-digit Standard Industrial Classifications. The results of the analysis include an estimate of the interstate variation of these business costs for manufacturing industries and an idea of the relative importance of these four business cost components among industries and across states.     

A multi-product cost function for physician private practices

This paper provides an empirical analysis of the production of physician services using a multi-product cost function. Prior studies examine the physician production process in a theoretical setting and do not provide empirical insight. We expand upon the theoretical work in the literature by specifying a four-product generalized Leontief cost function for physician services that recovers measures of marginal cost, scale, scope, and elasticity. Our study is based on physician survey data from the 1998 American Medical Association Physician Socioeconomic Monitoring Survey and motivates a scientific framework for advancing the existing reimbursement fee schedule. Our analysis indicates that physician office visits are generally priced above marginal cost, implying there may be evidence of market power in physician private practices. Furthermore, our analysis lends to the policy debate over whether the use of a Resource-Based Relative Value Scale system is the most appropriate mechanism for facilitating Medicare reimbursements.     

A cost evaluation method for dynamic line balancing

A procedure is presented for calculating stochastic costs, which include operator (labor) and inventory costs, associated with dynamic line balancing. Dynamic line balancing, unlike the traditional methods of assembly and production line balancing, assigns operators to one or more operations, where each operation has a predetermined processing time and is defined as a group of identical parallel stations. Operator costs and inventory costs are stochastic because they are functions of the assignment process employed in balancing the line, which may vary throughout the balancing period, and the required flow rate. Earlier studies focused on the calculation of the required number of stations and demonstrated why the initial and final inventories at the different operations are balanced.The cost minimization method developed in the article can be used to evaluate and compare the assignment of operators to stations for various assignment heuristics. Operator costs and inventory costs are the components of the cost function. The operator costs are based on the operations to which operators are assigned and are calculated for the entire work week regardless of whether an operator is given only a partial assignment which results in idle time. It is assumed that there is no variation in station speeds, no learning curve effect for operators' performance times, and no limit on the number of operators available for assignment. The costs associated with work-in-process inventories are computed on a “value added” basis. There is no charge for finished goods inventory after the last operation or raw material before the first operation.The conditions which must be examined before using the cost evaluation method are yield, input requirements, operator requirements, scheduling requirements and output requirements. Yield reflects the output of good units at any operation. The input requirement accounts for units discarded or in need of reworking. The operator requirements define the calculation of operator-hours per hour, set the minimum number of operators at an operation, and require that the work is completed. The scheduling requirements ensure that operators are either working or idle at all times, and that no operator is assigned to more than one operation at any time. The calculation of the output reflects the yield, station speed, and work assignments at the last operation on the line.An application of the cost evaluation method is discussed in the final section of the article. Using a simple heuristic to assign operators, the conditions for yield, inputs, operators, scheduling, and output are satisfied. The costs are then calculated for operators and inventories.In conclusion, the cost evaluation method for dynamic balancing enables a manager to compare the costs of assigning operators to work stations. Using this method to calculate the operator and inventory costs, a number of different heuristics for assigning operators in dynamic balancing can be evaluated and compared for various configurations of the production line. The least cost solution procedure then can be applied to a real manufacturing situation with similar characteristics.     

A data-driven methodology for supporting resource planning of health services

In recent years, healthcare systems have been forced to better organize their services in the final attempt to maximize both care effectiveness and efficiency. In particular, emergent trends are prompting hospitals to pay more attention to the effective and efficient planning of resources and to the creation of patient-centred services, in which current activities and resources are reorganized around patients.This paper proposes a process mining based methodology to systematically support the resource planning of health services. Specifically, combining Time-Driven Activity Based Costing and process mining approaches, it automatically identifies the patient flow and analytically evaluates activities, service times, and resource consumptions for a specific class (-es) of patients (e.g., a DRG, patients with specific medical condition, etc.). Thus, it allows to reliably estimate the expected resource consumptions for the patient group under investigation. Thanks to process mining, the method overcomes the limitations of existing quantitative approaches that are often time-consuming, based on subjective observations, and too case specific. The method was applied to a real case study of lung cancer patients in an Italian hospital.     

A multiple criteria methodology for priority based portfolio selection

This paper presents a new methodology combining multiple criteria sorting or ranking methods with a project portfolio selection procedure. The multicriteria method permits the comparison of projects in terms of their priority based on qualitative and quantitative criteria. Then, a feasible set of projects, i.e. a portfolio, is selected according to the priority defined by the multiple criteria method and satisfying a set of resources and logical constraints. The proposed portfolio selection methodology is called Priority Based Portfolio Selection (PBPS) and can be applied in different contexts. We present an application in the urban planning domain where our approach allows us to select a set of urban projects based on their priority, budgetary constraints, and urban policy requirements. Given the increasing interest of historical cities to reuse their cultural heritage, we applied and tested our methodology in this context. In particular, we show how the methodology can support the prioritization of the interventions on buildings with some historical value in the historic city center of Naples (Italy), taking into account several points of view.     

A methodology for testing a new spatial model of elections

The purpose of this paper is to offer a methodology for testing a new spatial theory of elections. Specifically, it is shown that the new spatial model of elections developed by Enelow and Hinich (1984a) is statistically equivalent to assuming that a classical factor structure underlies the data that voters provide concerning the issue positions of themselves and the candidates. A factor analysis of the sample correlation matrix of candidate variables averaged over voters and issues provides consistent estimates of the candidate locations in the space of predictive dimensions postulated by Enelow and Hinich, and the facor scores assigned to the voters can be used to project the voters onto the same predictive space with the candidates. This new scaling method is used to locate the positions of voters and candidates in the underlying predictive space of the 1980 Presidential election. Internal checks confirm the empirical adequacy of the candidate locations, and probit analysis is used as an external check on the empirical adequacy of the voter locations. For the pre-election data, no loss of accuracy in predicting voter choice was found in moving from the issue data to the estimated factor locations of voters and candidates. For the post-election data, a modest drop in accuracy was discovered. Overall, the empirical adequacy of factor analysis was confirmed as a methodology for testing the new Enelow-Hinich spatial model of elections.