Combining Efficiency With Equity: A Pragmatic Approach

Studying and Advocating

Mergers and Acquisitions - The Standing of Theory in the Quest for Better Institutions and Policy

Artificial intelligence (AI) has vast potential for improving healthcare delivery, but concerns regarding biases in these systems have raised important questions regarding fairness when deployed clinically. Most prior studies on fairness in clinical AI focus solely on performance disparities between subpopulations, which often fall short of connecting the technical outputs of AI systems with sociotechnical outcomes. In this work, we present a simulation-based approach to explore how statistical definitions of algorithmic fairness translate to fairness in long-term outcomes, using AI-assisted breast cancer screening as a case example. We evaluate four fairness criteria and their impact on mortality rates and socioeconomic disparities, while also considering how clinical decision makers' reliance on AI and patients' access to healthcare affect outcomes. Our results highlight how algorithmic fairness does not directly translate into fair and equitable outcomes, underscoring the importance of integrating sociotechnical perspectives to gain a holistic understanding of fairness in healthcare AI.

Regular physician assessment is a new field.The investigation is lack of in the method,the content,the organization of the assessment,and also in the examination results,efficiency,fairness,convenience,and economy aspects of the assessment.The data of investigation is from 436 persons of the medical and health institutions at all levels with an electronic questionnaire.The results show that the respondents were more like to use computer for the examination format,senior citizens are more likely to participate in a simplified examination condition and the organizations tend to agree with the regional localization. Key words: Physician; Regularly assessment; Jilin; Investigation; Discussion

The discussion on welfarism and bargaining theory has several lines. There are different points of criticism on the Nash bargaining model (1950) and on the class of normative solution concepts like the Nash solution, the Kalai-Smorodinsky solution (1975) and others. Sen (1970) argues, that the status quo of a bargaining situation may be an inappropriate reference point to select a social alternative by bargaining, because of the possible injustice of preconditions of the bargaining situation that are represented in this point. Rawls’ comment (1971) points in the same direction: “What is lacking is a suitable definition of a status quo that is acceptable from the moral point of view.” Ethical considerations and aspects of fairness and justice play a role in negotiations. How can they be modelled? Redefining the status quo may bring ethical norms into the model. However, it does not enlarge the informational content of the theory.KeywordsSolution ConceptEthical EnvironmentBargaining SolutionBargaining ProblemPositive TheoryThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

O objetivo precípuo do artigo é compreender sistemicamente o processo de conversão do conhecimento tácito em conhecimento explícito do Agente Universitário da Unioeste. Toma-se como objeto de estudo o Plano de Desenvolvimento do Agente Universitário (PDA) proposto pela Pró-reitoria de Recursos Humanos e pela Reitoria da Unioeste em outubro de 2012. A estratégia de pesquisa foi o uso do Estudo de Caso e do Modelo SECIde conversão do conhecimento de Nonaka e Takeuchi. O artigo foi construído teoricamente ancorado na gestão do conhecimento e no paradigma sistêmico de compreensão do mundo. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que de fato, a transformação de expertises individuais em expertises coletivas aumentam a capacidade organizacional nos aspectos de eficiência, eficácia, economicidade e efetividade no alcance de resultados organizacionais. Conclui-se que o grande desafio gerencial do século XXI é buscar esta transformação. Palavraschave: Conhecimento Explícito, Gestão, Expertise.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to propose a benchmarking framework to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the hotel industry, in a multi‐period context, with consideration of perishable traits and carry‐over activities. The sustained high performers in the case study are identified and their business strategies are discussed.Design/methodology/approachThe dynamic DEA (data envelopment analysis) approach is used to identify the multi‐period sustained high performers. The super‐efficiency DEA approach is employed to conduct a thorough ranking under an input‐output‐consumption structure. The supplementary analysis is further implemented to help elucidate the benchmarking results.FindingsIn total, nine out of 80 international tourist hotels in Taiwan during 2006‐2010 are identified as the sustained high performers. These hotels have diverged business strategies in terms of employees (intensive versus economical labor forces), products (room versus F&B (food and beverage) services), prices (extremely expensive versus very inexpensive room rates), guests (business versus tourism guests), and others (e.g. location advantages).Originality/valueThis study contributes to benchmarking literature and to hotel industry in several aspects. Compared with conventional single‐period benchmarking in efficiency aspect only, the proposed multi‐period benchmarking framework under input‐production‐consumption structure can take into account the carry‐over activities, account for perishable traits, provide more robust results, and add more useful information to facilitate the hotel managers to ameliorate the efficiency and effectiveness. The proposed framework should be readily applied to other service industries (e.g. transport).

The rapidly growing mobile market has stimulated the demand for more and more complex custom applications for embedded mobile devices, for example, smart phones. To manage this complexity and, at the same time, to keep the time to market small, advanced software engineering methods have to be applied. Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) provides advanced modularization and abstraction mechanisms. The main advantages of this concept are improved maintainability, reusability, and extensibility of applications. Furthermore, dynamic AOP can be used to implement the dynamic adaptation of mobile device applications to changing contexts, like the location. However, the overhead introduced by the additional abstraction mechanisms limits the applicability to embedded mobile devices because they have limited resources (CPU, memory) compared to desktop PCs. To overcome this problem, we present a set of optimizations that significantly reduce the overhead of common AOP mechanisms and, finally, make AOP applicable for embedded mobile devices. The foundation of our work is a thorough analysis of the overhead that is typically generated by the realization of AOP mechanisms. The key idea of our approach is a deep integration of AOP mechanisms into the virtual machine. To this end, we shift mechanisms like the registration of activated aspects to the level of the JVM. Furthermore, we optimize the execution of AOP programs by introducing caching mechanisms and specialized bytecode instructions that are tailored for the execution of AOP mechanisms. Moreover, we analyze AOP-specific semantic code properties in order to develop optimizations that utilize these AOP-specific semantic information and that exploit typical AOP usage schemes. In addition to the AOP optimizations, we realize an efficient dynamic aspect deployment mechanism. We apply our optimizations to the Java-based aspect-oriented programming language ObjectTeams [HHM07] by extending the extremely small and portable JamVM [Lou] Java virtual machine. To evaluate our approach, we execute micro benchmarks, investigate the effect of our optimizations on a real-world application, and finally discuss the transferability of our optimizations to other approaches. Our evaluation shows a considerable performance gain for the aspect activation and the aspect execution of ObjectTeams. In particular, we demonstrate that our optimizations improve the performance of commonly used AOP mechanisms by up to 90%. At the same time, we reduce the code size of the adapted classes, which is also important for small devices. Finally, with our case study, namely the OTPong game application, we show that our approach is capable of significantly optimizing the execution time of real-word applications. Our main contribution is a significant reduction of the overhead of high-level AOP constructs, which is also demonstrated by the results of our experiments. The success of the optimizations provides evidence that advanced high-level abstraction techniques like AOP can be efficiently used in embedded mobile devices. Furthermore, our work shows that efficient dynamic aspect deployment can be supported on the level of the JVM. This substantially enhances the dynamic capabilities of ObjectTeams.

Fair sentencing strives to balance an emphasis on individualised justice with an emphasis on consistency, both of which are essential in promoting just outcomes. While there is an inherent tension between the values, each is essential to a fair sentencing system. In grappling with these dual demands of proportionality and equality, however, different jurisdictions have placed different emphases on these two aspects of justice. The result has been two broad, competing paradigms of fairness in sentencing: ‘individualism’ versus ‘comparativism’. Guideline judgments are one way of promoting consistency in sentencing decisions while respecting the importance of maintaining sufficient discretion to individualise sentences. Despite statutory authorisation, however, the use of guideline judgments has been controversial because they challenge the individualist jurisprudence of the High Court, which characterises practical attempts to operationalise consistency as unduly limiting sentencing discretion. Victoria has traditionally been a proponent of this high individualism. The landmark nature of the Court of Appeal's recent decision to issue the state's first guideline judgment in Boulton v The Queen becomes apparent when viewed in this context. Though it suffers from the limitations of being forced to operate in a predominately individualist sentencing framework, Boulton hopefully signals the beginning of a more nuanced jurisprudence that recognises that fair sentencing outcomes are not just a question of the amount of discretion, they are also the product of practical appellate regulation of the decision-making process aimed at promoting sentences that are both individualised and equal between similar offenders.

This paper aims to explore the impact of liquidity increases by local and international roles on shareholders’ returns in the Jordan Islamic Bank as case study. The study methodology based on financial tables annual reports of the bank from (2009-2016) in order to analysis asset liquidity risk standard and its affection on managing balance sheet, and analysis returns for common shareholders in the Bank also discuss the result of shares return reducing. The real impact is deferent because the market price of the Jordan Islamic Bank shares is not affected negatively by the rule. Its price in the market is more than the share value by the ratio (all equities/ all shares). The percentage between the market price and ratio was equal to 202% in 2014 and reduced to 155% in 2016. By discussion, the ratio there is a gap of equities impact as a result of applying depreciation on fixed assets yearly, regardless of its growth by market price. Fair result is to increase equities based on fixed assets market price increasing. This paper contributed to the knowledge by different ways, it helps leaders and managers to find the real impact of managing liquidity risk in the Islamic Bank by the Central Bank and Basel Committee.

Public Private Partnerships in a Multi-Level Governance Setting: A Study of the Indonesian PPP Program in the Water Sector

IntroductionAn ipsilateral fracture of the femur and tibia (also known as floating knee) is a rare injury in pediatric patients. Recent advances rapidly made the use of intramedullary elastic nails the standard of care in the management of long bone fractures, including floating knee injuries, in patients with immature skeletons. Currently, we have observed a trend of fixing both fractured bones, thus improving functional outcomes, and reducing sequelae. The aim of this study was to report our experience in the management and functional outcomes of floating knee injuries in a single trauma-I level center.Materials and methodsThis is a retrospective study of consecutive cases from June 1, 2018, to March 31, 2022, from a single trauma center. Preoperative and postoperative records and radiographs were assessed, including the epidemiological data and characteristics of the fractures type of treatment, mechanism of injury, complications, and functional evaluation at the last follow-up, which was performed according to the criteria described by Karlstrom and Olerud.ResultsTwenty-five patients were included during the four years of study, of which 18 were male (72%), and the mean age was 9.6 years. Overall, 96% of the cases were related to traffic accidents. An analysis of the provided treatment showed that 19 cases (76%) were resolved with surgery on at least of the bones, and six cases were managed with simultaneous orthopedic treatments in both injuries. Excellent outcomes were achieved in 15 cases (60%), good outcomes in three, fair outcomes in five, and poor outcomes in one. Concerning the classification of injuries according to the criteria developed by Letts and Vincent,it was observed that type D was the most frequent one. With regard to exposed bone injuries, 15 cases presented with open fractures. Complications were found in eight (32%) cases, of which five were related to limb discrepancy and three with functional limitations of the knee, with changes in its range of motion. There was also one case of nonunion of the distal tibia.ConclusionTraffic accidents are the main cause of floating knees. Surgical management of the fractures brought satisfactory outcomes and reduced complications. Thus, fixation of injuries is recommended for early return to daily activities and for a reduction in residual complications.

The socioeconomic vulnerability index: A pragmatic approach for assessing climate change led risks–A case study in the south-western coastal Bangladesh

Written by an international team of leading scholars, this engaging textbook on the study of English historical linguistics is uniquely organized in terms of theoretical approaches and perspectives. Each chapter features textboxes, case studies, suggestions for further reading and exercises, enabling students to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and guiding them on undertaking further research. The case studies and exercises guide students in approaching and manipulating empirical data, providing them with hands-on experience of conducting linguistic research. An extensive variety of approaches, from traditional to contemporary, is treated, including generative approaches, historical sociolinguistic and pragmatic approaches, psycholinguistic perspectives, grammaticalization theory, and discourse-based approaches, as well as perspectives on standardization and language variation. Each chapter applies the concepts discussed to data from the history of English, and a glossary of key terms enables easy navigation and quick cross-referencing. An essential resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of the history of English linguistics.

1. Theoretical Aspects of Learning Environments.- Knowledge Representation and the Learning Process: Taking Account of Developmental Features and Support Features in Interactive Learning Environments.- Reasoning Involved in Control Technology.- Cognitive Spectacles.- Language Control Language: Control Microworlds of the Mind.- What Role Is There for Control Technology in Learning with Computational Expressive Media?.- 2. Experiments and Case Studies.- 2.1. Course Contents.- Robotics and Telecommunication (Experience of the Ecole Active de Malagnou in Geneva Within the Framework of a Computerized Educational Environment).- Could the Robotics/Control Technology Be an Interdisciplinary Tool in School?.- Control Technology and the Creative Thinking Process for Teachers and Students.- 2.2. Methodology.- Integrating the Use of LEGO-LOGO into the Curriculum of a Primary School: A Case Study.- An Aesthetic of Learning Environment Design.- Situation Graphs as Tools for Ordering of Students' Thinking and Understanding of Actual Existing Servo Mechanisms.- Problems Associated with Getting Control Technology Working in Schools.- Promoting Active Learning: A Pragmatic Approach.- Workshops and Discussion about Educational Situations.- 2.3. The Teacher's Role.- Educational Uses of Control Technology.- Measuring some Cognitive Effects of Using Control Technology.- 3. Tools Developed for Control Technology.- 3.1. State of the Art.- Workshops.- Hands-on Control Technology with New LEGO Dacta Tools.- 3.2. Future Trends.- A New Development of Control Technology.- A Data Acquisition System in a Learning Environment.- Concurrent Control for Children.- Learning Mode in the Exploration of Parallelism in Pedagogical Robotics.- ActNet-A Heterogeneous Network of Actors for Learning of Parallelism, Communication, and Synchronization.