Measurement of multiperiod aggregative efficiency

This article proposes a new method for measuring an aggregative efficiency of multiple period production systems. Every organization or firm generates a time series of data that represent its performances in the resource utilization and output production over multiple periods, and often desires an aggregated measure of efficiency for several periods of interest. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has become an accepted and well-known approach to evaluating efficiency performance in a wide range of cases. However, most of the DEA studies have dealt primarily with ways to gauge the efficiency of production in only a single period so this efficiency reflects the insufficient or partial performance of multiple period productions. The new method is developed through extensions of the concept of Debreu–Farrell technical efficiency and is applied to evaluating the efficiency of cable TV service units with 3-year data.     

TLC Separation of Amino Acids with a Green Mobile Phase

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) of fifteen amino acids was performed using silica gel and alumina impregnated with micellar...     

Grid Graphs,Gorenstein Polytopes,and Domino Stackings

We examine domino tilings of rectangular boards, which are in natural bijection with perfect matchings of grid graphs. This leads to the study of their associated perfect matching polytopes, and we present some of their properties, in particular, when these polytopes are Gorenstein. We also introduce the notion of domino stackings and present some results and several open questions. Our techniques use results from graph theory, polyhedral geometry, and enumerative combinatorics.     

Simultaneous determination of five coumarins in Angelicae dahuricae Radix by HPLC/UV and LC‐ESI‐MS/MS

Rapid, simple and reliable HPLC/UV and LC‐ESI‐MS/MS methods for the simultaneous determination of five active coumarins of Angelicae dahuricae Radix, byakangelicol (1), oxypeucedanin (2), imperatorin (3), phellopterin (4) and isoimperatorin (5) were developed and validated. The separation condition for HPLC/UV was optimized using a Develosil RPAQUEOUS C₃₀ column using 70% acetonitrile in water as the mobile phase. This HPLC/UV method was successful for providing the baseline separation of the five coumarins with no interfering peaks detected in the 70% ethanol extract of Angelicae dahuricae Radix. The specific determination of the five coumarins was also accomplished by a triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometer equipped with an electrospray ionization source (LC‐ESI‐MS/MS). Multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) in the positive mode was used to enhance the selectivity of detection. The LC‐ESI‐MS/MS methods were successfully applied for the determination of the five major coumarins in Angelicae dahuricae Radix. These HPLC/UV and LC‐ESI‐MS/MS methods were validated in terms of recovery, linearity, accuracy and precision (intra‐ and inter‐day validation). Taken together, the shorter analysis time involved makes these HPLC/UV and LC‐ESI‐MS/MS methods valuable for the commercial quality control of Angelicae dahuricae Radix extracts and its pharmaceutical preparations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Second Order Efficient Estimating a Smooth Distribution Function and its Applications

Methodology and Computing in Applied Probability - Consider a problem of estimation of a cumulative distribution function of a random variable supported on a finite interval, with a circular random...