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BACKGROUND: The American College of Surgeons requires continuous process improvement review to maintain trauma center verification. Paper-based systems to monitor and track performance improvement are commonly used but can be inadequate to monitor concurrent ongoing improvement effectively. OBJECTIVE: To describe the implementation of an electronic process to capture and monitor performance improvement in near real time. METHODS: In 2020, a Midwestern U.S. Level I adult trauma center and a Level II pediatric trauma center's trauma programs transitioned from a paper to an electronic file-sharing system for performance improvement. We converted our primary, secondary, and tertiary review documentation into a single electronic performance improvement file stored on the institution's virtual hard drive, accessible to designated staff, allowing continuous real-time updates. RESULTS: The electronic file-sharing and monitoring process reinvigorated the team and enhanced performance improvement efforts, leading to increased efficiency through documentation and effective loop closure. Real-time monitoring allowed the trauma program to identify opportunities for improvement and enact timely action plans, including targeted performance improvement projects, department education, and ongoing training. CONCLUSION: We found that implementing an electronic file-sharing system enhanced the trauma team's ability to monitor and trend performance improvement in real time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI), with its infinite capabilities, has ushered in an era of transformation in the twentyfirst century. ChatGPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer), an AI language model, has lately been in the spotlight, and there is an increasing partnership between the research authors and the chatGPT. Using ChatGPT, authors can set new benchmarks in paper writing in terms of speed, accuracy, consistency, and adaptability. ChatGPT has turned out to be an invaluable tool for manuscript writing, editing, and reference management. While it has numerous advantages, it has been criticised due to ethical quandaries, inaccuracies in scientific data and facts, and, most importantly, a lack of critical thinking skills. These disadvantages of using ChatGPT place limitations on its use in medical publications since these articles guide the future management of many diseases. While AI can fix issues, it lacks the ability to think like humans and thus cannot substitute human authors. To better comprehend the future of this technology in research, we discuss the advantages, drawbacks, and ethical dilemmas of using ChatGPT in paper writing by reviewing existing literature on Pubmed and Google Scholar and using ChatGPT itself to understand the prompt response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant operators and policy makers frequently use energy benchmarking to assess the potential for reducing energy consumption from industrial plants. As benchmarking studies require considerable resources and the cooperation of plant operators it is tempting to try to merge or compare data from different studies. This paper reviews published benchmarks and energy-saving estimates from the paper and pulp industries to explore how comparable data from independent studies are. A literature review was conducted which identified that benchmarks were either produced through a top-down process using annual production and fuel consumption data or through a bottom-up process from process-level data. It was concluded that top-down benchmarks are useful in measuring national trends but are of little value to individual plants. For common process such as Kraft pulp production it is possible to compare values from different studies but only if sufficient information is given in the original studies to confirm that their scope is identical. However, it is unlikely that improvement rates in energy use can be inferred from the difference between studies that use different sources, as the degree of disagreement between contemporary studies is of the same order as the identified potential energy savings. Benchmarking studies were found to provide good summaries of potential technological improvements although there is some inconsistency in estimations of potential impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pulp and paper sector is the fourth largest industrial sector in terms of energy use in the world. Of the numerous processes involved in paper-making by a paper machine, the dryer section is the process that consumes the largest amount of energy. A model-based method for estimating energy-saving potentials of the dryer section was put forward in the present study. It was done by four steps: establishing a mathematical model about energy consumption, determining the model parameters, benchmarking the drying performance to obtain the corresponding energy-saving measures, and estimating the energy-saving potentials by using the mathematical model. In a case study, a multi-cylinder dryer section was selected to illustrate the method. After a fundamental field test and observation, several operating problems that restricted the energy performance of paper drying were found. And then several reasonable energy-saving measures were suggested to the operators. Finally, applying the mathematic model, it was found that 0.32 ton of steam will be saved when producing 1 ton of paper in recommended operating conditions. With the designed capacity of 200,000 tons/year, the annual steam-savings will be 64,000 tons. Generally, the price of steam is 130–150 Chinese Yuan (about US$21–24) in China, and the annual economic benefits will be 8.32–9.60 million Chinese Yuan (about US$1.344–1.536 million). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are large differences between paper mills in, e.g. feedstock use and grades produced, but typical processes are similar in all mills. The aim of this study is to benchmark the specific energy consumption (SEC) of similar processes within different paper mills in order to identify energy improvement potentials at process level. We have defined improvement potentials as measures that can be taken at mill/process level under assumed fixed inputs and outputs. We were able to use industrial data on detailed process level, and we conducted energy benchmarking comparisons in 23 Dutch paper mills. We calculated average SECs per process step for different paper grades, and we were able to identify ranges in SECs between mills producing the same grade. We found significant opportunities for energy efficiency improvement in the wire and press section as well as in the drying section. The total energy improvement potential based on identified best practices in these sections was estimated at 5.4 PJ (or 15 % of the total primary energy use in the selected mills). Energy use in the other processes was found to be too dependent on quality and product specifications to be able to quantify improvement potentials. Our results emphasise that even a benchmark on detailed process level does not lead to clear estimations of energy improvement potentials without accounting for structural effects and without having a decent understanding of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new shell element has been proposed for geometrically non-linear, finite element analyses of axially moving paper web. Web instability problems of paper travelling in a printing system, such as wrinkling and fluttering, pose special challenges in the numerical analyses. For examples, these are finite bending stiffness (as opposed to membrane), orthotropy, and non-uniform distributions of mechanical and hygro-properties (in different length scales). The new formulation has accounted for paper transport velocity and paper bending stiffness based on a mixed Lagrangian–Eulerian description of the motion. A natural coordinate system has been employed in the analytical and finite element formulations. Benchmarking with different finite elements in various tests showed that the proposed element is indeed more stable and reliable for the chosen application than existing elements. The usability of the shell element has been successfully demonstrated by two example problems: wrinkling of stretched isotropic and orthotropic membranes, and the vibration of a web showing a speed-tensioning effect above a critical web transport velocity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Machine learning (ML), a form of artificial intelligence (AI), is being increasingly employed in neurology. Reported performance metrics often match or exceed the efficiency of average clinicians. The neurologist is easily baffled by the underlying concepts and terminologies associated with ML studies. The superlative performance metrics of ML algorithms often hide the opaque nature of its inner workings. Questions regarding ML model's interpretability and reproducibility of its results in real-world scenarios, need emphasis. Given an abundance of time and information, the expert clinician should be able to deliver comparable predictions to ML models, a useful benchmark while evaluating its performance. Predictive performance metrics of ML models should not be confused with causal inference between its input and output. ML and clinical gestalt should compete in a randomized controlled trial before they can complement each other for screening, triaging, providing second opinions and modifying treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article details a framework for identifying, analyzing, and evaluating performance objectives in the paper industry. The authors explain that a combination of systematic performance analysis and organizational interventions is needed to achieve industry performance improvement. R. M. Addison has recommended a systematic approach with six phases. Information on the use of benchmarking in the process of paper mills is presented.

The commercialization of electronic paper displays has brought the consumer a truly comfortable and mobile viewing experience, even in bright daylight conditions. We review the display standards activities that support the quality manufacturing of these products and helps drive their market expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effective nutrition policies require timely, accurate individual dietary consumption data; collection of such information has been hampered by cost and complexity of dietary surveys and lag in producing results. The objective of this work was to assess accuracy and cost-effectiveness of a streamlined, tablet-based dietary data collection platform for 24-hour individual dietary recalls (24HR) administered using INDDEX24 platform v. a pen-and-paper interview(PAPI) questionnaire, with weighed food record (WFR) as a benchmark. This cross-sectional comparative study included women 18–49 years old from rural Burkina Faso (n 116 INDDEX24; n 115 PAPI). A WFR was conducted; the following day, a 24HR was administered by different interviewers. Food consumption data were converted into nutrient intakes. Validity of 24HR estimates of nutrient and food group consumption was based on comparison with WFR using equivalence tests (group level) and percentages of participants within ranges of percentage error (individual level). Both modalities performed comparably estimating consumption of macro- and micronutrients, food groups and quantities (modalities' divergence from WFR not significantly different). Accuracy of both modalities was acceptable (equivalence to WFR significant at P < 0·05) at group level for macronutrients, less so for micronutrients and individual-level consumption (percentage within ±20 % for WFR, 17–45 % for macronutrients, 5–17 % for micronutrients). INDDEX24 was more cost-effective than PAPI based on superior accuracy of a composite nutrient intake measure (but not gram amount or item count) due to lower time and personnel costs. INDDEX24 for 24HR dietary surveys linked to dietary reference data shows comparable accuracy to PAPI at lower cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The minimum variance controller has been extensively used as a benchmark in the performance assessment of both univariate and multivariate control loops when time delay is the fundamental performance limitation. In this paper, the spatial and temporal performance limitations in the cross-directional (CD) control of paper machines are analyzed. The idea of minimum variance benchmarking is extended to the CD process based on these performance limitations. Based on an industrial CD controller, a user-specified benchmark, which is more practical and less aggressive, is also proposed. In addition, several related performance indices are proposed for the CD process based on both the minimum variance benchmark and the user-specified benchmark. Illustrative examples from a paper machine simulator and industrial data sets are provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed performance indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Outcome measurement plays an increasing role in improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency and availability of palliative care. Aim: To provide expert recommendations on outcome measurement in palliative care in clinical practice and research. Methods: Developed by a European Association for Palliative Care Task Force, based on literature searches, international expert workshop, development of outcome measurement guidance and international online survey. A subgroup drafted a first version and circulated it twice to the task force. The preliminary final version was circulated to wider expert panel and 28 international experts across 20 European Association for Palliative Care member associations and the European Association for Palliative Care Board of Directors and revised according to their feedback. The final version was approved by the European Association for Palliative Care Board for adoption as an official European Association for Palliative Care position paper. Results: In all, 12 recommendations are proposed covering key parameters of measures, adequate measures for the task, introduction of outcome measurement into practice, and national and international outcome comparisons and benchmarking. Compared to other recommendations, the White Paper covers similar aspects but focuses more on outcome measurement in clinical care and the wider policy impact of implementing outcome measurement in clinical palliative care. Patient-reported outcome measure feedback improves awareness of unmet need and allows professionals to act to address patients’ needs. However, barriers and facilitators have been identified when implementing outcome measurement in clinical care that should be addressed. Conclusion: The White Paper recommends the introduction of outcome measurement into practice and outcomes that allow for national and international comparisons. Outcome measurement is key to understanding different models of care across countries and, ultimately, patient outcome having controlled for differing patients characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to analyze publications indexed in the database of Science Direct Top 25 hottest Papers in Arts and Humanities journal to understand the international perspective of research publication dynamics in two core journals such as: (1st)"Language Sciences" (LS) and (2nd)"Linguistics and Education" (L&E) respectively. This is a comprehensive survey work using bibliographic records derived from Science Direct top 25 hottest papers database during 2005-2014 and this paper vigorously tries to give a complete view of the evaluation of research outcomes. Findings of the study revealed that out of a total number of 1800 papers undertaken for the present research, 50 percent were shared from each journal. It is indicated from the study that top 15 authors of 1st journal contributed 349 (38.77 %), and 2nd journal added 281 (31.22 %) papers to their credit which counts more than one third of the whole contribution. In both journals a major share 78 and 76 percent papers were produced by single authors, while the collaborated papers were only 22 and 24 percent the study discloses. Considering the authors' institutional affiliation it is ascertained that, the authors' contributed to both journals was affiliated to 153 and 152 unique institutions spread over a wide range global geographical regions. Besides, the geographical analysis claims and vitalizes the cross-national comparison in the research practices is found considerably benchmarking. The overwhelming and most productive geographical region contributor USA added 139 (15.44 %), and 220 (24.44 %) papers to both journals categorically, and maintained its status of prolificacy in the arena of global research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides an invitation for authors to offer critical interrogations of the meaning of freedom and its current and potential relationship with social relations in and around work.

Highlights: [•] Investigates benchmarked performance of global and emerging knowledge cities. [•] Introduces a knowledge-based urban development performance assessment model. [•] Applies the assessment model into an international comparative study. [•] Reveals insights on scrutinizing the development perspectives of knowledge cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We document that, starting in the Fall of 2008, the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil has periodically traded at unheard-of discounts to the corresponding Brent benchmark. We further document that this discount is not reflected in spreads between Brent and other benchmarks that are directly comparable to WTI. Drawing on extant models linking oil inventory conditions to the futures term structure, we test empirically several conjectures about how calendar and commodity spreads (nearby vs. first-deferred WTI; nearby Brent vs. WTI) should move over time and be related to storage conditions at Cushing. We then investigate whether, after controlling for macroeconomic and physical market fundamentals, spread behavior is partly predicted by the aggregate oil futures positions of commodity index traders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Good documentation practice is the foundation for promoting medication safety in young population. • Study identified poor documentation practice through paper and electronic means of medical records. • Newly introduced electronic medical records did not improve the rates of metabolic monitoring nor the quality of documented monitoring. • Youth are at significant risk for antipsychotic induced metabolic syndrome the repercussion of which may impact years of productivity. • Potentially electronic health records could provide health workers with real-time information access, and develop accurate, relevant and structured information thereby adhering to clinical evidence. Since the development of digital records, claims have been made that they improve audits. Clinical audits play important role in evaluation of evidence-practice gaps. Antipsychotic medications are one of the commonly prescribed group of drugs in severe adverse mental conditions. Youth and young people are highly prone to develop drug induced metabolic syndrome. Present study evaluated the extent of data documentation on evidence for metabolic monitoring of antipsychotics and compared paper based to electronic records with good documentation standards. First phase of this study involved a retrospective clinical audit of paper-based documentation on the extent of documentation of weight (primary outcome); lipid and blood glucose (secondary outcomes) of youth prescribed atypical antipsychotics. This was undertaken in three public mental health clinics and a public/private developmental service in Australia based on paper-based documentation. The second phase included auditing electronic data capture from one community clinic. Evidence of documentation was compared with practice standards and published clinical audits (adherence rate benchmark: 40–60%). A total of 310 cases were assessed of which 51 and 37 cases met the eligibility criteria for paper-based and electronic based audit respectively as a component of clinical audit. Evidence of paper documentation of weight was 43% among participants and was comparable with other published clinical audits (p = 0.07) with poor monitoring rates for other blood tests. Findings revealed poor rate of documentation at 35.1% (13 cases), 5.4% (2 cases) and 8.1% (3 cases) for weight, lipid assessments and glucose monitoring, respectively based on electronic records. Present study demonstrate lack of good documentation practices on metabolic monitoring of youth prescribed antipsychotics. It appears transitioning from paper to electronic records did not impact the rate of increase in documentation of metabolic monitoring. This study recommends inclusion of e-monitoring icon with built in metabolic monitoring chart as a component of youth prescribed antipsychotic case records. Good documentation practice is a first step in determination of causality of antipsychotics induced metabolic syndrome. Appropriate strategies to a user-friendly electronic reminder system will be crucial to address on the mechanistic of documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  In this paper exact, analytical solutions are derived for another highly popular benchmark problem, namely, L-shaped domains having a horizontal line support and one or several point loads. The optimal topologies are obtained in the context of Michell structures, i.e., least-weight, stress, or compliance-controlled trusses with a single load condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Managers in today's international companies are facing a complex competitive environment. Financial benchmarking is an essential component of competitor analysis, a task that increases in importance as markets expand. However, measuring different aspects of performance in the form of multiple ratios is difficult using today's tools. A state of the art survey of financial benchmarking methods in Finnish publicly noted companies found that few advanced, multiple-ratio methods are currently used. The survey found support for the need for new, complexity-reducing tools in financial benchmarking. In this study, a model for financial benchmarking in the pulp and paper industry, created using the self-organizing map (SOM), is evaluated by experts from industry. The survey found that the managers considered the model better than many of their own methods, especially in terms of format. In particular, the model was found to be useful in strategic decision-making settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To synthesize the findings of cognitive interview and usability studies performed to assess the measurement equivalence of patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments migrated from paper to electronic formats (ePRO), and make recommendations regarding future migration validation requirements and ePRO design best practice.Methods: We synthesized findings from all cognitive interview and usability studies performed by a contract research organization between 2012 and 2015: 53 studies comprising 68 unique instruments and 101 instrument evaluations. We summarized study findings to make recommendations for best practice and future validation requirements.Results: Five studies (9%) identified minor findings during cognitive interview that may possibly affect instrument measurement properties. All findings could be addressed by application of ePRO best practice, such as eliminating scrolling, ensuring appropriate font size, ensuring suitable thickness of visual analogue scale lines, and providing suitable instructions. Similarly, regarding solution usability, 49 of the 53 studies (92%) recommended no changes in display clarity, navigation, operation, and completion without help. Reported usability findings could be eliminated by following good product design such as the size, location, and responsiveness of navigation buttons.Conclusions: With the benefit of accumulating evidence, it is possible to relax the need to routinely conduct cognitive interview and usability studies when implementing minor changes during instrument migration. Application of design best practice and selecting vendor solutions with good user interface and user experience properties that have been assessed in a representative group may enable many instrument migrations to be accepted without formal validation studies by instead conducting a structured expert screen review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wearable sensor technologies are becoming increasingly relevant in health research, particularly in the context of chronic disease management. They generate real-time health data that can be translated into digital biomarkers, which can provide insights into our health and well-being. Scientific methods to collect, interpret, analyze, and translate health data from wearables to digital biomarkers vary, and systematic approaches to guide these processes are currently lacking. This paper is based on an observational, longitudinal cohort study, BarKA-MS, which collected wearable sensor data on the physical rehabilitation of people living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Based on our experience with BarKA-MS, we provide and discuss ten lessons we learned in relation to digital biomarker development across key study phases. We then summarize these lessons into a guiding framework (DACIA) that aims to informs the use of wearable sensor data for digital biomarker development and chronic disease management for future research and teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System dynamics (SD) applications in high-volume production operations are widely used, helping to define decision rules to reduce costs associated with the variance in planning orders and inventory. The exploitation of SD in engineer-to-order (ETO) project-oriented supply chains—e.g., in construction, shipbuilding, and capital goods—is less well established. Hence, this research reviews the literature that takes a systematic ETO perspective in modeling construction projects, exploiting SD approaches. To comprehensively identify and filter previously published works, we used a keyword searching method using Web of Science and Scopus databases. After applying relevant exclusion criteria, 143 papers were selected. Although previous reviews of ETO literature, more generally, have been done, this work contributes to the body of knowledge by specifically reviewing SD applications in ETO industries and providing insights by creating a categorization system by which to determine existing gaps. Articles are categorized into the classic four phases of a project: aggregated planning, preproject planning, project execution, and postdelivery. Analyses of the methods, attributes, and applications of SD were undertaken for each phase. Findings indicate that SD research covers the range of ETO industries, of which construction is the most dominant, demonstrating SD's high applicability. The wealth of case-orientated research in the construction field provides a solid foundation for further SD studies in the ETO field. Further research should focus on (1) developing a general ETO archetype for performance benchmarking and strategy development in construction projects; (2) introducing analytical tools, such as control theoretic approaches as found in manufacturing production planning and control design, to improve understanding of the ETO systems' dynamic behaviors; (3) developing cross-phase, cross-project, design–production integrated, aggregated planning models via hybrid techniques modeling, which can improve understanding of an ETO system's performance; and (4) improving model fidelity. We also provide a research agenda for each phase of the ETO production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of 3D model-based camera tracking method for indoor augmented reality applications, and its benchmarking. Our proposed tracking method is based on registered frame data of virtualized reality models, which are photos with known photo-shoot positions and orientations, and depth data. Tracking results of the method are evaluated with two types of datasets created with real camera images and generated images of virtualized reality models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research paper that reveals the weaknesses of the leading third-party logistics providers (3PLs) and identifies challenges and opportunities for the 3PL market in the U.S. with respect to their financial efficiencies during 2005-2007. The paper also intends to identify various factors that significantly affect the financial efficiency of the 3PLs over time and thereby proposes ways to improve the competitiveness of 3PLs. To achieve its goal the paper proposes data envelopment analysis to measure the financial efficiency of 12 leading 3PLs in the country.

The article discusses the publication's editorial team's benchmark of processing 10,000 submissions as of September 2018 since it began its activity in June 2015 and offers a description of how the editorial process works for full-length papers.

To develop and test a mission-oriented and multi-dimensional benchmarking method for a small scale university aiming for internationally first-class basic research. An individualized evidence-based assessment scheme was employed to benchmark ShanghaiTech University against selected top research institutions, focusing on research impact and competitiveness at the institutional and disciplinary levels. Topic maps opposing ShanghaiTech and corresponding top institutions were produced for the main research disciplines of ShanghaiTech. This provides opportunities for further exploration of strengths and weakness. This study establishes a preliminary framework for assessing the mission of the university. It further provides assessment principles, assessment questions, and indicators. Analytical methods and data sources were tested and proved to be applicable and efficient. To better fit the selective research focuses of this university, its schema of research disciplines needs to be re-organized and benchmarking targets should include disciplinary top institutions and not necessarily those universities leading overall rankings. Current reliance on research articles and certain databases may neglect important research output types. This study provides a working framework and practical methods for mission-oriented, individual, and multi-dimensional benchmarking that ShanghaiTech decided to use for periodical assessments. It also offers a working reference for other institutions to adapt. Further needs are identified so that ShanghaiTech can tackle them for future benchmarking. This is an effort to develop a mission-oriented, individually designed, systematically structured, and multi-dimensional assessment methodology which differs from often used composite indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In oil and gas industry projects, the problem is to produce a class schedule for measuring the performance of projects. The purpose of this paper is to select appropriate standards for future reference in adopting best practices in scheduling. In the analysis, various standards across the globe, company standards, and contractors scheduling practices benchmarked against GAO Schedule Assessment Guide. A scoring model developed by using Multi Attributes Decision Making (MADM) Non-compensatory and compensatory method on the basis of the GAO Schedule Assessment Guide. From the analysis it's found that GAO Schedule Assessment Guide is superior to the other standards and practices. The recommendation from this paper is that the practices from GAO Schedule Assessment Guide can be adopted to prepare and maintain a quality, reliable schedule in projects. Owners can ensure these practices were followed in their projects by adopting the standards as scheduling specifications in the contractual documents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a comprehensive electricity market model in the context of China, highlighting the deviation caused by neglecting start-up costs from an engineering perspective. The model allows for the abandonment of excess wind and solar power generation, contributing to the achievement of research objectives in scenarios with a high proportion of renewable energy. Our method innovatively integrates fuel and carbon prices, clean energy expansion, and power system marginal prices according to the carbon trading rules of the Chinese power industry, providing a more accurate representation of market dynamics. Findings reveal that neglecting start-up costs can lead to significant biases in electricity prices. We demonstrate that the marginal price sometimes deviates fromthe fluctuation of the real value. While fuel and CO2 prices can be transmitted downstream, the value of new energy must be transmitted through its impact on the marginal unit. This insight is crucial for understanding the "missing money" problem in electricity markets. Based on these findings, we propose policy recommendations. We suggest considering fixed and average costs as pricing benchmarks and utilizing capacity utilization as a signal for demand response to adjust power pricing. Furthermore, we recommend trading different energy types separately in the spot market with different pricing benchmarks to ensure the homogeneity of marginal units. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a collaborative effort between academic researchers and practitioners to consider the conditions under which global benchmarking may be used as a tool for supporting urban transformation. Reflecting on WWF's One Planet City Challenge and UN-Habitat's Guiding Principles for City Climate Action Planning, the paper suggests that the practice of global benchmarking can be transformative through encouraging organisational learning and reflection, building relationships between cities and global and trans-local organisations, and governing for structurally transformative qualities. However, the practice of benchmarking is not without potential tensions: they may reify existing practices rather than reforming them, be less usable for or accessible to cities in lower income countries, and may neglect issues of climate justice, which are not easily reduced to comparative measures of success or failure. This suggests that a wholesale reliance on benchmarking as a mode of governing climate change might risk marginalising certain issues and amplifying others. We conclude by recommending improved material and technical support for urban data collection and suggest that benchmarking should be combined with a broader suite of performance indicators and reflective practices in order to support urban transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benchmarking of force control algorithms has been significantly investigated in recent years. High-fidelity experimental benchmarking outcomes may require high-end electronics and mechanical systems not to compromise the algorithm's evaluation. However, affordability may be highly desired to spread benchmarking tools within the research community. Mechanical inaccuracies due to affordability can lead to undesired friction effects which in this paper are tackled by exploiting a novel friction compensation technique based on an environment-aware friction observer (EA-FOB). Friction compensation capabilities of the proposed EA-FOB are assessed through simulation and experimental comparisons with a widely used static friction model: Coulomb friction combined with viscous friction. Moreover, a comprehensive stability comparison with state-of-the-art disturbance observers (DOBs) is conducted. Results show higher stability margins for the EA-FOB with respect to traditional DOBs. The research is carried on within the Forecast project, which aims to provide tools and metrics to benchmark force control algorithms relying on low-cost electronics and affordable hardware. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the challenge of assessing Energy Transition Readiness levels in businesses. It identifies gaps in existing literature concerning energy transitions and readiness levels. To tackle this, the paper employs organizational learning theory as its foundational model and introduces a new taxonomy of key energy readiness indicators. This taxonomy offers a practical guide for business professionals to implement targeted interventions effectively. Additionally, it enables benchmarking and comparison of sector and industry actors. In summary, the integration of organizational learning theory expands the discourse on strategically managing global challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an effective way to gather data from Internet of Things (IoT) devices. To reduce data gathering time and redundancy, thereby enabling the timely response of state-of-the-art systems, one can partition a network into clusters and perform aggregation within each cluster. Existing works solved the UAV trajectory planning problem, in which the energy consumption and/or flight time of the UAV is the minimization objective. The aggregation scheduling within each cluster was neglected, and they assumed that data must be ready when the UAV arrives at the cluster heads (CHs). This paper addresses the minimum time aggregation scheduling problem in duty-cycled networks with a single UAV. We propose an adaptive clustering method that takes into account the trajectory and speed of the UAV. The transmission schedule of IoT devices and the UAV departure times are jointly computed so that (1) the UAV flies continuously throughout the shortest path among the CHs to minimize the hovering time and energy consumption, and (2) data are aggregated at each CH right before the UAV arrival, to maximize the data freshness. Intensive simulation shows that the proposed scheme reduces up to 35% of the aggregation delay compared to other benchmarking methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The value equation of value-based healthcare (VBHC) as a single figure remains ambiguous, closer to a theoretical framework than a useful tool for decision making. The challenge lies in the way patient-centred outcomes (PCOs) might be combined to produce a single value of the numerator. This paper aims to estimate the weights of PCOs to provide a single figure in the numerator, which ultimately will allow a VBHC figure to be reached. Methods A cohort of patients diagnosed with breast cancer (n  = 690) with a 6-month follow-up recruited in 2019–20 across six European hospitals was used. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs), clinical-related outcomes (CROs), and clinical and socio-demographic variables were collected. The numerator was defined as a composite indicator of the PCOs (CI-PCO), and regression analysis was applied to estimate their weights and consequently arrive at a single figure. Results Pain showed as the highest weight followed by physical functioning , emotional functioning , and ability to work , and then by a symptom, either arm or breast. PCOs weights were robust to sensitivity analysis. The CI-PCO value was found to be more informative than the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) value. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first research to combine the PCOs proposed by ICHOM to provide a single figure in the numerator of the value equation. This figure shows a step forward in VBHC to reach a holistic benchmarking across healthcare centres and a value-based payment. This research might also be applied in other medical conditions as a methodological pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a research paper which examines research gaps and the applications of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in the process of internal benchmarking to determine the areas of improvement in companies' adoption of green initiatives. The study conducts literature review in determining research gaps in the investigations conducted on green supply chains, benchmarking issues, and supply chain. Results of the study show scope and focus of the studies previously conducted were not sufficient in analyzing firms' implementation of green initiatives. The study proposes the use of AHP in determining the possible challengers that companies may encounter.

The article focuses on a research paper that provides a critical review of the first ten years of the Great Britain Government's "transport key performance indicator (KPI)" programme which benchmarks the efficiency of road freight operations. The paper reviewed data from nine benchmarking surveys and combined it with programme's implementation to assess the general approach. The findings of the research indicates that implementation of benchmarking programme in government policy in increasing awareness of best practice in freight transport and potentialefficiency gains.

The article focuses on a research paper which examines the factors towards effective supply chain partnering (SCP) across two organizations of different origins (Company A and Company B). The paper also investigates the importance of information flow, organizational linkage, supply chain infrastructure, and resource sharing in the SCP. The findings of the study reveal that firms confirm a positive relationship between the degree of resource sharing and organizational linkage. The findings also reveal the importance of the SCP to support supply chain process and to deliver high-quality service.

The article focuses on a research paper that identifies the critical dimensions of usage of internet based interorganizational systems (IOISs) of the best performing firms. To achieve its goal, the paper gathered evidences through an electronic survey conducted with 228 manufacturers of the computer and electronic products. Data analysis reveals that volume of use and depth of use are the two critical dimensions of internet based IOISs usage on the supplier side. The findings of the research indicate that computer and electronic product manufacturers must take into account the specificities of their downstream supply chain to implement an internet based IOIS strategy.

This paper triangulates with ethnographic content analysis and time series data to discern risk-return profiles for active equity mutual funds. The paper identifies and establishes associations between a variety of investment objectives and risk factors disclosed or otherwise encoded in the prospectus and annual report, and compares risk factors appearing in these documents with levels of risk observed in the time series data. The findings are largely consistent with the predictions of portfolio management models discussed in the literature; however, the triangulation process also reveals critical gaps between what is disclosed in each of the primary narratives and what is observed in the secondary data, ie between what is said and what is done. Risk exposures measured ex post are not always communicated in the documents. For example, the study finds instances of undisclosed pseudo-industry risk in the form of concentrated technology holdings which may reflect a violation of prospectus covenants. The paper also finds elevated levels of residual risk in the secondary data which may be indicative of benchmark gaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract   The Satisfiability Modulo Theories Competition (SMT-COMP) arose from the SMT-LIB initiative to spur adoption of common, community-designed formats, and to spark further advances in satisfiability modulo theories (SMT). The first SMT-COMP was held in 2005 as a satellite event of CAV 2005. SMT-COMP 2006 was held August 17–19, 2006, as a satellite event of CAV 2006. This paper describes the rules and competition format for SMT-COMP 2006, the benchmarks used, the participants, and the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper solves and simulates a stochastic life-cycle model of an economy with 401(k) plans. We use the model to establish a benchmark for patterns of contributions and participation and show how these patterns depend on such features as employer matching, vesting policies, and the ability to make early withdrawals. Consistent with empirical studies, the model predicts relatively low participation rates among younger workers and shows that these rates tend to rise with more generous matching, lower vesting periods, and improved liquidity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automated machine learning (AutoML) strives for the automatic configuration of machine learning algorithms and their composition into an overall (software) solution -- a machine learning pipeline -- tailored to the learning task (dataset) at hand. Over the last decade, AutoML has developed into an independent research field with hundreds of contributions. At the same time, AutoML is being criticized for its high resource consumption as many approaches rely on the (costly) evaluation of many machine learning pipelines, as well as the expensive large-scale experiments across many datasets and approaches. In the spirit of recent work on Green AI, this paper proposes Green AutoML, a paradigm to make the whole AutoML process more environmentally friendly. Therefore, we first elaborate on how to quantify the environmental footprint of an AutoML tool. Afterward, different strategies on how to design and benchmark an AutoML tool w.r.t. their "greenness", i.e., sustainability, are summarized. Finally, we elaborate on how to be transparent about the environmental footprint and what kind of research incentives could direct the community in a more sustainable AutoML research direction. As part of this, we propose a sustainability checklist to be attached to every AutoML paper featuring all core aspects of Green AutoML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific computing and numerical simulation are now indispensable tools in many areas of science and engineering. PERFORMANCE MODELING, BENCHMARKING, AND SIMULATION This issue of I Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience i contains six extended papers from the 10th and 11th Workshops on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computing Systems (PMBS 2019 and 2020). This special issue of Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience contains six extended papers selected from the 10th and 11th International Workshops on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computing Systems (PMBS 2019 and 2020), both held as part of the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC). [Extracted from the article]

Discusses the use of benchmarking as a tool to improve paper mill performance. Definition of benchmarking; How mills use benchmarking; Reasons that make benchmarking a difficult and time consuming task for the paper and pulp industry.

The article announces that the 2015 Best Paper Award was given to Jing Du, Rui Liu, and Raja R. A. Issa's article "BIM Cloud Score: Benchmarking BIM Performance," which appeared in the November 2014 issue of the "Journal of Construction Engineering and Management."

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that remuneration consultants consider when selecting comparator groups for executive remuneration benchmarking. It explores how the different factors influence the level of pay and whether the factors encourage pay-for-performance. Furthermore, it investigates whether the factors used form part of the reasons why remuneration consultants have been criticised to be correlated with high executive pay. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analysis the data obtained from interviewing remuneration consultants from prominent consultancy firms that operate in the UK and the USA. Findings – This paper demonstrates that there is no uniformity in the factors used by remuneration consultants when selecting comparator groups for executive remuneration benchmarking. The paper shows that company performance is not a major factor considered justifying why executive pay is not linked to company performance. The paper further demonstrates that the factors that remuneration consultants consider in selecting comparator groups for executive remuneration benchmarking justify high pay and affirm that remuneration consultants are associated with high pay. Originality/value – This paper demonstrates the effect that lack of best practice on benchmarking is partly responsible for the high executive pay levels and the weak link between pay and performance. This paper will inform companies on what to demand from remuneration consultants when hiring their services. Second, it will provide the shareholders with vital information that they need to vote on remuneration reports in the annual general meeting. Finally, it informs policy makers on the grey areas of practice that require best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhood search algorithms are often the most effective known approaches for solving partitioning problems. In this paper, we consider the capacitated examination timetabling problem as a partitioning problem and present an examination timetabling methodology that is based upon the large neighbourhood search algorithm that was originally developed by Ahuja and Orlin. It is based on searching a very large neighbourhood of solutions using graph theoretical algorithms implemented on a so-called improvement graph. In this paper, we present a tabu-based large neighbourhood search, in which the improvement moves are kept in a tabu list for a certain number of iterations. We have drawn upon Ahuja-Orlin's methodology incorporated with tabu lists and have developed an effective examination timetabling solution scheme which we evaluated on capacitated problem benchmark data sets from the literature. The capacitated problem includes the consideration of room capacities and, as such, represents an issue that is of particular importance in real-world situations. We compare our approach against other methodologies that have appeared in the literature over recent years. Our computational experiments indicate that the approach we describe produces the best known results on a number of these benchmark problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]