Reduced admissions for acute myocardial infarction associated with a public smoking ban: matched controlled study

There has been no research linking implementation of a public smoking ban and reduced incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among nonsmoking patients. An ex post facto matched control group study was conducted to determine whether there was a change in hospital admissions for AMI among nonsmoking patients after a public smoking ban was implemented in Monroe County compared with Delaware County, Indiana without such a ban. Poisson analysis was conducted for 44 months of hospital admissions. A significant drop occurred in the number of admissions among nonsmoking patients in Monroe County after the ban whereas a nonsignificant decrease in the number of admissions occurred in Delaware County. The changes in the number of smoking-patient admissions before and after the ban were not significant.     

On comparing,classifying and clustering several dependent regression models

Classifying several regression models fitted on a dataset is one of the most problems in data analysis. In other words, scientists are interested in comparing several regression models that can be used for a dataset. In this paper, an approach will be used to compare and classify several dependent regression models. Then the performance of the proposed method is investigated using simulation study and real example.     

Data falsification and question on academic integrity

In this commentary, we argue that plagiarism is not a new problem in academic publishing and data falsification in recent times has received a great attention globally. Due to lack of literature, the objective of this study is to evaluate data falsification and academic integrity. Accordingly, the study presents the academic misconduct (Falsification/Fabrication of data and Concerns/Issues About Data) case of Professor James E. Hunton, a former top ranked accounting professor from Bentley University. The study shows how research fraud/data falsification activity in the academic world lacks honesty and morality. The study offers some recommendations for the detection of plagiarism and academic misconduct. In the age of the Internet and digital era, Crossref, iThenticate, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) would help to detect plagiarism. However, the question remains on detecting data falsification in the academic world.     

Using Lean Six Sigma to improve mobile order fulfilment process in a telecom service sector

This study proposes and follows a specific and systematic framework for implementing Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology in a telecom company in order to improve customer satisfaction by minimizing the company’s response time to customer requirements. The goal of this study was achieved by utilizing several LSS tools under five phases of the DMAIC methodology. Unlike previous studies in the telecom sector that used only qualitative method, in this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were utilized to draw meaningful conclusions. As a result of the implementation of the LSS methodology, the average order fulfilment lead time for sales orders (SO) and value-added service (VAS) orders was reduced from 10.3 to 5.9 days and from 1.5 to 0.5 days, respectively. The reduction in lead time resulted in an increase in the sigma level for SO and VAS orders from 0.44 to 1.26 and from 0.73 to 2.66, respectively. These improvements were expected to lead to a financial benefit in savings of over $600,000 per year in operational costs, enhancements to customer experience and an increase in revenue generating opportunities. Moreover, this article enriches the existing literature on the application of LSS concept in the service industry, and helps the company to speed up the response to customer requirements.     

Demography,Education, and Democracy: Global Trends and the Case of Iran

Reconstructions and projections of populations by age, sex, and educational attainment for 120 countries since 1970 are used to assess the global relationship between improvements in human capital and democracy. Democracy is measured by the Freedom House indicator of political rights. Similar to an earlier study on the effects of improving educational attainment on economic growth, the greater age detail of this new dataset resolves earlier ambiguities about the effect of improving education as assessed using a global set of national time series. The results show consistently strong effects of improving overall levels of educational attainment, of a narrowing gender gap in education, and of fertility declines and the subsequent changes in age structure on improvements in the democracy indicator. This global relationship is then applied to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Over the past two decades Iran has experienced the world's most rapid fertility decline associated with massive increases in female education. The results show that based on the experience of 120 countries since 1970, Iran has a high chance of significant movement toward more democracy over the following two decades.     

Spatio-temporal patterns of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in relation to drinking water salinity at the district level in Bangladesh from 2016 to 2018

Population and Environment - This analysis examines whether salinity in drinking water is associated with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E), a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality....     

Influential factors and performance of logistics outsourcing practices: an evidence of malaysian companies

Despite the growing trend of logistics outsourcing, there are very limited sources of literature on logistics outsourcing, especially in determining the relationship between factors influencing outsourcing and the extent of logistics outsourcing practices. In this study, we tap into the field of strategic management to help clarify the mechanisms underlying the links between factors influencing, logistics outsourcing practices and outsourcing performance. A model based on the resource based view illustrates the hypothetical connections among these variables. The data gathered from the survey were analysed using SmartPLS software. A response rate of 21 % out of the 486 firms selected was achieved and fixed as the empirical data for this study. The results of this study provide support that superior performance is correlated to the resources of the firm. The analysis shows that lack of human and physical asset capabilities, as well as transaction uncertainty influence the extent of different logistics outsourcing practices. The four logistics outsourcing practices under study were found to have a positive relationship with logistics outsourcing performance, particularly strategic focus. This study shows that although theoretically firms aim at cost reduction by employing a logistics outsourcing strategy but not proven in this study because the financial benefit was only positively contributed by one of the four logistics outsourcing practices under study. Besides that, the results from this study also support that most firms outsource their non-core activities of the logistics practices to respond to the transaction uncertainty that their business experiences.     

Quality_Family Deployment: A New Perspective in Determining Priority Importance for Improving Work Performance in Organization

Determining priority importance is a matter of concerns among the organization to improve their performance. One of the important aspects that should be considered by the organization is management of human resources, comprising of members who have their own family life. In this paper, we deliver a new perspective for organization to provide priority importance for their members with respect to family matters in order to inculcate the sense of belonging in the organization. To be effective in considering family matters in the organizational policy making, closer look of family characteristics are required. The idea of translating several family characteristics as quality variables and applying the quality function deployment (QFD) method to these variables could present a new way of improving the decision making in the organization by considering the process of decision in the family. Quality function deployment for family (QFDF) produces a friendly interpretation of a highly complex and intangible matters around family life; thus, making the assessment of a family easier. QFD is applied on the data gathered from a questionnaire survey based on 1,213 families in West Malaysia, Malaysia. Twelve variables are identified as voice of family, where seven of them are found to have the highest priority of importance. These variables could also be translated into quality variables in the context of organization, the strategy of improvement for the family could be interpreted as strategy for improvement in the organization. Furthermore, the results of this study provide suggestion to improve actions for managing human resource. In the discussion, three most high ranked variables from both perspectives of family and organization are considered.