Worldwide, rural road networks serve a vital link in the chain leading goods to markets and people to places. The efficiency of rural road network services is influenced by road-related investment and policy decisions. Reaching good decisions, however, is complicated by: interrelationships among policy, investment, road use, road performance, and rural economies; and combinatorial challenges involving the distribution of discrete policy and investment arrangements across networks.</p><p>The main objective of this study is to address this complex problem as it pertains to rural road networks in Saskatchewan. Rural roads in Saskatchewan are suffering under increasing volumes of heavy truck traffic motivated principally by recent changes in the grain handling and transportation system. To address this problem, Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation is considering a range of haul policy and road structure investment options. The question is, what (spatial) arrangement of available policy and investment options best meets this challenge. </p><p>To answer this question, a cost-based standard is incorporated within a network design modeling approach and solved using custom algorithmic strategies. Applied to a case study network, the model determines a demonstrably good arrangement of costly road structure modifications under each considered policy option. Resulting policy-investment combinations are subsequently ranked according to total cost and equivalent net benefit standards. </p><p>A number of important findings emerge from this analysis. Policy and investment decisions are linked; spatial arrangement of road structure modifications is contingent on the haul policy regime in place. Road performance and use characteristics are indeed sensitive to policy and investment decisions. Optimal budget levels computed by the model contradict perceptions that rural road networks in Saskatchewan are grossly under-funded. Despite best intentions, ill-considered policy can actually reduce the net benefits of road provision and use. </p><p> Model application and design limitations suggest promising avenues for future research. These include: model larger networks in Saskatchewan and beyond; determine optimal road budgets under benefit-cost standards reflecting competing economic needs; employ model within regional economic planning investigations to forecast road-related implications; and model policy endogenously to aid design of heavy haul sub-networks and to address questions concerning network expansion or contraction.

Everyone has to take a greater responsibility in energy issues, both individuals and companies. There have been some major developments in the construction industry but there is still a lot to be done.   This diploma work thesis presents different methods of making existing construction shed establishments to use less energy. What is possible to do and how much energy is there to be saved? A shed establishment consisting of 8 shed units were studied in this project and the building simulation tool VIP-Energy was used to simulate different types of material in the sheds. An infrared camera was used to locate thermal bridges.   There are several factors that can be improved to make a construction shed establishment to use less energy. Replacement of old windows and doors, using more insulation, replacement of old less efficient insulation with new improved materials, using a different heating system, and more. One factor, which is more important than all the others, is to insulate between the 8 different shed units in the establishment. It is also important to make the construction wind proof.   The results show that if you replace the old wall and roof insulation with new better insulation, replace the old windows and doors and seal the gaps between the shed units the total energy reduction would be as high as 60%. All companies working with the handling or utilization of shed establishments at building sites should consider these improvements.

Worldwide, rural road networks serve a vital link in the chain leading goods to markets and people to places. The efficiency of rural road network services is influenced by road-related investment and policy decisions. Reaching good decisions, however, is complicated by: interrelationships among policy, investment, road use, road performance, and rural economies; and combinatorial challenges involving the distribution of discrete policy and investment arrangements across networks.</p><p>The main objective of this study is to address this complex problem as it pertains to rural road networks in Saskatchewan. Rural roads in Saskatchewan are suffering under increasing volumes of heavy truck traffic motivated principally by recent changes in the grain handling and transportation system. To address this problem, Saskatchewan Department of Highways and Transportation is considering a range of haul policy and road structure investment options. The question is, what (spatial) arrangement of available policy and investment options best meets this challenge. </p><p>To answer this question, a cost-based standard is incorporated within a network design modeling approach and solved using custom algorithmic strategies. Applied to a case study network, the model determines a demonstrably good arrangement of costly road structure modifications under each considered policy option. Resulting policy-investment combinations are subsequently ranked according to total cost and equivalent net benefit standards. </p><p>A number of important findings emerge from this analysis. Policy and investment decisions are linked; spatial arrangement of road structure modifications is contingent on the haul policy regime in place. Road performance and use characteristics are indeed sensitive to policy and investment decisions. Optimal budget levels computed by the model contradict perceptions that rural road networks in Saskatchewan are grossly under-funded. Despite best intentions, ill-considered policy can actually reduce the net benefits of road provision and use. </p><p> Model application and design limitations suggest promising avenues for future research. These include: model larger networks in Saskatchewan and beyond; determine optimal road budgets under benefit-cost standards reflecting competing economic needs; employ model within regional economic planning investigations to forecast road-related implications; and model policy endogenously to aid design of heavy haul sub-networks and to address questions concerning network expansion or contraction.

This research applies a survey investigation method and uses students from case schools as samples. The research background variables are ¡§a teacher¡¦s leadership skill,¡¨ ¡§students¡¦ notion of class management efficiency,¡¨ and ¡§the difference among administrations¡¦ evaluation of class management efficiency.¡¨ The association between a teacher¡¦s leadership skill and a class¡¦s management efficiency is studied. This research applies a survey investigation method and uses a vocational school from the southern part of Taiwan as the research subject. The participants are 1,569 students from a vocational school and a stratified sampling method is applied. The usage of research tools includes the following: In terms of a teacher¡¦s leading skill, Mu Jin, Chen¡¦s (1999) ¡§the self testing table of evaluating a teacher¡¦s leading skill in a classroom¡¨ is adapted. In terms of the evaluation of students¡¦ notion of class management efficiency, Chen Zong, Shen¡¦s (2006) ¡§the scale table of a class¡¦s management efficiency survey¡¨ and Jin Tang, Qiu¡¦s (2002) ¡§the scale table of a junior high school student¡¦s opinion response¡¨ are adapted. In terms of the evaluation of an administration¡¦s class management efficiency evaluation, the evaluation outcome of a related class¡¦s management efficiency announced by the studied school is used. The research showed that to male, married, long working experience, and natural science teachers, students have the notion of better leading skills. Second-year male senior high school students have a notion that teachers have better leading skills. Both male, married, professional subjects, and teachers from the National Normal University and first year and senior high school classes have better classes¡¦ management efficiency evaluated by administrations. As far as students¡¦ notion of classes¡¦ management efficiency is concerned, male, married, long working experience, and social science teachers have better conditions. Male and second-year senior high school students have better notion of classes¡¦ management efficiency. There is a significant relationship between students¡¦ notion of teachers¡¦ leading skills and classes¡¦ management efficiency and the explanation power is 44.1%. But, the explanation power of students¡¦ notion of teachers¡¦ leading skills to administrations¡¦ evaluation of class characteristics is only 2.6%. Therefore, it is inferred that under the same research subjects, there is an association between teachers¡¦ leading skills and classes¡¦ management efficiency, but it might be over-evaluated.

Steers produced in Cycle I of the Texas A & M University McGregor Genomics Project (n = 232, F2 Nellore-Angus) were evaluated for carcass composition, visceral organ weights, and model predicted residual consumption (MPRC), a measure of feed efficiency. Hot carcass weight was strongly correlated with liver weight (r = 0.70, P < 0.001) heart weight (r = 0.58, P < 0.001), and viscera weight (r = 0.55, P < 0.001) but not spleen weight (r = -0.01, P = 0.83). Liver, heart and viscera weights were moderately positively correlated with external and kidney pelvic heart fat (KPH), but not with marbling. None of the organ weights were correlated with MPRC. A subset of 54 animals was selected for extreme values of residuals of MPRC after a mixed model analysis that included fixed effects of sire and family nested within sire, and these animals were evaluated for insulin-like growth factor I (IGFI) expression in liver samples collected at harvest through quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). IGFI relative quantity (IGFI RQ) was collected from qRT-PCR and was correlated with liver (r = -0.23, P = 0.09), spleen (r = 0.48, P <0.001) and viscera weight (r = 0.24, P = 0.08), but not any carcass trait or MPRC residual. Gene breed types were determined for 4 candidate genes of feed efficiency: insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF1), leptin (LEP), neuropeptide-Y (NPY) and ghrelin (GHRL). Gene breed types were represented as AA, AN, NA, and NN where A and N denote Angus and Nellore, respectively, and paternal inheritance is listed first. Given that contemporary group significantly influenced most traits (MPRC, all carcass traits, liver weight and viscera weight), effects of gene breed type and contemporary group were evaluated together in analyses. GHRL influenced liver (P = 0.02) and viscera weight (P = 0.02), IGF1 influenced kidney, pelvic, and heart fat (P = 0.05), NPY influenced liver weight (P = 0.03) and hot carcass weight (P = 0.04), and LEP influenced ribeye area (P = 0.05) and hot carcass weight (P = 0.04) with a tendency to influence liver weight (P = 0.06). Alternate heterozygotes for GHRL were statistically different in liver weight and viscera weight where NA was heavier than AN. Alternate heterozygotes for LEP did not differ in ribeye area, hot carcass weight, or liver weight. Alternate heterozygotes for NPY differed in liver weight (NA heavier than AN), but did not differ in hot carcass weight. Carcasses with AA for LEP and NPY were 18 to 19 kg heavier (P < 0.05) than those with NN, with heterozygotes intermediate.

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The coupling of Fabry-Perot laser and fiber-grating for single frequency operation was studied experimentally and theoretically. A 1.55

An investigation of the measurement in each branch of a is studied in this article. For a manager of a bank, how to promote its operational efficiency i.e., with the least input, including manpower, material resources and etc., to achieve the maximum output (profit), is the most important thing in banking management. Since the scale of a banking organization is so huge, it is rather difficult to evaluate and compare its operational efficiency impartially and objectively. As a result, each individual branch might devote extra manpower, material resources even much more time for creating more profits, and ultimately the organization becoming too bulky, inefficiency, even lack of competitiveness. This paper chiefly confers on the study of the evaluation of operational efficiency for each respective branches of a regional bank, the method adopted in the paper is data envelopment method, the analytical subject in the text for evaluation of operational efficiency of banking branch is Bank of Kaohsiung. By means of analysis of correlation, the corresponding relationship among the input items and output items is led out, and finally the operational efficiency of each individual branch is obtained by DEA method. The management efficiency of branches of Bank of Kaohsiung is solved by the numerical, FORTRAN and IMSL.

ABSTRACT Due to the combined factors of the declining of the birth rate year by year; the impact caused by the change of population structure and the incapability of the highway supervising authorities to thoroughly implement Clause 35 of ¡§The rules governing the private driving schools¡¨, the livelihood of the coaches and the staff are adversely hampered and it is also against the anticipation of the management. This research is purposed to study how the management, under the circumstances, to stimulate the sense of belonging amongst the staff and to boost their morale through the job involvement as well as job satisfaction so as to achieve the competitiveness and the efficiency of an organization. This study uses the personal variants as the independent variable ; the job satisfaction and the job involvement as the middle variable trying to probe the possible correlations between the two abovementioned factors and the job efficiency. This thesis¡¦ object is the staff of the driving schools nationwide. It uses questionnaires to collect deta. With regard to the deta analysis, the methods of description statistics analysis, factor analysis, credibility analysis, the T-survey of independent objects, the single factor variation analysis and the regression analysis etc. are used. Firstly, it describes how the objects get scores among the variants. Secondly, the single factor variation analysis is used to examine whether the personal variants show up apparent differences to the job satisfaction, involvement and efficiency. The multiple regression analysis is used to analyze the possible influence and the predictability of the personal variants towards the job satisfaction, involvement and efficiency. multiple regression analysis is used to probe whether the job satisfaction has any apparent impact on the job involvement and job efficiency. The outcome shows: (1). The gender factor among the personal variants has no apparent differences after one-by-one comparison whereas this research finds that the male has higher exterior work satisfaction than the female. (2). The variety of divisions has apparent difference towards interior job satisfaction, so is the characters of work towards the interior satisfaction. (3). Through the difference analysis, it is found that the personal traits have no apparent difference towards the job autonomy of the staff. (4). The characters of work have apparent difference towards the job development. (5). Age has apparent difference towards job efficiency. (6). The age of the staff has apparent difference towards the job involvement. (7).The interior satisfaction of a satisfactory work has apparent difference towards job involvement. (8). Job satisfaction has no influence on the job efficiency. (9).The job involvement has no apparent impact on job efficiency. According to the outcome of the research, this thesis suggests that: (1).The employment and assignment of the work must accord with the specialty of the employees. (2).The furtherance of training is needed to enhance the work ability. (3).It needs to improve the mechanism of the efficiency evaluation.