Science,technology and development indicators for third world countries—Possibilities for analysis and grouping

The purpose of this article is to make a distinction between (a) a society's ability to generate a scientific and technological potential (generativity), (b) the potential itself and (c) the country's capacity to absorb or receive scientific and technological research results (respectivity). These three complexes are represented by joint indicators covering both levels and structures. A comparison of 30 developing countries (DC) shows, inter alia, that: (a) the polarisation in economic development of the countries considered confirms the view that the future of national development is linked to the scientific and technological potential, (b) joint indicators can interpret better than a comparison of pairs of single indicators, (c) countries with comparable levels of the three capacities (generativity, R & D potential and receptivity) differ mostly in the structures. These structures seem to determine the differences in the use of the capacities, (d) the level of R & D potential is related more closely to the country's ability to absorb scientific and technological results than with its resources for building up this potential.     

Measuring scientific activity in lesser developed countries

Quantitative indicators of scientific and technological activity are often of questionable validity and reliability. This is particularly true in lesser developed countries, where the lack of data gathering skills may frequently result in the development of misleading indicators. A number of manpower, education, expenditure, and publication indicators are examined for thirteen Middle Eastern countries. Reliability and validity problems are discussed for each indicator. The indicators are found to correlate with each other in reasonable ways, suggesting that despite their possible flaws, they nonetheless appear to measure scientific activity with some consistency.     

Academic performance and institutional resources: a cross-country analysis of research universities

Links between institutional academic performance and academic resources are of relevance for university managers, country officials and the public at large. This study aims to shed light on the issues using reliable data on research performance indicators as well as educational and resource indicators from research universities in Spain, Italy, Australia and Canada. The four countries selected for the study represent different academic traditions and belong to different geopolitical regions, yet they have relatively similar higher education systems in terms of student population, institutional resources and research production. Our study explores differences and similarities among them to better assess the performance of research universities from the four countries in a global context. The indicator set includes research production (number of indexed articles per year) and its quality (citation impact and number of highly cited papers), education production (full-time equivalent FTE student load and degree completions per year) and the resource base (annual ordinary expenditure and FTE number of faculty). We consider the raw indicators as well as a set of composite indicators normalised by measures of scale. Across the profile of universities in our complete sample, institutional size is the prime determinant of research production, with systematic differences in quality related to country, research intensity and resourcing level. Our data show that research universities allocate resources to research and education in country-specific and size-specific ways that are reflected in research performance.     

Educational reforms and internationalization of universities: evidence from major regions of the world

Internationalization of universities has become a worldwide phenomenon as global economic integration continues to make its way forcefully into the higher education. The objective of the study is to develop a model for internationalization of universities with the transformation of some promising macroeconomic variables i.e., educational reforms and economic growth in the seven largest regions of the world [namely, East Asia and Pacific (sample 25 countries); Europe and Central Asia (40 countries); Latin America and Caribbean (27 countries); Middle East and North Africa (17 countries); North America (22 countries); South Asia (7 countries) and Sub-Saharan Africa (21 countries)]. The data has been analyzed by panel fixed effect regression from the period of 1990–2011. In addition to transform inputs into output, the study employed eleven indicators of education and five indicators for growth, where the resulting vector is internationalization. The results show the dynamic linkages between educational indicators and economic factors in the selected regions of the World. In East Asia and Pacific region, tertiary and higher education expenditures per student increase the economic factors. Higher education is a powerful driver of long-term growth in Europe and Central Asia. Governments of the state should have to focus on higher education enrolment, as it does not have any significant contribution to increase GDP; gross capital formation and FDI in Latin America and Caribbean region. Higher education enrolment in MENA region significantly increases growth factors on the cost of increase gross national expenditures. Investment in general education and other generic human capital is of the utmost importance in creating an enabling environment for FDI in North America. It is imperative for South Asia to encourage the skill levels and education opportunities for females, in order to maximize the effects of FDI on the female human capital stock and therefore economic growth. Tertiary school enrolment and tertiary expenditures per student identified the importance of tertiary education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The results conclude that educational indicators improve the economic gains, which ultimately reap out the benefit of internationalization.     

American education systems in a global context

This paper discusses the co-evolution of global and national knowledge networks. Particular attention is given to policy implications for American education; international competitiveness in math, science, and technology; and the shortcomings of American performance in these fields. The education and science policy decisions of the United States, India, and China are major determinants of each country's ability to advance knowledge and enhance the well-being of major portions of the world's population, with outcomes affecting not just residents in these countries but those beyond their borders as well. Each of these countries has its own historical and cultural education policy framework, yet there is considerable overlap among their knowledge production systems, as students and scholars increasingly participate in global knowledge networks. In turn, these interwoven networks help to shape national knowledge production systems.     

How knowledge diffuses across countries: a case study in the field of management

This study introduces nation diffusion breadth and nation diffusion intensity by adapting the notions of field diffusion breadth and field diffusion intensity as defined by Liu and Rousseau, and a variation on the total cited influence indicator introduced by Hu et al. Knowledge diffusion across countries in the field of management is then analyzed as a case study. Main countries in the field of management studies are considered as centers in their own ego-centered citation networks. The three indicators mentioned above are then calculated for these ego-centered citation networks. They measure the scientific impact each of these countries has on other nations. A general picture of the knowledge diffusion process is given by the three indicators at the country level over four periods 1992–1996, 1997–2001, 2002–2006, and 2007–2011. The validity of the proposed indicators is verified by the calculated results.     

Is motor vehicle-related mortality a disease of development?

The effect of economic development on motor vehicle-related mortality was assessed using per capital GNP from 46 countries, Gini coefficients from 34 countries and mortality statistics reported to WHO. The data suggest that these commonly used indicators of economic development do not reliably predict a given country's current experience with motor vehicle-related mortality. Implications for health planners and traffic safety workers are discussed.     

On using the Shanghai ranking to assess the research performance of university systems

We take a new look at the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities to evaluate the performance of whole university systems. We deal with system aggregates by means of averaging scores taken over a number of institutions from each higher education system according to the Gross Domestic Product of its country. We treat the set of indicators (measures) at the country level as a scale, and investigate its reliability and dimensionality using appropriate statistical tools. After a Principal Component Analysis is performed, a clear picture emerges: at the aggregate level ARWU seems to be a very reliable one-dimensional scale, with a first component that explains more than 72% of the variance of the sample under analysis. The percentages of variance of the indicators explained by the first component do shed light on the fact that ARWU is in fact measuring the research quality (both at the individual and collective levels) of a university system. When the second principal component is taken into account, the two principal components contribute to explain more than 90% of the variance. The rotated solution facilitates the interpretation of the components and provides clear and interesting clustering information about the 32 higher education systems under analysis.     

Rankings of universities in the FRG

The following article examines whether an aggregate comparison (i.e. without discriminating by subject) of university performance in the FRG resulting in a ranking of universities is feasible. First, methods of efficiency measurement are reviewed and possible indicators discussed. In the next part, five indicators are extracted for empirical analysis from a catalogue of ten indicators. Even these have to be used carefully. The last chapter presents results of the analysis. In short, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. Of the five indicators, none represents a single comprehensive measure of research performance. 2. An aggregate measurement of university research performance, if feasible at all, has to be carried out separately for institutes of technology, universities and comprehensive institutions. 3. Even then, a number of serious statistical problems arise in regard to the methods subsequently applied.     

Evaluating quality indicators for patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

BACKGROUND: Several organizations have published evidence-based quality indicators for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, there is variability in the types of indicators presented between organizations and the level of supporting evidence for each of the indicators. A systematic review of the literature and relevant Internet Web sites was performed to identify quality indicators for CAP that have been proposed or recommended by organizations, and each of the indicators was then critically appraised, using a well-defined set of criteria. METHODOLOGY: The MEDLINE, EMBASE, Best Evidence, and Cochrane Systematic Review databases and Internet Web sites were searched for articles and guidelines published between January 1980 and May 2001 to identify quality indicators for CAP and relevant evidence. Experts in the area of health services research were contacted to identify additional sources. A well-defined set of criteria was applied to evaluate each of the quality indicators. RESULTS: The systematic review of the literature and Internet Web sites yielded 44 CAP-specific quality indicators. The critical appraisal of these indicators yielded 16 indicators that were supported by a study that identified an association between quality of care and the process of care or outcome measure, were applied to enough patients to be able to detect clinically meaningful differences, were clinically and/or economically relevant, were measurable in a clinical practice setting, and were precise in their specifications. CONCLUSIONS: Many organizations recommend indicators for CAP. Indicators may serve as measures of clinical performance for clinicians and hospitals, may help in benchmarking, and may ultimately facilitate improvements in quality of care and cost reductions. However, CAP indicators often vary in their meaningfulness, scientific soundness, and interpretability of results. A set of five critical appraisal questions may assist in the evaluation of which quality indicators are most valid.     

Quality is in the eye of the beholder? An evaluation of impact factors and perception of journal prestige in the UK

A number of proxy measures have been used as indicators of journal quality. The most recent and commonly employed are journal impact factors. These measures are somewhat controversial, although they are frequently referred to in establishing the impact of published journal articles. Within psychology, little is known about the relationship between the ‘objective’ impact factors of journals and the ‘subjective’ ratings of prestige and perceived publishing difficulty amongst academics. In order to address this, a cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted in the UK to investigate research activity and academics’ views of journals within three fields of psychology; cognitive, health and social. Impact factors for each journal were correlated with individual academic’s perceptions of prestige and publishing difficulty for each journal. A number of variables pertaining to the individual academic and their place of work were assessed as predictors of these correlation values, including age, gender, institution type, and a measure of departmental research activity. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to perceptions of journal prestige and publishing difficulty, higher education in general and the assessment of research activity within academic institutions.     

Co-evolution between trust in teachers and higher education toward digitally-rich learning environments

Based on a powerful notion that the quality of higher education is crucial for innovation in digital economy and that such quality is subject to a conception of trust in teachers to deliver good education and advancement of information and communication technology (ICT), the dynamism of co-evolution between them was analyzed.Using a unique dataset representing the above system consisting of the rate of trust in teachers providing good education in the context of quality of education and their social status, of the level of higher education and the state of ICT advancement toward digitally-rich learning environments, an empirical numerical analysis of 20 countries was attempted. These countries were classified as advanced, semi-advanced and growing.It was found that while ICT advanced countries have embarked on co-evolution of ICT, higher education and trust, ICT growing countries have not been successful in this due to a vicious cycle between ICT and trust. Finland's educational success can be attributed to co-evolution which corresponds to the emergence of un-captured GDP similarly to the leading edge of an ICT-driven disruptive business model. The paradox of education productivity in ICT growing countries can be attributed to disengagement.It is suggested that steady ICT advancement fully utilizing external resources in digitally-rich learning environments may be essential to ICT growing countries in achieving higher education. On the other hand, continuing transcending innovation to transform learning environments into new digitally-rich learning environments should be maintained in ICT advanced countries.A new approach for constructing the above-described co-evolution in a systematic way was thus explored.     

Engineering education for the future

The output of education and training systems, in terms of both quantity and quality of skills at all levels, is the prime determinant of a country's level of industrial productivity and, hence, its competitiveness. However, the number of British students entering engineering courses is declining at a time when, more than ever, our lives are governed by technology and we are dependent on the ideas and work of engineers. However, that decline is also being observed in Europe, the USA and Japan. An issue of great importance is the engineering degree course itself and many countries, as well as institutions, are now overhauling their education system in order to attract more students to their engineering courses and, equally importantly, to help keep pace with the rapid development of technology and society. In this article, the author discusses the changes which need to be made in the way the UK educates its engineers     

房间内早期反射声方向分布的声强法测量

早期反射声的方向分布,对空间感音质参量的评价具有重要意义。室内音质不仅与反射声到达的时间、能量有关,而且与反射声到达的方向特性具有密切的关系,反映反射声方向特性的客观音质参量在音质评价中得到了越来越多的应用。根据声强测量的互谱法原理,论文提出采用不在同一平面上的任意四只传声器进行瞬时声强的测量,经合成得到各频带早期反射声方向分布特性的方法。该测量方法弱化了常规传声器阵列测试方法中对传输器位置的严格要求,同时也可有效降低由于传输器之间的相位不匹配带来的测量误差,因而更适合于现场测量。运用该测量方法,在消声中对单入射声条件下的入射方向进行了实验测量验证,表明其具有较高的准确性,同时对一实际房间中早期反射声的方向分布进行了测量,给出了直角坐标系中三个相互垂直平面上的反射声能量与入射方向的分布图。测量结果表明该测试方法可应用于实际房间中早期反射声方向分布的测量。     

Influences of local and organizational factors on output indicators

Publication and citation indicators of groups are thought to enhance the quality and legitimacy of science policy decisions. While these indicators might be of value from a policy pont of view, the relation between these cumulative data and the local circumstances that influence the development of scientific knowledge has not been explored extensively. In this paper it is argued that publication and citation patterns related to research units are influenced by local circumstances. Toxicology is chosen as an example because it is directed at solving social problems and relates to local practices. In this paper, output indicatiors of Dutch toxicological research units are related to qualitative information on the strategies of these units. it can be shown that the variation in output and citation indicators can be explained in terms of local variations in context. Such variations in local organizational settings should caution against the application of scientometric studies to measure impact as an indicator of scientific quality.     

Measuring progress toward smoking cessation

Measuring the effect of behavioral interventions is often limited to a single outcome variable for ease of analysis. In the case of low probability outcomes, this narrow focus may often result in Type II errors, reducing the likelihood of detecting an effect of an intervention. The development and use of a scale to measure progress toward the ultimate desired change in behavior might result in greater sensitivity to subtle, but important, effects of interventions. That possibility is illustrated by the development and exploratory testing of a scale meant to measure penetration into the process of change with respect to smoking cessation. The scale consists of a set of outcome indicators that are intended to represent the sequential steps that smokers go through in moving toward and ultimately giving up smoking. Rasch analyses indicate that the scale is coherent and merits further development. It seems likely that similar scales might be developed to assess progress toward change for many other behaviors that seem to require a gradual process of change that can be indexed by items representing discrete steps along the way.     

应用熵学对产品综合质量控制方法的改进

随着社会生产的不断进步,用单一指标反映产品质量的控制生产过程的传统质量控制图已经不能满足现代化生产的需要。某些产品的质量必须用综合指标来反映,比如化工产品和钢铁行业。熵权法是一种在综合考虑了各种因素所提供的信息量的基础上计算一个综合指标的数学方法。基于这样一种客观的综合指标,传统的产品质量控制图能得到进一步的改进,并能对产品生产过程进行更好的控制。     

Exploring the web visibility of world-class universities

With the rapid development of the Internet, there is a need for evaluating the public visibility of universities on the Internet (i.e., web visibility) in terms of its implications for university management, planning, and governance. The data were collected in December 2010 by using Yahoo, one of the most widely used search engines. Specifically, we gathered “Single Mention” data to measure the number of times that each university was mentioned on websites. In addition, we collected network-based data on Single Mentions. We obtained another data set based on the 2010 world university rankings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). We employed several analytical methods for the analysis, including correlations, nonparametric tests (e.g., the Mann–Whitney test), and multidimensional scaling (MDS). The significant positive correlation between university rankings and web visibility suggests that indicators of web visibility can function as a proxy measure of conventional university rankings. Another distinctive implication can be drawn from the pattern of a disparity in web visibility stemming from the linguistic divide, that is, universities in English-speaking countries dominated the central positions in various network structures of web visibility, whereas those in non-English-speaking countries were located in the periphery of these structures. In this regard, further research linking web visibility to university management, planning, and governance is needed.     

Road safety risk evaluation and target setting using data envelopment analysis and its extensions

Currently, comparison between countries in terms of their road safety performance is widely conducted in order to better understand one's own safety situation and to learn from those best-performing countries by indicating practical targets and formulating action programmes. In this respect, crash data such as the number of road fatalities and casualties are mostly investigated. However, the absolute numbers are not directly comparable between countries. Therefore, the concept of risk, which is defined as the ratio of road safety outcomes and some measure of exposure (e.g., the population size, the number of registered vehicles, or distance travelled), is often used in the context of benchmarking. Nevertheless, these risk indicators are not consistent in most cases. In other words, countries may have different evaluation results or ranking positions using different exposure information. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) as a performance measurement technique is investigated to provide an overall perspective on a country's road safety situation, and further assess whether the road safety outcomes registered in a country correspond to the numbers that can be expected based on the level of exposure. In doing so, three model extensions are considered, which are the DEA based road safety model (DEA-RS), the cross-efficiency method, and the categorical DEA model. Using the measures of exposure to risk as the model's input and the number of road fatalities as output, an overall road safety efficiency score is computed for the 27 European Union (EU) countries based on the DEA-RS model, and the ranking of countries in accordance with their cross-efficiency scores is evaluated. Furthermore, after applying clustering analysis to group countries with inherent similarity in their practices, the categorical DEA-RS model is adopted to identify best-performing and underperforming countries in each cluster, as well as the reference sets or benchmarks for those underperforming ones. More importantly, the extent to which each reference set could be learned from is specified, and practical yet challenging targets are given for each underperforming country, which enables policymakers to recognize the gap with those best-performing countries and further develop their own road safety policy.