Undesirable outputs are often produced together with desirable. This joint production of good and bad outputs bring about a difficulty for productivity measurement. Here we introduce a directional distance function and use it as a component in a new productivity index. This index, as an empirical example shows, seems to solve the problem caused by the joint production of good and bad outputs. P...

OBJECTIVE In recent years emphasis has been placed on evaluation studies and the publication of scientific papers in national and international journals. In this regard the publication of scientific papers in journals in the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) database is highly recommended. The evaluation of scientific output via articles in journals indexed in the ISI database will ena...

The lignocellulosic wastes produced in food industries are suitable raw materials for the production of biological products. In this study, the solid state fermentation of Aspergillus flavus on lignocellulosic wastes was evaluated for microbial protein production. The fraction of the full factorial method was applied for experiment design and process optimization. The results analysis was perfo...

There have been different indices identified for desertification. Among these is technogenic desertification index which seems much more efficient. In this study, some of technogenic desertification indices were studied and evaluated. First land use maps of the region were taken from IRS-PAN satellite image and aerial photos analysis. After evaluating the area of different uses, lands that had ...

Background: Phenol is an estrogenic and toxic compound and people are widely exposed to it, in different ways.  OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine  the  negative effects of phenol on the fertility of male mice, by investigating sperm parameters including viability, motility, fertility rates and daily sperm production (DSP). METHODS: A total of 106 adult NIH mice were divided int...

We studied the effects of fatigue of the index finger on indices of force variability in discrete and rhythmic accurate force production tasks performed by the index finger and by all four fingers pressing in parallel. An increase in the variance of the force produced by the fatigued index finger was expected. We hypothesized that the other fingers would also show increased variance of their fo...

Many companies today struggle with fierce demands on efficiency, flexibility and sustainability connected to customization and the introduction of new sustainable products. This increases production complexity, which should be managed through a holistic approach in order to avoid sub-optimization, focus usage and support relevant changes in the production set-up. This paper presents a first ste...

Grain yield and yield components of winter wheat were recorded during 2-year field trials in Southern Bavaria, Germany. The impact of single ear sink size on the efficiency of grain production was studied in plants differing in single ear weight. While total grain yield showed only slight differences between N fertiliser treatments, significant variations were detected in harvest index and N ha...