No abstract

No abstract

Abstract:The growing economic and environmental importance of managing water resources at a global level also entails greater efforts and interest in improving the functioning and efficiency of the increasingly more numerous wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). In this context, this study analyzes the efficiency of a uniform sample of plants of this type located in the region of Valencia (Spain). The type of efficiency measure used for this (conditional order-m efficiency) allows continuous and discrete contextual variables to be directly involved in the analysis and enables the assessment of their statistical significance and effect (positive or negative). The main findings of the study showed that the quality of the influent water and also the size and age of the plants had a significant influence on their efficiency levels. In particular, as regards the effect of such variables, the findings pointed to the existence of an inverse relationship between the quality of the influent water and the efficiency of the WWTPs. Also, a lower annual volume of treated water and more modern installations showed a positive influence. Additionally, the average efficiency levels observed turned out to be higher than those reported in previous studies.

Please cite this article as: Fuentes, R., Lillo-Bañuls, A., Smoothed bootstrap Malmquist Index based on DEA model to compute productivity of tax offices, Expert Systems with Applications (2014), doi: http://dx

No abstract

Abstract:The application of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) to higher education is an essential element in the improvement of open and flexible teaching-learning. This is particularly important for students of Tourism, a sector in which the relationship with technological processes and their every-day use is increasing. This article describes the experience of teaching staff involved in this initiative based on the information provided by lecturers, a student quantitative survey and qualitative aspects in order to obtain the start profile of the tourism students, including their family background, gender differences and the attitude of students towards use of new technologies as an educational tool. This is a previous version of the article published in Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism. 2016, 16(2): 81-100. doi:10.1080/15313220.2015 2 1.-INTRODUCTIONThe key role that education and training plays in the competitive strategies of the tourism sector is an idea widely accepted by the various agents that make up the tourism industry. The efficiency with which new management methods are incorporated, or with which new technologies are employed in tourism companies, also requires more highly educated workers (Lillo-Bañuls, 2009).This study analyses the educational technological tools introduced and the main results of this experience. In particular, it describes the experience of how teaching staff introduced this innovation, basically consisting of creating a wiki (WikiTur) and a blog (BlogTur) through which students were able to contribute to the different topics covered in the subject "An Introduction to Economics", taught as part of the Tourism Diploma course. Based on the information provided by the teaching staff, and data obtained through a student survey, the results of this experience were analysed in order to identify the positive aspects and to define possible changes that could improve future use of technological resources in teaching this subject.A first step towards achieving the teaching objectives related to new Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) was the introduction of students' assiduous use of a wiki (WikiTur) and a blog (BlogTur) to which they contributed their views on the different topics covered by the Economics 3 subject as part of the Tourism Degree course. The main purpose of selecting a wiki and a blog as technological educational tools was that the teacher could provide the specific controlled link and also allow pages to be edited by the multiple participants sharing the content. Furthermore, students were already aware of such tools and were familiar with them.This study examines the relations between technology and education and the need to incorporate different educational technological innovations into the teaching of economics within the Tourism Degree. The teaching-learning process carried out with the wiki and the blog is also described.This educational research analyses the results of the initial experience set up by the group of lecturers i...

No abstract

No abstract