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Become a database boss -and have fun doing it-with this accessible and easy-to-follow guide to Microsoft Access  Databases hold the key to organizing and accessing all your data in one convenient place. And you don't have to be a data science wizard to build, populate, and organize your own. With Microsoft Access For Dummies, you'll learn to use the latest version of Microsoft's Access software to power your database needs.  Need to understand the essentials before diving in? Check out our Basic Training in Part 1 where we teach you how to navigate the Access workspace and explore the foundations of databases.  Ready for more advanced tutorials? Skip right to the sections on Data Management, Queries, or Reporting where we walk you through Access's more sophisticated capabilities. Not sure if you have Access via Office 2021 or Office 365? No worries - this book covers Access now matter how you access it.   The book also shows you how to:  Handle the most common problems that Access users encounter  Import, export, and automatically edit data to populate your next database  Write powerful and accurate queries to find exactly what you're looking for, exactly when you need it  Microsoft Access For Dummies is the perfect resource for anyone expected to understand, use, or administer Access databases at the workplace, classroom, or any other data-driven destination. 

Traditionally, the success of a researcher is assessed by the number of publications he or she publishes in peer-reviewed, indexed, high impact journals. This essential yardstick, often referred to as the impact of a specific researcher, is assessed through the use of various metrics. While researchers may be acquainted with such matrices, many do not know how to use them to enhance their careers. In addition to these metrics, a number of other factors should be taken into consideration to objectively evaluate a scientist's profile as a researcher and academician. Moreover, each metric has its own limitations that need to be considered when selecting an appropriate metric for evaluation. This paper provides a broad overview of the wide array of metrics currently in use in academia and research. Popular metrics are discussed and defined, including traditional metrics and article-level metrics, some of which are applied to researchers for a greater understanding of a particular concept, including varicocele that is the thematic area of this Special Issue of Asian Journal of Andrology. We recommend the combined use of quantitative and qualitative evaluation using judiciously selected metrics for a more objective assessment of scholarly output and research impact.

Purpose – Tourism is an important economic sector in the EU with particular significance for the Mediterranean countries. The aim of the study is to analyze the efficiency and productivity of Mediterranean countries in order to gain an insight into the causes of inefficiency and changes in productivity. Methodology/Design/Approach – The method used is Window Data Envelopment Analysis and Malmquist Productivity Index on the basis of data collected for the period from 2014 to 2021. Technical efficiency (TE) is calculated as well as its main components, the pure technical efficiency (PTE) and the scale efficiency (SE). Productivity is broken down to technical and technological change and its main components. Findings – Due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, PTE, which is influenced by management, technology and external factors, experiences a sharp decline. However, the decomposition of TE (overall efficiency) revealed that prior to the pandemic, the primary source of inefficiency was the inability of the Mediterranean tourism sectors to operate at optimal scale. Productivity fell in all countries between 2019 and 2020, mainly due to a technological decline. Originality of the research – This paper analyses two distinct samples. The initial sample comprises the EU member states, whereas the second sample comprises the Mediterranean countries within the EU.

The main goal of this paper is to shed some light on the pro-cess of deindustrialisation defined as falling share of industry employment in total employment. Estimating the dynamic panel data models, the paper investigates differences in changes in the structure of the economy during the process of deindustrialisation in 26 European Union member states (15 developed and 10 post-communist economies) during the period between 1995 and 2012. The paper highlights the standard or \"natural\" and transition forms of deindustrialisation. In our analysis, we use a one-step system generalized method of moments estimator with robust standard errors, and in contrast to our expectations, the obtained result did not support the initial hypothesis that deindustrialisation in post-communist economies is characterized by factors crucially different from those in developed European countries.

Purpose This study aims to examine the impact of country governance and other potential bank-specific characteristics and macroeconomic condition determinants on bank productivity in the period of 2006–2016. Design/methodology/approach The productivity level of total 167 banks selected from Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore are evaluated using the data envelopment analysis-based Malmquist productivity index method. A panel regression analysis framework based on ordinary least squares, a fixed effect and a random effect models then are used to identify its main determinants. Findings The empirical findings indicate that the total factor productivity changes of Islamic banks is higher than conventional banks. The liquidity and global financial crisis influence both banks’ productivity. Bank size, credit risk, market power, management efficiency and inflation merely influence Islamic banks’ productivity. On the country governance dimensions, voice and accountability are found to positively influence both banks’ productivity. Regulatory quality and rule of law (RL) significantly influences the conventional parts. Political stability and absence of violence, government effectiveness, RL and control of corruption negatively influence the banks’ productivity, but this influence is only significant for the Islamic banks. Originality/value Country governance has received surprisingly little attention in the banking industry over the past few decades. Majority of the studies that examine the effect of governance on bank performance have focused more on the micro governance dimension. Thus, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no study has been done to address the effect of country governance on the productivity of the Islamic and conventional banks.

Data collected and analyzed for 1961-2020 by USDA's Economic Research Service showed that average annual agricultural output growth has slowed to its lowest rate in six decades and is linked to a slowdown in agricultural productivity growth. Total factor productivity (TFP), which measures the overall efficiency with which agricultural inputs are combined to produce output, grew globally at an average annual rate of 1.12 percent in the 2010s, down from 1.99 percent in the 2000s. The slowdown in agricultural output is primarily observed in developing countries, where TFP growth fell by more than half from an average of 2.20 percent in the 2000s to 1.06 percent in the 2010s. A slowdown in productivity growth suggests that producers will need to use more land and apply other agricultural inputs more intensively to maintain growth in agricultural output.

This article analyzes the relation between investment age, measured as the number of years since investment spike, and dynamic productivity growth and its components, which include dynamic technical change, dynamic inefficiency change, and dynamic scale inefficiency change. The empirical application focuses on firm-level data for the Spanish food processing industry covering the period from 1996 to 2011. This investigation of the impact of firms' investment decisions on productivity growth employs a dynamic production framework and analyzes the impact of these decisions on the components of dynamic productivity growth. Our findings show that dynamic productivity growth is negatively affected by investment spikes in both the meat processing and oils and fats industries, and that dynamic inefficiency change initially falls just after the infusion of large investment for oils and fats firms, but then grows as the firms acquire experience with this investment. We further find that investment spikes lead to improvements in dynamic technical change and worsening in dynamic technical inefficiency change in the meat processing industry, while dynamic scale inefficiency change was negatively impacted in both industries.

This article introduces a new unique database, the World Productivity Database (WPD), which contains information on levels and growth of aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) for up to 112 countries, covering the period 1960 to 2000. At its core are numerous measurement methods, variations in functional forms and specifications - including schooling and health - of the production function, constant and variable returns to scale, as well as measures of technical progress and change in technical efficiency. In addition, five labour and four capital stock measures are used to derive a variety of TFP measures. Another significant feature is TFP forecasts for the period of 2001-2010. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Poor people derive most of their income from work; however, there is insufficient understanding of the role of employment and earnings as a linkage between growth and poverty reduction, especially in low income countries. With the objective of providing inputs into the policy discussion on how to enhance poverty reduction through increased employment and earnings for given growth levels, this study explores this linkage in the case of Madagascar using data from the national accounts and household surveys from the years 1999, 2001, and 2005, a period characterized among others by a short but severe crisis which started at the end of 2001 and the subsequent economic rebound. This report is part of a series of studies conducted in the context of the World Bank’s research framework aiming to improve the understanding of the linkages among growth, labor, and poverty reduction.

The response of wheat to the application of different rates of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and sulfur (S) under balanced fertilization on different soil types and agroecologies has not been well studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to (1) determine soil-specific responses of wheat to N, P, K, and S under balanced fertilization; (2) quantify agroecology-specific N, P, K, and S response of wheat under balanced fertilization; and (3) determine nutrient use efficiency of wheat on different soil types under balanced fertilization. Trials were conducted on farmers’ fields across 24 locations covering 4 soil types and 5 agroecological zones (AEZs) from 2013 to 2017. The mean grain yields of wheat significantly varied with applied N and P fertilizer rates with soil types and AEZs. With balanced application of other nutrients, the optimum N rates for wheat were 138 kg N ha−1 on Cambisols and Luvisols, 92 kg N ha−1 on Vertisols, and 176 kg N ha−1 on Nitisols, while the optimum P rate was 20 kg P ha−1 on Cambisols and Vertisols. The nutrient dose–response curve did not reveal consistent pattern for K and S applications on all soil types. The agronomic efficiency of wheat decreased with increasing rates N and P on all soil types. The highest agronomic efficiency of N (15.8 kg grain kg−1 applied N) was recorded with application of 92 kg N ha−1 on Vertisols, while the highest agronomic efficiency of P (49 kg grain kg−1 applied P) was achieved with application of 10 kg P ha−1 on Cambisols. We conclude that applications of 92–138 kg N ha−1, 20 kg P ha−1, 18 kg K ha−1, and 10 kg S ha−1 under balanced application of zinc and boron could be recommended depending on soil type for wheat production in the study areas.