Measuring efficiency of Tunisian schools in the presence of quasi-fixed inputs: A bootstrap data envelopment analysis approach

The objective of this paper is to measure the efficiency of high schools in Tunisia. We use a statistical data envelopment analysis (DEA)-bootstrap approach with quasi-fixed inputs to estimate the precision of our measure. To do so, we developed a statistical model serving as the foundation of the data generation process (DGP). The DGP is constructed such that we can implement both smooth homogeneous and heterogeneous bootstrap methods. Bootstrap simulations were used to estimate and correct the bias, and to construct confidence intervals for the efficiency measures. The simulation results show that the efficiency measures are subject to sampling variations. The adjusted measure reveals that high schools with residence services would have to give up less than 12.1% of their resources on average to be efficient.     

‘Science to the Glory of God’. The Popular Science Magazine Ibérica and its Coverage of Radioactivity, 1914–1936

This paper provides a first approach to the history of Ibérica, one of the most important popular science magazines published in Spain before the Civil War. Founded in 1914 by members of the Society of Jesus based at the Ebro Observatory, Ibérica reached a weekly circulation of about 10,000 in the mid 1920s, and was instrumental in extending science education in Jesuit education facilities and in developing a “reactionary modernist” culture that embraced Catholicism and modernisation. By focusing on its coverage of radioactivity and the radium industry, the article aims to examine the magazine’s popularising style and ideology, and to determine its role in the debates regarding the cultural value of science in the first decades of twentieth century Spain.     

Influence of a stressing constraint on stiffness and damping functions of a ski simulator's platform motion

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of stress on a previously acquired motor coordination. Following a longitudinal learning experiment, four participants performed oscillations on a ski simulator, either in normal or stressful conditions. The results showed that the amplitude of the oscillations decreased under stress, but no significant effect was seen regarding coordination, suggesting the strong resistance to stress of overlearned behaviour. Nevertheless, for one participant, a transient regression towards a former stage of learning was observed. This result was consistent with the regression hypothesis formulated by Fuchs (1962).