Using benchmarks for radiation testing of microprocessors and FPGAs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Quinn, Heather; Robinson, William H.; Rech, Paolo

Performance benchmarks have been used over the years to compare different systems. These benchmarks can be useful for researchers trying to determine how changes to the technology, architecture, or compiler affect the system's performance. No such standard exists for systems deployed into high radiation environments, making it difficult to assess whether changes in the fabrication process, circuitry, architecture, or software affect reliability or radiation sensitivity. In this paper, we propose a benchmark suite for high-reliability systems that is designed for field-programmable gate arrays and microprocessors. As a result, we describe the development process and report neutron test data for themore » hardware and software benchmarks.« less

Using benchmarks for radiation testing of microprocessors and FPGAs

DOE PAGES

Quinn, Heather; Robinson, William H.; Rech, Paolo; ...

2015-12-17

Performance benchmarks have been used over the years to compare different systems. These benchmarks can be useful for researchers trying to determine how changes to the technology, architecture, or compiler affect the system's performance. No such standard exists for systems deployed into high radiation environments, making it difficult to assess whether changes in the fabrication process, circuitry, architecture, or software affect reliability or radiation sensitivity. In this paper, we propose a benchmark suite for high-reliability systems that is designed for field-programmable gate arrays and microprocessors. As a result, we describe the development process and report neutron test data for themore » hardware and software benchmarks.« less

Benchmarking Diagnostic Algorithms on an Electrical Power System Testbed

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurtoglu, Tolga; Narasimhan, Sriram; Poll, Scott; Garcia, David; Wright, Stephanie

2009-01-01

Diagnostic algorithms (DAs) are key to enabling automated health management. These algorithms are designed to detect and isolate anomalies of either a component or the whole system based on observations received from sensors. In recent years a wide range of algorithms, both model-based and data-driven, have been developed to increase autonomy and improve system reliability and affordability. However, the lack of support to perform systematic benchmarking of these algorithms continues to create barriers for effective development and deployment of diagnostic technologies. In this paper, we present our efforts to benchmark a set of DAs on a common platform using a framework that was developed to evaluate and compare various performance metrics for diagnostic technologies. The diagnosed system is an electrical power system, namely the Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Testbed (ADAPT) developed and located at the NASA Ames Research Center. The paper presents the fundamentals of the benchmarking framework, the ADAPT system, description of faults and data sets, the metrics used for evaluation, and an in-depth analysis of benchmarking results obtained from testing ten diagnostic algorithms on the ADAPT electrical power system testbed.

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Next Intelligent Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

del Pobil, Angel; Madhavan, Raj; Bonsignorio, Fabio

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems presents research dedicated to the subject of performance evaluation and benchmarking of intelligent systems by drawing from the experiences and insights of leading experts gained both through theoretical development and practical implementation of intelligent systems in a variety of diverse application domains. This contributed volume offers a detailed and coherent picture of state-of-the-art, recent developments, and further research areas in intelligent systems. The chapters cover a broad range of applications, such as assistive robotics, planetary surveying, urban search and rescue, and line tracking for automotive assembly. Subsystems or components described in this bookmore » include human-robot interaction, multi-robot coordination, communications, perception, and mapping. Chapters are also devoted to simulation support and open source software for cognitive platforms, providing examples of the type of enabling underlying technologies that can help intelligent systems to propagate and increase in capabilities. Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems serves as a professional reference for researchers and practitioners in the field. This book is also applicable to advanced courses for graduate level students and robotics professionals in a wide range of engineering and related disciplines including computer science, automotive, healthcare, manufacturing, and service robotics.« less

Building Bridges Between Geoscience and Data Science through Benchmark Data Sets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thompson, D. R.; Ebert-Uphoff, I.; Demir, I.; Gel, Y.; Hill, M. C.; Karpatne, A.; Güereque, M.; Kumar, V.; Cabral, E.; Smyth, P.

2017-12-01

The changing nature of observational field data demands richer and more meaningful collaboration between data scientists and geoscientists. Thus, among other efforts, the Working Group on Case Studies of the NSF-funded RCN on Intelligent Systems Research To Support Geosciences (IS-GEO) is developing a framework to strengthen such collaborations through the creation of benchmark datasets. Benchmark datasets provide an interface between disciplines without requiring extensive background knowledge. The goals are to create (1) a means for two-way communication between geoscience and data science researchers; (2) new collaborations, which may lead to new approaches for data analysis in the geosciences; and (3) a public, permanent repository of complex data sets, representative of geoscience problems, useful to coordinate efforts in research and education. The group identified 10 key elements and characteristics for ideal benchmarks. High impact: A problem with high potential impact. Active research area: A group of geoscientists should be eager to continue working on the topic. Challenge: The problem should be challenging for data scientists. Data science generality and versatility: It should stimulate development of new general and versatile data science methods. Rich information content: Ideally the data set provides stimulus for analysis at many different levels. Hierarchical problem statement: A hierarchy of suggested analysis tasks, from relatively straightforward to open-ended tasks. Means for evaluating success: Data scientists and geoscientists need means to evaluate whether the algorithms are successful and achieve intended purpose. Quick start guide: Introduction for data scientists on how to easily read the data to enable rapid initial data exploration. Geoscience context: Summary for data scientists of the specific data collection process, instruments used, any pre-processing and the science questions to be answered. Citability: A suitable identifier to facilitate tracking the use of the benchmark later on, e.g. allowing search engines to find all research papers using it. A first sample benchmark developed in collaboration with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) deals with the automatic analysis of imaging spectrometer data to detect significant methane sources in the atmosphere.

Systematic Benchmarking of Diagnostic Technologies for an Electrical Power System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kurtoglu, Tolga; Jensen, David; Poll, Scott

2009-01-01

Automated health management is a critical functionality for complex aerospace systems. A wide variety of diagnostic algorithms have been developed to address this technical challenge. Unfortunately, the lack of support to perform large-scale V&V (verification and validation) of diagnostic technologies continues to create barriers to effective development and deployment of such algorithms for aerospace vehicles. In this paper, we describe a formal framework developed for benchmarking of diagnostic technologies. The diagnosed system is the Advanced Diagnostics and Prognostics Testbed (ADAPT), a real-world electrical power system (EPS), developed and maintained at the NASA Ames Research Center. The benchmarking approach provides a systematic, empirical basis to the testing of diagnostic software and is used to provide performance assessment for different diagnostic algorithms.

Integral Full Core Multi-Physics PWR Benchmark with Measured Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Forget, Benoit; Smith, Kord; Kumar, Shikhar

In recent years, the importance of modeling and simulation has been highlighted extensively in the DOE research portfolio with concrete examples in nuclear engineering with the CASL and NEAMS programs. These research efforts and similar efforts worldwide aim at the development of high-fidelity multi-physics analysis tools for the simulation of current and next-generation nuclear power reactors. Like all analysis tools, verification and validation is essential to guarantee proper functioning of the software and methods employed. The current approach relies mainly on the validation of single physic phenomena (e.g. critical experiment, flow loops, etc.) and there is a lack of relevantmore » multiphysics benchmark measurements that are necessary to validate high-fidelity methods being developed today. This work introduces a new multi-cycle full-core Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) depletion benchmark based on two operational cycles of a commercial nuclear power plant that provides a detailed description of fuel assemblies, burnable absorbers, in-core fission detectors, core loading and re-loading patterns. This benchmark enables analysts to develop extremely detailed reactor core models that can be used for testing and validation of coupled neutron transport, thermal-hydraulics, and fuel isotopic depletion. The benchmark also provides measured reactor data for Hot Zero Power (HZP) physics tests, boron letdown curves, and three-dimensional in-core flux maps from 58 instrumented assemblies. The benchmark description is now available online and has been used by many groups. However, much work remains to be done on the quantification of uncertainties and modeling sensitivities. This work aims to address these deficiencies and make this benchmark a true non-proprietary international benchmark for the validation of high-fidelity tools. This report details the BEAVRS uncertainty quantification for the first two cycle of operations and serves as the final report of the project.« less

Multirate Flutter Suppression System Design for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology Wing. Part 2; Methodology Application Software Toolbox

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mason, Gregory S.; Berg, Martin C.; Mukhopadhyay, Vivek

2002-01-01

To study the effectiveness of various control system design methodologies, the NASA Langley Research Center initiated the Benchmark Active Controls Project. In this project, the various methodologies were applied to design a flutter suppression system for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology (BACT) Wing. This report describes the user's manual and software toolbox developed at the University of Washington to design a multirate flutter suppression control law for the BACT wing.

Designing a Supply Chain Management Academic Curriculum Using QFD and Benchmarking

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonzalez, Marvin E.; Quesada, Gioconda; Gourdin, Kent; Hartley, Mark

2008-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to utilize quality function deployment (QFD), Benchmarking analyses and other innovative quality tools to develop a new customer-centered undergraduate curriculum in supply chain management (SCM). Design/methodology/approach: The researchers used potential employers as the source for data collection. Then,…

ARL Physics Web Pages: An Evaluation by Established, Transitional and Emerging Benchmarks.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duffy, Jane C.

2002-01-01

Provides an overview of characteristics among Association of Research Libraries (ARL) physics Web pages. Examines current academic Web literature and from that develops six benchmarks to measure physics Web pages: ease of navigation; logic of presentation; representation of all forms of information; engagement of the discipline; interactivity of…

Recommendations for Benchmarking Web Site Usage among Academic Libraries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hightower, Christy; Sih, Julie; Tilghman, Adam

1998-01-01

To help library directors and Web developers create a benchmarking program to compare statistics of academic Web sites, the authors analyzed the Web server log files of 14 university science and engineering libraries. Recommends a centralized voluntary reporting structure coordinated by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and a method for…

Research on computer systems benchmarking

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, Alan Jay (Principal Investigator)

1996-01-01

This grant addresses the topic of research on computer systems benchmarking and is more generally concerned with performance issues in computer systems. This report reviews work in those areas during the period of NASA support under this grant. The bulk of the work performed concerned benchmarking and analysis of CPUs, compilers, caches, and benchmark programs. The first part of this work concerned the issue of benchmark performance prediction. A new approach to benchmarking and machine characterization was reported, using a machine characterizer that measures the performance of a given system in terms of a Fortran abstract machine. Another report focused on analyzing compiler performance. The performance impact of optimization in the context of our methodology for CPU performance characterization was based on the abstract machine model. Benchmark programs are analyzed in another paper. A machine-independent model of program execution was developed to characterize both machine performance and program execution. By merging these machine and program characterizations, execution time can be estimated for arbitrary machine/program combinations. The work was continued into the domain of parallel and vector machines, including the issue of caches in vector processors and multiprocessors. All of the afore-mentioned accomplishments are more specifically summarized in this report, as well as those smaller in magnitude supported by this grant.

ELAPSE - NASA AMES LISP AND ADA BENCHMARK SUITE: EFFICIENCY OF LISP AND ADA PROCESSING - A SYSTEM EVALUATION

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davis, G. J.

1994-01-01

One area of research of the Information Sciences Division at NASA Ames Research Center is devoted to the analysis and enhancement of processors and advanced computer architectures, specifically in support of automation and robotic systems. To compare systems' abilities to efficiently process Lisp and Ada, scientists at Ames Research Center have developed a suite of non-parallel benchmarks called ELAPSE. The benchmark suite was designed to test a single computer's efficiency as well as alternate machine comparisons on Lisp, and/or Ada languages. ELAPSE tests the efficiency with which a machine can execute the various routines in each environment. The sample routines are based on numeric and symbolic manipulations and include two-dimensional fast Fourier transformations, Cholesky decomposition and substitution, Gaussian elimination, high-level data processing, and symbol-list references. Also included is a routine based on a Bayesian classification program sorting data into optimized groups. The ELAPSE benchmarks are available for any computer with a validated Ada compiler and/or Common Lisp system. Of the 18 routines that comprise ELAPSE, provided within this package are 14 developed or translated at Ames. The others are readily available through literature. The benchmark that requires the most memory is CHOLESKY.ADA. Under VAX/VMS, CHOLESKY.ADA requires 760K of main memory. ELAPSE is available on either two 5.25 inch 360K MS-DOS format diskettes (standard distribution) or a 9-track 1600 BPI ASCII CARD IMAGE format magnetic tape. The contents of the diskettes are compressed using the PKWARE archiving tools. The utility to unarchive the files, PKUNZIP.EXE, is included. The ELAPSE benchmarks were written in 1990. VAX and VMS are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation. MS-DOS is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

A comprehensive space management model for facilitating programmatic research.

PubMed

Libecap, Ann; Wormsley, Steven; Cress, Anne; Matthews, Mary; Souza, Angie; Joiner, Keith A

2008-03-01

In FY04, the authors developed and implemented models to manage existing and incremental research space, and to facilitate programmatic research, at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Benchmarks were set for recovery of total sponsored research dollars and for facilities and administrative (F&A) dollars/net square foot (nsf) of space, based on college-wide metrics. Benchmarks were applied to units (departments, centers), rather than to individual faculty. Performance relative to the benchmark was assessed using three-year moving averages, and applied to existing blocks of space. Space was recaptured or allocated, in all cases to programmatic themes, using uniform policies. F&A revenues were returned on the basis of performance relative to a benchmark. During the first two years after implementation of the model (FY05 and FY06), and for the 24 units occupying research space, median total sponsored research revenue/nsf increased from $393.96 to $474.46 (20.4%), and median F&A revenue/nsf increased from $57.42 to $91.86 (60.0%). These large increases in median values are driven primarily from redistribution and recapturing of space. Recruiting policies for unit heads were developed to facilitate joint hires among units. In combination, these policies created a comprehensive space management model for facilitating programmatic research. Although challenges remain in implementing the programmatic recruitment strategy, and selected modifications to the original policy were introduced later (e.g., research space for newly recruited junior faculty is now exempted from calculations for three years), overall, the models have created a climate of transparency that is now accepted and that allows efficient and equitable management of research space.

Performance Comparison of NAMI DANCE and FLOW-3D® Models in Tsunami Propagation, Inundation and Currents using NTHMP Benchmark Problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velioglu Sogut, Deniz; Yalciner, Ahmet Cevdet

2018-06-01

Field observations provide valuable data regarding nearshore tsunami impact, yet only in inundation areas where tsunami waves have already flooded. Therefore, tsunami modeling is essential to understand tsunami behavior and prepare for tsunami inundation. It is necessary that all numerical models used in tsunami emergency planning be subject to benchmark tests for validation and verification. This study focuses on two numerical codes, NAMI DANCE and FLOW-3D®, for validation and performance comparison. NAMI DANCE is an in-house tsunami numerical model developed by the Ocean Engineering Research Center of Middle East Technical University, Turkey and Laboratory of Special Research Bureau for Automation of Marine Research, Russia. FLOW-3D® is a general purpose computational fluid dynamics software, which was developed by scientists who pioneered in the design of the Volume-of-Fluid technique. The codes are validated and their performances are compared via analytical, experimental and field benchmark problems, which are documented in the ``Proceedings and Results of the 2011 National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) Model Benchmarking Workshop'' and the ``Proceedings and Results of the NTHMP 2015 Tsunami Current Modeling Workshop". The variations between the numerical solutions of these two models are evaluated through statistical error analysis.

Benchmarking to improve the quality of cystic fibrosis care.

PubMed

Schechter, Michael S

2012-11-01

Benchmarking involves the ascertainment of healthcare programs with most favorable outcomes as a means to identify and spread effective strategies for delivery of care. The recent interest in the development of patient registries for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) has been fueled in part by an interest in using them to facilitate benchmarking. This review summarizes reports of how benchmarking has been operationalized in attempts to improve CF care. Although certain goals of benchmarking can be accomplished with an exclusive focus on registry data analysis, benchmarking programs in Germany and the United States have supplemented these data analyses with exploratory interactions and discussions to better understand successful approaches to care and encourage their spread throughout the care network. Benchmarking allows the discovery and facilitates the spread of effective approaches to care. It provides a pragmatic alternative to traditional research methods such as randomized controlled trials, providing insights into methods that optimize delivery of care and allowing judgments about the relative effectiveness of different therapeutic approaches.

Heterogeneous Distributed Computing for Computational Aerosciences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sunderam, Vaidy S.

1998-01-01

The research supported under this award focuses on heterogeneous distributed computing for high-performance applications, with particular emphasis on computational aerosciences. The overall goal of this project was to and investigate issues in, and develop solutions to, efficient execution of computational aeroscience codes in heterogeneous concurrent computing environments. In particular, we worked in the context of the PVM[1] system and, subsequent to detailed conversion efforts and performance benchmarking, devising novel techniques to increase the efficacy of heterogeneous networked environments for computational aerosciences. Our work has been based upon the NAS Parallel Benchmark suite, but has also recently expanded in scope to include the NAS I/O benchmarks as specified in the NHT-1 document. In this report we summarize our research accomplishments under the auspices of the grant.

Qualitative study to develop processes and tools for the assessment and tracking of African institutions’ capacity for operational health research

PubMed Central

Cole, Donald C; Gaye, Oumar; Mmbaga, Blandina T; Mwapasa, Victor; Tagbor, Harry

2017-01-01

Objectives Research is key to achieving global development goals. Our objectives were to develop and test an evidence-informed process for assessing health research management and support systems (RMSS) in four African universities and for tracking interventions to address capacity gaps. Setting Four African universities. Participants 83 university staff and students from 11 cadres. Intervention/methods A literature-informed ‘benchmark’ was developed and used to itemise all components of a university’s health RMSS. Data on all components were collected during site visits to four African universities using interview guides, document reviews and facilities observation guides. Gaps in RMSS capacity were identified against the benchmark and institutional action plans developed to remedy gaps. Progress against indicators was tracked over 15 months and common challenges and successes identified. Results Common gaps in operational health research capacity included no accessible research strategy, a lack of research e-tracking capability and inadequate quality checks for proposal submissions and contracts. Feedback indicated that the capacity assessment was comprehensive and generated practical actions, several of which were no-cost. Regular follow-up helped to maintain focus on activities to strengthen health research capacity in the face of challenges. Conclusions Identification of each institutions’ strengths and weaknesses against an evidence-informed benchmark enabled them to identify gaps in in their operational health research systems, to develop prioritised action plans, to justify resource requests to fulfil the plans and to track progress in strengthening RMSS. Use of a standard benchmark, approach and tools enabled comparisons across institutions which has accelerated production of evidence about the science of research capacity strengthening. The tools could be used by institutions seeking to understand their strengths and to address gaps in research capacity. Research capacity gaps that were common to several institutions could be a ‘smart’ investment for governments and health research funders. PMID:28877945

Benchmarking specialty hospitals, a scoping review on theory and practice.

PubMed

Wind, A; van Harten, W H

2017-04-04

Although benchmarking may improve hospital processes, research on this subject is limited. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of publications on benchmarking in specialty hospitals and a description of study characteristics. We searched PubMed and EMBASE for articles published in English in the last 10 years. Eligible articles described a project stating benchmarking as its objective and involving a specialty hospital or specific patient category; or those dealing with the methodology or evaluation of benchmarking. Of 1,817 articles identified in total, 24 were included in the study. Articles were categorized into: pathway benchmarking, institutional benchmarking, articles on benchmark methodology or -evaluation and benchmarking using a patient registry. There was a large degree of variability:(1) study designs were mostly descriptive and retrospective; (2) not all studies generated and showed data in sufficient detail; and (3) there was variety in whether a benchmarking model was just described or if quality improvement as a consequence of the benchmark was reported upon. Most of the studies that described a benchmark model described the use of benchmarking partners from the same industry category, sometimes from all over the world. Benchmarking seems to be more developed in eye hospitals, emergency departments and oncology specialty hospitals. Some studies showed promising improvement effects. However, the majority of the articles lacked a structured design, and did not report on benchmark outcomes. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of benchmarking to improve quality in specialty hospitals, robust and structured designs are needed including a follow up to check whether the benchmark study has led to improvements.

Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. Results We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. Conclusion We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption. PMID:24568600

Benchmarking infrastructure for mutation text mining.

PubMed

Klein, Artjom; Riazanov, Alexandre; Hindle, Matthew M; Baker, Christopher Jo

2014-02-25

Experimental research on the automatic extraction of information about mutations from texts is greatly hindered by the lack of consensus evaluation infrastructure for the testing and benchmarking of mutation text mining systems. We propose a community-oriented annotation and benchmarking infrastructure to support development, testing, benchmarking, and comparison of mutation text mining systems. The design is based on semantic standards, where RDF is used to represent annotations, an OWL ontology provides an extensible schema for the data and SPARQL is used to compute various performance metrics, so that in many cases no programming is needed to analyze results from a text mining system. While large benchmark corpora for biological entity and relation extraction are focused mostly on genes, proteins, diseases, and species, our benchmarking infrastructure fills the gap for mutation information. The core infrastructure comprises (1) an ontology for modelling annotations, (2) SPARQL queries for computing performance metrics, and (3) a sizeable collection of manually curated documents, that can support mutation grounding and mutation impact extraction experiments. We have developed the principal infrastructure for the benchmarking of mutation text mining tasks. The use of RDF and OWL as the representation for corpora ensures extensibility. The infrastructure is suitable for out-of-the-box use in several important scenarios and is ready, in its current state, for initial community adoption.

Towards evidence-based computational statistics: lessons from clinical research on the role and design of real-data benchmark studies.

PubMed

Boulesteix, Anne-Laure; Wilson, Rory; Hapfelmeier, Alexander

2017-09-09

The goal of medical research is to develop interventions that are in some sense superior, with respect to patient outcome, to interventions currently in use. Similarly, the goal of research in methodological computational statistics is to develop data analysis tools that are themselves superior to the existing tools. The methodology of the evaluation of medical interventions continues to be discussed extensively in the literature and it is now well accepted that medicine should be at least partly "evidence-based". Although we statisticians are convinced of the importance of unbiased, well-thought-out study designs and evidence-based approaches in the context of clinical research, we tend to ignore these principles when designing our own studies for evaluating statistical methods in the context of our methodological research. In this paper, we draw an analogy between clinical trials and real-data-based benchmarking experiments in methodological statistical science, with datasets playing the role of patients and methods playing the role of medical interventions. Through this analogy, we suggest directions for improvement in the design and interpretation of studies which use real data to evaluate statistical methods, in particular with respect to dataset inclusion criteria and the reduction of various forms of bias. More generally, we discuss the concept of "evidence-based" statistical research, its limitations and its impact on the design and interpretation of real-data-based benchmark experiments. We suggest that benchmark studies-a method of assessment of statistical methods using real-world datasets-might benefit from adopting (some) concepts from evidence-based medicine towards the goal of more evidence-based statistical research.

Passivity-based Robust Control of Aerospace Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kelkar, Atul G.; Joshi, Suresh M. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

This report provides a brief summary of the research work performed over the duration of the cooperative research agreement between NASA Langley Research Center and Kansas State University. The cooperative agreement which was originally for the duration the three years was extended by another year through no-cost extension in order to accomplish the goals of the project. The main objective of the research was to develop passivity-based robust control methodology for passive and non-passive aerospace systems. The focus of the first-year's research was limited to the investigation of passivity-based methods for the robust control of Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) single-input single-output (SISO), open-loop stable, minimum-phase non-passive systems. The second year's focus was mainly on extending the passivity-based methodology to a larger class of non-passive LTI systems which includes unstable and nonminimum phase SISO systems. For LTI non-passive systems, five different passification. methods were developed. The primary effort during the years three and four was on the development of passification methodology for MIMO systems, development of methods for checking robustness of passification, and developing synthesis techniques for passifying compensators. For passive LTI systems optimal synthesis procedure was also developed for the design of constant-gain positive real controllers. For nonlinear passive systems, numerical optimization-based technique was developed for the synthesis of constant as well as time-varying gain positive-real controllers. The passivity-based control design methodology developed during the duration of this project was demonstrated by its application to various benchmark examples. These example systems included longitudinal model of an F-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) for pitch axis control, NASA's supersonic transport wind tunnel model, ACC benchmark model, 1-D acoustic duct model, piezo-actuated flexible link model, and NASA's Benchmark Active Controls Technology (BACT) Wing model. Some of the stability results for linear passive systems were also extended to nonlinear passive systems. Several publications and conference presentations resulted from this research.

A high-fidelity airbus benchmark for system fault detection and isolation and flight control law clearance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goupil, Ph.; Puyou, G.

2013-12-01

This paper presents a high-fidelity generic twin engine civil aircraft model developed by Airbus for advanced flight control system research. The main features of this benchmark are described to make the reader aware of the model complexity and representativeness. It is a complete representation including the nonlinear rigid-body aircraft model with a full set of control surfaces, actuator models, sensor models, flight control laws (FCL), and pilot inputs. Two applications of this benchmark in the framework of European projects are presented: FCL clearance using optimization and advanced fault detection and diagnosis (FDD).

PDS: A Performance Database Server

DOE PAGES

Berry, Michael W.; Dongarra, Jack J.; Larose, Brian H.; ...

1994-01-01

The process of gathering, archiving, and distributing computer benchmark data is a cumbersome task usually performed by computer users and vendors with little coordination. Most important, there is no publicly available central depository of performance data for all ranges of machines from personal computers to supercomputers. We present an Internet-accessible performance database server (PDS) that can be used to extract current benchmark data and literature. As an extension to the X-Windows-based user interface (Xnetlib) to the Netlib archival system, PDS provides an on-line catalog of public domain computer benchmarks such as the LINPACK benchmark, Perfect benchmarks, and the NAS parallelmore » benchmarks. PDS does not reformat or present the benchmark data in any way that conflicts with the original methodology of any particular benchmark; it is thereby devoid of any subjective interpretations of machine performance. We believe that all branches (research laboratories, academia, and industry) of the general computing community can use this facility to archive performance metrics and make them readily available to the public. PDS can provide a more manageable approach to the development and support of a large dynamic database of published performance metrics.« less

Benchmarking Strategies for Measuring the Quality of Healthcare: Problems and Prospects

PubMed Central

Lovaglio, Pietro Giorgio

2012-01-01

Over the last few years, increasing attention has been directed toward the problems inherent to measuring the quality of healthcare and implementing benchmarking strategies. Besides offering accreditation and certification processes, recent approaches measure the performance of healthcare institutions in order to evaluate their effectiveness, defined as the capacity to provide treatment that modifies and improves the patient's state of health. This paper, dealing with hospital effectiveness, focuses on research methods for effectiveness analyses within a strategy comparing different healthcare institutions. The paper, after having introduced readers to the principle debates on benchmarking strategies, which depend on the perspective and type of indicators used, focuses on the methodological problems related to performing consistent benchmarking analyses. Particularly, statistical methods suitable for controlling case-mix, analyzing aggregate data, rare events, and continuous outcomes measured with error are examined. Specific challenges of benchmarking strategies, such as the risk of risk adjustment (case-mix fallacy, underreporting, risk of comparing noncomparable hospitals), selection bias, and possible strategies for the development of consistent benchmarking analyses, are discussed. Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility of the illustrated benchmarking strategies, an application focused on determining regional benchmarks for patient satisfaction (using 2009 Lombardy Region Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) is proposed. PMID:22666140

Benchmarking strategies for measuring the quality of healthcare: problems and prospects.

PubMed

Lovaglio, Pietro Giorgio

2012-01-01

Over the last few years, increasing attention has been directed toward the problems inherent to measuring the quality of healthcare and implementing benchmarking strategies. Besides offering accreditation and certification processes, recent approaches measure the performance of healthcare institutions in order to evaluate their effectiveness, defined as the capacity to provide treatment that modifies and improves the patient's state of health. This paper, dealing with hospital effectiveness, focuses on research methods for effectiveness analyses within a strategy comparing different healthcare institutions. The paper, after having introduced readers to the principle debates on benchmarking strategies, which depend on the perspective and type of indicators used, focuses on the methodological problems related to performing consistent benchmarking analyses. Particularly, statistical methods suitable for controlling case-mix, analyzing aggregate data, rare events, and continuous outcomes measured with error are examined. Specific challenges of benchmarking strategies, such as the risk of risk adjustment (case-mix fallacy, underreporting, risk of comparing noncomparable hospitals), selection bias, and possible strategies for the development of consistent benchmarking analyses, are discussed. Finally, to demonstrate the feasibility of the illustrated benchmarking strategies, an application focused on determining regional benchmarks for patient satisfaction (using 2009 Lombardy Region Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) is proposed.

Develop applications based on android: Teacher Engagement Control of Health (TECH)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sasmoko; Manalu, S. R.; Widhoyoko, S. A.; Indrianti, Y.; Suparto

2018-03-01

Physical and psychological condition of teachers is very important because it helped determine the realization of a positive school climate and productive so that they can run their profession optimally. This research is an advanced research on the design of ITEI application that able to see the profile of teacher’s engagement in Indonesia and to optimize the condition is needed an application that can detect the health of teachers both physically and psychologically. The research method used is the neuroresearch method combined with the development of IT system design for TECH which includes server design, database and android TECH application display. The study yielded 1) mental health benchmarks, 2) physical health benchmarks, and 3) the design of Android Application for Teacher Engagement Control of Health (TECH).

Benchmarking biology research organizations using a new, dedicated tool.

PubMed

van Harten, Willem H; van Bokhorst, Leonard; van Luenen, Henri G A M

2010-02-01

International competition forces fundamental research organizations to assess their relative performance. We present a benchmark tool for scientific research organizations where, contrary to existing models, the group leader is placed in a central position within the organization. We used it in a pilot benchmark study involving six research institutions. Our study shows that data collection and data comparison based on this new tool can be achieved. It proved possible to compare relative performance and organizational characteristics and to generate suggestions for improvement for most participants. However, strict definitions of the parameters used for the benchmark and a thorough insight into the organization of each of the benchmark partners is required to produce comparable data and draw firm conclusions.

77 FR 46855 - Small Business Technology Transfer Program Policy Directive

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-08-06

... awards and commercializing their research. As a result, these benchmarks will only apply to those Phase I... Research and Development Enhancement Act of 1992 (SBRDEA), Public Law 102-564 (codified at 15 U.S.C. 638... business concerns (SBCs) and Research Institutions through Federally-funded research or research and...

Toward benchmarking in catalysis science: Best practices, challenges, and opportunities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bligaard, Thomas; Bullock, R. Morris; Campbell, Charles T.

Benchmarking is a community-based and (preferably) community-driven activity involving consensus-based decisions on how to make reproducible, fair, and relevant assessments. In catalysis science, important catalyst performance metrics include activity, selectivity, and the deactivation profile, which enable comparisons between new and standard catalysts. Benchmarking also requires careful documentation, archiving, and sharing of methods and measurements, to ensure that the full value of research data can be realized. Beyond these goals, benchmarking presents unique opportunities to advance and accelerate understanding of complex reaction systems by combining and comparing experimental information from multiple, in situ and operando techniques with theoretical insights derived frommore » calculations characterizing model systems. This Perspective describes the origins and uses of benchmarking and its applications in computational catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, molecular catalysis, and electrocatalysis. As a result, it also discusses opportunities and challenges for future developments in these fields.« less

Toward benchmarking in catalysis science: Best practices, challenges, and opportunities

DOE PAGES

Bligaard, Thomas; Bullock, R. Morris; Campbell, Charles T.; ...

2016-03-07

Benchmarking is a community-based and (preferably) community-driven activity involving consensus-based decisions on how to make reproducible, fair, and relevant assessments. In catalysis science, important catalyst performance metrics include activity, selectivity, and the deactivation profile, which enable comparisons between new and standard catalysts. Benchmarking also requires careful documentation, archiving, and sharing of methods and measurements, to ensure that the full value of research data can be realized. Beyond these goals, benchmarking presents unique opportunities to advance and accelerate understanding of complex reaction systems by combining and comparing experimental information from multiple, in situ and operando techniques with theoretical insights derived frommore » calculations characterizing model systems. This Perspective describes the origins and uses of benchmarking and its applications in computational catalysis, heterogeneous catalysis, molecular catalysis, and electrocatalysis. As a result, it also discusses opportunities and challenges for future developments in these fields.« less

A benchmark for subduction zone modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Keken, P.; King, S.; Peacock, S.

2003-04-01

Our understanding of subduction zones hinges critically on the ability to discern its thermal structure and dynamics. Computational modeling has become an essential complementary approach to observational and experimental studies. The accurate modeling of subduction zones is challenging due to the unique geometry, complicated rheological description and influence of fluid and melt formation. The complicated physics causes problems for the accurate numerical solution of the governing equations. As a consequence it is essential for the subduction zone community to be able to evaluate the ability and limitations of various modeling approaches. The participants of a workshop on the modeling of subduction zones, held at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, MI, USA in 2002, formulated a number of case studies to be developed into a benchmark similar to previous mantle convection benchmarks (Blankenbach et al., 1989; Busse et al., 1991; Van Keken et al., 1997). Our initial benchmark focuses on the dynamics of the mantle wedge and investigates three different rheologies: constant viscosity, diffusion creep, and dislocation creep. In addition we investigate the ability of codes to accurate model dynamic pressure and advection dominated flows. Proceedings of the workshop and the formulation of the benchmark are available at www.geo.lsa.umich.edu/~keken/subduction02.html We strongly encourage interested research groups to participate in this benchmark. At Nice 2003 we will provide an update and first set of benchmark results. Interested researchers are encouraged to contact one of the authors for further details.

A proposed benchmark problem for cargo nuclear threat monitoring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wesley Holmes, Thomas; Calderon, Adan; Peeples, Cody R.; Gardner, Robin P.

2011-10-01

There is currently a great deal of technical and political effort focused on reducing the risk of potential attacks on the United States involving radiological dispersal devices or nuclear weapons. This paper proposes a benchmark problem for gamma-ray and X-ray cargo monitoring with results calculated using MCNP5, v1.51. The primary goal is to provide a benchmark problem that will allow researchers in this area to evaluate Monte Carlo models for both speed and accuracy in both forward and inverse calculational codes and approaches for nuclear security applications. A previous benchmark problem was developed by one of the authors (RPG) for two similar oil well logging problems (Gardner and Verghese, 1991, [1]). One of those benchmarks has recently been used by at least two researchers in the nuclear threat area to evaluate the speed and accuracy of Monte Carlo codes combined with variance reduction techniques. This apparent need has prompted us to design this benchmark problem specifically for the nuclear threat researcher. This benchmark consists of conceptual design and preliminary calculational results using gamma-ray interactions on a system containing three thicknesses of three different shielding materials. A point source is placed inside the three materials lead, aluminum, and plywood. The first two materials are in right circular cylindrical form while the third is a cube. The entire system rests on a sufficiently thick lead base so as to reduce undesired scattering events. The configuration was arranged in such a manner that as gamma-ray moves from the source outward it first passes through the lead circular cylinder, then the aluminum circular cylinder, and finally the wooden cube before reaching the detector. A 2 in.×4 in.×16 in. box style NaI (Tl) detector was placed 1 m from the point source located in the center with the 4 in.×16 in. side facing the system. The two sources used in the benchmark are 137Cs and 235U.

An overview of the ENEA activities in the field of coupled codes NPP simulation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Parisi, C.; Negrenti, E.; Sepielli, M.

2012-07-01

In the framework of the nuclear research activities in the fields of safety, training and education, ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Sustainable Development) is in charge of defining and pursuing all the necessary steps for the development of a NPP engineering simulator at the 'Casaccia' Research Center near Rome. A summary of the activities in the field of the nuclear power plants simulation by coupled codes is here presented with the long term strategy for the engineering simulator development. Specifically, results from the participation in international benchmarking activities like the OECD/NEA 'Kalinin-3' benchmark andmore » the 'AER-DYN-002' benchmark, together with simulations of relevant events like the Fukushima accident, are here reported. The ultimate goal of such activities performed using state-of-the-art technology is the re-establishment of top level competencies in the NPP simulation field in order to facilitate the development of Enhanced Engineering Simulators and to upgrade competencies for supporting national energy strategy decisions, the nuclear national safety authority, and the R and D activities on NPP designs. (authors)« less

Ground truth and benchmarks for performance evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takeuchi, Ayako; Shneier, Michael; Hong, Tsai Hong; Chang, Tommy; Scrapper, Christopher; Cheok, Geraldine S.

2003-09-01

Progress in algorithm development and transfer of results to practical applications such as military robotics requires the setup of standard tasks, of standard qualitative and quantitative measurements for performance evaluation and validation. Although the evaluation and validation of algorithms have been discussed for over a decade, the research community still faces a lack of well-defined and standardized methodology. The range of fundamental problems include a lack of quantifiable measures of performance, a lack of data from state-of-the-art sensors in calibrated real-world environments, and a lack of facilities for conducting realistic experiments. In this research, we propose three methods for creating ground truth databases and benchmarks using multiple sensors. The databases and benchmarks will provide researchers with high quality data from suites of sensors operating in complex environments representing real problems of great relevance to the development of autonomous driving systems. At NIST, we have prototyped a High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) system with a suite of sensors including a Riegl ladar, GDRS ladar, stereo CCD, several color cameras, Global Position System (GPS), Inertial Navigation System (INS), pan/tilt encoders, and odometry . All sensors are calibrated with respect to each other in space and time. This allows a database of features and terrain elevation to be built. Ground truth for each sensor can then be extracted from the database. The main goal of this research is to provide ground truth databases for researchers and engineers to evaluate algorithms for effectiveness, efficiency, reliability, and robustness, thus advancing the development of algorithms.

Toward multimodal signal detection of adverse drug reactions.

PubMed

Harpaz, Rave; DuMouchel, William; Schuemie, Martijn; Bodenreider, Olivier; Friedman, Carol; Horvitz, Eric; Ripple, Anna; Sorbello, Alfred; White, Ryen W; Winnenburg, Rainer; Shah, Nigam H

2017-12-01

Improving mechanisms to detect adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is key to strengthening post-marketing drug safety surveillance. Signal detection is presently unimodal, relying on a single information source. Multimodal signal detection is based on jointly analyzing multiple information sources. Building on, and expanding the work done in prior studies, the aim of the article is to further research on multimodal signal detection, explore its potential benefits, and propose methods for its construction and evaluation. Four data sources are investigated; FDA's adverse event reporting system, insurance claims, the MEDLINE citation database, and the logs of major Web search engines. Published methods are used to generate and combine signals from each data source. Two distinct reference benchmarks corresponding to well-established and recently labeled ADRs respectively are used to evaluate the performance of multimodal signal detection in terms of area under the ROC curve (AUC) and lead-time-to-detection, with the latter relative to labeling revision dates. Limited to our reference benchmarks, multimodal signal detection provides AUC improvements ranging from 0.04 to 0.09 based on a widely used evaluation benchmark, and a comparative added lead-time of 7-22 months relative to labeling revision dates from a time-indexed benchmark. The results support the notion that utilizing and jointly analyzing multiple data sources may lead to improved signal detection. Given certain data and benchmark limitations, the early stage of development, and the complexity of ADRs, it is currently not possible to make definitive statements about the ultimate utility of the concept. Continued development of multimodal signal detection requires a deeper understanding the data sources used, additional benchmarks, and further research on methods to generate and synthesize signals. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Paediatric International Nursing Study: using person-centred key performance indicators to benchmark children's services.

PubMed

McCance, Tanya; Wilson, Val; Kornman, Kelly

2016-07-01

The aim of the Paediatric International Nursing Study was to explore the utility of key performance indicators in developing person-centred practice across a range of services provided to sick children. The objective addressed in this paper was evaluating the use of these indicators to benchmark services internationally. This study builds on primary research, which produced indicators that were considered novel both in terms of their positive orientation and use in generating data that privileges the patient voice. This study extends this research through wider testing on an international platform within paediatrics. The overall methodological approach was a realistic evaluation used to evaluate the implementation of the key performance indicators, which combined an integrated development and evaluation methodology. The study involved children's wards/hospitals in Australia (six sites across three states) and Europe (seven sites across four countries). Qualitative and quantitative methods were used during the implementation process, however, this paper reports the quantitative data only, which used survey, observations and documentary review. The findings demonstrate the quality of care being delivered to children and their families across different international sites. The benchmarking does, however, highlight some differences between paediatric and general hospitals, and between the different key performance indicators across all the sites. The findings support the use of the key performance indicators as a novel method to benchmark services internationally. Whilst the data collected across 20 paediatric sites suggest services are more similar than different, benchmarking illuminates variations that encourage a critical dialogue about what works and why. The transferability of the key performance indicators and measurement framework across different settings has significant implications for practice. The findings offer an approach to benchmarking and celebrating the successes within practice, while learning from partners across the globe in further developing person-centred cultures. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Benchmark Airport Charges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

deWit, A.; Cohn, N.

1999-01-01

The Netherlands Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commissioned Hague Consulting Group (HCG) to complete a benchmark study of airport charges at twenty eight airports in Europe and around the world, based on 1996 charges. This study followed previous DGCA research on the topic but included more airports in much more detail. The main purpose of this new benchmark study was to provide insight into the levels and types of airport charges worldwide and into recent changes in airport charge policy and structure, This paper describes the 1996 analysis. It is intended that this work be repeated every year in order to follow developing trends and provide the most up-to-date information possible.

Benchmark Airport Charges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

de Wit, A.; Cohn, N.

1999-01-01

The Netherlands Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) commissioned Hague Consulting Group (HCG) to complete a benchmark study of airport charges at twenty eight airports in Europe and around the world, based on 1996 charges. This study followed previous DGCA research on the topic but included more airports in much more detail. The main purpose of this new benchmark study was to provide insight into the levels and types of airport charges worldwide and into recent changes in airport charge policy and structure. This paper describes the 1996 analysis. It is intended that this work be repeated every year in order to follow developing trends and provide the most up-to-date information possible.

BACT Simulation User Guide (Version 7.0)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waszak, Martin R.

1997-01-01

This report documents the structure and operation of a simulation model of the Benchmark Active Control Technology (BACT) Wind-Tunnel Model. The BACT system was designed, built, and tested at NASA Langley Research Center as part of the Benchmark Models Program and was developed to perform wind-tunnel experiments to obtain benchmark quality data to validate computational fluid dynamics and computational aeroelasticity codes, to verify the accuracy of current aeroservoelasticity design and analysis tools, and to provide an active controls testbed for evaluating new and innovative control algorithms for flutter suppression and gust load alleviation. The BACT system has been especially valuable as a control system testbed.

NAS Parallel Benchmark Results 11-96. 1.0

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, David H.; Bailey, David; Chancellor, Marisa K. (Technical Monitor)

1997-01-01

The NAS Parallel Benchmarks have been developed at NASA Ames Research Center to study the performance of parallel supercomputers. The eight benchmark problems are specified in a "pencil and paper" fashion. In other words, the complete details of the problem to be solved are given in a technical document, and except for a few restrictions, benchmarkers are free to select the language constructs and implementation techniques best suited for a particular system. These results represent the best results that have been reported to us by the vendors for the specific 3 systems listed. In this report, we present new NPB (Version 1.0) performance results for the following systems: DEC Alpha Server 8400 5/440, Fujitsu VPP Series (VX, VPP300, and VPP700), HP/Convex Exemplar SPP2000, IBM RS/6000 SP P2SC node (120 MHz), NEC SX-4/32, SGI/CRAY T3E, SGI Origin200, and SGI Origin2000. We also report High Performance Fortran (HPF) based NPB results for IBM SP2 Wide Nodes, HP/Convex Exemplar SPP2000, and SGI/CRAY T3D. These results have been submitted by Applied Parallel Research (APR) and Portland Group Inc. (PGI). We also present sustained performance per dollar for Class B LU, SP and BT benchmarks.

[Benchmarking of university trauma centers in Germany. Research and teaching].

PubMed

Gebhard, F; Raschke, M; Ruchholtz, S; Meffert, R; Marzi, I; Pohlemann, T; Südkamp, N; Josten, C; Zwipp, H

2011-07-01

Benchmarking is a very popular business process and meanwhile is used in research as well. The aim of the present study is to elucidate key numbers of German university trauma departments regarding research and teaching. The data set is based upon the monthly reports given by the administration in each university. As a result the study shows that only well-known parameters such as fund-raising and impact factors can be used to benchmark university-based trauma centers. The German federal system does not allow a nationwide benchmarking.

A suite of benchmark and challenge problems for enhanced geothermal systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, Mark; Fu, Pengcheng; McClure, Mark

A diverse suite of numerical simulators is currently being applied to predict or understand the performance of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). To build confidence and identify critical development needs for these analytical tools, the United States Department of Energy, Geothermal Technologies Office sponsored a Code Comparison Study (GTO-CCS), with participants from universities, industry, and national laboratories. A principal objective for the study was to create a community forum for improvement and verification of numerical simulators for EGS modeling. Teams participating in the study were those representing U.S. national laboratories, universities, and industries, and each team brought unique numerical simulation capabilitiesmore » to bear on the problems. Two classes of problems were developed during the study, benchmark problems and challenge problems. The benchmark problems were structured to test the ability of the collection of numerical simulators to solve various combinations of coupled thermal, hydrologic, geomechanical, and geochemical processes. This class of problems was strictly defined in terms of properties, driving forces, initial conditions, and boundary conditions. The challenge problems were based on the enhanced geothermal systems research conducted at Fenton Hill, near Los Alamos, New Mexico, between 1974 and 1995. The problems involved two phases of research, stimulation, development, and circulation in two separate reservoirs. The challenge problems had specific questions to be answered via numerical simulation in three topical areas: 1) reservoir creation/stimulation, 2) reactive and passive transport, and 3) thermal recovery. Whereas the benchmark class of problems were designed to test capabilities for modeling coupled processes under strictly specified conditions, the stated objective for the challenge class of problems was to demonstrate what new understanding of the Fenton Hill experiments could be realized via the application of modern numerical simulation tools by recognized expert practitioners. We present the suite of benchmark and challenge problems developed for the GTO-CCS, providing problem descriptions and sample solutions.« less

Metric Evaluation Pipeline for 3d Modeling of Urban Scenes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bosch, M.; Leichtman, A.; Chilcott, D.; Goldberg, H.; Brown, M.

2017-05-01

Publicly available benchmark data and metric evaluation approaches have been instrumental in enabling research to advance state of the art methods for remote sensing applications in urban 3D modeling. Most publicly available benchmark datasets have consisted of high resolution airborne imagery and lidar suitable for 3D modeling on a relatively modest scale. To enable research in larger scale 3D mapping, we have recently released a public benchmark dataset with multi-view commercial satellite imagery and metrics to compare 3D point clouds with lidar ground truth. We now define a more complete metric evaluation pipeline developed as publicly available open source software to assess semantically labeled 3D models of complex urban scenes derived from multi-view commercial satellite imagery. Evaluation metrics in our pipeline include horizontal and vertical accuracy and completeness, volumetric completeness and correctness, perceptual quality, and model simplicity. Sources of ground truth include airborne lidar and overhead imagery, and we demonstrate a semi-automated process for producing accurate ground truth shape files to characterize building footprints. We validate our current metric evaluation pipeline using 3D models produced using open source multi-view stereo methods. Data and software is made publicly available to enable further research and planned benchmarking activities.

Benchmark Simulation Model No 2: finalisation of plant layout and default control strategy.

PubMed

Nopens, I; Benedetti, L; Jeppsson, U; Pons, M-N; Alex, J; Copp, J B; Gernaey, K V; Rosen, C; Steyer, J-P; Vanrolleghem, P A

2010-01-01

The COST/IWA Benchmark Simulation Model No 1 (BSM1) has been available for almost a decade. Its primary purpose has been to create a platform for control strategy benchmarking of activated sludge processes. The fact that the research work related to the benchmark simulation models has resulted in more than 300 publications worldwide demonstrates the interest in and need of such tools within the research community. Recent efforts within the IWA Task Group on "Benchmarking of control strategies for WWTPs" have focused on an extension of the benchmark simulation model. This extension aims at facilitating control strategy development and performance evaluation at a plant-wide level and, consequently, includes both pretreatment of wastewater as well as the processes describing sludge treatment. The motivation for the extension is the increasing interest and need to operate and control wastewater treatment systems not only at an individual process level but also on a plant-wide basis. To facilitate the changes, the evaluation period has been extended to one year. A prolonged evaluation period allows for long-term control strategies to be assessed and enables the use of control handles that cannot be evaluated in a realistic fashion in the one week BSM1 evaluation period. In this paper, the finalised plant layout is summarised and, as was done for BSM1, a default control strategy is proposed. A demonstration of how BSM2 can be used to evaluate control strategies is also given.

Benchmarking reference services: step by step.

PubMed

Buchanan, H S; Marshall, J G

1996-01-01

This article is a companion to an introductory article on benchmarking published in an earlier issue of Medical Reference Services Quarterly. Librarians interested in benchmarking often ask the following questions: How do I determine what to benchmark; how do I form a benchmarking team; how do I identify benchmarking partners; what's the best way to collect and analyze benchmarking information; and what will I do with the data? Careful planning is a critical success factor of any benchmarking project, and these questions must be answered before embarking on a benchmarking study. This article summarizes the steps necessary to conduct benchmarking research. Relevant examples of each benchmarking step are provided.

Multirate Flutter Suppression System Design for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology Wing. Part 1; Theory and Design Procedure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mason, Gregory S.; Berg, Martin C.; Mukhopadhyay, Vivek

2002-01-01

To study the effectiveness of various control system design methodologies, the NASA Langley Research Center initiated the Benchmark Active Controls Project. In this project, the various methodologies were applied to design a flutter suppression system for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology (BACT) Wing. This report describes a project at the University of Washington to design a multirate suppression system for the BACT wing. The objective of the project was two fold. First, to develop a methodology for designing robust multirate compensators, and second, to demonstrate the methodology by applying it to the design of a multirate flutter suppression system for the BACT wing.

Performance Against WELCOA's Worksite Health Promotion Benchmarks Across Years Among Selected US Organizations.

PubMed

Weaver, GracieLee M; Mendenhall, Brandon N; Hunnicutt, David; Picarella, Ryan; Leffelman, Brittanie; Perko, Michael; Bibeau, Daniel L

2018-05-01

The purpose of this study was to quantify the performance of organizations' worksite health promotion (WHP) activities against the benchmarking criteria included in the Well Workplace Checklist (WWC). The Wellness Council of America (WELCOA) developed a tool to assess WHP with its 100-item WWC, which represents WELCOA's 7 performance benchmarks. Workplaces. This study includes a convenience sample of organizations who completed the checklist from 2008 to 2015. The sample size was 4643 entries from US organizations. The WWC includes demographic questions, general questions about WHP programs, and scales to measure the performance against the WELCOA 7 benchmarks. Descriptive analyses of WWC items were completed separately for each year of the study period. The majority of the organizations represented each year were multisite, multishift, medium- to large-sized companies mostly in the services industry. Despite yearly changes in participating organizations, results across the WELCOA 7 benchmark scores were consistent year to year. Across all years, benchmarks that organizations performed the lowest were senior-level support, data collection, and programming; wellness teams and supportive environments were the highest scoring benchmarks. In an era marked with economic swings and health-care reform, it appears that organizations are staying consistent in their performance across these benchmarks. The WWC could be useful for organizations, practitioners, and researchers in assessing the quality of WHP programs.

Benchmarks for effective primary care-based nursing services for adults with depression: a Delphi study.

PubMed

McIlrath, Carole; Keeney, Sinead; McKenna, Hugh; McLaughlin, Derek

2010-02-01

This paper is a report of a study conducted to identify and gain consensus on appropriate benchmarks for effective primary care-based nursing services for adults with depression. Worldwide evidence suggests that between 5% and 16% of the population have a diagnosis of depression. Most of their care and treatment takes place in primary care. In recent years, primary care nurses, including community mental health nurses, have become more involved in the identification and management of patients with depression; however, there are no appropriate benchmarks to guide, develop and support their practice. In 2006, a three-round electronic Delphi survey was completed by a United Kingdom multi-professional expert panel (n = 67). Round 1 generated 1216 statements relating to structures (such as training and protocols), processes (such as access and screening) and outcomes (such as patient satisfaction and treatments). Content analysis was used to collapse statements into 140 benchmarks. Seventy-three benchmarks achieved consensus during subsequent rounds. Of these, 45 (61%) were related to structures, 18 (25%) to processes and 10 (14%) to outcomes. Multi-professional primary care staff have similar views about the appropriate benchmarks for care of adults with depression. These benchmarks could serve as a foundation for depression improvement initiatives in primary care and ongoing research into depression management by nurses.

Outcome Benchmarks for Adaptations of Research-Supported Treatments for Adult Traumatic Stress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubin, Allen; Parrish, Danielle E.; Washburn, Micki

2016-01-01

This article provides benchmark data on within-group effect sizes from published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated the efficacy of research-supported treatments (RSTs) for adult traumatic stress. Agencies can compare these benchmarks to their treatment group effect size to inform their decisions as to whether the way they are…

Dataset-Driven Research to Support Learning and Knowledge Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Verbert, Katrien; Manouselis, Nikos; Drachsler, Hendrik; Duval, Erik

2012-01-01

In various research areas, the availability of open datasets is considered as key for research and application purposes. These datasets are used as benchmarks to develop new algorithms and to compare them to other algorithms in given settings. Finding such available datasets for experimentation can be a challenging task in technology enhanced…

A large-scale benchmark of gene prioritization methods.

PubMed

Guala, Dimitri; Sonnhammer, Erik L L

2017-04-21

In order to maximize the use of results from high-throughput experimental studies, e.g. GWAS, for identification and diagnostics of new disease-associated genes, it is important to have properly analyzed and benchmarked gene prioritization tools. While prospective benchmarks are underpowered to provide statistically significant results in their attempt to differentiate the performance of gene prioritization tools, a strategy for retrospective benchmarking has been missing, and new tools usually only provide internal validations. The Gene Ontology(GO) contains genes clustered around annotation terms. This intrinsic property of GO can be utilized in construction of robust benchmarks, objective to the problem domain. We demonstrate how this can be achieved for network-based gene prioritization tools, utilizing the FunCoup network. We use cross-validation and a set of appropriate performance measures to compare state-of-the-art gene prioritization algorithms: three based on network diffusion, NetRank and two implementations of Random Walk with Restart, and MaxLink that utilizes network neighborhood. Our benchmark suite provides a systematic and objective way to compare the multitude of available and future gene prioritization tools, enabling researchers to select the best gene prioritization tool for the task at hand, and helping to guide the development of more accurate methods.

NACA0012 benchmark model experimental flutter results with unsteady pressure distributions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rivera, Jose A., Jr.; Dansberry, Bryan E.; Bennett, Robert M.; Durham, Michael H.; Silva, Walter A.

1992-01-01

The Structural Dynamics Division at NASA Langley Research Center has started a wind tunnel activity referred to as the Benchmark Models Program. The primary objective of this program is to acquire measured dynamic instability and corresponding pressure data that will be useful for developing and evaluating aeroelastic type computational fluid dynamics codes currently in use or under development. The program is a multi-year activity that will involve testing of several different models to investigate various aeroelastic phenomena. This paper describes results obtained from a second wind tunnel test of the first model in the Benchmark Models Program. This first model consisted of a rigid semispan wing having a rectangular planform and a NACA 0012 airfoil shape which was mounted on a flexible two degree of freedom mount system. Experimental flutter boundaries and corresponding unsteady pressure distribution data acquired over two model chords located at the 60 and 95 percent span stations are presented.

Final Report of the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Agile Benchmarking Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wetherholt, Martha

2016-01-01

To ensure that the NASA Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) community remains in a position to perform reliable Software Assurance (SA) on NASAs critical software (SW) systems with the software industry rapidly transitioning from waterfall to Agile processes, Terry Wilcutt, Chief, Safety and Mission Assurance, Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) established the Agile Benchmarking Team (ABT). The Team's tasks were: 1. Research background literature on current Agile processes, 2. Perform benchmark activities with other organizations that are involved in software Agile processes to determine best practices, 3. Collect information on Agile-developed systems to enable improvements to the current NASA standards and processes to enhance their ability to perform reliable software assurance on NASA Agile-developed systems, 4. Suggest additional guidance and recommendations for updates to those standards and processes, as needed. The ABT's findings and recommendations for software management, engineering and software assurance are addressed herein.

Benchmarking on Tsunami Currents with ComMIT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharghi vand, N.; Kanoglu, U.

2015-12-01

There were no standards for the validation and verification of tsunami numerical models before 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Even, number of numerical models has been used for inundation mapping effort, evaluation of critical structures, etc. without validation and verification. After 2004, NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR) established standards for the validation and verification of tsunami numerical models (Synolakis et al. 2008 Pure Appl. Geophys. 165, 2197-2228), which will be used evaluation of critical structures such as nuclear power plants against tsunami attack. NCTR presented analytical, experimental and field benchmark problems aimed to estimate maximum runup and accepted widely by the community. Recently, benchmark problems were suggested by the US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program Mapping & Modeling Benchmarking Workshop: Tsunami Currents on February 9-10, 2015 at Portland, Oregon, USA (http://nws.weather.gov/nthmp/index.html). These benchmark problems concentrated toward validation and verification of tsunami numerical models on tsunami currents. Three of the benchmark problems were: current measurement of the Japan 2011 tsunami in Hilo Harbor, Hawaii, USA and in Tauranga Harbor, New Zealand, and single long-period wave propagating onto a small-scale experimental model of the town of Seaside, Oregon, USA. These benchmark problems were implemented in the Community Modeling Interface for Tsunamis (ComMIT) (Titov et al. 2011 Pure Appl. Geophys. 168, 2121-2131), which is a user-friendly interface to the validated and verified Method of Splitting Tsunami (MOST) (Titov and Synolakis 1995 J. Waterw. Port Coastal Ocean Eng. 121, 308-316) model and is developed by NCTR. The modeling results are compared with the required benchmark data, providing good agreements and results are discussed. Acknowledgment: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 603839 (Project ASTARTE - Assessment, Strategy and Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe)

The British Columbia Nephrologists' Access Study (BCNAS) - a prospective, health services interventional study to develop waiting time benchmarks and reduce wait times for out-patient nephrology consultations.

PubMed

Schachter, Michael E; Romann, Alexandra; Djurdev, Ognjenka; Levin, Adeera; Beaulieu, Monica

2013-08-29

Early referral and management of high-risk chronic kidney disease may prevent or delay the need for dialysis. Automatic eGFR reporting has increased demand for out-patient nephrology consultations and in some cases, prolonged queues. In Canada, a national task force suggested the development of waiting time targets, which has not been done for nephrology. We sought to describe waiting time for outpatient nephrology consultations in British Columbia (BC). Data collection occurred in 2 phases: 1) Baseline Description (Jan 18-28, 2010) and 2) Post Waiting Time Benchmark-Introduction (Jan 16-27, 2012). Waiting time was defined as the interval from receipt of referral letters to assessment. Using a modified Delphi process, Nephrologists and Family Physicians (FP) developed waiting time targets for commonly referred conditions through meetings and surveys. Rules were developed to weigh-in nephrologists', FPs', and patients' perspectives in order to generate waiting time benchmarks. Targets consider comorbidities, eGFR, BP and albuminuria. Referred conditions were assigned a priority score between 1-4. BC nephrologists were encouraged to centrally triage referrals to see the first available nephrologist. Waiting time benchmarks were simultaneously introduced to guide patient scheduling. A post-intervention waiting time evaluation was then repeated. In 2010 and 2012, 43/52 (83%) and 46/57 (81%) of BC nephrologists participated. Waiting time decreased from 98(IQR44,157) to 64(IQR21,120) days from 2010 to 2012 (p = <.001), despite no change in referral eGFR, demographics, nor number of office hrs/wk. Waiting time improved most for high priority patients. An integrated, Provincial initiative to measure wait times, develop waiting benchmarks, and engage physicians in active waiting time management associated with improved access to nephrologists in BC. Improvements in waiting time was most marked for the highest priority patients, which suggests that benchmarks had an influence on triaging behavior. Further research is needed to determine whether this effect is sustainable.

Benchmarks: The Development of a New Approach to Student Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larter, Sylvia

The Toronto Board of Education Benchmarks are libraries of reference materials that demonstrate student achievement at various levels. Each library contains video benchmarks, print benchmarks, a staff handbook, and summary and introductory documents. This book is about the development and the history of the benchmark program. It has taken over 3…

Parameters that affect parallel processing for computational electromagnetic simulation codes on high performance computing clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moon, Hongsik

What is the impact of multicore and associated advanced technologies on computational software for science? Most researchers and students have multicore laptops or desktops for their research and they need computing power to run computational software packages. Computing power was initially derived from Central Processing Unit (CPU) clock speed. That changed when increases in clock speed became constrained by power requirements. Chip manufacturers turned to multicore CPU architectures and associated technological advancements to create the CPUs for the future. Most software applications benefited by the increased computing power the same way that increases in clock speed helped applications run faster. However, for Computational ElectroMagnetics (CEM) software developers, this change was not an obvious benefit - it appeared to be a detriment. Developers were challenged to find a way to correctly utilize the advancements in hardware so that their codes could benefit. The solution was parallelization and this dissertation details the investigation to address these challenges. Prior to multicore CPUs, advanced computer technologies were compared with the performance using benchmark software and the metric was FLoting-point Operations Per Seconds (FLOPS) which indicates system performance for scientific applications that make heavy use of floating-point calculations. Is FLOPS an effective metric for parallelized CEM simulation tools on new multicore system? Parallel CEM software needs to be benchmarked not only by FLOPS but also by the performance of other parameters related to type and utilization of the hardware, such as CPU, Random Access Memory (RAM), hard disk, network, etc. The codes need to be optimized for more than just FLOPs and new parameters must be included in benchmarking. In this dissertation, the parallel CEM software named High Order Basis Based Integral Equation Solver (HOBBIES) is introduced. This code was developed to address the needs of the changing computer hardware platforms in order to provide fast, accurate and efficient solutions to large, complex electromagnetic problems. The research in this dissertation proves that the performance of parallel code is intimately related to the configuration of the computer hardware and can be maximized for different hardware platforms. To benchmark and optimize the performance of parallel CEM software, a variety of large, complex projects are created and executed on a variety of computer platforms. The computer platforms used in this research are detailed in this dissertation. The projects run as benchmarks are also described in detail and results are presented. The parameters that affect parallel CEM software on High Performance Computing Clusters (HPCC) are investigated. This research demonstrates methods to maximize the performance of parallel CEM software code.

A benchmark for fault tolerant flight control evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smaili, H.; Breeman, J.; Lombaerts, T.; Stroosma, O.

2013-12-01

A large transport aircraft simulation benchmark (REconfigurable COntrol for Vehicle Emergency Return - RECOVER) has been developed within the GARTEUR (Group for Aeronautical Research and Technology in Europe) Flight Mechanics Action Group 16 (FM-AG(16)) on Fault Tolerant Control (2004 2008) for the integrated evaluation of fault detection and identification (FDI) and reconfigurable flight control strategies. The benchmark includes a suitable set of assessment criteria and failure cases, based on reconstructed accident scenarios, to assess the potential of new adaptive control strategies to improve aircraft survivability. The application of reconstruction and modeling techniques, based on accident flight data, has resulted in high-fidelity nonlinear aircraft and fault models to evaluate new Fault Tolerant Flight Control (FTFC) concepts and their real-time performance to accommodate in-flight failures.

Generating Shifting Workloads to Benchmark Adaptability in Relational Database Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rabl, Tilmann; Lang, Andreas; Hackl, Thomas; Sick, Bernhard; Kosch, Harald

A large body of research concerns the adaptability of database systems. Many commercial systems already contain autonomic processes that adapt configurations as well as data structures and data organization. Yet there is virtually no possibility for a just measurement of the quality of such optimizations. While standard benchmarks have been developed that simulate real-world database applications very precisely, none of them considers variations in workloads produced by human factors. Today’s benchmarks test the performance of database systems by measuring peak performance on homogeneous request streams. Nevertheless, in systems with user interaction access patterns are constantly shifting. We present a benchmark that simulates a web information system with interaction of large user groups. It is based on the analysis of a real online eLearning management system with 15,000 users. The benchmark considers the temporal dependency of user interaction. Main focus is to measure the adaptability of a database management system according to shifting workloads. We will give details on our design approach that uses sophisticated pattern analysis and data mining techniques.

Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing | Advanced

Science.gov Websites

Manufacturing Research | NREL Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing Benchmark Study of Global Clean Energy Manufacturing Through a first-of-its-kind benchmark study, the Clean Energy Technology End Product.' The study examined four clean energy technologies: wind turbine components

Meta-Analysis of Lead (Pb) in Multiple Environmental Media in the United States

EPA Science Inventory

Introduction: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, conducts probabilistic multimedia lead (Pb) exposure modeling to inform the development of health-based benchmarks for Pb in the environment. For this modeling, robust Pb concentration dat...

The Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities: Professional Learning and Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Greer; Dempster, Neil; McKenzie, Lynanne

2013-01-01

The vast proportion of Australia's Indigenous students are represented persistently as well below the national benchmarks for literacy and numeracy. Recent national school-based research and development projects, funded by the Australian Government's "Closing the Gap" strategy, have again targeted improving Indigenous students' literacy…

Development and Experimental Benchmark of Simulations to Predict Used Nuclear Fuel Cladding Temperatures during Drying and Transfer Operations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Greiner, Miles

Radial hydride formation in high-burnup used fuel cladding has the potential to radically reduce its ductility and suitability for long-term storage and eventual transport. To avoid this formation, the maximum post-reactor temperature must remain sufficiently low to limit the cladding hoop stress, and so that hydrogen from the existing circumferential hydrides will not dissolve and become available to re-precipitate into radial hydrides under the slow cooling conditions during drying, transfer and early dry-cask storage. The objective of this research is to develop and experimentallybenchmark computational fluid dynamics simulations of heat transfer in post-pool-storage drying operations, when high-burnup fuel cladding ismore » likely to experience its highest temperature. These benchmarked tools can play a key role in evaluating dry cask storage systems for extended storage of high-burnup fuels and post-storage transportation, including fuel retrievability. The benchmarked tools will be used to aid the design of efficient drying processes, as well as estimate variations of surface temperatures as a means of inferring helium integrity inside the canister or cask. This work will be conducted effectively because the principal investigator has experience developing these types of simulations, and has constructed a test facility that can be used to benchmark them.« less

Benchmarking--Measuring and Comparing for Continuous Improvement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henczel, Sue

2002-01-01

Discussion of benchmarking focuses on the use of internal and external benchmarking by special librarians. Highlights include defining types of benchmarking; historical development; benefits, including efficiency, improved performance, increased competitiveness, and better decision making; problems, including inappropriate adaptation; developing a…

Benchmarking of dynamic simulation predictions in two software platforms using an upper limb musculoskeletal model

PubMed Central

Saul, Katherine R.; Hu, Xiao; Goehler, Craig M.; Vidt, Meghan E.; Daly, Melissa; Velisar, Anca; Murray, Wendy M.

2014-01-01

Several opensource or commercially available software platforms are widely used to develop dynamic simulations of movement. While computational approaches are conceptually similar across platforms, technical differences in implementation may influence output. We present a new upper limb dynamic model as a tool to evaluate potential differences in predictive behavior between platforms. We evaluated to what extent differences in technical implementations in popular simulation software environments result in differences in kinematic predictions for single and multijoint movements using EMG- and optimization-based approaches for deriving control signals. We illustrate the benchmarking comparison using SIMM-Dynamics Pipeline-SD/Fast and OpenSim platforms. The most substantial divergence results from differences in muscle model and actuator paths. This model is a valuable resource and is available for download by other researchers. The model, data, and simulation results presented here can be used by future researchers to benchmark other software platforms and software upgrades for these two platforms. PMID:24995410

Benchmarking of dynamic simulation predictions in two software platforms using an upper limb musculoskeletal model.

PubMed

Saul, Katherine R; Hu, Xiao; Goehler, Craig M; Vidt, Meghan E; Daly, Melissa; Velisar, Anca; Murray, Wendy M

2015-01-01

Several opensource or commercially available software platforms are widely used to develop dynamic simulations of movement. While computational approaches are conceptually similar across platforms, technical differences in implementation may influence output. We present a new upper limb dynamic model as a tool to evaluate potential differences in predictive behavior between platforms. We evaluated to what extent differences in technical implementations in popular simulation software environments result in differences in kinematic predictions for single and multijoint movements using EMG- and optimization-based approaches for deriving control signals. We illustrate the benchmarking comparison using SIMM-Dynamics Pipeline-SD/Fast and OpenSim platforms. The most substantial divergence results from differences in muscle model and actuator paths. This model is a valuable resource and is available for download by other researchers. The model, data, and simulation results presented here can be used by future researchers to benchmark other software platforms and software upgrades for these two platforms.

Benchmarking in national health service procurement in Scotland.

PubMed

Walker, Scott; Masson, Ron; Telford, Ronnie; White, David

2007-11-01

The paper reports the results of a study on benchmarking activities undertaken by the procurement organization within the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland, namely National Procurement (previously Scottish Healthcare Supplies Contracts Branch). NHS performance is of course politically important, and benchmarking is increasingly seen as a means to improve performance, so the study was carried out to determine if the current benchmarking approaches could be enhanced. A review of the benchmarking activities used by the private sector, local government and NHS organizations was carried out to establish a framework of the motivations, benefits, problems and costs associated with benchmarking. This framework was used to carry out the research through case studies and a questionnaire survey of NHS procurement organizations both in Scotland and other parts of the UK. Nine of the 16 Scottish Health Boards surveyed reported carrying out benchmarking during the last three years. The findings of the research were that there were similarities in approaches between local government and NHS Scotland Health, but differences between NHS Scotland and other UK NHS procurement organizations. Benefits were seen as significant and it was recommended that National Procurement should pursue the formation of a benchmarking group with members drawn from NHS Scotland and external benchmarking bodies to establish measures to be used in benchmarking across the whole of NHS Scotland.

College Student Epistemological Perspectives across Knowledge Domains: A Proposed Grounded Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Betsy; Marra, Rose M.

2004-01-01

Scholars have studied epistemological development--or how one understands knowledge and knowing--of college students for many years. Research in this domain has included benchmarking studies of epistemological development, examinations of how curricular innovations impact epistemology, and some studies of differences in epistemological development…

Surgeon's experiences of receiving peer benchmarked feedback using patient-reported outcome measures: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Boyce, Maria B; Browne, John P; Greenhalgh, Joanne

2014-06-27

The use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) to provide healthcare professionals with peer benchmarked feedback is growing. However, there is little evidence on the opinions of professionals on the value of this information in practice. The purpose of this research is to explore surgeon's experiences of receiving peer benchmarked PROMs feedback and to examine whether this information led to changes in their practice. This qualitative research employed a Framework approach. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with surgeons who received peer benchmarked PROMs feedback. The participants included eleven consultant orthopaedic surgeons in the Republic of Ireland. Five themes were identified: conceptual, methodological, practical, attitudinal, and impact. A typology was developed based on the attitudinal and impact themes from which three distinct groups emerged. 'Advocates' had positive attitudes towards PROMs and confirmed that the information promoted a self-reflective process. 'Converts' were uncertain about the value of PROMs, which reduced their inclination to use the data. 'Sceptics' had negative attitudes towards PROMs and claimed that the information had no impact on their behaviour. The conceptual, methodological and practical factors were linked to the typology. Surgeons had mixed opinions on the value of peer benchmarked PROMs data. Many appreciated the feedback as it reassured them that their practice was similar to their peers. However, PROMs information alone was considered insufficient to help identify opportunities for quality improvements. The reasons for the observed reluctance of participants to embrace PROMs can be categorised into conceptual, methodological, and practical factors. Policy makers and researchers need to increase professionals' awareness of the numerous purposes and benefits of using PROMs, challenge the current methods to measure performance using PROMs, and reduce the burden of data collection and information dissemination on routine practice.

Developing integrated benchmarks for DOE performance measurement

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barancik, J.I.; Kramer, C.F.; Thode, Jr. H.C.

1992-09-30

The objectives of this task were to describe and evaluate selected existing sources of information on occupational safety and health with emphasis on hazard and exposure assessment, abatement, training, reporting, and control identifying for exposure and outcome in preparation for developing DOE performance benchmarks. Existing resources and methodologies were assessed for their potential use as practical performance benchmarks. Strengths and limitations of current data resources were identified. Guidelines were outlined for developing new or improved performance factors, which then could become the basis for selecting performance benchmarks. Data bases for non-DOE comparison populations were identified so that DOE performance couldmore » be assessed relative to non-DOE occupational and industrial groups. Systems approaches were described which can be used to link hazards and exposure, event occurrence, and adverse outcome factors, as needed to generate valid, reliable, and predictive performance benchmarks. Data bases were identified which contain information relevant to one or more performance assessment categories . A list of 72 potential performance benchmarks was prepared to illustrate the kinds of information that can be produced through a benchmark development program. Current information resources which may be used to develop potential performance benchmarks are limited. There is need to develop an occupational safety and health information and data system in DOE, which is capable of incorporating demonstrated and documented performance benchmarks prior to, or concurrent with the development of hardware and software. A key to the success of this systems approach is rigorous development and demonstration of performance benchmark equivalents to users of such data before system hardware and software commitments are institutionalized.« less

An automated protocol for performance benchmarking a widefield fluorescence microscope.

PubMed

Halter, Michael; Bier, Elianna; DeRose, Paul C; Cooksey, Gregory A; Choquette, Steven J; Plant, Anne L; Elliott, John T

2014-11-01

Widefield fluorescence microscopy is a highly used tool for visually assessing biological samples and for quantifying cell responses. Despite its widespread use in high content analysis and other imaging applications, few published methods exist for evaluating and benchmarking the analytical performance of a microscope. Easy-to-use benchmarking methods would facilitate the use of fluorescence imaging as a quantitative analytical tool in research applications, and would aid the determination of instrumental method validation for commercial product development applications. We describe and evaluate an automated method to characterize a fluorescence imaging system's performance by benchmarking the detection threshold, saturation, and linear dynamic range to a reference material. The benchmarking procedure is demonstrated using two different materials as the reference material, uranyl-ion-doped glass and Schott 475 GG filter glass. Both are suitable candidate reference materials that are homogeneously fluorescent and highly photostable, and the Schott 475 GG filter glass is currently commercially available. In addition to benchmarking the analytical performance, we also demonstrate that the reference materials provide for accurate day to day intensity calibration. Published 2014 Wiley Periodicals Inc. Published 2014 Wiley Periodicals Inc. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.

License Compliance Issues For Biopharmaceuticals: Special Challenges For Negotiations Between Companies And Non-Profit Research Institutions.

PubMed

Ponzio, Todd A; Feindt, Hans; Ferguson, Steven

2011-09-01

Biopharmaceuticals are therapeutic products based on biotechnology. They are manufactured by or from living organisms and are the most complex of all commercial medicines to develop, manufacture and qualify for regulatory approval. In recent years biopharmaceuticals have rapidly increased in number and importance with over 400() already marketed in the U.S. and European markets alone. Many companies throughout the world are now ramping up investments in biopharmaceutical R&D and expanding their portfolios through licensing of early-stage biotechnologies from universities and other non-profit research institutions, and there is an increasing number of license agreements for biopharmaceutical product development relative to traditional small molecule drug compounds. This trend will only continue as large numbers of biosimilars and biogenerics enter the market.A primary goal of technology transfer offices associated with publicly-funded, non-profit research institutions is to establish patent protection for inventions deemed to have commercial potential and license them for product development. Such licenses help stimulate economic development and job creation, bring a stream of royalty revenue to the institution and, hopefully, advance the public good or public health by bringing new and useful products to market. In the course of applying for such licenses, a commercial development plan is usually put forth by the license applicant. This plan indicates the path the applicant expects to follow to bring the licensed invention to market. In the case of small molecule drug compounds, there exists a widely-recognized series of clinical development steps, dictated by regulatory requirements, that must be met to bring a new drug to market, such as completion of preclinical toxicology, Phase 1, 2 and 3 testing and product approvals. These steps often become the milestone/benchmark schedule incorporated into license agreements which technology transfer offices use to monitor the licensee's diligence and progress; most exclusive licenses include a commercial development plan, with penalties, financial or even revocation of the license, if the plan is not followed, e.g., the license falls too far behind.This study examines whether developmental milestone schedules based on a small molecule drug development model are useful and realistic in setting expectations for biopharmaceutical product development. We reviewed the monitoring records of all exclusive Public Health Service (PHS) commercial development license agreements for small molecule drugs or therapeutics based on biotechnology (biopharmaceuticals) executed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) between 2003 and 2009. We found that most biopharmaceutical development license agreements required amending because developmental milestones in the negotiated schedule could not be met by the licensee. This was in stark contrast with license agreements for small molecule chemical compounds which rarely needed changes to their developmental milestone schedules. As commercial development licenses for biopharmaceuticals make up the vast majority of NIH's exclusive license agreements, there is clearly a need to: 1) more closely examine how these benchmark schedules are formed, 2) try to understand the particular risk factors contributing to benchmark schedule non-compliance, and 3) devise alternatives to the current license benchmark schedule structural model. Schedules that properly weigh the most relevant risk factors such as technology classification (e.g., vaccine vs recombinant antibody vs gene therapy), likelihood of unforeseen regulatory issues, and company size/structure may help assure compliance with original license benchmark schedules. This understanding, coupled with a modified approach to the license negotiation process that makes use of a clear and comprehensive term sheet to minimize ambiguities should result in a more realistic benchmark schedule.

License Compliance Issues For Biopharmaceuticals: Special Challenges For Negotiations Between Companies And Non-Profit Research Institutions

PubMed Central

Ponzio, Todd A.; Feindt, Hans; Ferguson, Steven

2011-01-01

Summary Biopharmaceuticals are therapeutic products based on biotechnology. They are manufactured by or from living organisms and are the most complex of all commercial medicines to develop, manufacture and qualify for regulatory approval. In recent years biopharmaceuticals have rapidly increased in number and importance with over 4001 already marketed in the U.S. and European markets alone. Many companies throughout the world are now ramping up investments in biopharmaceutical R&D and expanding their portfolios through licensing of early-stage biotechnologies from universities and other non-profit research institutions, and there is an increasing number of license agreements for biopharmaceutical product development relative to traditional small molecule drug compounds. This trend will only continue as large numbers of biosimilars and biogenerics enter the market. A primary goal of technology transfer offices associated with publicly-funded, non-profit research institutions is to establish patent protection for inventions deemed to have commercial potential and license them for product development. Such licenses help stimulate economic development and job creation, bring a stream of royalty revenue to the institution and, hopefully, advance the public good or public health by bringing new and useful products to market. In the course of applying for such licenses, a commercial development plan is usually put forth by the license applicant. This plan indicates the path the applicant expects to follow to bring the licensed invention to market. In the case of small molecule drug compounds, there exists a widely-recognized series of clinical development steps, dictated by regulatory requirements, that must be met to bring a new drug to market, such as completion of preclinical toxicology, Phase 1, 2 and 3 testing and product approvals. These steps often become the milestone/benchmark schedule incorporated into license agreements which technology transfer offices use to monitor the licensee’s diligence and progress; most exclusive licenses include a commercial development plan, with penalties, financial or even revocation of the license, if the plan is not followed, e.g., the license falls too far behind. This study examines whether developmental milestone schedules based on a small molecule drug development model are useful and realistic in setting expectations for biopharmaceutical product development. We reviewed the monitoring records of all exclusive Public Health Service (PHS) commercial development license agreements for small molecule drugs or therapeutics based on biotechnology (biopharmaceuticals) executed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Technology Transfer (OTT) between 2003 and 2009. We found that most biopharmaceutical development license agreements required amending because developmental milestones in the negotiated schedule could not be met by the licensee. This was in stark contrast with license agreements for small molecule chemical compounds which rarely needed changes to their developmental milestone schedules. As commercial development licenses for biopharmaceuticals make up the vast majority of NIH’s exclusive license agreements, there is clearly a need to: 1) more closely examine how these benchmark schedules are formed, 2) try to understand the particular risk factors contributing to benchmark schedule non-compliance, and 3) devise alternatives to the current license benchmark schedule structural model. Schedules that properly weigh the most relevant risk factors such as technology classification (e.g., vaccine vs recombinant antibody vs gene therapy), likelihood of unforeseen regulatory issues, and company size/structure may help assure compliance with original license benchmark schedules. This understanding, coupled with a modified approach to the license negotiation process that makes use of a clear and comprehensive term sheet to minimize ambiguities should result in a more realistic benchmark schedule. PMID:22162900

A publicly available benchmark for biomedical dataset retrieval: the reference standard for the 2016 bioCADDIE dataset retrieval challenge

PubMed Central

Gururaj, Anupama E.; Chen, Xiaoling; Pournejati, Saeid; Alter, George; Hersh, William R.; Demner-Fushman, Dina; Ohno-Machado, Lucila

2017-01-01

Abstract The rapid proliferation of publicly available biomedical datasets has provided abundant resources that are potentially of value as a means to reproduce prior experiments, and to generate and explore novel hypotheses. However, there are a number of barriers to the re-use of such datasets, which are distributed across a broad array of dataset repositories, focusing on different data types and indexed using different terminologies. New methods are needed to enable biomedical researchers to locate datasets of interest within this rapidly expanding information ecosystem, and new resources are needed for the formal evaluation of these methods as they emerge. In this paper, we describe the design and generation of a benchmark for information retrieval of biomedical datasets, which was developed and used for the 2016 bioCADDIE Dataset Retrieval Challenge. In the tradition of the seminal Cranfield experiments, and as exemplified by the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC), this benchmark includes a corpus (biomedical datasets), a set of queries, and relevance judgments relating these queries to elements of the corpus. This paper describes the process through which each of these elements was derived, with a focus on those aspects that distinguish this benchmark from typical information retrieval reference sets. Specifically, we discuss the origin of our queries in the context of a larger collaborative effort, the biomedical and healthCAre Data Discovery Index Ecosystem (bioCADDIE) consortium, and the distinguishing features of biomedical dataset retrieval as a task. The resulting benchmark set has been made publicly available to advance research in the area of biomedical dataset retrieval. Database URL: https://biocaddie.org/benchmark-data PMID:29220453

OWL2 benchmarking for the evaluation of knowledge based systems.

PubMed

Khan, Sher Afgun; Qadir, Muhammad Abdul; Abbas, Muhammad Azeem; Afzal, Muhammad Tanvir

2017-01-01

OWL2 semantics are becoming increasingly popular for the real domain applications like Gene engineering and health MIS. The present work identifies the research gap that negligible attention has been paid to the performance evaluation of Knowledge Base Systems (KBS) using OWL2 semantics. To fulfil this identified research gap, an OWL2 benchmark for the evaluation of KBS is proposed. The proposed benchmark addresses the foundational blocks of an ontology benchmark i.e. data schema, workload and performance metrics. The proposed benchmark is tested on memory based, file based, relational database and graph based KBS for performance and scalability measures. The results show that the proposed benchmark is able to evaluate the behaviour of different state of the art KBS on OWL2 semantics. On the basis of the results, the end users (i.e. domain expert) would be able to select a suitable KBS appropriate for his domain.

Issues to consider in the derivation of water quality benchmarks for the protection of aquatic life.

PubMed

Schneider, Uwe

2014-01-01

While water quality benchmarks for the protection of aquatic life have been in use in some jurisdictions for several decades (USA, Canada, several European countries), more and more countries are now setting up their own national water quality benchmark development programs. In doing so, they either adopt an existing method from another jurisdiction, update on an existing approach, or develop their own new derivation method. Each approach has its own advantages and disadvantages, and many issues have to be addressed when setting up a water quality benchmark development program or when deriving a water quality benchmark. Each of these tasks requires a special expertise. They may seem simple, but are complex in their details. The intention of this paper was to provide some guidance for this process of water quality benchmark development on the program level, for the derivation methodology development, and in the actual benchmark derivation step, as well as to point out some issues (notably the inclusion of adapted populations and cryptic species and points to consider in the use of the species sensitivity distribution approach) and future opportunities (an international data repository and international collaboration in water quality benchmark development).

Benchmarking the Integration of WAVEWATCH III Results into HAZUS-MH: Preliminary Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berglund, Judith; Holland, Donald; McKellip, Rodney; Sciaudone, Jeff; Vickery, Peter; Wang, Zhanxian; Ying, Ken

2005-01-01

The report summarizes the results from the preliminary benchmarking activities associated with the use of WAVEWATCH III (WW3) results in the HAZUS-MH MR1 flood module. Project partner Applied Research Associates (ARA) is integrating the WW3 model into HAZUS. The current version of HAZUS-MH predicts loss estimates from hurricane-related coastal flooding by using values of surge only. Using WW3, wave setup can be included with surge. Loss estimates resulting from the use of surge-only and surge-plus-wave-setup were compared. This benchmarking study is preliminary because the HAZUS-MH MR1 flood module was under development at the time of the study. In addition, WW3 is not scheduled to be fully integrated with HAZUS-MH and available for public release until 2008.

Aeroelasticity Benchmark Assessment: Subsonic Fixed Wing Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Florance, Jennifer P.; Chwalowski, Pawel; Wieseman, Carol D.

2010-01-01

The fundamental technical challenge in computational aeroelasticity is the accurate prediction of unsteady aerodynamic phenomena and the effect on the aeroelastic response of a vehicle. Currently, a benchmarking standard for use in validating the accuracy of computational aeroelasticity codes does not exist. Many aeroelastic data sets have been obtained in wind-tunnel and flight testing throughout the world; however, none have been globally presented or accepted as an ideal data set. There are numerous reasons for this. One reason is that often, such aeroelastic data sets focus on the aeroelastic phenomena alone (flutter, for example) and do not contain associated information such as unsteady pressures and time-correlated structural dynamic deflections. Other available data sets focus solely on the unsteady pressures and do not address the aeroelastic phenomena. Other discrepancies can include omission of relevant data, such as flutter frequency and / or the acquisition of only qualitative deflection data. In addition to these content deficiencies, all of the available data sets present both experimental and computational technical challenges. Experimental issues include facility influences, nonlinearities beyond those being modeled, and data processing. From the computational perspective, technical challenges include modeling geometric complexities, coupling between the flow and the structure, grid issues, and boundary conditions. The Aeroelasticity Benchmark Assessment task seeks to examine the existing potential experimental data sets and ultimately choose the one that is viewed as the most suitable for computational benchmarking. An initial computational evaluation of that configuration will then be performed using the Langley-developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software FUN3D1 as part of its code validation process. In addition to the benchmarking activity, this task also includes an examination of future research directions. Researchers within the Aeroelasticity Branch will examine other experimental efforts within the Subsonic Fixed Wing (SFW) program (such as testing of the NASA Common Research Model (CRM)) and other NASA programs and assess aeroelasticity issues and research topics.

Benchmarking a Visual-Basic based multi-component one-dimensional reactive transport modeling tool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Torlapati, Jagadish; Prabhakar Clement, T.

2013-01-01

We present the details of a comprehensive numerical modeling tool, RT1D, which can be used for simulating biochemical and geochemical reactive transport problems. The code can be run within the standard Microsoft EXCEL Visual Basic platform, and it does not require any additional software tools. The code can be easily adapted by others for simulating different types of laboratory-scale reactive transport experiments. We illustrate the capabilities of the tool by solving five benchmark problems with varying levels of reaction complexity. These literature-derived benchmarks are used to highlight the versatility of the code for solving a variety of practical reactive transport problems. The benchmarks are described in detail to provide a comprehensive database, which can be used by model developers to test other numerical codes. The VBA code presented in the study is a practical tool that can be used by laboratory researchers for analyzing both batch and column datasets within an EXCEL platform.

Benchmarking In-Flight Icing Detection Products for Future Upgrades

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Politovich, M. K.; Minnis, P.; Johnson, D. B.; Wolff, C. A.; Chapman, M.; Heck, P. W.; Haggerty, J. A.

2004-01-01

This paper summarizes the results of a benchmarking exercise conducted as part of the NASA supported Advanced Satellite Aviation-Weather Products (ASAP) Program. The goal of ASAP is to increase and optimize the use of satellite data sets within the existing FAA Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) Product Development Team (PDT) structure and to transfer advanced satellite expertise to the PDTs. Currently, ASAP fosters collaborative efforts between NASA Laboratories, the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (UW-CIMSS), the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and the AWRP PDTs. This collaboration involves the testing and evaluation of existing satellite algorithms developed or proposed by AWRP teams, the introduction of new techniques and data sets to the PDTs from the satellite community, and enhanced access to new satellite data sets available through CIMSS and NASA Langley Research Center for evaluation and testing.

Quality assurance, benchmarking, assessment and mutual international recognition of qualifications.

PubMed

Hobson, R; Rolland, S; Rotgans, J; Schoonheim-Klein, M; Best, H; Chomyszyn-Gajewska, M; Dymock, D; Essop, R; Hupp, J; Kundzina, R; Love, R; Memon, R A; Moola, M; Neumann, L; Ozden, N; Roth, K; Samwel, P; Villavicencio, J; Wright, P; Harzer, W

2008-02-01

The aim of this report is to provide guidance to assist in the international convergence of quality assurance, benchmarking and assessment systems to improve dental education. Proposals are developed for mutual recognition of qualifications, to aid international movement and exchange of staff and students including and supporting developing countries. Quality assurance is the responsibility of all staff involved in dental education and involves three levels: internal, institutional and external. Benchmarking information provides a subject framework. Benchmarks are useful for a variety of purposes including design and validation of programmes, examination and review; they can also strengthen the accreditation process undertaken by professional and statutory bodies. Benchmark information can be used by institutions as part of their programme approval process, to set degree standards. The standards should be developed by the dental academic community through formal groups of experts. Assessment outcomes of student learning are a measure of the quality of the learning programme. The goal of an effective assessment strategy should be that it provides the starting point for students to adopt a positive approach to effective and competent practice, reflective and lifelong learning. All assessment methods should be evidence based or based upon research. Mutual recognition of professional qualifications means that qualifications gained in one country (the home country) are recognized in another country (the host country). It empowers movement of skilled workers, which can help resolve skills shortages within participating countries. These proposals are not intended to be either exhaustive or prescriptive; they are purely for guidance and derived from the identification of what is perceived to be 'best practice'.

Potential Deep Seated Landslide Mapping from Various Temporal Data - Benchmark, Aerial Photo, and SAR

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Kuo-Lung; Lin, Jun-Tin; Lee, Yi-Hsuan; Lin, Meei-Ling; Chen, Chao-Wei; Liao, Ray-Tang; Chi, Chung-Chi; Lin, Hsi-Hung

2016-04-01

Landslide is always not hazard until mankind development in highly potential area. The study tries to map deep seated landslide before the initiation of landslide. Study area in central Taiwan is selected and the geological condition is quite unique, which is slate. Major direction of bedding in this area is northeast and the dip ranges from 30-75 degree to southeast. Several deep seated landslides were discovered in the same side of bedding from rainfall events. The benchmarks from 2002 ~ 2009 are in this study. However, the benchmarks were measured along Highway No. 14B and the road was constructed along the peak of mountains. Taiwan located between sea plates and continental plate. The elevation of mountains is rising according to most GPS and benchmarks in the island. The same trend is discovered from benchmarks in this area. But some benchmarks are located in landslide area thus the elevation is below average and event negative. The aerial photos from 1979 to 2007 are used for orthophoto generation. The changes of land use are obvious during 30 years and enlargement of river channel is also observed in this area. Both benchmarks and aerial photos have discovered landslide potential did exist this area but how big of landslide in not easy to define currently. Thus SAR data utilization is adopted in this case. DInSAR and SBAS sar analysis are used in this research and ALOS/PALSAR from 2006 to 2010 is adopted. DInSAR analysis shows that landslide is possible mapped but the error is not easy to reduce. The error is possibly form several conditions such as vegetation, clouds, vapor, etc. To conquer the problem, time series analysis, SBAS, is adopted in this research. The result of SBAS in this area shows that large deep seated landslides are easy mapped and the accuracy of vertical displacement is reasonable.

Ethical dilemmas of a large national multi-centre study in Australia: time for some consistency.

PubMed

Driscoll, Andrea; Currey, Judy; Worrall-Carter, Linda; Stewart, Simon

2008-08-01

To examine the impact and obstacles that individual Institutional Research Ethics Committee (IRECs) had on a large-scale national multi-centre clinical audit called the National Benchmarks and Evidence-based National Clinical guidelines for Heart failure management programmes Study. Multi-centre research is commonplace in the health care system. However, IRECs continue to fail to differentiate between research and quality audit projects. The National Benchmarks and Evidence-based National Clinical guidelines for Heart failure management programmes study used an investigator-developed questionnaire concerning a clinical audit for heart failure programmes throughout Australia. Ethical guidelines developed by the National governing body of health and medical research in Australia classified the National Benchmarks and Evidence-based National Clinical guidelines for Heart failure management programmes Study as a low risk clinical audit not requiring ethical approval by IREC. Fifteen of 27 IRECs stipulated that the research proposal undergo full ethical review. None of the IRECs acknowledged: national quality assurance guidelines and recommendations nor ethics approval from other IRECs. Twelve of the 15 IRECs used different ethics application forms. Variability in the type of amendments was prolific. Lack of uniformity in ethical review processes resulted in a six- to eight-month delay in commencing the national study. Development of a national ethics application form with full ethical review by the first IREC and compulsory expedited review by subsequent IRECs would resolve issues raised in this paper. IRECs must change their ethics approval processes to one that enhances facilitation of multi-centre research which is now normative process for health services. The findings of this study highlight inconsistent ethical requirements between different IRECs. Also highlighted are the obstacles and delays that IRECs create when undertaking multi-centre clinical audits. However, in our clinical practice it is vital that clinical audits are undertaken for evaluation purposes. The findings of this study raise awareness of inconsistent ethical processes and highlight the need for expedient ethical review for clinical audits.

Recommendations for Benchmarking Preclinical Studies of Nanomedicines.

PubMed

Dawidczyk, Charlene M; Russell, Luisa M; Searson, Peter C

2015-10-01

Nanoparticle-based delivery systems provide new opportunities to overcome the limitations associated with traditional small-molecule drug therapy for cancer and to achieve both therapeutic and diagnostic functions in the same platform. Preclinical trials are generally designed to assess therapeutic potential and not to optimize the design of the delivery platform. Consequently, progress in developing design rules for cancer nanomedicines has been slow, hindering progress in the field. Despite the large number of preclinical trials, several factors restrict comparison and benchmarking of different platforms, including variability in experimental design, reporting of results, and the lack of quantitative data. To solve this problem, we review the variables involved in the design of preclinical trials and propose a protocol for benchmarking that we recommend be included in in vivo preclinical studies of drug-delivery platforms for cancer therapy. This strategy will contribute to building the scientific knowledge base that enables development of design rules and accelerates the translation of new technologies. ©2015 American Association for Cancer Research.

The EB Factory: Fundamental Stellar Astrophysics with Eclipsing Binary Stars Discovered by Kepler

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stassun, Keivan

Eclipsing binaries (EBs) are key laboratories for determining the fundamental properties of stars. EBs are therefore foundational objects for constraining stellar evolution models, which in turn are central to determinations of stellar mass functions, of exoplanet properties, and many other areas. The primary goal of this proposal is to mine the Kepler mission light curves for: (1) EBs that include a subgiant star, from which precise ages can be derived and which can thus serve as critically needed age benchmarks; and within these, (2) long-period EBs that include low-mass M stars or brown dwarfs, which are increa-singly becoming the focus of exoplanet searches, but for which there are the fewest available fundamental mass- radius-age benchmarks. A secondary goal of this proposal is to develop an end-to-end computational pipeline -- the Kepler EB Factory -- that allows automatic processing of Kepler light curves for EBs, from period finding, to object classification, to determination of EB physical properties for the most scientifically interesting EBs, and finally to accurate modeling of these EBs for detailed tests and benchmarking of theoretical stellar evolution models. We will integrate the most successful algorithms into a single, cohesive workflow environment, and apply this 'Kepler EB Factory' to the full public Kepler dataset to find and characterize new "benchmark grade" EBs, and will disseminate both the enhanced data products from this pipeline and the pipeline itself to the broader NASA science community. The proposed work responds directly to two of the defined Research Areas of the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program (ADAP), specifically Research Area #2 (Stellar Astrophysics) and Research Area #9 (Astrophysical Databases). To be clear, our primary goal is the fundamental stellar astrophysics that will be enabled by the discovery and analysis of relatively rare, benchmark-grade EBs in the Kepler dataset. At the same time, to enable this goal will require bringing a suite of extant and new custom algorithms to bear on the Kepler data, and thus our development of the Kepler EB Factory represents a value-added product that will allow the widest scientific impact of the in-formation locked within the vast reservoir of the Kepler light curves.

40 CFR 141.709 - Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Developing the disinfection profile... Cryptosporidium Disinfection Profiling and Benchmarking Requirements § 141.709 Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark. (a) Systems required to develop disinfection profiles under § 141.708 must follow the...

40 CFR 141.709 - Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Developing the disinfection profile... Cryptosporidium Disinfection Profiling and Benchmarking Requirements § 141.709 Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark. (a) Systems required to develop disinfection profiles under § 141.708 must follow the...

40 CFR 141.709 - Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Developing the disinfection profile... Cryptosporidium Disinfection Profiling and Benchmarking Requirements § 141.709 Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark. (a) Systems required to develop disinfection profiles under § 141.708 must follow the...

40 CFR 141.709 - Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Developing the disinfection profile... Cryptosporidium Disinfection Profiling and Benchmarking Requirements § 141.709 Developing the disinfection profile and benchmark. (a) Systems required to develop disinfection profiles under § 141.708 must follow the...

An Analysis of Academic Research Libraries Assessment Data: A Look at Professional Models and Benchmarking Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewin, Heather S.; Passonneau, Sarah M.

2012-01-01

This research provides the first review of publicly available assessment information found on Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members' websites. After providing an overarching review of benchmarking assessment data, and of professionally recommended assessment models, this paper examines if libraries contextualized their assessment…

The application of a Web-geographic information system for improving urban water cycle modelling.

PubMed

Mair, M; Mikovits, C; Sengthaler, M; Schöpf, M; Kinzel, H; Urich, C; Kleidorfer, M; Sitzenfrei, R; Rauch, W

2014-01-01

Research in urban water management has experienced a transition from traditional model applications to modelling water cycles as an integrated part of urban areas. This includes the interlinking of models of many research areas (e.g. urban development, socio-economy, urban water management). The integration and simulation is realized in newly developed frameworks (e.g. DynaMind and OpenMI) and often assumes a high knowledge in programming. This work presents a Web based urban water management modelling platform which simplifies the setup and usage of complex integrated models. The platform is demonstrated with a small application example on a case study within the Alpine region. The used model is a DynaMind model benchmarking the impact of newly connected catchments on the flooding behaviour of an existing combined sewer system. As a result the workflow of the user within a Web browser is demonstrated and benchmark results are shown. The presented platform hides implementation specific aspects behind Web services based technologies such that the user can focus on his main aim, which is urban water management modelling and benchmarking. Moreover, this platform offers a centralized data management, automatic software updates and access to high performance computers accessible with desktop computers and mobile devices.

Development and Validation of a High-Quality Composite Real-World Mortality Endpoint.

PubMed

Curtis, Melissa D; Griffith, Sandra D; Tucker, Melisa; Taylor, Michael D; Capra, William B; Carrigan, Gillis; Holzman, Ben; Torres, Aracelis Z; You, Paul; Arnieri, Brandon; Abernethy, Amy P

2018-05-14

To create a high-quality electronic health record (EHR)-derived mortality dataset for retrospective and prospective real-world evidence generation. Oncology EHR data, supplemented with external commercial and US Social Security Death Index data, benchmarked to the National Death Index (NDI). We developed a recent, linkable, high-quality mortality variable amalgamated from multiple data sources to supplement EHR data, benchmarked against the highest completeness U.S. mortality data, the NDI. Data quality of the mortality variable version 2.0 is reported here. For advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, sensitivity of mortality information improved from 66 percent in EHR structured data to 91 percent in the composite dataset, with high date agreement compared to the NDI. For advanced melanoma, metastatic colorectal cancer, and metastatic breast cancer, sensitivity of the final variable was 85 to 88 percent. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses showed that improving mortality data completeness minimized overestimation of survival relative to NDI-based estimates. For EHR-derived data to yield reliable real-world evidence, it needs to be of known and sufficiently high quality. Considering the impact of mortality data completeness on survival endpoints, we highlight the importance of data quality assessment and advocate benchmarking to the NDI. © 2018 The Authors. Health Services Research published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Health Research and Educational Trust.

The British Columbia Nephrologists’ Access Study (BCNAS) – a prospective, health services interventional study to develop waiting time benchmarks and reduce wait times for out-patient nephrology consultations

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Early referral and management of high-risk chronic kidney disease may prevent or delay the need for dialysis. Automatic eGFR reporting has increased demand for out-patient nephrology consultations and in some cases, prolonged queues. In Canada, a national task force suggested the development of waiting time targets, which has not been done for nephrology. Methods We sought to describe waiting time for outpatient nephrology consultations in British Columbia (BC). Data collection occurred in 2 phases: 1) Baseline Description (Jan 18-28, 2010) and 2) Post Waiting Time Benchmark-Introduction (Jan 16-27, 2012). Waiting time was defined as the interval from receipt of referral letters to assessment. Using a modified Delphi process, Nephrologists and Family Physicians (FP) developed waiting time targets for commonly referred conditions through meetings and surveys. Rules were developed to weigh-in nephrologists’, FPs’, and patients’ perspectives in order to generate waiting time benchmarks. Targets consider comorbidities, eGFR, BP and albuminuria. Referred conditions were assigned a priority score between 1-4. BC nephrologists were encouraged to centrally triage referrals to see the first available nephrologist. Waiting time benchmarks were simultaneously introduced to guide patient scheduling. A post-intervention waiting time evaluation was then repeated. Results In 2010 and 2012, 43/52 (83%) and 46/57 (81%) of BC nephrologists participated. Waiting time decreased from 98(IQR44,157) to 64(IQR21,120) days from 2010 to 2012 (p = <.001), despite no change in referral eGFR, demographics, nor number of office hrs/wk. Waiting time improved most for high priority patients. Conclusions An integrated, Provincial initiative to measure wait times, develop waiting benchmarks, and engage physicians in active waiting time management associated with improved access to nephrologists in BC. Improvements in waiting time was most marked for the highest priority patients, which suggests that benchmarks had an influence on triaging behavior. Further research is needed to determine whether this effect is sustainable. PMID:23988113

EELAB: an innovative educational resource in occupational medicine.

PubMed

Zhou, A Y; Dodman, J; Hussey, L; Sen, D; Rayner, C; Zarin, N; Agius, R

2017-07-01

Postgraduate education, training and clinical governance in occupational medicine (OM) require easily accessible yet rigorous, research and evidence-based tools based on actual clinical practice. To develop and evaluate an online resource helping physicians develop their OM skills using their own cases of work-related ill-health (WRIH). WRIH data reported by general practitioners (GPs) to The Health and Occupation Research (THOR) network were used to identify common OM clinical problems, their reported causes and management. Searches were undertaken for corresponding evidence-based and audit guidelines. A web portal entitled Electronic, Experiential, Learning, Audit and Benchmarking (EELAB) was designed to enable access to interactive resources preferably by entering data about actual cases. EELAB offered disease-specific online learning and self-assessment, self-audit of clinical management against external standards and benchmarking against their peers' practices as recorded in the research database. The resource was made available to 250 GPs and 224 occupational physicians in UK as well as postgraduate OM students for evaluation. Feedback was generally very favourable with physicians reporting their EELAB use for case-based assignments. Comments such as those suggesting a wider range of clinical conditions have guided further improvement. External peer-reviewed evaluation resulted in accreditation by the Royal College of GPs and by the Faculties of OM (FOM) of London and of Ireland. This innovative resource has been shown to achieve education, self-audit and benchmarking objectives, based on the participants' clinical practice and an extensive research database. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

PMLB: a large benchmark suite for machine learning evaluation and comparison.

PubMed

Olson, Randal S; La Cava, William; Orzechowski, Patryk; Urbanowicz, Ryan J; Moore, Jason H

2017-01-01

The selection, development, or comparison of machine learning methods in data mining can be a difficult task based on the target problem and goals of a particular study. Numerous publicly available real-world and simulated benchmark datasets have emerged from different sources, but their organization and adoption as standards have been inconsistent. As such, selecting and curating specific benchmarks remains an unnecessary burden on machine learning practitioners and data scientists. The present study introduces an accessible, curated, and developing public benchmark resource to facilitate identification of the strengths and weaknesses of different machine learning methodologies. We compare meta-features among the current set of benchmark datasets in this resource to characterize the diversity of available data. Finally, we apply a number of established machine learning methods to the entire benchmark suite and analyze how datasets and algorithms cluster in terms of performance. From this study, we find that existing benchmarks lack the diversity to properly benchmark machine learning algorithms, and there are several gaps in benchmarking problems that still need to be considered. This work represents another important step towards understanding the limitations of popular benchmarking suites and developing a resource that connects existing benchmarking standards to more diverse and efficient standards in the future.

The Development of the Children's Services Statistical Neighbour Benchmarking Model. Final Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Benton, Tom; Chamberlain, Tamsin; Wilson, Rebekah; Teeman, David

2007-01-01

In April 2006, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) commissioned the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) to conduct an independent external review in order to develop a single "statistical neighbour" model. This single model aimed to combine the key elements of the different models currently available and be…

Toward Establishing a Realistic Benchmark for Airframe Noise Research: Issues and Challenges

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Khorrami, Mehdi R.

2010-01-01

The availability of realistic benchmark configurations is essential to enable the validation of current Computational Aeroacoustic (CAA) methodologies and to further the development of new ideas and concepts that will foster the technologies of the next generation of CAA tools. The selection of a real-world configuration, the subsequent design and fabrication of an appropriate model for testing, and the acquisition of the necessarily comprehensive aeroacoustic data base are critical steps that demand great care and attention. In this paper, a brief account of the nose landing-gear configuration, being proposed jointly by NASA and the Gulfstream Aerospace Company as an airframe noise benchmark, is provided. The underlying thought processes and the resulting building block steps that were taken during the development of this benchmark case are given. Resolution of critical, yet conflicting issues is discussed - the desire to maintain geometric fidelity versus model modifications required to accommodate instrumentation; balancing model scale size versus Reynolds number effects; and time, cost, and facility availability versus important parameters like surface finish and installation effects. The decisions taken during the experimental phase of a study can significantly affect the ability of a CAA calculation to reproduce the prevalent flow conditions and associated measurements. For the nose landing gear, the most critical of such issues are highlighted and the compromises made to resolve them are discussed. The results of these compromises will be summarized by examining the positive attributes and shortcomings of this particular benchmark case.

Evolutionary Optimization of a Geometrically Refined Truss

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hull, P. V.; Tinker, M. L.; Dozier, G. V.

2007-01-01

Structural optimization is a field of research that has experienced noteworthy growth for many years. Researchers in this area have developed optimization tools to successfully design and model structures, typically minimizing mass while maintaining certain deflection and stress constraints. Numerous optimization studies have been performed to minimize mass, deflection, and stress on a benchmark cantilever truss problem. Predominantly traditional optimization theory is applied to this problem. The cross-sectional area of each member is optimized to minimize the aforementioned objectives. This Technical Publication (TP) presents a structural optimization technique that has been previously applied to compliant mechanism design. This technique demonstrates a method that combines topology optimization, geometric refinement, finite element analysis, and two forms of evolutionary computation: genetic algorithms and differential evolution to successfully optimize a benchmark structural optimization problem. A nontraditional solution to the benchmark problem is presented in this TP, specifically a geometrically refined topological solution. The design process begins with an alternate control mesh formulation, multilevel geometric smoothing operation, and an elastostatic structural analysis. The design process is wrapped in an evolutionary computing optimization toolset.

Collected notes from the Benchmarks and Metrics Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Drummond, Mark E.; Kaelbling, Leslie P.; Rosenschein, Stanley J.

1991-01-01

In recent years there has been a proliferation of proposals in the artificial intelligence (AI) literature for integrated agent architectures. Each architecture offers an approach to the general problem of constructing an integrated agent. Unfortunately, the ways in which one architecture might be considered better than another are not always clear. There has been a growing realization that many of the positive and negative aspects of an architecture become apparent only when experimental evaluation is performed and that to progress as a discipline, we must develop rigorous experimental methods. In addition to the intrinsic intellectual interest of experimentation, rigorous performance evaluation of systems is also a crucial practical concern to our research sponsors. DARPA, NASA, and AFOSR (among others) are actively searching for better ways of experimentally evaluating alternative approaches to building intelligent agents. One tool for experimental evaluation involves testing systems on benchmark tasks in order to assess their relative performance. As part of a joint DARPA and NASA funded project, NASA-Ames and Teleos Research are carrying out a research effort to establish a set of benchmark tasks and evaluation metrics by which the performance of agent architectures may be determined. As part of this project, we held a workshop on Benchmarks and Metrics at the NASA Ames Research Center on June 25, 1990. The objective of the workshop was to foster early discussion on this important topic. We did not achieve a consensus, nor did we expect to. Collected here is some of the information that was exchanged at the workshop. Given here is an outline of the workshop, a list of the participants, notes taken on the white-board during open discussions, position papers/notes from some participants, and copies of slides used in the presentations.

Availability of Neutronics Benchmarks in the ICSBEP and IRPhEP Handbooks for Computational Tools Testing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bess, John D.; Briggs, J. Blair; Ivanova, Tatiana

2017-02-01

In the past several decades, numerous experiments have been performed worldwide to support reactor operations, measurements, design, and nuclear safety. Those experiments represent an extensive international investment in infrastructure, expertise, and cost, representing significantly valuable resources of data supporting past, current, and future research activities. Those valuable assets represent the basis for recording, development, and validation of our nuclear methods and integral nuclear data [1]. The loss of these experimental data, which has occurred all too much in the recent years, is tragic. The high cost to repeat many of these measurements can be prohibitive, if not impossible, to surmount.more » Two international projects were developed, and are under the direction of the Organisation for Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD NEA) to address the challenges of not just data preservation, but evaluation of the data to determine its merit for modern and future use. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was established to identify and verify comprehensive critical benchmark data sets; evaluate the data, including quantification of biases and uncertainties; compile the data and calculations in a standardized format; and formally document the effort into a single source of verified benchmark data [2]. Similarly, the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was established to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data, including separate or special effects data for nuclear energy and technology applications [3]. Annually, contributors from around the world continue to collaborate in the evaluation and review of select benchmark experiments for preservation and dissemination. The extensively peer-reviewed integral benchmark data can then be utilized to support nuclear design and safety analysts to validate the analytical tools, methods, and data needed for next-generation reactor design, safety analysis requirements, and all other front- and back-end activities contributing to the overall nuclear fuel cycle where quality neutronics calculations are paramount.« less

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Madhavan, Raj; Messina, Elena; Tunstel, Edward

To design and develop capable, dependable, and affordable intelligent systems, their performance must be measurable. Scientific methodologies for standardization and benchmarking are crucial for quantitatively evaluating the performance of emerging robotic and intelligent systems technologies. There is currently no accepted standard for quantitatively measuring the performance of these systems against user-defined requirements; and furthermore, there is no consensus on what objective evaluation procedures need to be followed to understand the performance of these systems. The lack of reproducible and repeatable test methods has precluded researchers working towards a common goal from exchanging and communicating results, inter-comparing system performance, and leveragingmore » previous work that could otherwise avoid duplication and expedite technology transfer. Currently, this lack of cohesion in the community hinders progress in many domains, such as manufacturing, service, healthcare, and security. By providing the research community with access to standardized tools, reference data sets, and open source libraries of solutions, researchers and consumers will be able to evaluate the cost and benefits associated with intelligent systems and associated technologies. In this vein, the edited book volume addresses performance evaluation and metrics for intelligent systems, in general, while emphasizing the need and solutions for standardized methods. To the knowledge of the editors, there is not a single book on the market that is solely dedicated to the subject of performance evaluation and benchmarking of intelligent systems. Even books that address this topic do so only marginally or are out of date. The research work presented in this volume fills this void by drawing from the experiences and insights of experts gained both through theoretical development and practical implementation of intelligent systems in a variety of diverse application domains. The book presents a detailed and coherent picture of state-of-the-art, recent developments, and further research areas in intelligent systems.« less

A decade of aeroacoustic research at NASA Ames Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmitz, Frederic H.; Mosher, M.; Kitaplioglu, Cahit; Cross, J.; Chang, I.

1988-01-01

The rotorcraft aeroacoustic research accomplishments of the past decade at Ames Research Center are reviewed. These include an extensive sequence of flight, ground, and wind tunnel tests that have utilized the facilities to guide and pioneer theoretical research. Many of these experiments were of benchmark quality. The experiments were used to isolate the inadequacies of linear theory in high-speed impulsive noise research, have led to the development of theoretical approaches, and have guided the emerging discipline of computational fluid dynamics to rotorcraft aeroacoustic problems.

2-D Circulation Control Airfoil Benchmark Experiments Intended for CFD Code Validation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Englar, Robert J.; Jones, Gregory S.; Allan, Brian G.; Lin, Johb C.

2009-01-01

A current NASA Research Announcement (NRA) project being conducted by Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) personnel and NASA collaborators includes the development of Circulation Control (CC) blown airfoils to improve subsonic aircraft high-lift and cruise performance. The emphasis of this program is the development of CC active flow control concepts for both high-lift augmentation, drag control, and cruise efficiency. A collaboration in this project includes work by NASA research engineers, whereas CFD validation and flow physics experimental research are part of NASA s systematic approach to developing design and optimization tools for CC applications to fixed-wing aircraft. The design space for CESTOL type aircraft is focusing on geometries that depend on advanced flow control technologies that include Circulation Control aerodynamics. The ability to consistently predict advanced aircraft performance requires improvements in design tools to include these advanced concepts. Validation of these tools will be based on experimental methods applied to complex flows that go beyond conventional aircraft modeling techniques. This paper focuses on recent/ongoing benchmark high-lift experiments and CFD efforts intended to provide 2-D CFD validation data sets related to NASA s Cruise Efficient Short Take Off and Landing (CESTOL) study. Both the experimental data and related CFD predictions are discussed.

Benchmark Calibration Tests Completed for Stirling Convertor Heater Head Life Assessment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krause, David L.; Halford, Gary R.; Bowman, Randy R.

2005-01-01

A major phase of benchmark testing has been completed at the NASA Glenn Research Center (http://www.nasa.gov/glenn/), where a critical component of the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) is undergoing extensive experimentation to aid the development of an analytical life-prediction methodology. Two special-purpose test rigs subjected SRG heater-head pressure-vessel test articles to accelerated creep conditions, using the standard design temperatures to stay within the wall material s operating creep-response regime, but increasing wall stresses up to 7 times over the design point. This resulted in well-controlled "ballooning" of the heater-head hot end. The test plan was developed to provide critical input to analytical parameters in a reasonable period of time.

Benchmark Evaluation of Start-Up and Zero-Power Measurements at the High-Temperature Engineering Test Reactor

DOE PAGES

Bess, John D.; Fujimoto, Nozomu

2014-10-09

Benchmark models were developed to evaluate six cold-critical and two warm-critical, zero-power measurements of the HTTR. Additional measurements of a fully-loaded subcritical configuration, core excess reactivity, shutdown margins, six isothermal temperature coefficients, and axial reaction-rate distributions were also evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments. Insufficient information is publicly available to develop finely-detailed models of the HTTR as much of the design information is still proprietary. However, the uncertainties in the benchmark models are judged to be of sufficient magnitude to encompass any biases and bias uncertainties incurred through the simplification process used to develop the benchmark models. Dominant uncertainties in themore » experimental keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the impurity content of the various graphite blocks that comprise the HTTR. Monte Carlo calculations of keff are between approximately 0.9 % and 2.7 % greater than the benchmark values. Reevaluation of the HTTR models as additional information becomes available could improve the quality of this benchmark and possibly reduce the computational biases. High-quality characterization of graphite impurities would significantly improve the quality of the HTTR benchmark assessment. Simulation of the other reactor physics measurements are in good agreement with the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments.« less

Mobility Research at TARDEC (Briefing Charts)

DTIC Science & Technology

2015-03-10

UWM UIC UWM UWM Gap Collaboration 4 ARC & RIF Fund: $255k+$250K New ANCF shell element Fiber -reinforced composite rubber Validation and benchmark 2013...U.S. ARMY TANK AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND ENGINEERING CENTER Mobility Research at TARDEC Dr. P. Jayakumar, S. Arepally Analytics 1...t s 5 9 - - - -3 t s 7 98 - - - . . . .t s Drucker-Prager Elasto- Plastic Soil Elastic Soil 6 A Physics-Based High Performance

40 CFR 141.540 - Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Who has to develop a disinfection... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.540 Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark? If you are a subpart H system required to develop a disinfection profile under §§ 141...

40 CFR 141.540 - Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 24 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Who has to develop a disinfection... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.540 Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark? If you are a subpart H system required to develop a disinfection profile under §§ 141...

40 CFR 141.540 - Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 23 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Who has to develop a disinfection... Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.540 Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark? If you are a subpart H system required to develop a disinfection profile under §§ 141...

Student Learning: Education's Field of Dreams.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blackwell, Peggy L.

2003-01-01

Discusses seven research-based benchmarks providing a framework for the student-learning-focused reform of teacher education: knowledge and understanding based on previous experience, usable content knowledge, transfer of learning/the learning context, strategic thinking, motivation and affect, development and individual differences, and standards…

Towards Systematic Benchmarking of Climate Model Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gleckler, P. J.

2014-12-01

The process by which climate models are evaluated has evolved substantially over the past decade, with the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) serving as a centralizing activity for coordinating model experimentation and enabling research. Scientists with a broad spectrum of expertise have contributed to the CMIP model evaluation process, resulting in many hundreds of publications that have served as a key resource for the IPCC process. For several reasons, efforts are now underway to further systematize some aspects of the model evaluation process. First, some model evaluation can now be considered routine and should not require "re-inventing the wheel" or a journal publication simply to update results with newer models. Second, the benefit of CMIP research to model development has not been optimal because the publication of results generally takes several years and is usually not reproducible for benchmarking newer model versions. And third, there are now hundreds of model versions and many thousands of simulations, but there is no community-based mechanism for routinely monitoring model performance changes. An important change in the design of CMIP6 can help address these limitations. CMIP6 will include a small set standardized experiments as an ongoing exercise (CMIP "DECK": ongoing Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima), so that modeling groups can submit them at any time and not be overly constrained by deadlines. In this presentation, efforts to establish routine benchmarking of existing and future CMIP simulations will be described. To date, some benchmarking tools have been made available to all CMIP modeling groups to enable them to readily compare with CMIP5 simulations during the model development process. A natural extension of this effort is to make results from all CMIP simulations widely available, including the results from newer models as soon as the simulations become available for research. Making the results from routine performance tests readily accessible will help advance a more transparent model evaluation process.

Technical Report: Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for

Science.gov Websites

Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar Photovoltaics with Energy Storage Q1 2016 Installed Cost Benchmarks and Deployment Barriers for Residential Solar with Energy Storage Researchers from NREL published a report that provides detailed component and system-level cost breakdowns for

Practical Considerations when Using Benchmarking for Accountability in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Achtemeier, Sue D.; Simpson, Ronald D.

2005-01-01

The qualitative study on which this article is based examined key individuals' perceptions, both within a research university community and beyond in its external governing board, of how to improve benchmarking as an accountability method in higher education. Differing understanding of benchmarking revealed practical implications for using it as…

Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking | Transportation

Science.gov Websites

studies are as follows: Characterize the thermal resistance and conductivity of various layers in the Research | NREL Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking Electric-Drive Vehicle Thermal Performance Benchmarking A photo of the internal components of an automotive inverter. NREL

A review on the benchmarking concept in Malaysian construction safety performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishak, Nurfadzillah; Azizan, Muhammad Azizi

2018-02-01

Construction industry is one of the major industries that propels Malaysia's economy in highly contributes to our nation's GDP growth, yet the high fatality rates on construction sites have caused concern among safety practitioners and the stakeholders. Hence, there is a need of benchmarking in performance of Malaysia's construction industry especially in terms of safety. This concept can create a fertile ground for ideas, but only in a receptive environment, organization that share good practices and compare their safety performance against other benefit most to establish improvement in safety culture. This research was conducted to study the awareness important, evaluate current practice and improvement, and also identify the constraint in implement of benchmarking on safety performance in our industry. Additionally, interviews with construction professionals were come out with different views on this concept. Comparison has been done to show the different understanding of benchmarking approach and how safety performance can be benchmarked. But, it's viewed as one mission, which to evaluate objectives identified through benchmarking that will improve the organization's safety performance. Finally, the expected result from this research is to help Malaysia's construction industry implement best practice in safety performance management through the concept of benchmarking.

Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation – a benchmark of computational metagenomics software

PubMed Central

Sczyrba, Alexander; Hofmann, Peter; Belmann, Peter; Koslicki, David; Janssen, Stefan; Dröge, Johannes; Gregor, Ivan; Majda, Stephan; Fiedler, Jessika; Dahms, Eik; Bremges, Andreas; Fritz, Adrian; Garrido-Oter, Ruben; Jørgensen, Tue Sparholt; Shapiro, Nicole; Blood, Philip D.; Gurevich, Alexey; Bai, Yang; Turaev, Dmitrij; DeMaere, Matthew Z.; Chikhi, Rayan; Nagarajan, Niranjan; Quince, Christopher; Meyer, Fernando; Balvočiūtė, Monika; Hansen, Lars Hestbjerg; Sørensen, Søren J.; Chia, Burton K. H.; Denis, Bertrand; Froula, Jeff L.; Wang, Zhong; Egan, Robert; Kang, Dongwan Don; Cook, Jeffrey J.; Deltel, Charles; Beckstette, Michael; Lemaitre, Claire; Peterlongo, Pierre; Rizk, Guillaume; Lavenier, Dominique; Wu, Yu-Wei; Singer, Steven W.; Jain, Chirag; Strous, Marc; Klingenberg, Heiner; Meinicke, Peter; Barton, Michael; Lingner, Thomas; Lin, Hsin-Hung; Liao, Yu-Chieh; Silva, Genivaldo Gueiros Z.; Cuevas, Daniel A.; Edwards, Robert A.; Saha, Surya; Piro, Vitor C.; Renard, Bernhard Y.; Pop, Mihai; Klenk, Hans-Peter; Göker, Markus; Kyrpides, Nikos C.; Woyke, Tanja; Vorholt, Julia A.; Schulze-Lefert, Paul; Rubin, Edward M.; Darling, Aaron E.; Rattei, Thomas; McHardy, Alice C.

2018-01-01

In metagenome analysis, computational methods for assembly, taxonomic profiling and binning are key components facilitating downstream biological data interpretation. However, a lack of consensus about benchmarking datasets and evaluation metrics complicates proper performance assessment. The Critical Assessment of Metagenome Interpretation (CAMI) challenge has engaged the global developer community to benchmark their programs on datasets of unprecedented complexity and realism. Benchmark metagenomes were generated from ~700 newly sequenced microorganisms and ~600 novel viruses and plasmids, including genomes with varying degrees of relatedness to each other and to publicly available ones and representing common experimental setups. Across all datasets, assembly and genome binning programs performed well for species represented by individual genomes, while performance was substantially affected by the presence of related strains. Taxonomic profiling and binning programs were proficient at high taxonomic ranks, with a notable performance decrease below the family level. Parameter settings substantially impacted performances, underscoring the importance of program reproducibility. While highlighting current challenges in computational metagenomics, the CAMI results provide a roadmap for software selection to answer specific research questions. PMID:28967888

Structural Benchmark Creep Testing for Microcast MarM-247 Advanced Stirling Convertor E2 Heater Head Test Article SN18

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krause, David L.; Brewer, Ethan J.; Pawlik, Ralph

2013-01-01

This report provides test methodology details and qualitative results for the first structural benchmark creep test of an Advanced Stirling Convertor (ASC) heater head of ASC-E2 design heritage. The test article was recovered from a flight-like Microcast MarM-247 heater head specimen previously used in helium permeability testing. The test article was utilized for benchmark creep test rig preparation, wall thickness and diametral laser scan hardware metrological developments, and induction heater custom coil experiments. In addition, a benchmark creep test was performed, terminated after one week when through-thickness cracks propagated at thermocouple weld locations. Following this, it was used to develop a unique temperature measurement methodology using contact thermocouples, thereby enabling future benchmark testing to be performed without the use of conventional welded thermocouples, proven problematic for the alloy. This report includes an overview of heater head structural benchmark creep testing, the origin of this particular test article, test configuration developments accomplished using the test article, creep predictions for its benchmark creep test, qualitative structural benchmark creep test results, and a short summary.

Interactive Business Development, Capturing Business Knowledge and Practice: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKelvie, Gregor; Dotsika, Fefie; Patrick, Keith

2007-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to follow the planning and development of MapaWiki, a Knowledge Management System for Mapa, an independent research company that specialises in competitor benchmarking. Starting with the standard requirements to capture, store and share information and knowledge, a system was sought that would allow growth and…

AR, HEA and AAS in Rural Development Projects--Benchmarking towards the Best Processes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westermarck, Harri

In most countries, agricultural research (AR), institutions of higher education in agriculture (HEA), and agricultural advisory services (AAS) function as separate agencies. So far, in most countries, AR, HEA, and AAS have not had a common vision for rural development. In Finland, domination of agricultural production in Finland has led to a lack…

Toward an Understanding of People Management Issues in SMEs: a South-Eastern European Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szamosi, Leslie T.; Duxbury, Linda; Higgins, Chris

2004-01-01

The focus of this paper is on developing an understanding, and benchmarking, human resource management HRM issues in small and medium enterprises SMEs in South-Eastern Europe. The importance of SMEs in helping transition-based economies develop is critical, but at the same time the research indicates that the movement toward westernized business…

Creatively Exploring the Future. Proceedings of the Annual National Research Conference on Human Resource Development (2nd, College Station, Texas, March 25-26, 1994).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Texas A and M Univ., College Station. Dept. of Educational Human Resource Development.

This document contains 21 papers: "Benchmarking Training--The Road to Continuous Improvement" (Bolin); "Systematic Mentoring: A Crucial Addition to Leadership Development" [abstract only] (Brennan, Pevoto); "Monkey Wrenches in the Team Clockwork" (Daman); "Multiculturalism: Curriculum and Practice" (Dean et al.); "Personal Computer Training…

Using Generalized Additive Modeling to Empirically Identify Thresholds within the ITERS in Relation to Toddlers' Cognitive Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setodji, Claude Messan; Le, Vi-Nhuan; Schaack, Diana

2013-01-01

Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints,…

Performance of Landslide-HySEA tsunami model for NTHMP benchmarking validation process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macias, Jorge

2017-04-01

In its FY2009 Strategic Plan, the NTHMP required that all numerical tsunami inundation models be verified as accurate and consistent through a model benchmarking process. This was completed in 2011, but only for seismic tsunami sources and in a limited manner for idealized solid underwater landslides. Recent work by various NTHMP states, however, has shown that landslide tsunami hazard may be dominant along significant parts of the US coastline, as compared to hazards from other tsunamigenic sources. To perform the above-mentioned validation process, a set of candidate benchmarks were proposed. These benchmarks are based on a subset of available laboratory date sets for solid slide experiments and deformable slide experiments, and include both submarine and subaerial slides. A benchmark based on a historic field event (Valdez, AK, 1964) close the list of proposed benchmarks. The Landslide-HySEA model has participated in the workshop that was organized at Texas A&M University - Galveston, on January 9-11, 2017. The aim of this presentation is to show some of the numerical results obtained for Landslide-HySEA in the framework of this benchmarking validation/verification effort. Acknowledgements. This research has been partially supported by the Junta de Andalucía research project TESELA (P11-RNM7069), the Spanish Government Research project SIMURISK (MTM2015-70490-C02-01-R) and Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. The GPU computations were performed at the Unit of Numerical Methods (University of Malaga).

Benchmarks and Quality Assurance for Online Course Development in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Hong

2008-01-01

As online education has entered the main stream of the U.S. higher education, quality assurance in online course development has become a critical topic in distance education. This short article summarizes the major benchmarks related to online course development, listing and comparing the benchmarks of the National Education Association (NEA),…

A benchmarking tool to evaluate computer tomography perfusion infarct core predictions against a DWI standard.

PubMed

Cereda, Carlo W; Christensen, Søren; Campbell, Bruce Cv; Mishra, Nishant K; Mlynash, Michael; Levi, Christopher; Straka, Matus; Wintermark, Max; Bammer, Roland; Albers, Gregory W; Parsons, Mark W; Lansberg, Maarten G

2016-10-01

Differences in research methodology have hampered the optimization of Computer Tomography Perfusion (CTP) for identification of the ischemic core. We aim to optimize CTP core identification using a novel benchmarking tool. The benchmarking tool consists of an imaging library and a statistical analysis algorithm to evaluate the performance of CTP. The tool was used to optimize and evaluate an in-house developed CTP-software algorithm. Imaging data of 103 acute stroke patients were included in the benchmarking tool. Median time from stroke onset to CT was 185 min (IQR 180-238), and the median time between completion of CT and start of MRI was 36 min (IQR 25-79). Volumetric accuracy of the CTP-ROIs was optimal at an rCBF threshold of <38%; at this threshold, the mean difference was 0.3 ml (SD 19.8 ml), the mean absolute difference was 14.3 (SD 13.7) ml, and CTP was 67% sensitive and 87% specific for identification of DWI positive tissue voxels. The benchmarking tool can play an important role in optimizing CTP software as it provides investigators with a novel method to directly compare the performance of alternative CTP software packages. © The Author(s) 2015.

Reference Solutions for Benchmark Turbulent Flows in Three Dimensions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diskin, Boris; Thomas, James L.; Pandya, Mohagna J.; Rumsey, Christopher L.

2016-01-01

A grid convergence study is performed to establish benchmark solutions for turbulent flows in three dimensions (3D) in support of turbulence-model verification campaign at the Turbulence Modeling Resource (TMR) website. The three benchmark cases are subsonic flows around a 3D bump and a hemisphere-cylinder configuration and a supersonic internal flow through a square duct. Reference solutions are computed for Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes equations with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model using a linear eddy-viscosity model for the external flows and a nonlinear eddy-viscosity model based on a quadratic constitutive relation for the internal flow. The study involves three widely-used practical computational fluid dynamics codes developed and supported at NASA Langley Research Center: FUN3D, USM3D, and CFL3D. Reference steady-state solutions computed with these three codes on families of consistently refined grids are presented. Grid-to-grid and code-to-code variations are described in detail.

Facility Energy Performance Benchmarking in a Data-Scarce Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-08-01

environment, and analyze occupant-, system-, and component-level faults contributing to energy in- efficiency. A methodology for developing DoD-specific...Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDTE) Program to develop an intelligent framework, encompassing methodology and model- ing, that...energy performers by installation, climate zone, and other criteria. A methodology for creating the DoD-specific EUIs would be an important part of a

The NAS parallel benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, David (Editor); Barton, John (Editor); Lasinski, Thomas (Editor); Simon, Horst (Editor)

1993-01-01

A new set of benchmarks was developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers. These benchmarks consist of a set of kernels, the 'Parallel Kernels,' and a simulated application benchmark. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large scale computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification - all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

Constructing Benchmark Databases and Protocols for Medical Image Analysis: Diabetic Retinopathy

PubMed Central

Kauppi, Tomi; Kämäräinen, Joni-Kristian; Kalesnykiene, Valentina; Sorri, Iiris; Uusitalo, Hannu; Kälviäinen, Heikki

2013-01-01

We address the performance evaluation practices for developing medical image analysis methods, in particular, how to establish and share databases of medical images with verified ground truth and solid evaluation protocols. Such databases support the development of better algorithms, execution of profound method comparisons, and, consequently, technology transfer from research laboratories to clinical practice. For this purpose, we propose a framework consisting of reusable methods and tools for the laborious task of constructing a benchmark database. We provide a software tool for medical image annotation helping to collect class label, spatial span, and expert's confidence on lesions and a method to appropriately combine the manual segmentations from multiple experts. The tool and all necessary functionality for method evaluation are provided as public software packages. As a case study, we utilized the framework and tools to establish the DiaRetDB1 V2.1 database for benchmarking diabetic retinopathy detection algorithms. The database contains a set of retinal images, ground truth based on information from multiple experts, and a baseline algorithm for the detection of retinopathy lesions. PMID:23956787

The Earthquake‐Source Inversion Validation (SIV) Project

USGS Publications Warehouse

Mai, P. Martin; Schorlemmer, Danijel; Page, Morgan T.; Ampuero, Jean-Paul; Asano, Kimiyuki; Causse, Mathieu; Custodio, Susana; Fan, Wenyuan; Festa, Gaetano; Galis, Martin; Gallovic, Frantisek; Imperatori, Walter; Käser, Martin; Malytskyy, Dmytro; Okuwaki, Ryo; Pollitz, Fred; Passone, Luca; Razafindrakoto, Hoby N. T.; Sekiguchi, Haruko; Song, Seok Goo; Somala, Surendra N.; Thingbaijam, Kiran K. S.; Twardzik, Cedric; van Driel, Martin; Vyas, Jagdish C.; Wang, Rongjiang; Yagi, Yuji; Zielke, Olaf

2016-01-01

Finite‐fault earthquake source inversions infer the (time‐dependent) displacement on the rupture surface from geophysical data. The resulting earthquake source models document the complexity of the rupture process. However, multiple source models for the same earthquake, obtained by different research teams, often exhibit remarkable dissimilarities. To address the uncertainties in earthquake‐source inversion methods and to understand strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches used, the Source Inversion Validation (SIV) project conducts a set of forward‐modeling exercises and inversion benchmarks. In this article, we describe the SIV strategy, the initial benchmarks, and current SIV results. Furthermore, we apply statistical tools for quantitative waveform comparison and for investigating source‐model (dis)similarities that enable us to rank the solutions, and to identify particularly promising source inversion approaches. All SIV exercises (with related data and descriptions) and statistical comparison tools are available via an online collaboration platform, and we encourage source modelers to use the SIV benchmarks for developing and testing new methods. We envision that the SIV efforts will lead to new developments for tackling the earthquake‐source imaging problem.

Benchmarking study of corporate research management and planning practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McIrvine, Edward C.

1992-05-01

During 1983-84, Xerox Corporation was undergoing a change in corporate style through a process of training and altered behavior known as Leadership Through Quality. One tenet of Leadership Through Quality was benchmarking, a procedure whereby all units of the corporation were asked to compare their operation with the outside world. As a part of the first wave of benchmark studies, Xerox Corporate Research Group studied the processes of research management, technology transfer, and research planning in twelve American and Japanese companies. The approach taken was to separate `research yield' and `research productivity' (as defined by Richard Foster) and to seek information about how these companies sought to achieve high- quality results in these two parameters. The most significant findings include the influence of company culture, two different possible research missions (an innovation resource and an information resource), and the importance of systematic personal interaction between sources and targets of technology transfer.

Benchmarking as a Global Strategy for Improving Instruction in Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clark, Karen L.

This paper explores the concept of benchmarking in institutional research, a comparative analysis methodology designed to help colleges and universities increase their educational quality and delivery systems. The primary purpose of benchmarking is to compare an institution to its competitors in order to improve the product (in this case…

Benchmarking in Czech Higher Education: The Case of Schools of Economics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Placek, Michal; Ochrana, František; Pucek, Milan

2015-01-01

This article describes the use of benchmarking in universities in the Czech Republic and academics' experiences with it. It is based on research conducted among academics from economics schools in Czech public and private universities. The results identified several issues regarding the utilisation and understanding of benchmarking in the Czech…

Educating Next Generation Nuclear Criticality Safety Engineers at the Idaho National Laboratory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

J. D. Bess; J. B. Briggs; A. S. Garcia

2011-09-01

One of the challenges in educating our next generation of nuclear safety engineers is the limitation of opportunities to receive significant experience or hands-on training prior to graduation. Such training is generally restricted to on-the-job-training before this new engineering workforce can adequately provide assessment of nuclear systems and establish safety guidelines. Participation in the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) can provide students and young professionals the opportunity to gain experience and enhance critical engineering skills. The ICSBEP and IRPhEP publish annual handbooks that contain evaluations of experiments along withmore » summarized experimental data and peer-reviewed benchmark specifications to support the validation of neutronics codes, nuclear cross-section data, and the validation of reactor designs. Participation in the benchmark process not only benefits those who use these Handbooks within the international community, but provides the individual with opportunities for professional development, networking with an international community of experts, and valuable experience to be used in future employment. Traditionally students have participated in benchmarking activities via internships at national laboratories, universities, or companies involved with the ICSBEP and IRPhEP programs. Additional programs have been developed to facilitate the nuclear education of students while participating in the benchmark projects. These programs include coordination with the Center for Space Nuclear Research (CSNR) Next Degree Program, the Collaboration with the Department of Energy Idaho Operations Office to train nuclear and criticality safety engineers, and student evaluations as the basis for their Master's thesis in nuclear engineering.« less

Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McIlvaine, Janet; Chandra, Subrato; Barkaszi, Stephen

This final report summarizes the work conducted by the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (www.baihp.org) for the period 9/1/99-6/30/06. BAIHP is led by the Florida Solar Energy Center of the University of Central Florida and focuses on factory built housing. In partnership with over 50 factory and site builders, work was performed in two main areas--research and technical assistance. In the research area--through site visits in over 75 problem homes, we discovered the prime causes of moisture problems in some manufactured homes and our industry partners adopted our solutions to nearly eliminate this vexing problem. Through testing conducted in overmore » two dozen housing factories of six factory builders we documented the value of leak free duct design and construction which was embraced by our industry partners and implemented in all the thousands of homes they built. Through laboratory test facilities and measurements in real homes we documented the merits of 'cool roof' technologies and developed an innovative night sky radiative cooling concept currently being tested. We patented an energy efficient condenser fan design, documented energy efficient home retrofit strategies after hurricane damage, developed improved specifications for federal procurement for future temporary housing, compared the Building America benchmark to HERS Index and IECC 2006, developed a toolkit for improving the accuracy and speed of benchmark calculations, monitored the field performance of over a dozen prototype homes and initiated research on the effectiveness of occupancy feedback in reducing household energy use. In the technical assistance area we provided systems engineering analysis, conducted training, testing and commissioning that have resulted in over 128,000 factory built and over 5,000 site built homes which are saving their owners over $17,000,000 annually in energy bills. These include homes built by Palm Harbor Homes, Fleetwood, Southern Energy Homes, Cavalier and the manufacturers participating in the Northwest Energy Efficient Manufactured Home program. We worked with over two dozen Habitat for Humanity affiliates and helped them build over 700 Energy Star or near Energy Star homes. We have provided technical assistance to several show homes constructed for the International builders show in Orlando, FL and assisted with other prototype homes in cold climates that save 40% over the benchmark reference. In the Gainesville Fl area we have several builders that are consistently producing 15 to 30 homes per month in several subdivisions that meet the 30% benchmark savings goal. We have contributed to the 2006 DOE Joule goals by providing two community case studies meeting the 30% benchmark goal in marine climates.« less

Key performance indicators to benchmark hospital information systems - a delphi study.

PubMed

Hübner-Bloder, G; Ammenwerth, E

2009-01-01

To identify the key performance indicators for hospital information systems (HIS) that can be used for HIS benchmarking. A Delphi survey with one qualitative and two quantitative rounds. Forty-four HIS experts from health care IT practice and academia participated in all three rounds. Seventy-seven performance indicators were identified and organized into eight categories: technical quality, software quality, architecture and interface quality, IT vendor quality, IT support and IT department quality, workflow support quality, IT outcome quality, and IT costs. The highest ranked indicators are related to clinical workflow support and user satisfaction. Isolated technical indicators or cost indicators were not seen as useful. The experts favored an interdisciplinary group of all the stakeholders, led by hospital management, to conduct the HIS benchmarking. They proposed benchmarking activities both in regular (annual) intervals as well as at defined events (for example after IT introduction). Most of the experts stated that in their institutions no HIS benchmarking activities are being performed at the moment. In the context of IT governance, IT benchmarking is gaining importance in the healthcare area. The found indicators reflect the view of health care IT professionals and researchers. Research is needed to further validate and operationalize key performance indicators, to provide an IT benchmarking framework, and to provide open repositories for a comparison of the HIS benchmarks of different hospitals.

Acoustic Source Bearing Estimation (ASBE) computer program development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiese, Michael R.

1987-01-01

A new bearing estimation algorithm (Acoustic Source Analysis Technique - ASAT) and an acoustic analysis computer program (Acoustic Source Bearing Estimation - ASBE) are described, which were developed by Computer Sciences Corporation for NASA Langley Research Center. The ASBE program is used by the Acoustics Division/Applied Acoustics Branch and the Instrument Research Division/Electro-Mechanical Instrumentation Branch to analyze acoustic data and estimate the azimuths from which the source signals radiated. Included are the input and output from a benchmark test case.

Benchmarking progress in tackling the challenges of intellectual property, and access to medicines in developing countries.

PubMed Central

Musungu, Sisule F.

2006-01-01

The impact of intellectual property protection in the pharmaceutical sector on developing countries has been a central issue in the fierce debate during the past 10 years in a number of international fora, particularly the World Trade Organization (WTO) and WHO. The debate centres on whether the intellectual property system is: (1) providing sufficient incentives for research and development into medicines for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries; and (2) restricting access to existing medicines for these countries. The Doha Declaration was adopted at WTO in 2001 and the Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health was established at WHO in 2004, but their respective contributions to tackling intellectual property-related challenges are disputed. Objective parameters are needed to measure whether a particular series of actions, events, decisions or processes contribute to progress in this area. This article proposes six possible benchmarks for intellectual property-related challenges with regard to the development of medicines and ensuring access to medicines in developing countries. PMID:16710545

Optimized selection of benchmark test parameters for image watermark algorithms based on Taguchi methods and corresponding influence on design decisions for real-world applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodriguez, Tony F.; Cushman, David A.

2003-06-01

With the growing commercialization of watermarking techniques in various application scenarios it has become increasingly important to quantify the performance of watermarking products. The quantification of relative merits of various products is not only essential in enabling further adoption of the technology by society as a whole, but will also drive the industry to develop testing plans/methodologies to ensure quality and minimize cost (to both vendors & customers.) While the research community understands the theoretical need for a publicly available benchmarking system to quantify performance, there has been less discussion on the practical application of these systems. By providing a standard set of acceptance criteria, benchmarking systems can dramatically increase the quality of a particular watermarking solution, validating the product performances if they are used efficiently and frequently during the design process. In this paper we describe how to leverage specific design of experiments techniques to increase the quality of a watermarking scheme, to be used with the benchmark tools being developed by the Ad-Hoc Watermark Verification Group. A Taguchi Loss Function is proposed for an application and orthogonal arrays used to isolate optimal levels for a multi-factor experimental situation. Finally, the results are generalized to a population of cover works and validated through an exhaustive test.

Assessment of Web-Based Authentication Methods in the U.S.: Comparing E-Learning Systems to Internet Healthcare Information Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattord, Herbert J.

2012-01-01

Organizations continue to rely on password-based authentication methods to control access to many Web-based systems. This research study developed a benchmarking instrument intended to assess authentication methods used in Web-based information systems (IS). It developed an Authentication Method System Index (AMSI) to analyze collected data from…

Combustion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bulzan, Dan

2007-01-01

An overview of the emissions related research being conducted as part of the Fundamental Aeronautics Subsonics Fixed Wing Project is presented. The overview includes project metrics, milestones, and descriptions of major research areas. The overview also includes information on some of the emissions research being conducted under NASA Research Announcements. Objective: Development of comprehensive detailed and reduced kinetic mechanisms of jet fuels for chemically-reacting flow modeling. Scientific Challenges: 1) Developing experimental facilities capable of handling higher hydrocarbons and providing benchmark combustion data. 2) Determining and understanding ignition and combustion characteristics, such as laminar flame speeds, extinction stretch rates, and autoignition delays, of jet fuels and hydrocarbons relevant to jet surrogates. 3) Developing comprehensive kinetic models for jet fuels.

The NAS parallel benchmarks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bailey, D. H.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J. T.; Carter, R. L.; Lasinski, T. A.; Browning, D. S.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R. A.; Frederickson, P. O.; Schreiber, R. S.

1991-01-01

A new set of benchmarks has been developed for the performance evaluation of highly parallel supercomputers in the framework of the NASA Ames Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program. These consist of five 'parallel kernel' benchmarks and three 'simulated application' benchmarks. Together they mimic the computation and data movement characteristics of large-scale computational fluid dynamics applications. The principal distinguishing feature of these benchmarks is their 'pencil and paper' specification-all details of these benchmarks are specified only algorithmically. In this way many of the difficulties associated with conventional benchmarking approaches on highly parallel systems are avoided.

40 CFR 141.172 - Disinfection profiling and benchmarking.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... benchmarking. 141.172 Section 141.172 Protection of Environment ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (CONTINUED... Disinfection-Systems Serving 10,000 or More People § 141.172 Disinfection profiling and benchmarking. (a... sanitary surveys conducted by the State. (c) Disinfection benchmarking. (1) Any system required to develop...

Establishing Benchmarks for Outcome Indicators: A Statistical Approach to Developing Performance Standards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Gary T.; And Others

1992-01-01

A statistical technique is presented for developing performance standards based on benchmark groups. The benchmark groups are selected using a multivariate technique that relies on a squared Euclidean distance method. For each observation unit (a school district in the example), a unique comparison group is selected. (SLD)

School Culture Benchmarks: Bridges and Barriers to Successful Bullying Prevention Program Implementation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyle, H. Elizabeth

2008-01-01

A substantial body of research indicates that positive school culture benchmarks are integrally tied to the success of school reform and change in general. Additionally, an emerging body of research suggests a similar role for school culture in effective implementation of school violence prevention and intervention efforts. However, little…

Toward a benchmark material in aerogel development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sibille, Laurent; Cronise, Raymond J.; Noever, David A.; Hunt, Arlon J.

1996-03-01

Discovered in the thirties, aerogels constitute today the lightest solids known while exhibiting outstanding thermal and noise insulation properties in air and vacuum. In a far-reaching collaboration, the Space Science Laboratory at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the Microstructured Materials Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are engaged in a two-fold research effort aiming at characterizing the microstructure of silica aerogels and the development of benchmark samples through the use of in-orbit microgravity environment. Absence of density-driven convection flows and sedimentation is sought to produce aerogel samples with narrow distribution of pore sizes, thus largely improving transparency of the material in the visible range. Furthermore, highly isotropic distribution of doping materials are attainable even in large gels grown in microgravity. Aerospace companies (cryogenic tanks insulation and high temperature insulation of space vehicles), insulation manufacturers (household and industrial applications) as well as pharmaceutical companies (biosensors) are potential end-users of this rapidly developing technology.

FY16 Status Report on NEAMS Neutronics Activities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, C. H.; Shemon, E. R.; Smith, M. A.

2016-09-30

The goal of the NEAMS neutronics effort is to develop a neutronics toolkit for use on sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) which can be extended to other reactor types. The neutronics toolkit includes the high-fidelity deterministic neutron transport code PROTEUS and many supporting tools such as a cross section generation code MC 2-3, a cross section library generation code, alternative cross section generation tools, mesh generation and conversion utilities, and an automated regression test tool. The FY16 effort for NEAMS neutronics focused on supporting the release of the SHARP toolkit and existing and new users, continuing to develop PROTEUS functions necessarymore » for performance improvement as well as the SHARP release, verifying PROTEUS against available existing benchmark problems, and developing new benchmark problems as needed. The FY16 research effort was focused on further updates of PROTEUS-SN and PROTEUS-MOCEX and cross section generation capabilities as needed.« less

Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: First Steps

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peck, Carla; Seixas, Peter

2008-01-01

Although historical thinking has been the subject of a substantial body of recent research, few attempts explicitly apply the results on a large scale in North America. This article, a narrative inquiry, examines the first stages of a multi-year, Canada-wide project to reform history education through the development of classroom-based…

Proceedings of the Airframe Icing Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colantonio, Ron O. (Editor)

2009-01-01

The NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) has a long history of working with its partners towards the understanding of ice accretion formation and its associated degradation of aerodynamic performance. The June 9, 2009, Airframe Icing Workshop held at GRC provided an opportunity to examine the current NASA airframe icing research program and to dialogue on remaining and emerging airframe icing issues and research with the external community. Some of the airframe icing gaps identified included, but are not limited to, ice accretion simulation enhancements, three-dimensional benchmark icing database development, three-dimensional iced aerodynamics modeling, and technology development for a smart icing system.

Benchmarking Multilayer-HySEA model for landslide generated tsunami. HTHMP validation process.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Macias, J.; Escalante, C.; Castro, M. J.

2017-12-01

Landslide tsunami hazard may be dominant along significant parts of the coastline around the world, in particular in the USA, as compared to hazards from other tsunamigenic sources. This fact motivated NTHMP about the need of benchmarking models for landslide generated tsunamis, following the same methodology already used for standard tsunami models when the source is seismic. To perform the above-mentioned validation process, a set of candidate benchmarks were proposed. These benchmarks are based on a subset of available laboratory data sets for solid slide experiments and deformable slide experiments, and include both submarine and subaerial slides. A benchmark based on a historic field event (Valdez, AK, 1964) close the list of proposed benchmarks. A total of 7 benchmarks. The Multilayer-HySEA model including non-hydrostatic effects has been used to perform all the benchmarking problems dealing with laboratory experiments proposed in the workshop that was organized at Texas A&M University - Galveston, on January 9-11, 2017 by NTHMP. The aim of this presentation is to show some of the latest numerical results obtained with the Multilayer-HySEA (non-hydrostatic) model in the framework of this validation effort.Acknowledgements. This research has been partially supported by the Spanish Government Research project SIMURISK (MTM2015-70490-C02-01-R) and University of Malaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. The GPU computations were performed at the Unit of Numerical Methods (University of Malaga).

Development and application of freshwater sediment-toxicity benchmarks for currently used pesticides

USGS Publications Warehouse

Nowell, Lisa H.; Norman, Julia E.; Ingersoll, Christopher G.; Moran, Patrick W.

2016-01-01

Sediment-toxicity benchmarks are needed to interpret the biological significance of currently used pesticides detected in whole sediments. Two types of freshwater sediment benchmarks for pesticides were developed using spiked-sediment bioassay (SSB) data from the literature. These benchmarks can be used to interpret sediment-toxicity data or to assess the potential toxicity of pesticides in whole sediment. The Likely Effect Benchmark (LEB) defines a pesticide concentration in whole sediment above which there is a high probability of adverse effects on benthic invertebrates, and the Threshold Effect Benchmark (TEB) defines a concentration below which adverse effects are unlikely. For compounds without available SSBs, benchmarks were estimated using equilibrium partitioning (EqP). When a sediment sample contains a pesticide mixture, benchmark quotients can be summed for all detected pesticides to produce an indicator of potential toxicity for that mixture. Benchmarks were developed for 48 pesticide compounds using SSB data and 81 compounds using the EqP approach. In an example application, data for pesticides measured in sediment from 197 streams across the United States were evaluated using these benchmarks, and compared to measured toxicity from whole-sediment toxicity tests conducted with the amphipod Hyalella azteca (28-d exposures) and the midge Chironomus dilutus (10-d exposures). Amphipod survival, weight, and biomass were significantly and inversely related to summed benchmark quotients, whereas midge survival, weight, and biomass showed no relationship to benchmarks. Samples with LEB exceedances were rare (n = 3), but all were toxic to amphipods (i.e., significantly different from control). Significant toxicity to amphipods was observed for 72% of samples exceeding one or more TEBs, compared to 18% of samples below all TEBs. Factors affecting toxicity below TEBs may include the presence of contaminants other than pesticides, physical/chemical characteristics of sediment, and uncertainty in TEB values. Additional evaluations of benchmarks in relation to sediment chemistry and toxicity are ongoing.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sandor, Debra; Chung, Donald; Keyser, David

This report documents the CEMAC methodologies for developing and reporting annual global clean energy manufacturing benchmarks. The report reviews previously published manufacturing benchmark reports and foundational data, establishes a framework for benchmarking clean energy technologies, describes the CEMAC benchmark analysis methodologies, and describes the application of the methodologies to the manufacturing of four specific clean energy technologies.

Benchmarking for Higher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Norman, Ed.; Lund, Helen, Ed.

The chapters in this collection explore the concept of benchmarking as it is being used and developed in higher education (HE). Case studies and reviews show how universities in the United Kingdom are using benchmarking to aid in self-regulation and self-improvement. The chapters are: (1) "Introduction to Benchmarking" (Norman Jackson…

Summer 2016

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mendoza, Paul Michael

2016-08-31

The project goals seek to develop applications in order to automate MCNP criticality benchmark execution; create a dataset containing static benchmark information; combine MCNP output with benchmark information; and fit and visually represent data.

Development of a Computer-based Benchmarking and Analytical Tool. Benchmarking and Energy & Water Savings Tool in Dairy Plants (BEST-Dairy)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Tengfang; Flapper, Joris; Ke, Jing

The overall goal of the project is to develop a computer-based benchmarking and energy and water savings tool (BEST-Dairy) for use in the California dairy industry – including four dairy processes – cheese, fluid milk, butter, and milk powder.

Rural Elementary Students' Understanding of Science and Agricultural Education Benchmarks Related to Meat and Livestock.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meischen, Deanna L.; Trexler, Cary J.

2003-01-01

Seven fifth-graders developed concept maps depicting their knowledge of meat product development. Despite their rural background, they lacked understanding of agriculture concepts and had mixed knowledge of agricultural literacy benchmarks concerning food products. Their language did not reflect scientific terminology in the benchmarks. (Contains…

The Isprs Benchmark on Indoor Modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khoshelham, K.; Díaz Vilariño, L.; Peter, M.; Kang, Z.; Acharya, D.

2017-09-01

Automated generation of 3D indoor models from point cloud data has been a topic of intensive research in recent years. While results on various datasets have been reported in literature, a comparison of the performance of different methods has not been possible due to the lack of benchmark datasets and a common evaluation framework. The ISPRS benchmark on indoor modelling aims to address this issue by providing a public benchmark dataset and an evaluation framework for performance comparison of indoor modelling methods. In this paper, we present the benchmark dataset comprising several point clouds of indoor environments captured by different sensors. We also discuss the evaluation and comparison of indoor modelling methods based on manually created reference models and appropriate quality evaluation criteria. The benchmark dataset is available for download at: http://www2.isprs.org/commissions/comm4/wg5/benchmark-on-indoor-modelling.html.

Benchmarking in Academic Pharmacy Departments

PubMed Central

Chisholm-Burns, Marie; Nappi, Jean; Gubbins, Paul O.; Ross, Leigh Ann

2010-01-01

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy, and recommendations for the potential uses of benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments are discussed in this paper. Benchmarking is the process by which practices, procedures, and performance metrics are compared to an established standard or best practice. Many businesses and industries use benchmarking to compare processes and outcomes, and ultimately plan for improvement. Institutions of higher learning have embraced benchmarking practices to facilitate measuring the quality of their educational and research programs. Benchmarking is used internally as well to justify the allocation of institutional resources or to mediate among competing demands for additional program staff or space. Surveying all chairs of academic pharmacy departments to explore benchmarking issues such as department size and composition, as well as faculty teaching, scholarly, and service productivity, could provide valuable information. To date, attempts to gather this data have had limited success. We believe this information is potentially important, urge that efforts to gather it should be continued, and offer suggestions to achieve full participation. PMID:21179251

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments.

PubMed

Bosso, John A; Chisholm-Burns, Marie; Nappi, Jean; Gubbins, Paul O; Ross, Leigh Ann

2010-10-11

Benchmarking in academic pharmacy, and recommendations for the potential uses of benchmarking in academic pharmacy departments are discussed in this paper. Benchmarking is the process by which practices, procedures, and performance metrics are compared to an established standard or best practice. Many businesses and industries use benchmarking to compare processes and outcomes, and ultimately plan for improvement. Institutions of higher learning have embraced benchmarking practices to facilitate measuring the quality of their educational and research programs. Benchmarking is used internally as well to justify the allocation of institutional resources or to mediate among competing demands for additional program staff or space. Surveying all chairs of academic pharmacy departments to explore benchmarking issues such as department size and composition, as well as faculty teaching, scholarly, and service productivity, could provide valuable information. To date, attempts to gather this data have had limited success. We believe this information is potentially important, urge that efforts to gather it should be continued, and offer suggestions to achieve full participation.

Adding Fault Tolerance to NPB Benchmarks Using ULFM

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Parchman, Zachary W; Vallee, Geoffroy R; Naughton III, Thomas J

2016-01-01

In the world of high-performance computing, fault tolerance and application resilience are becoming some of the primary concerns because of increasing hardware failures and memory corruptions. While the research community has been investigating various options, from system-level solutions to application-level solutions, standards such as the Message Passing Interface (MPI) are also starting to include such capabilities. The current proposal for MPI fault tolerant is centered around the User-Level Failure Mitigation (ULFM) concept, which provides means for fault detection and recovery of the MPI layer. This approach does not address application-level recovery, which is currently left to application developers. In thismore » work, we present a mod- ification of some of the benchmarks of the NAS parallel benchmark (NPB) to include support of the ULFM capabilities as well as application-level strategies and mechanisms for application-level failure recovery. As such, we present: (i) an application-level library to checkpoint and restore data, (ii) extensions of NPB benchmarks for fault tolerance based on different strategies, (iii) a fault injection tool, and (iv) some preliminary results that show the impact of such fault tolerant strategies on the application execution.« less

Using Benchmarking To Influence Tuition and Fee Decisions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hubbell, Loren W. Loomis; Massa, Robert J.; Lapovsky, Lucie

2002-01-01

Discusses the use of benchmarking in managing enrollment. Using a case study, illustrates how benchmarking can help administrators develop strategies for planning and implementing admissions and pricing practices. (EV)

Utilising Benchmarking to Inform Decision-Making at the Institutional Level: A Research-Informed Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booth, Sara

2013-01-01

Benchmarking has traditionally been viewed as a way to compare data only; however, its utilisation as a more investigative, research-informed process to add rigor to decision-making processes at the institutional level is gaining momentum in the higher education sector. Indeed, with recent changes in the Australian quality environment from the…

Developing Benchmarks for Solar Radio Bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biesecker, D. A.; White, S. M.; Gopalswamy, N.; Black, C.; Domm, P.; Love, J. J.; Pierson, J.

2016-12-01

Solar radio bursts can interfere with radar, communication, and tracking signals. In severe cases, radio bursts can inhibit the successful use of radio communications and disrupt a wide range of systems that are reliant on Position, Navigation, and Timing services on timescales ranging from minutes to hours across wide areas on the dayside of Earth. The White House's Space Weather Action Plan has asked for solar radio burst intensity benchmarks for an event occurrence frequency of 1 in 100 years and also a theoretical maximum intensity benchmark. The solar radio benchmark team was also asked to define the wavelength/frequency bands of interest. The benchmark team developed preliminary (phase 1) benchmarks for the VHF (30-300 MHz), UHF (300-3000 MHz), GPS (1176-1602 MHz), F10.7 (2800 MHz), and Microwave (4000-20000) bands. The preliminary benchmarks were derived based on previously published work. Limitations in the published work will be addressed in phase 2 of the benchmark process. In addition, deriving theoretical maxima requires additional work, where it is even possible to, in order to meet the Action Plan objectives. In this presentation, we will present the phase 1 benchmarks and the basis used to derive them. We will also present the work that needs to be done in order to complete the final, or phase 2 benchmarks.

The challenge of benchmarking health systems: is ICT innovation capacity more systemic than organizational dependent?

PubMed

Lapão, Luís Velez

2015-01-01

The article by Catan et al. presents a benchmarking exercise comparing Israel and Portugal on the implementation of Information and Communication Technologies in the healthcare sector. Special attention was given to e-Health and m-Health. The authors collected information via a set of interviews with key stakeholders. They compared two different cultures and societies, which have reached slightly different implementation outcomes. Although the comparison is very enlightening, it is also challenging. Benchmarking exercises present a set of challenges, such as the choice of methodologies and the assessment of the impact on organizational strategy. Precise benchmarking methodology is a valid tool for eliciting information about alternatives for improving health systems. However, many beneficial interventions, which benchmark as effective, fail to translate into meaningful healthcare outcomes across contexts. There is a relationship between results and the innovational and competitive environments. Differences in healthcare governance and financing models are well known; but little is known about their impact on Information and Communication Technology implementation. The article by Catan et al. provides interesting clues about this issue. Public systems (such as those of Portugal, UK, Sweden, Spain, etc.) present specific advantages and disadvantages concerning Information and Communication Technology development and implementation. Meanwhile, private systems based fundamentally on insurance packages, (such as Israel, Germany, Netherlands or USA) present a different set of advantages and disadvantages - especially a more open context for innovation. Challenging issues from both the Portuguese and Israeli cases will be addressed. Clearly, more research is needed on both benchmarking methodologies and on ICT implementation strategies.

Tracking the emergence of synthetic biology.

PubMed

Shapira, Philip; Kwon, Seokbeom; Youtie, Jan

2017-01-01

Synthetic biology is an emerging domain that combines biological and engineering concepts and which has seen rapid growth in research, innovation, and policy interest in recent years. This paper contributes to efforts to delineate this emerging domain by presenting a newly constructed bibliometric definition of synthetic biology. Our approach is dimensioned from a core set of papers in synthetic biology, using procedures to obtain benchmark synthetic biology publication records, extract keywords from these benchmark records, and refine the keywords, supplemented with articles published in dedicated synthetic biology journals. We compare our search strategy with other recent bibliometric approaches to define synthetic biology, using a common source of publication data for the period from 2000 to 2015. The paper details the rapid growth and international spread of research in synthetic biology in recent years, demonstrates that diverse research disciplines are contributing to the multidisciplinary development of synthetic biology research, and visualizes this by profiling synthetic biology research on the map of science. We further show the roles of a relatively concentrated set of research sponsors in funding the growth and trajectories of synthetic biology. In addition to discussing these analyses, the paper notes limitations and suggests lines for further work.

Comparing Hospital Processes and Outcomes in California Medicare Beneficiaries: Simulation Prompts Reconsideration.

PubMed

Escobar, Gabriel J; Baker, Jennifer M; Turk, Benjamin J; Draper, David; Liu, Vincent; Kipnis, Patricia

2017-01-01

This article is not a traditional research report. It describes how conducting a specific set of benchmarking analyses led us to broader reflections on hospital benchmarking. We reexamined an issue that has received far less attention from researchers than in the past: How variations in the hospital admission threshold might affect hospital rankings. Considering this threshold made us reconsider what benchmarking is and what future benchmarking studies might be like. Although we recognize that some of our assertions are speculative, they are based on our reading of the literature and previous and ongoing data analyses being conducted in our research unit. We describe the benchmarking analyses that led to these reflections. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare Web site includes data on fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries but does not control for severity of illness, which requires physiologic data now available in most electronic medical records.To address this limitation, we compared hospital processes and outcomes among Kaiser Permanente Northern California's (KPNC) Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and non-KPNC California Medicare beneficiaries between 2009 and 2010. We assigned a simulated severity of illness measure to each record and explored the effect of having the additional information on outcomes. We found that if the admission severity of illness in non-KPNC hospitals increased, KPNC hospitals' mortality performance would appear worse; conversely, if admission severity at non-KPNC hospitals' decreased, KPNC hospitals' performance would appear better. Future hospital benchmarking should consider the impact of variation in admission thresholds.

The impact of a scheduling change on ninth grade high school performance on biology benchmark exams and the California Standards Test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Leonardi, Marcelo

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a scheduling change from a trimester 4x4 block schedule to a modified hybrid schedule on student achievement in ninth grade biology courses. This study examined the impact of the scheduling change on student achievement through teacher created benchmark assessments in Genetics, DNA, and Evolution and on the California Standardized Test in Biology. The secondary purpose of this study examined the ninth grade biology teacher perceptions of ninth grade biology student achievement. Using a mixed methods research approach, data was collected both quantitatively and qualitatively as aligned to research questions. Quantitative methods included gathering data from departmental benchmark exams and California Standardized Test in Biology and conducting multiple analysis of covariance and analysis of covariance to determine significance differences. Qualitative methods include journal entries questions and focus group interviews. The results revealed a statistically significant increase in scores on both the DNA and Evolution benchmark exams. DNA and Evolution benchmark exams showed significant improvements from a change in scheduling format. The scheduling change was responsible for 1.5% of the increase in DNA benchmark scores and 2% of the increase in Evolution benchmark scores. The results revealed a statistically significant decrease in scores on the Genetics Benchmark exam as a result of the scheduling change. The scheduling change was responsible for 1% of the decrease in Genetics benchmark scores. The results also revealed a statistically significant increase in scores on the CST Biology exam. The scheduling change was responsible for .7% of the increase in CST Biology scores. Results of the focus group discussions indicated that all teachers preferred the modified hybrid schedule over the trimester schedule and that it improved student achievement.

The Craft of Benchmarking: Finding and Utilizing District-Level, Campus-Level, and Program-Level Standards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGregor, Ellen N.; Attinasi, Louis C., Jr.

This paper describes the processes involved in selecting peer institutions for appropriate benchmarking using national databases (NCES-IPEDS). Benchmarking involves the identification of peer institutions and/or best practices in specific operational areas for the purpose of developing standards. The benchmarking process was borne in the early…

Investigating the Transonic Flutter Boundary of the Benchmark Supercritical Wing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heeg, Jennifer; Chwalowski, Pawel

2017-01-01

This paper builds on the computational aeroelastic results published previously and generated in support of the second Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop for the NASA Benchmark Supercritical Wing configuration. The computational results are obtained using FUN3D, an unstructured grid Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes solver developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. The analysis results focus on understanding the dip in the transonic flutter boundary at a single Mach number (0.74), exploring an angle of attack range of ??1 to 8 and dynamic pressures from wind off to beyond flutter onset. The rigid analysis results are examined for insights into the behavior of the aeroelastic system. Both static and dynamic aeroelastic simulation results are also examined.

Benchmarking processes for managing large international space programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandell, Humboldt C., Jr.; Duke, Michael B.

1993-01-01

The relationship between management style and program costs is analyzed to determine the feasibility of financing large international space missions. The incorporation of management systems is considered to be essential to realizing low cost spacecraft and planetary surface systems. Several companies ranging from large Lockheed 'Skunk Works' to small companies including Space Industries, Inc., Rocket Research Corp., and Orbital Sciences Corp. were studied. It is concluded that to lower the prices, the ways in which spacecraft and hardware are developed must be changed. Benchmarking of successful low cost space programs has revealed a number of prescriptive rules for low cost managements, including major changes in the relationships between the public and private sectors.

Validation of tsunami inundation model TUNA-RP using OAR-PMEL-135 benchmark problem set

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koh, H. L.; Teh, S. Y.; Tan, W. K.; Kh'ng, X. Y.

2017-05-01

A standard set of benchmark problems, known as OAR-PMEL-135, is developed by the US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program for tsunami inundation model validation. Any tsunami inundation model must be tested for its accuracy and capability using this standard set of benchmark problems before it can be gainfully used for inundation simulation. The authors have previously developed an in-house tsunami inundation model known as TUNA-RP. This inundation model solves the two-dimensional nonlinear shallow water equations coupled with a wet-dry moving boundary algorithm. This paper presents the validation of TUNA-RP against the solutions provided in the OAR-PMEL-135 benchmark problem set. This benchmark validation testing shows that TUNA-RP can indeed perform inundation simulation with accuracy consistent with that in the tested benchmark problem set.

Developing and Trialling an independent, scalable and repeatable IT-benchmarking procedure for healthcare organisations.

PubMed

Liebe, J D; Hübner, U

2013-01-01

Continuous improvements of IT-performance in healthcare organisations require actionable performance indicators, regularly conducted, independent measurements and meaningful and scalable reference groups. Existing IT-benchmarking initiatives have focussed on the development of reliable and valid indicators, but less on the questions about how to implement an environment for conducting easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarks. This study aims at developing and trialling a procedure that meets the afore-mentioned requirements. We chose a well established, regularly conducted (inter-) national IT-survey of healthcare organisations (IT-Report Healthcare) as the environment and offered the participants of the 2011 survey (CIOs of hospitals) to enter a benchmark. The 61 structural and functional performance indicators covered among others the implementation status and integration of IT-systems and functions, global user satisfaction and the resources of the IT-department. Healthcare organisations were grouped by size and ownership. The benchmark results were made available electronically and feedback on the use of these results was requested after several months. Fifty-ninehospitals participated in the benchmarking. Reference groups consisted of up to 141 members depending on the number of beds (size) and the ownership (public vs. private). A total of 122 charts showing single indicator frequency views were sent to each participant. The evaluation showed that 94.1% of the CIOs who participated in the evaluation considered this benchmarking beneficial and reported that they would enter again. Based on the feedback of the participants we developed two additional views that provide a more consolidated picture. The results demonstrate that establishing an independent, easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarking procedure is possible and was deemed desirable. Based on these encouraging results a new benchmarking round which includes process indicators is currently conducted.

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: results.

PubMed

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-04-01

This article presents some limited results from the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network survey conducted in 2002. Other uses of the data are also presented. After several years of development and testing, a Web-based survey opened for data input in December 2001. Three hundred eighty-five MLA members entered data on the size of their institutions and the activities of their libraries. The data from 344 hospital libraries were edited and selected for reporting in aggregate tables and on an interactive site in the Members-Only area of MLANET. The data represent a 16% to 23% return rate and have a 95% confidence level. Specific questions can be answered using the reports. The data can be used to review internal processes, perform outcomes benchmarking, retest a hypothesis, refute a previous survey findings, or develop library standards. The data can be used to compare to current surveys or look for trends by comparing the data to past surveys. The impact of this project on MLA will reach into areas of research and advocacy. The data will be useful in the everyday working of small health sciences libraries as well as provide concrete data on the current practices of health sciences libraries.

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: results*

PubMed Central

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C.; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-01-01

Objective: This article presents some limited results from the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network survey conducted in 2002. Other uses of the data are also presented. Methods: After several years of development and testing, a Web-based survey opened for data input in December 2001. Three hundred eighty-five MLA members entered data on the size of their institutions and the activities of their libraries. The data from 344 hospital libraries were edited and selected for reporting in aggregate tables and on an interactive site in the Members-Only area of MLANET. The data represent a 16% to 23% return rate and have a 95% confidence level. Results: Specific questions can be answered using the reports. The data can be used to review internal processes, perform outcomes benchmarking, retest a hypothesis, refute a previous survey findings, or develop library standards. The data can be used to compare to current surveys or look for trends by comparing the data to past surveys. Conclusions: The impact of this project on MLA will reach into areas of research and advocacy. The data will be useful in the everyday working of small health sciences libraries as well as provide concrete data on the current practices of health sciences libraries. PMID:16636703

Evaluation of control strategies using an oxidation ditch benchmark.

PubMed

Abusam, A; Keesman, K J; Spanjers, H; van, Straten G; Meinema, K

2002-01-01

This paper presents validation and implementation results of a benchmark developed for a specific full-scale oxidation ditch wastewater treatment plant. A benchmark is a standard simulation procedure that can be used as a tool in evaluating various control strategies proposed for wastewater treatment plants. It is based on model and performance criteria development. Testing of this benchmark, by comparing benchmark predictions to real measurements of the electrical energy consumptions and amounts of disposed sludge for a specific oxidation ditch WWTP, has shown that it can (reasonably) be used for evaluating the performance of this WWTP. Subsequently, the validated benchmark was then used in evaluating some basic and advanced control strategies. Some of the interesting results obtained are the following: (i) influent flow splitting ratio, between the first and the fourth aerated compartments of the ditch, has no significant effect on the TN concentrations in the effluent, and (ii) for evaluation of long-term control strategies, future benchmarks need to be able to assess settlers' performance.

Validation of Short-Term Noise Assessment Procedures: FY16 Summary of Procedures, Progress, and Preliminary Results

DTIC Science & Technology

Validation project. This report describes the procedure used to generate the noise models output dataset , and then it compares that dataset to the...benchmark, the Engineer Research and Development Centers Long-Range Sound Propagation dataset . It was found that the models consistently underpredict the

Identification of Key Indicators of Quality in Afterschool Programs. CRESST Report 748

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Denise; La Torre, Deborah; Harven, Aletha; Huber, Lindsay Perez; Jiang, Lu; Leon, Seth; Oh, Christine

2008-01-01

Researchers and policymakers are increasingly interested in the issue of school accountability. Despite this, program standards for afterschool programs are not as fully developed as they are in other fields. This study bridges that gap and presents the results from a study that identifies benchmarks and indicators for high quality afterschool…

Wikis for Group Work: Encouraging Transparency, Benchmarking, and Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdekhodaee, Amir; Chase, Anne-Marie; Ross, Bella

2017-01-01

Technology is recognised as playing a part in the changing landscape in higher education; altering delivery modes and providing flexible opportunities for learning. Research into the use of wikis has shown that they provide many opportunities for student learning and the development of twenty-first century skills, however, there has been limited…

IRIS, Gender, and Student Achievement at University of Genova

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bonfa, Antonella; Freddano, Michela

2012-01-01

The article analyses the gender effects on student achievement at University of Genova and it is a part of the research performed by the University of Genova called "Benchmarks interfaculty students: Development of a gender perspective to find strategies to understand what leads students to success in their studies", financed by the…

Benchmarking database performance for genomic data.

PubMed

Khushi, Matloob

2015-06-01

Genomic regions represent features such as gene annotations, transcription factor binding sites and epigenetic modifications. Performing various genomic operations such as identifying overlapping/non-overlapping regions or nearest gene annotations are common research needs. The data can be saved in a database system for easy management, however, there is no comprehensive database built-in algorithm at present to identify overlapping regions. Therefore I have developed a novel region-mapping (RegMap) SQL-based algorithm to perform genomic operations and have benchmarked the performance of different databases. Benchmarking identified that PostgreSQL extracts overlapping regions much faster than MySQL. Insertion and data uploads in PostgreSQL were also better, although general searching capability of both databases was almost equivalent. In addition, using the algorithm pair-wise, overlaps of >1000 datasets of transcription factor binding sites and histone marks, collected from previous publications, were reported and it was found that HNF4G significantly co-locates with cohesin subunit STAG1 (SA1).Inc. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Exploring the consistency, transparency and portability of dental technology education: benchmarking across Norway, Ireland and Australia.

PubMed

Myhrer, T; Evans, J L; Haugen, H K; Gorman, C; Kavanagh, Y; Cameron, A B

2016-08-01

Dental technology programmes of study must prepare students to practice in a broad range of contemporary workplaces. Currently, there is limited evidence to benchmark dental technology education - locally, nationally or internationally. This research aims to improve consistency, transparency and portability of dental technology qualifications across three countries. Data were accessed from open-source curriculum documents and five calibrated assessment items. Three institutions collaborated with Oslo and Akershus University College, Norway; Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; and Griffith University, Australia. From these, 29-44 students completed 174 assessments. The curricula reflect the community needs of each country and display common themes that underpin professional dental technology practice. Assessment results differed between institutions but no more than a normal distribution. Face-to-face assessment moderation was critical to achieve consistency. This collaborative research has led to the development of a set of guidelines for other dental technology education providers interested in developing or aligning courses internationally to enhance the portability of qualifications. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

International benchmarking of specialty hospitals. A series of case studies on comprehensive cancer centres.

PubMed

van Lent, Wineke A M; de Beer, Relinde D; van Harten, Wim H

2010-08-31

Benchmarking is one of the methods used in business that is applied to hospitals to improve the management of their operations. International comparison between hospitals can explain performance differences. As there is a trend towards specialization of hospitals, this study examines the benchmarking process and the success factors of benchmarking in international specialized cancer centres. Three independent international benchmarking studies on operations management in cancer centres were conducted. The first study included three comprehensive cancer centres (CCC), three chemotherapy day units (CDU) were involved in the second study and four radiotherapy departments were included in the final study. Per multiple case study a research protocol was used to structure the benchmarking process. After reviewing the multiple case studies, the resulting description was used to study the research objectives. We adapted and evaluated existing benchmarking processes through formalizing stakeholder involvement and verifying the comparability of the partners. We also devised a framework to structure the indicators to produce a coherent indicator set and better improvement suggestions. Evaluating the feasibility of benchmarking as a tool to improve hospital processes led to mixed results. Case study 1 resulted in general recommendations for the organizations involved. In case study 2, the combination of benchmarking and lean management led in one CDU to a 24% increase in bed utilization and a 12% increase in productivity. Three radiotherapy departments of case study 3, were considering implementing the recommendations.Additionally, success factors, such as a well-defined and small project scope, partner selection based on clear criteria, stakeholder involvement, simple and well-structured indicators, analysis of both the process and its results and, adapt the identified better working methods to the own setting, were found. The improved benchmarking process and the success factors can produce relevant input to improve the operations management of specialty hospitals.

International benchmarking of specialty hospitals. A series of case studies on comprehensive cancer centres

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Benchmarking is one of the methods used in business that is applied to hospitals to improve the management of their operations. International comparison between hospitals can explain performance differences. As there is a trend towards specialization of hospitals, this study examines the benchmarking process and the success factors of benchmarking in international specialized cancer centres. Methods Three independent international benchmarking studies on operations management in cancer centres were conducted. The first study included three comprehensive cancer centres (CCC), three chemotherapy day units (CDU) were involved in the second study and four radiotherapy departments were included in the final study. Per multiple case study a research protocol was used to structure the benchmarking process. After reviewing the multiple case studies, the resulting description was used to study the research objectives. Results We adapted and evaluated existing benchmarking processes through formalizing stakeholder involvement and verifying the comparability of the partners. We also devised a framework to structure the indicators to produce a coherent indicator set and better improvement suggestions. Evaluating the feasibility of benchmarking as a tool to improve hospital processes led to mixed results. Case study 1 resulted in general recommendations for the organizations involved. In case study 2, the combination of benchmarking and lean management led in one CDU to a 24% increase in bed utilization and a 12% increase in productivity. Three radiotherapy departments of case study 3, were considering implementing the recommendations. Additionally, success factors, such as a well-defined and small project scope, partner selection based on clear criteria, stakeholder involvement, simple and well-structured indicators, analysis of both the process and its results and, adapt the identified better working methods to the own setting, were found. Conclusions The improved benchmarking process and the success factors can produce relevant input to improve the operations management of specialty hospitals. PMID:20807408

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: development and implementation.

PubMed

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-04-01

This article explores the development and implementation of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network from the initial idea and test survey, to the implementation of a national survey in 2002, to the establishment of a continuing program in 2004. Started as a program for hospital libraries, it has expanded to include other nonacademic health sciences libraries. The activities and timelines of MLA's Benchmarking Network task forces and editorial board from 1998 to 2004 are described. The Benchmarking Network task forces successfully developed an extensive questionnaire with parameters of size and measures of library activity and published a report of the data collected by September 2002. The data were available to all MLA members in the form of aggregate tables. Utilization of Web-based technologies proved feasible for data intake and interactive display. A companion article analyzes and presents some of the data. MLA has continued to develop the Benchmarking Network with the completion of a second survey in 2004. The Benchmarking Network has provided many small libraries with comparative data to present to their administrators. It is a challenge for the future to convince all MLA members to participate in this valuable program.

The Medical Library Association Benchmarking Network: development and implementation*

PubMed Central

Dudden, Rosalind Farnam; Corcoran, Kate; Kaplan, Janice; Magouirk, Jeff; Rand, Debra C.; Smith, Bernie Todd

2006-01-01

Objective: This article explores the development and implementation of the Medical Library Association (MLA) Benchmarking Network from the initial idea and test survey, to the implementation of a national survey in 2002, to the establishment of a continuing program in 2004. Started as a program for hospital libraries, it has expanded to include other nonacademic health sciences libraries. Methods: The activities and timelines of MLA's Benchmarking Network task forces and editorial board from 1998 to 2004 are described. Results: The Benchmarking Network task forces successfully developed an extensive questionnaire with parameters of size and measures of library activity and published a report of the data collected by September 2002. The data were available to all MLA members in the form of aggregate tables. Utilization of Web-based technologies proved feasible for data intake and interactive display. A companion article analyzes and presents some of the data. MLA has continued to develop the Benchmarking Network with the completion of a second survey in 2004. Conclusions: The Benchmarking Network has provided many small libraries with comparative data to present to their administrators. It is a challenge for the future to convince all MLA members to participate in this valuable program. PMID:16636702

First Observation of Coseismic Seafloor Crustal Deformation due to M7 Class Earthquakes in the Philippine Sea Plate

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tadokoro, K.; Ikuta, R.; Ando, M.; Okuda, T.; Sugimoto, S.; Besana, G. M.; Kuno, M.

2005-12-01

The Mw7.3 and 7.5 earthquakes (Off Kii-Peninsula Earthquakes) occurred close to the source region of the anticipated Tonankai Trough in September 5, 2004. The focal mechanisms of the two earthquakes have no low angle nodal planes, which shows that the earthquakes are intraplate earthquakes in the Philippine Sea Plate. We observed coseismic horizontal displacement due to the Off Kii-Peninsula Earthquakes by means of a system for observing seafloor crustal deformation, which is the first observation of coseismic seafloor displacement in the world. We have developed a system for observing seafloor crustal deformation. The observation system is composed of 1) acoustic measurement between a ship transducer and sea-bottom transponders, and 2) kinematic GPS positioning of the observation vessel. We have installed a seafloor benchmark close to the epicenters of the Off Kii-Peninsula Earthquakes. The benchmark is composed of three sea-bottom transponders. The location of benchmark is defined as the weight center of the three transponders. We can determine the location of benchmark with an accuracy of about 5 cm at each observation. We have repeatedly measured the seafloor benchmark six times up to now: 1) July 12-16 and 21-22, 2004, 2) November 9-10, 3) January 19, 2005, 4) May 18-20, 5) July 19-20, and 6) August 18-19 and 29-30. The Off Kii-Peninsula Earthquakes occurred during the above monitoring period. The coseismic horizontal displacement of about 21 cm toward SSE was observed at our seafloor benchmark. The displacement is 3.5 times as large as the maximum displacement observed by on land GPS network in Japan, GEONET. The monitoring of seafloor crustal deformation is effective to detect the deformations associated with earthquakes occurring in ocean areas. This study is promoted by "Research Revolution 2002" of Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan. We are grateful to the captain and crews of Research Vessel, Asama, of Mie Prefectural Science and Technology Promotion Center, Japan.

Revisiting Yasinsky and Henry`s benchmark using modern nodal codes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Feltus, M.A.; Becker, M.W.

1995-12-31

The numerical experiments analyzed by Yasinsky and Henry are quite trivial by comparison with today`s standards because they used the finite difference code WIGLE for their benchmark. Also, this problem is a simple slab (one-dimensional) case with no feedback mechanisms. This research attempts to obtain STAR (Ref. 2) and NEM (Ref. 3) code results in order to produce a more modern kinetics benchmark with results comparable WIGLE.

Closed-Loop Neuromorphic Benchmarks

PubMed Central

Stewart, Terrence C.; DeWolf, Travis; Kleinhans, Ashley; Eliasmith, Chris

2015-01-01

Evaluating the effectiveness and performance of neuromorphic hardware is difficult. It is even more difficult when the task of interest is a closed-loop task; that is, a task where the output from the neuromorphic hardware affects some environment, which then in turn affects the hardware's future input. However, closed-loop situations are one of the primary potential uses of neuromorphic hardware. To address this, we present a methodology for generating closed-loop benchmarks that makes use of a hybrid of real physical embodiment and a type of “minimal” simulation. Minimal simulation has been shown to lead to robust real-world performance, while still maintaining the practical advantages of simulation, such as making it easy for the same benchmark to be used by many researchers. This method is flexible enough to allow researchers to explicitly modify the benchmarks to identify specific task domains where particular hardware excels. To demonstrate the method, we present a set of novel benchmarks that focus on motor control for an arbitrary system with unknown external forces. Using these benchmarks, we show that an error-driven learning rule can consistently improve motor control performance across a randomly generated family of closed-loop simulations, even when there are up to 15 interacting joints to be controlled. PMID:26696820

Enhancing pediatric residents’ scholar role: the development of a Scholarly Activity Guidance and Evaluation program

PubMed Central

Pound, Catherine M.; Moreau, Katherine A.; Ward, Natalie; Eady, Kaylee; Writer, Hilary

2015-01-01

Background Research training is essential to the development of well-rounded physicians. Although many pediatric residency programs require residents to complete a research project, it is often challenging to integrate research training into educational programs. Objective We aimed to develop an innovative research program for pediatric residents, called the Scholarly Activity Guidance and Evaluation (SAGE) program. Methods We developed a competency-based program which establishes benchmarks for pediatric residents, while providing ongoing academic mentorship. Results Feedback from residents and their research supervisors about the SAGE program has been positive. Preliminary evaluation data have shown that all final-year residents have met or exceeded program expectations. Conclusions By providing residents with this supportive environment, we hope to influence their academic career paths, increase their research productivity, promote evidence-based practice, and ultimately, positively impact health outcomes. PMID:26059213

An open source framework for tracking and state estimation ('Stone Soup')

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomas, Paul A.; Barr, Jordi; Balaji, Bhashyam; White, Kruger

2017-05-01

The ability to detect and unambiguously follow all moving entities in a state-space is important in multiple domains both in defence (e.g. air surveillance, maritime situational awareness, ground moving target indication) and the civil sphere (e.g. astronomy, biology, epidemiology, dispersion modelling). However, tracking and state estimation researchers and practitioners have difficulties recreating state-of-the-art algorithms in order to benchmark their own work. Furthermore, system developers need to assess which algorithms meet operational requirements objectively and exhaustively rather than intuitively or driven by personal favourites. We have therefore commenced the development of a collaborative initiative to create an open source framework for production, demonstration and evaluation of Tracking and State Estimation algorithms. The initiative will develop a (MIT-licensed) software platform for researchers and practitioners to test, verify and benchmark a variety of multi-sensor and multi-object state estimation algorithms. The initiative is supported by four defence laboratories, who will contribute to the development effort for the framework. The tracking and state estimation community will derive significant benefits from this work, including: access to repositories of verified and validated tracking and state estimation algorithms, a framework for the evaluation of multiple algorithms, standardisation of interfaces and access to challenging data sets. Keywords: Tracking,

[Translational medicine].

PubMed

Antal, János; Timár, Attila

2011-11-20

Translational medicine is the emerging scientific discipline of the last decade which will set the benchmark for the pharmaceutical industry research and development, integrates inputs from the basic sciences of computer modeling and laboratory research through the pre-clinical and clinical phases of human research to the assimilation of new therapies and treatments into everyday practice of patient care and prevention. With this brief insight authors tried in their humble way to summarize the underlying basis, the present and the potential future of this emerging view, to draw attention to some of the challenges and tasks it faces and to highlight some of the promising approaches, trends and model developments and applications.

Multirate flutter suppression system design for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology Wing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Berg, Martin C.; Mason, Gregory S.

1994-01-01

To study the effectiveness of various control system design methodologies, the NASA Langley Research Center initiated the Benchmark Active Controls Project. In this project, the various methodologies will be applied to design a flutter suppression system for the Benchmark Active Controls Technology (BACT) Wing (also called the PAPA wing). Eventually, the designs will be implemented in hardware and tested on the BACT wing in a wind tunnel. This report describes a project at the University of Washington to design a multirate flutter suppression system for the BACT wing. The objective of the project was two fold. First, to develop a methodology for designing robust multirate compensators, and second, to demonstrate the methodology by applying it to the design of a multirate flutter suppression system for the BACT wing. The contributions of this project are (1) development of an algorithm for synthesizing robust low order multirate control laws (the algorithm is capable of synthesizing a single compensator which stabilizes both the nominal plant and multiple plant perturbations; (2) development of a multirate design methodology, and supporting software, for modeling, analyzing and synthesizing multirate compensators; and (3) design of a multirate flutter suppression system for NASA's BACT wing which satisfies the specified design criteria. This report describes each of these contributions in detail. Section 2.0 discusses our design methodology. Section 3.0 details the results of our multirate flutter suppression system design for the BACT wing. Finally, Section 4.0 presents our conclusions and suggestions for future research. The body of the report focuses primarily on the results. The associated theoretical background appears in the three technical papers that are included as Attachments 1-3. Attachment 4 is a user's manual for the software that is key to our design methodology.

Comparing Hospital Processes and Outcomes in California Medicare Beneficiaries: Simulation Prompts Reconsideration

PubMed Central

Escobar, Gabriel J; Baker, Jennifer M; Turk, Benjamin J; Draper, David; Liu, Vincent; Kipnis, Patricia

2017-01-01

Introduction This article is not a traditional research report. It describes how conducting a specific set of benchmarking analyses led us to broader reflections on hospital benchmarking. We reexamined an issue that has received far less attention from researchers than in the past: How variations in the hospital admission threshold might affect hospital rankings. Considering this threshold made us reconsider what benchmarking is and what future benchmarking studies might be like. Although we recognize that some of our assertions are speculative, they are based on our reading of the literature and previous and ongoing data analyses being conducted in our research unit. We describe the benchmarking analyses that led to these reflections. Objectives The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare Web site includes data on fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries but does not control for severity of illness, which requires physiologic data now available in most electronic medical records. To address this limitation, we compared hospital processes and outcomes among Kaiser Permanente Northern California’s (KPNC) Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and non-KPNC California Medicare beneficiaries between 2009 and 2010. Methods We assigned a simulated severity of illness measure to each record and explored the effect of having the additional information on outcomes. Results We found that if the admission severity of illness in non-KPNC hospitals increased, KPNC hospitals’ mortality performance would appear worse; conversely, if admission severity at non-KPNC hospitals’ decreased, KPNC hospitals’ performance would appear better. Conclusion Future hospital benchmarking should consider the impact of variation in admission thresholds. PMID:29035176

EPA's Benchmark Dose Modeling Software

EPA Science Inventory

The EPA developed the Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) as a tool to help Agency risk assessors facilitate applying benchmark dose (BMD) method’s to EPA’s human health risk assessment (HHRA) documents. The application of BMD methods overcomes many well know limitations ...

Rethinking the reference collection: exploring benchmarks and e-book availability.

PubMed

Husted, Jeffrey T; Czechowski, Leslie J

2012-01-01

Librarians in the Health Sciences Library System at the University of Pittsburgh explored the possibility of developing an electronic reference collection that would replace the print reference collection, thus providing access to these valuable materials to a widely dispersed user population. The librarians evaluated the print reference collection and standard collection development lists as potential benchmarks for the electronic collection, and they determined which books were available in electronic format. They decided that the low availability of electronic versions of titles in each benchmark group rendered the creation of an electronic reference collection using either benchmark impractical.

Evaluation of CHO Benchmarks on the Arria 10 FPGA using Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jin, Zheming; Yoshii, Kazutomo; Finkel, Hal

The OpenCL standard is an open programming model for accelerating algorithms on heterogeneous computing system. OpenCL extends the C-based programming language for developing portable codes on different platforms such as CPU, Graphics processing units (GPUs), Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL is a suite of tools that allows developers to abstract away the complex FPGA-based development flow for a high-level software development flow. Users can focus on the design of hardware-accelerated kernel functions in OpenCL and then direct the tools to generate the low-level FPGA implementations. The approach makes themore » FPGA-based development more accessible to software users as the needs for hybrid computing using CPUs and FPGAs are increasing. It can also significantly reduce the hardware development time as users can evaluate different ideas with high-level language without deep FPGA domain knowledge. Benchmarking of OpenCL-based framework is an effective way for analyzing the performance of system by studying the execution of the benchmark applications. CHO is a suite of benchmark applications that provides support for OpenCL [1]. The authors presented CHO as an OpenCL port of the CHStone benchmark. Using Altera OpenCL (AOCL) compiler to synthesize the benchmark applications, they listed the resource usage and performance of each kernel that can be successfully synthesized by the compiler. In this report, we evaluate the resource usage and performance of the CHO benchmark applications using the Intel FPGA SDK for OpenCL and Nallatech 385A FPGA board that features an Arria 10 FPGA device. The focus of the report is to have a better understanding of the resource usage and performance of the kernel implementations using Arria-10 FPGA devices compared to Stratix-5 FPGA devices. In addition, we also gain knowledge about the limitations of the current compiler when it fails to synthesize a benchmark application.« less

Expectations of clinical teachers and faculty regarding development of the CanMEDS-Family Medicine competencies: Laval developmental benchmarks scale for family medicine residency training.

PubMed

Lacasse, Miriam; Théorêt, Johanne; Tessier, Sylvie; Arsenault, Louise

2014-01-01

The CanMEDS-Family Medicine (CanMEDS-FM) framework defines the expected terminal enabling competencies (EC) for family medicine (FM) residency training in Canada. However, benchmarks throughout the 2-year program are not yet defined. This study aimed to identify expected time frames for achievement of the CanMEDS-FM competencies during FM residency training and create a developmental benchmarks scale for family medicine residency training. This 2011-2012 study followed a Delphi methodology. Selected faculty and clinical teachers identified, via questionnaire, the expected time of EC achievement from beginning of residency to one year in practice (0, 6, 12, […] 36 months). The 15-85th percentile intervals became the expected competency achievement interval. Content validity of the obtained benchmarks was assessed through a second Delphi round. The 1st and 2nd rounds were completed by 33 and 27 respondents, respectively. A developmental benchmarks scale was designed after the 1st round to illustrate expectations regarding achievement of each EC. The 2nd round (content validation) led to minor adjustments (1.9±2.7 months) of intervals for 44 of the 92 competencies, the others remaining unchanged. The Laval Developmental Benchmarks Scale for Family Medicine clarifies expectations regarding achievement of competencies throughout FM training. In a competency-based education system this now allows identification and management of outlying residents, both those excelling and needing remediation. Further research should focus on assessment of the scale reliability after pilot implementation in family medicine clinical teaching units at Laval University, and corroborate the established timeline in other sites.

Using generalized additive modeling to empirically identify thresholds within the ITERS in relation to toddlers' cognitive development.

PubMed

Setodji, Claude Messan; Le, Vi-Nhuan; Schaack, Diana

2013-04-01

Research linking high-quality child care programs and children's cognitive development has contributed to the growing popularity of child care quality benchmarking efforts such as quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS). Consequently, there has been an increased interest in and a need for approaches to identifying thresholds, or cutpoints, in the child care quality measures used in these benchmarking efforts that differentiate between different levels of children's cognitive functioning. To date, research has provided little guidance to policymakers as to where these thresholds should be set. Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) data set, this study explores the use of generalized additive modeling (GAM) as a method of identifying thresholds on the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale (ITERS) in relation to toddlers' performance on the Mental Development subscale of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (the Bayley Mental Development Scale Short Form-Research Edition, or BMDSF-R). The present findings suggest that simple linear models do not always correctly depict the relationships between ITERS scores and BMDSF-R scores and that GAM-derived thresholds were more effective at differentiating among children's performance levels on the BMDSF-R. Additionally, the present findings suggest that there is a minimum threshold on the ITERS that must be exceeded before significant improvements in children's cognitive development can be expected. There may also be a ceiling threshold on the ITERS, such that beyond a certain level, only marginal increases in children's BMDSF-R scores are observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Statistics based sampling for controller and estimator design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tenne, Dirk

The purpose of this research is the development of statistical design tools for robust feed-forward/feedback controllers and nonlinear estimators. This dissertation is threefold and addresses the aforementioned topics nonlinear estimation, target tracking and robust control. To develop statistically robust controllers and nonlinear estimation algorithms, research has been performed to extend existing techniques, which propagate the statistics of the state, to achieve higher order accuracy. The so-called unscented transformation has been extended to capture higher order moments. Furthermore, higher order moment update algorithms based on a truncated power series have been developed. The proposed techniques are tested on various benchmark examples. Furthermore, the unscented transformation has been utilized to develop a three dimensional geometrically constrained target tracker. The proposed planar circular prediction algorithm has been developed in a local coordinate framework, which is amenable to extension of the tracking algorithm to three dimensional space. This tracker combines the predictions of a circular prediction algorithm and a constant velocity filter by utilizing the Covariance Intersection. This combined prediction can be updated with the subsequent measurement using a linear estimator. The proposed technique is illustrated on a 3D benchmark trajectory, which includes coordinated turns and straight line maneuvers. The third part of this dissertation addresses the design of controller which include knowledge of parametric uncertainties and their distributions. The parameter distributions are approximated by a finite set of points which are calculated by the unscented transformation. This set of points is used to design robust controllers which minimize a statistical performance of the plant over the domain of uncertainty consisting of a combination of the mean and variance. The proposed technique is illustrated on three benchmark problems. The first relates to the design of prefilters for a linear and nonlinear spring-mass-dashpot system and the second applies a feedback controller to a hovering helicopter. Lastly, the statistical robust controller design is devoted to a concurrent feed-forward/feedback controller structure for a high-speed low tension tape drive.

A Web Resource for Standardized Benchmark Datasets, Metrics, and Rosetta Protocols for Macromolecular Modeling and Design.

PubMed

Ó Conchúir, Shane; Barlow, Kyle A; Pache, Roland A; Ollikainen, Noah; Kundert, Kale; O'Meara, Matthew J; Smith, Colin A; Kortemme, Tanja

2015-01-01

The development and validation of computational macromolecular modeling and design methods depend on suitable benchmark datasets and informative metrics for comparing protocols. In addition, if a method is intended to be adopted broadly in diverse biological applications, there needs to be information on appropriate parameters for each protocol, as well as metrics describing the expected accuracy compared to experimental data. In certain disciplines, there exist established benchmarks and public resources where experts in a particular methodology are encouraged to supply their most efficient implementation of each particular benchmark. We aim to provide such a resource for protocols in macromolecular modeling and design. We present a freely accessible web resource (https://kortemmelab.ucsf.edu/benchmarks) to guide the development of protocols for protein modeling and design. The site provides benchmark datasets and metrics to compare the performance of a variety of modeling protocols using different computational sampling methods and energy functions, providing a "best practice" set of parameters for each method. Each benchmark has an associated downloadable benchmark capture archive containing the input files, analysis scripts, and tutorials for running the benchmark. The captures may be run with any suitable modeling method; we supply command lines for running the benchmarks using the Rosetta software suite. We have compiled initial benchmarks for the resource spanning three key areas: prediction of energetic effects of mutations, protein design, and protein structure prediction, each with associated state-of-the-art modeling protocols. With the help of the wider macromolecular modeling community, we hope to expand the variety of benchmarks included on the website and continue to evaluate new iterations of current methods as they become available.

INFORMAS (International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support): overview and key principles.

PubMed

Swinburn, B; Sacks, G; Vandevijvere, S; Kumanyika, S; Lobstein, T; Neal, B; Barquera, S; Friel, S; Hawkes, C; Kelly, B; L'abbé, M; Lee, A; Ma, J; Macmullan, J; Mohan, S; Monteiro, C; Rayner, M; Sanders, D; Snowdon, W; Walker, C

2013-10-01

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) dominate disease burdens globally and poor nutrition increasingly contributes to this global burden. Comprehensive monitoring of food environments, and evaluation of the impact of public and private sector policies on food environments is needed to strengthen accountability systems to reduce NCDs. The International Network for Food and Obesity/NCDs Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) is a global network of public-interest organizations and researchers that aims to monitor, benchmark and support public and private sector actions to create healthy food environments and reduce obesity, NCDs and their related inequalities. The INFORMAS framework includes two 'process' modules, that monitor the policies and actions of the public and private sectors, seven 'impact' modules that monitor the key characteristics of food environments and three 'outcome' modules that monitor dietary quality, risk factors and NCD morbidity and mortality. Monitoring frameworks and indicators have been developed for 10 modules to provide consistency, but allowing for stepwise approaches ('minimal', 'expanded', 'optimal') to data collection and analysis. INFORMAS data will enable benchmarking of food environments between countries, and monitoring of progress over time within countries. Through monitoring and benchmarking, INFORMAS will strengthen the accountability systems needed to help reduce the burden of obesity, NCDs and their related inequalities. © 2013 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the International Association for the Study of Obesity.

A user-friendly tool to transform large scale administrative data into wide table format using a MapReduce program with a Pig Latin based script.

PubMed

Horiguchi, Hiromasa; Yasunaga, Hideo; Hashimoto, Hideki; Ohe, Kazuhiko

2012-12-22

Secondary use of large scale administrative data is increasingly popular in health services and clinical research, where a user-friendly tool for data management is in great demand. MapReduce technology such as Hadoop is a promising tool for this purpose, though its use has been limited by the lack of user-friendly functions for transforming large scale data into wide table format, where each subject is represented by one row, for use in health services and clinical research. Since the original specification of Pig provides very few functions for column field management, we have developed a novel system called GroupFilterFormat to handle the definition of field and data content based on a Pig Latin script. We have also developed, as an open-source project, several user-defined functions to transform the table format using GroupFilterFormat and to deal with processing that considers date conditions. Having prepared dummy discharge summary data for 2.3 million inpatients and medical activity log data for 950 million events, we used the Elastic Compute Cloud environment provided by Amazon Inc. to execute processing speed and scaling benchmarks. In the speed benchmark test, the response time was significantly reduced and a linear relationship was observed between the quantity of data and processing time in both a small and a very large dataset. The scaling benchmark test showed clear scalability. In our system, doubling the number of nodes resulted in a 47% decrease in processing time. Our newly developed system is widely accessible as an open resource. This system is very simple and easy to use for researchers who are accustomed to using declarative command syntax for commercial statistical software and Structured Query Language. Although our system needs further sophistication to allow more flexibility in scripts and to improve efficiency in data processing, it shows promise in facilitating the application of MapReduce technology to efficient data processing with large scale administrative data in health services and clinical research.

Thermal Performance Benchmarking: Annual Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Moreno, Gilbert

2016-04-08

The goal for this project is to thoroughly characterize the performance of state-of-the-art (SOA) automotive power electronics and electric motor thermal management systems. Information obtained from these studies will be used to: Evaluate advantages and disadvantages of different thermal management strategies; establish baseline metrics for the thermal management systems; identify methods of improvement to advance the SOA; increase the publicly available information related to automotive traction-drive thermal management systems; help guide future electric drive technologies (EDT) research and development (R&D) efforts. The performance results combined with component efficiency and heat generation information obtained by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) maymore » then be used to determine the operating temperatures for the EDT components under drive-cycle conditions. In FY15, the 2012 Nissan LEAF power electronics and electric motor thermal management systems were benchmarked. Testing of the 2014 Honda Accord Hybrid power electronics thermal management system started in FY15; however, due to time constraints it was not possible to include results for this system in this report. The focus of this project is to benchmark the thermal aspects of the systems. ORNL's benchmarking of electric and hybrid electric vehicle technology reports provide detailed descriptions of the electrical and packaging aspects of these automotive systems.« less

Taking the Lead in Science Education: Forging Next-Generation Science Standards. International Science Benchmarking Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Achieve, Inc., 2010

2010-01-01

In response to concerns over the need for a scientifically literate workforce, increasing the STEM pipeline, and aging science standards documents, the scientific and science education communities are embarking on the development of a new conceptual framework for science, led by the National Research Council (NRC), and aligned next generation…

Status and plans for the ANOPP/HSR prediction system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nolan, Sandra K.

1992-01-01

ANOPP is a comprehensive prediction system which was developed and validated by NASA. Because ANOPP is a system prediction program, it allows aerospace industry researchers to create trade-off studies with a variety of aircraft noise problems. The extensive validation of ANOPP allows the program results to be used as a benchmark for testing other prediction codes.

Developing Toxicogenomics as a Research Tool by Applying Benchmark Dose-Response Modeling to inform Chemical Mode of Action and Tumorigenic Potency

EPA Science Inventory

ABSTRACT Results of global gene expression profiling after short-term exposures can be used to inform tumorigenic potency and chemical mode of action (MOA) and thus serve as a strategy to prioritize future or data-poor chemicals for further evaluation. This compilation of cas...

A benchmarking program to reduce red blood cell outdating: implementation, evaluation, and a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Barty, Rebecca L; Gagliardi, Kathleen; Owens, Wendy; Lauzon, Deborah; Scheuermann, Sheena; Liu, Yang; Wang, Grace; Pai, Menaka; Heddle, Nancy M

2015-07-01

Benchmarking is a quality improvement tool that compares an organization's performance to that of its peers for selected indicators, to improve practice. Processes to develop evidence-based benchmarks for red blood cell (RBC) outdating in Ontario hospitals, based on RBC hospital disposition data from Canadian Blood Services, have been previously reported. These benchmarks were implemented in 160 hospitals provincewide with a multifaceted approach, which included hospital education, inventory management tools and resources, summaries of best practice recommendations, recognition of high-performing sites, and audit tools on the Transfusion Ontario website (http://transfusionontario.org). In this study we describe the implementation process and the impact of the benchmarking program on RBC outdating. A conceptual framework for continuous quality improvement of a benchmarking program was also developed. The RBC outdating rate for all hospitals trended downward continuously from April 2006 to February 2012, irrespective of hospitals' transfusion rates or their distance from the blood supplier. The highest annual outdating rate was 2.82%, at the beginning of the observation period. Each year brought further reductions, with a nadir outdating rate of 1.02% achieved in 2011. The key elements of the successful benchmarking strategy included dynamic targets, a comprehensive and evidence-based implementation strategy, ongoing information sharing, and a robust data system to track information. The Ontario benchmarking program for RBC outdating resulted in continuous and sustained quality improvement. Our conceptual iterative framework for benchmarking provides a guide for institutions implementing a benchmarking program. © 2015 AABB.

Implementing benchmarking recommendations in the Offices of Construction for the Iowa DOT

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-01-01

The Iowa DOT's Offices of Construction are seeking ways to use benchmarking, the concepts of quality management, and outside facilitation to improve their methods and processes. Iowa State University researchers and the Offices of Construction Benchm...

Object-Oriented Implementation of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks using Charm++

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krishnan, Sanjeev; Bhandarkar, Milind; Kale, Laxmikant V.

1996-01-01

This report describes experiences with implementing the NAS Computational Fluid Dynamics benchmarks using a parallel object-oriented language, Charm++. Our main objective in implementing the NAS CFD kernel benchmarks was to develop a code that could be used to easily experiment with different domain decomposition strategies and dynamic load balancing. We also wished to leverage the object-orientation provided by the Charm++ parallel object-oriented language, to develop reusable abstractions that would simplify the process of developing parallel applications. We first describe the Charm++ parallel programming model and the parallel object array abstraction, then go into detail about each of the Scalar Pentadiagonal (SP) and Lower/Upper Triangular (LU) benchmarks, along with performance results. Finally we conclude with an evaluation of the methodology used.

Benchmarking reference services: an introduction.

PubMed

Marshall, J G; Buchanan, H S

1995-01-01

Benchmarking is based on the common sense idea that someone else, either inside or outside of libraries, has found a better way of doing certain things and that your own library's performance can be improved by finding out how others do things and adopting the best practices you find. Benchmarking is one of the tools used for achieving continuous improvement in Total Quality Management (TQM) programs. Although benchmarking can be done on an informal basis, TQM puts considerable emphasis on formal data collection and performance measurement. Used to its full potential, benchmarking can provide a common measuring stick to evaluate process performance. This article introduces the general concept of benchmarking, linking it whenever possible to reference services in health sciences libraries. Data collection instruments that have potential application in benchmarking studies are discussed and the need to develop common measurement tools to facilitate benchmarking is emphasized.

EPA and EFSA approaches for Benchmark Dose modeling

EPA Science Inventory

Benchmark dose (BMD) modeling has become the preferred approach in the analysis of toxicological dose-response data for the purpose of deriving human health toxicity values. The software packages most often used are Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS, developed by EPA) and PROAST (de...

The National Shipbuilding Research The National Shipbuilding Research Program. REAPS 5th Annual Technical Symposium Proceedings. Paper No. 2: An Approach for the Use of Interactive Graphics in Part Definition and Nesting

DTIC Science & Technology

1978-06-01

documentation will vary from yard-to yard. Accuracy - What is needed by the shipbuilding industry? We keep hearing horror stories about ships being...station would generate at any time. Benchmarks - Benchmarks are necessary to evalute qraphics systems, however they don’t yield as quantitative a

Benchmark Problems Used to Assess Computational Aeroacoustics Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dahl, Milo D.; Envia, Edmane

2005-01-01

The field of computational aeroacoustics (CAA) encompasses numerical techniques for calculating all aspects of sound generation and propagation in air directly from fundamental governing equations. Aeroacoustic problems typically involve flow-generated noise, with and without the presence of a solid surface, and the propagation of the sound to a receiver far away from the noise source. It is a challenge to obtain accurate numerical solutions to these problems. The NASA Glenn Research Center has been at the forefront in developing and promoting the development of CAA techniques and methodologies for computing the noise generated by aircraft propulsion systems. To assess the technological advancement of CAA, Glenn, in cooperation with the Ohio Aerospace Institute and the AeroAcoustics Research Consortium, organized and hosted the Fourth CAA Workshop on Benchmark Problems. Participants from industry and academia from both the United States and abroad joined to present and discuss solutions to benchmark problems. These demonstrated technical progress ranging from the basic challenges to accurate CAA calculations to the solution of CAA problems of increasing complexity and difficulty. The results are documented in the proceedings of the workshop. Problems were solved in five categories. In three of the five categories, exact solutions were available for comparison with CAA results. A fourth category of problems representing sound generation from either a single airfoil or a blade row interacting with a gust (i.e., problems relevant to fan noise) had approximate analytical or completely numerical solutions. The fifth category of problems involved sound generation in a viscous flow. In this case, the CAA results were compared with experimental data.

Benchmark Report on Key Outage Attributes: An Analysis of Outage Improvement Opportunities and Priorities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Germain, Shawn St.; Farris, Ronald

2014-09-01

Advanced Outage Control Center (AOCC), is a multi-year pilot project targeted at Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) outage improvement. The purpose of this pilot project is to improve management of NPP outages through the development of an AOCC that is specifically designed to maximize the usefulness of communication and collaboration technologies for outage coordination and problem resolution activities. This report documents the results of a benchmarking effort to evaluate the transferability of technologies demonstrated at Idaho National Laboratory and the primary pilot project partner, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The initial assumption for this pilot project was that NPPs generally domore » not take advantage of advanced technology to support outage management activities. Several researchers involved in this pilot project have commercial NPP experience and believed that very little technology has been applied towards outage communication and collaboration. To verify that the technology options researched and demonstrated through this pilot project would in fact have broad application for the US commercial nuclear fleet, and to look for additional outage management best practices, LWRS program researchers visited several additional nuclear facilities.« less

Interview: the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke/American Epilepsy Society benchmarks and research priorities for epilepsy research.

PubMed

Lowenstein, Daniel H

2011-10-01

Daniel H Lowenstein, MD, is the Robert B and Ellinor Aird Professor and Vice-Chairman of Neurology, Director of the Epilepsy Center, and Director of Physician-Scientist Education and Training at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He received his BA in Mathematics from the University of Colorado and MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his neurology residency training at UCSF. Dr Lowenstein is a clinician-scientist who has studied both basic science and clinical aspects of epilepsy. In recent years, he has been an organizer of a large-scale, international effort to study the complex genetics of epilepsy, known as the Epilepsy Phenome/Genome Project. He has been actively involved in advancing the cause of epilepsy at the national and international level. Dr Lowenstein served as President of the American Epilepsy Society from 2003 to 2004 and the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) Advisory Council from 2000 to 2004, and has overseen the development of the NINDS Epilepsy Research Benchmarks since their inception in 2000.

Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC): State of the Council 2010

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nambiar, Raghunath; Wakou, Nicholas; Carman, Forrest; Majdalany, Michael

The Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) is a non-profit corporation founded to define transaction processing and database benchmarks and to disseminate objective, verifiable performance data to the industry. Established in August 1988, the TPC has been integral in shaping the landscape of modern transaction processing and database benchmarks over the past twenty-two years. This paper provides an overview of the TPC's existing benchmark standards and specifications, introduces two new TPC benchmarks under development, and examines the TPC's active involvement in the early creation of additional future benchmarks.

Do Medicare Advantage Plans Minimize Costs? Investigating the Relationship Between Benchmarks, Costs, and Rebates.

PubMed

Zuckerman, Stephen; Skopec, Laura; Guterman, Stuart

2017-12-01

Medicare Advantage (MA), the program that allows people to receive their Medicare benefits through private health plans, uses a benchmark-and-bidding system to induce plans to provide benefits at lower costs. However, prior research suggests medical costs, profits, and other plan costs are not as low under this system as they might otherwise be. To examine how well the current system encourages MA plans to bid their lowest cost by examining the relationship between costs and bonuses (rebates) and the benchmarks Medicare uses in determining plan payments. Regression analysis using 2015 data for HMO and local PPO plans. Costs and rebates are higher for MA plans in areas with higher benchmarks, and plan costs vary less than benchmarks do. A one-dollar increase in benchmarks is associated with 32-cent-higher plan costs and a 52-cent-higher rebate, even when controlling for market and plan factors that can affect costs. This suggests the current benchmark-and-bidding system allows plans to bid higher than local input prices and other market conditions would seem to warrant. To incentivize MA plans to maximize efficiency and minimize costs, Medicare could change the way benchmarks are set or used.

Comparison of mapping algorithms used in high-throughput sequencing: application to Ion Torrent data

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background The rapid evolution in high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technologies has opened up new perspectives in several research fields and led to the production of large volumes of sequence data. A fundamental step in HTS data analysis is the mapping of reads onto reference sequences. Choosing a suitable mapper for a given technology and a given application is a subtle task because of the difficulty of evaluating mapping algorithms. Results In this paper, we present a benchmark procedure to compare mapping algorithms used in HTS using both real and simulated datasets and considering four evaluation criteria: computational resource and time requirements, robustness of mapping, ability to report positions for reads in repetitive regions, and ability to retrieve true genetic variation positions. To measure robustness, we introduced a new definition for a correctly mapped read taking into account not only the expected start position of the read but also the end position and the number of indels and substitutions. We developed CuReSim, a new read simulator, that is able to generate customized benchmark data for any kind of HTS technology by adjusting parameters to the error types. CuReSim and CuReSimEval, a tool to evaluate the mapping quality of the CuReSim simulated reads, are freely available. We applied our benchmark procedure to evaluate 14 mappers in the context of whole genome sequencing of small genomes with Ion Torrent data for which such a comparison has not yet been established. Conclusions A benchmark procedure to compare HTS data mappers is introduced with a new definition for the mapping correctness as well as tools to generate simulated reads and evaluate mapping quality. The application of this procedure to Ion Torrent data from the whole genome sequencing of small genomes has allowed us to validate our benchmark procedure and demonstrate that it is helpful for selecting a mapper based on the intended application, questions to be addressed, and the technology used. This benchmark procedure can be used to evaluate existing or in-development mappers as well as to optimize parameters of a chosen mapper for any application and any sequencing platform. PMID:24708189

Benchmark Problems of the Geothermal Technologies Office Code Comparison Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, Mark D.; Podgorney, Robert; Kelkar, Sharad M.

A diverse suite of numerical simulators is currently being applied to predict or understand the performance of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). To build confidence and identify critical development needs for these analytical tools, the United States Department of Energy, Geothermal Technologies Office has sponsored a Code Comparison Study (GTO-CCS), with participants from universities, industry, and national laboratories. A principal objective for the study was to create a community forum for improvement and verification of numerical simulators for EGS modeling. Teams participating in the study were those representing U.S. national laboratories, universities, and industries, and each team brought unique numerical simulationmore » capabilities to bear on the problems. Two classes of problems were developed during the study, benchmark problems and challenge problems. The benchmark problems were structured to test the ability of the collection of numerical simulators to solve various combinations of coupled thermal, hydrologic, geomechanical, and geochemical processes. This class of problems was strictly defined in terms of properties, driving forces, initial conditions, and boundary conditions. Study participants submitted solutions to problems for which their simulation tools were deemed capable or nearly capable. Some participating codes were originally developed for EGS applications whereas some others were designed for different applications but can simulate processes similar to those in EGS. Solution submissions from both were encouraged. In some cases, participants made small incremental changes to their numerical simulation codes to address specific elements of the problem, and in other cases participants submitted solutions with existing simulation tools, acknowledging the limitations of the code. The challenge problems were based on the enhanced geothermal systems research conducted at Fenton Hill, near Los Alamos, New Mexico, between 1974 and 1995. The problems involved two phases of research, stimulation, development, and circulation in two separate reservoirs. The challenge problems had specific questions to be answered via numerical simulation in three topical areas: 1) reservoir creation/stimulation, 2) reactive and passive transport, and 3) thermal recovery. Whereas the benchmark class of problems were designed to test capabilities for modeling coupled processes under strictly specified conditions, the stated objective for the challenge class of problems was to demonstrate what new understanding of the Fenton Hill experiments could be realized via the application of modern numerical simulation tools by recognized expert practitioners.« less

Measuring effectiveness of electronic medical records systems: towards building a composite index for benchmarking hospitals.

PubMed

Otieno, George Ochieng; Hinako, Toyama; Motohiro, Asonuma; Daisuke, Koide; Keiko, Naitoh

2008-10-01

Many hospitals are currently in the process of developing and implementing electronic medical records (EMR) systems. This is a critical time for developing a framework that can measure and allow for comparison the effectiveness of EMR systems across hospitals that have implemented these systems. The motivation for this study comes from the realization that there is limited research on the understanding of the effectiveness of EMR systems, and a lack of appropriate reference theoretical framework for measuring the effectiveness of EMR systems. In this paper, we propose a conceptual framework for generating a composite index (CI) for measuring the effectiveness of EMR systems in hospitals. Data used to test the framework and associated research objectives were derived from a cross-sectional survey of five stakeholders of EMR systems including chief medical officers, chief nursing officers, chief information officers, doctors and nurses in 20 Japanese hospitals. Using statistical means of standardization and principal component analysis (PCA) procedure, CI was developed by summing up the scores of four dimensions-system quality, information quality, use and user satisfaction. The process included formulating items for each dimension, condensing the data into factors relevant to the dimension and calculating the CI by summing up the product of each dimension with its respective principal component score coefficient. The Cronbach's alpha for the four dimensions used in developing CI was .843. Validation of CI revealed that it was correlated to internal dimensions (system quality, R=.828; information quality, R=.909; use, R=.969; and user satisfaction, R=.679) and to external factors (JAHIS level, R=.832 and patient safety culture, R=.585). These results suggest that CI could be a reliable and valid measure of the effectiveness of EMR systems in the responding hospitals. On benchmarking of hospitals, 30.0% (6/20) of the responding hospitals performed less than satisfactory on CI and that majority of the hospitals performed poorly on user satisfaction. CI has provided a standard way, through quantitative means, of measuring, comparing and categorizing the effectiveness of EMR systems in hospitals. CI can be a powerful tool for benchmarking the effectiveness of EMR systems in hospitals in ways that can guide hospitals in computerization process as well as benchmark their systems against other hospitals.

Engineering department physical plant staffing requirements.

PubMed

Cole, C

1997-05-01

There is a considerable effort in the health care arena to establish credible engineering manpower yardsticks that are universally applicable as a benchmark. This document was created by using one facility's own benchmark criteria that can be used to help develop either internal or competitive benchmarking comparisons.

Benchmarking government action for obesity prevention--an innovative advocacy strategy.

PubMed

Martin, J; Peeters, A; Honisett, S; Mavoa, H; Swinburn, B; de Silva-Sanigorski, A

2014-01-01

Successful obesity prevention will require a leading role for governments, but internationally they have been slow to act. League tables of benchmark indicators of action can be a valuable advocacy and evaluation tool. To develop a benchmarking tool for government action on obesity prevention, implement it across Australian jurisdictions and to publicly award the best and worst performers. A framework was developed which encompassed nine domains, reflecting best practice government action on obesity prevention: whole-of-government approaches; marketing restrictions; access to affordable, healthy food; school food and physical activity; food in public facilities; urban design and transport; leisure and local environments; health services, and; social marketing. A scoring system was used by non-government key informants to rate the performance of their government. National rankings were generated and the results were communicated to all Premiers/Chief Ministers, the media and the national obesity research and practice community. Evaluation of the initial tool in 2010 showed it to be feasible to implement and able to discriminate the better and worse performing governments. Evaluation of the rubric in 2011 confirmed this to be a robust and useful method. In relation to government action, the best performing governments were those with whole-of-government approaches, had extended common initiatives and demonstrated innovation and strong political will. This new benchmarking tool, the Obesity Action Award, has enabled identification of leading government action on obesity prevention and the key characteristics associated with their success. We recommend this tool for other multi-state/country comparisons. Copyright © 2013 Asian Oceanian Association for the Study of Obesity. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Munro, J.F.; Kristal, J.; Thompson, G.

The Office of Environmental Management is bringing Headquarters and the Field together to implement process improvements throughout the Complex through a systematic process of organizational learning called benchmarking. Simply stated, benchmarking is a process of continuously comparing and measuring practices, processes, or methodologies with those of other private and public organizations. The EM benchmarking program, which began as the result of a recommendation from Xerox Corporation, is building trust and removing barriers to performance enhancement across the DOE organization. The EM benchmarking program is designed to be field-centered with Headquarters providing facilitatory and integrative functions on an ``as needed`` basis.more » One of the main goals of the program is to assist Field Offices and their associated M&O/M&I contractors develop the capabilities to do benchmarking for themselves. In this regard, a central precept is that in order to realize tangible performance benefits, program managers and staff -- the ones closest to the work - must take ownership of the studies. This avoids the ``check the box`` mentality associated with some third party studies. This workshop will provide participants with a basic level of understanding why the EM benchmarking team was developed and the nature and scope of its mission. Participants will also begin to understand the types of study levels and the particular methodology the EM benchmarking team is using to conduct studies. The EM benchmarking team will also encourage discussion on ways that DOE (both Headquarters and the Field) can team with its M&O/M&I contractors to conduct additional benchmarking studies. This ``introduction to benchmarking`` is intended to create a desire to know more and a greater appreciation of how benchmarking processes could be creatively employed to enhance performance.« less

Making Benchmark Testing Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herman, Joan L.; Baker, Eva L.

2005-01-01

Many schools are moving to develop benchmark tests to monitor their students' progress toward state standards throughout the academic year. Benchmark tests can provide the ongoing information that schools need to guide instructional programs and to address student learning problems. The authors discuss six criteria that educators can use to…

Stakeholder insights on the planning and development of an independent benchmark standard for responsible food marketing.

PubMed

Cairns, Georgina; Macdonald, Laura

2016-06-01

A mixed methods qualitative survey investigated stakeholder responses to the proposal to develop an independently defined, audited and certifiable set of benchmark standards for responsible food marketing. Its purpose was to inform the policy planning and development process. A majority of respondents were supportive of the proposal. A majority also viewed the engagement and collaboration of a broad base of stakeholders in its planning and development as potentially beneficial. Positive responses were associated with views that policy controls can and should be extended to include all form of marketing, that obesity and non-communicable diseases prevention and control was a shared responsibility and an urgent policy priority and prior experience of independent standardisation as a policy lever for good practice. Strong policy leadership, demonstrable utilisation of the evidence base in its development and deployment and a conceptually clear communications plan were identified as priority targets for future policy planning. Future research priorities include generating more evidence on the feasibility of developing an effective community of practice and theory of change, the strengths and limitations of these and developing an evidence-based step-wise communications strategy. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

From the ideal market to the ideal clinic: constructing a normative standard of fairness for human subjects research.

PubMed

Phillips, Trisha

2011-02-01

Preventing exploitation in human subjects research requires a benchmark of fairness against which to judge the distribution of the benefits and burdens of a trial. This paper proposes the ideal market and its fair market price as a criterion of fairness. The ideal market approach is not new to discussions about exploitation, so this paper reviews Wertheimer's inchoate presentation of the ideal market as a principle of fairness, attempt of Emanuel and colleagues to apply the ideal market to human subjects research, and Ballantyne's criticisms of both the ideal market and the resulting benchmark of fairness. It argues that the criticism of this particular benchmark is on point, but the rejection of the ideal market is mistaken. After presenting a complete account of the ideal market, this paper proposes a new method for applying the ideal market to human subjects research and illustrates the proposal by considering a sample case.

Role of Inspection and Condition Assessment in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Infrastructure Management: Current Practices and Opportunities for the Future

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-01-01

being done, in part, in response to Executive Order 13327, which mandates a pragmatic and consistent approach to Federal agency management of real...move forward. The U.S. Army Research and Development Center, Construction Engineering Research Laboratory was tasked with surveying a number of...assessment in use within USACE. (All rely on a deficiency-based approach, i.e., deviations from standards or from known benchmarks, to inspection.); (2

IEA-Task 31 WAKEBENCH: Towards a protocol for wind farm flow model evaluation. Part 2: Wind farm wake models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moriarty, Patrick; Sanz Rodrigo, Javier; Gancarski, Pawel; Chuchfield, Matthew; Naughton, Jonathan W.; Hansen, Kurt S.; Machefaux, Ewan; Maguire, Eoghan; Castellani, Francesco; Terzi, Ludovico; Breton, Simon-Philippe; Ueda, Yuko

2014-06-01

Researchers within the International Energy Agency (IEA) Task 31: Wakebench have created a framework for the evaluation of wind farm flow models operating at the microscale level. The framework consists of a model evaluation protocol integrated with a web-based portal for model benchmarking (www.windbench.net). This paper provides an overview of the building-block validation approach applied to wind farm wake models, including best practices for the benchmarking and data processing procedures for validation datasets from wind farm SCADA and meteorological databases. A hierarchy of test cases has been proposed for wake model evaluation, from similarity theory of the axisymmetric wake and idealized infinite wind farm, to single-wake wind tunnel (UMN-EPFL) and field experiments (Sexbierum), to wind farm arrays in offshore (Horns Rev, Lillgrund) and complex terrain conditions (San Gregorio). A summary of results from the axisymmetric wake, Sexbierum, Horns Rev and Lillgrund benchmarks are used to discuss the state-of-the-art of wake model validation and highlight the most relevant issues for future development.

E-Learning Benchmarking Survey: A Case Study of University Utara Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sam, Thi Lip

2015-01-01

E-learning has emerged as a new paradigm in today's education. Many e-learning applications have been developed to meet the increasing demand by education institutions. Previous research mainly focused on a variety of factors that influence the uptake of e-learning. However, very little is known about the quality and the extent of usage of these…

Review and Analysis of Algorithmic Approaches Developed for Prognostics on CMAPSS Dataset

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-23

publications for benchmarking prognostics algorithms. The turbofan degradation datasets have received over seven thousand unique downloads in the last five...approaches that researchers have taken to implement prognostics using these turbofan datasets. Some unique characteristics of these datasets are also...Description of the five turbofan degradation datasets available from NASA repository. Datasets #Fault Modes #Conditions #Train Units #Test Units

Show me the data: advances in multi-model benchmarking, assimilation, and forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dietze, M.; Raiho, A.; Fer, I.; Cowdery, E.; Kooper, R.; Kelly, R.; Shiklomanov, A. N.; Desai, A. R.; Simkins, J.; Gardella, A.; Serbin, S.

2016-12-01

Researchers want their data to inform carbon cycle predictions, but there are considerable bottlenecks between data collection and the use of data to calibrate and validate earth system models and inform predictions. This talk highlights recent advancements in the PEcAn project aimed at it making it easier for individual researchers to confront models with their own data: (1) The development of an easily extensible site-scale benchmarking system aimed at ensuring that models capture process rather than just reproducing pattern; (2) Efficient emulator-based Bayesian parameter data assimilation to constrain model parameters; (3) A novel, generalized approach to ensemble data assimilation to estimate carbon pools and fluxes and quantify process error; (4) automated processing and downscaling of CMIP climate scenarios to support forecasts that include driver uncertainty; (5) a large expansion in the number of models supported, with new tools for conducting multi-model and multi-site analyses; and (6) a network-based architecture that allows analyses to be shared with model developers and other collaborators. Application of these methods is illustrated with data across a wide range of time scales, from eddy-covariance to forest inventories to tree rings to paleoecological pollen proxies.

Application of Benchmark Dose Methodology to a Variety of Endpoints and Exposures

EPA Science Inventory

This latest beta version (1.1b) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Benchmark Dose Software (BMDS) is being distributed for public comment. The BMDS system is being developed as a tool to facilitate the application of benchmark dose (BMD) methods to EPA hazardous p...

Benchmarking Ada tasking on tightly coupled multiprocessor architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collard, Philippe; Goforth, Andre; Marquardt, Matthew

1989-01-01

The development of benchmarks and performance measures for parallel Ada tasking is reported with emphasis on the macroscopic behavior of the benchmark across a set of load parameters. The application chosen for the study was the NASREM model for telerobot control, relevant to many NASA missions. The results of the study demonstrate the potential of parallel Ada in accomplishing the task of developing a control system for a system such as the Flight Telerobotic Servicer using the NASREM framework.

Benchmark Problems for Spacecraft Formation Flying Missions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carpenter, J. Russell; Leitner, Jesse A.; Burns, Richard D.; Folta, David C.

2003-01-01

To provide high-level focus to distributed space system flight dynamics and control research, several benchmark problems are suggested. These problems are not specific to any current or proposed mission, but instead are intended to capture high-level features that would be generic to many similar missions.

78 FR 43147 - Fisheries of the South Atlantic; Southeast Data, Assessment, and Review (SEDAR); Public Meetings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-19

..., estimates biological benchmarks, projects future population conditions, and recommends research and... the Assessment webinars are as follows: 1. Participants will employ assessment models to evaluate stock status, estimate population benchmarks and management criteria, and project future conditions. The...

Benchmarking Data Sets for the Evaluation of Virtual Ligand Screening Methods: Review and Perspectives.

PubMed

Lagarde, Nathalie; Zagury, Jean-François; Montes, Matthieu

2015-07-27

Virtual screening methods are commonly used nowadays in drug discovery processes. However, to ensure their reliability, they have to be carefully evaluated. The evaluation of these methods is often realized in a retrospective way, notably by studying the enrichment of benchmarking data sets. To this purpose, numerous benchmarking data sets were developed over the years, and the resulting improvements led to the availability of high quality benchmarking data sets. However, some points still have to be considered in the selection of the active compounds, decoys, and protein structures to obtain optimal benchmarking data sets.

Implementation and verification of global optimization benchmark problems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Posypkin, Mikhail; Usov, Alexander

2017-12-01

The paper considers the implementation and verification of a test suite containing 150 benchmarks for global deterministic box-constrained optimization. A C++ library for describing standard mathematical expressions was developed for this purpose. The library automate the process of generating the value of a function and its' gradient at a given point and the interval estimates of a function and its' gradient on a given box using a single description. Based on this functionality, we have developed a collection of tests for an automatic verification of the proposed benchmarks. The verification has shown that literary sources contain mistakes in the benchmarks description. The library and the test suite are available for download and can be used freely.

40 CFR 141.540 - Who has to develop a disinfection benchmark?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

...) WATER PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) NATIONAL PRIMARY DRINKING WATER REGULATIONS Enhanced Filtration and Disinfection-Systems Serving Fewer Than 10,000 People Disinfection Benchmark § 141.540 Who has to develop a... 40 Protection of Environment 22 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Who has to develop a disinfection...

International E-Benchmarking: Flexible Peer Development of Authentic Learning Principles in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leppisaari, Irja; Vainio, Leena; Herrington, Jan; Im, Yeonwook

2011-01-01

More and more, social technologies and virtual work methods are facilitating new ways of crossing boundaries in professional development and international collaborations. This paper examines the peer development of higher education teachers through the experiences of the IVBM project (International Virtual Benchmarking, 2009-2010). The…

Career Benchmarks From the Burroughs Wellcome Fund's Early Faculty Career Development Awards.

PubMed

McGovern, Victoria; Kramarik, Jean; Wilkins, Gary

2013-11-01

Documenting the career characteristics of a highly selective group of researchers provides some insight into how a successful career begins. This knowledge is of value to early-career faculty and those who evaluate them, as well as trainees who aspire to the professoriate and those who educate them. In 2010, the authors extracted information by hand from the curricula vitae of 196 basic scientists who have been supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund's early faculty career development programs from 1982 to 2010. Data were collected on awardees' education, awards and honors, funding, promotion, publication, service, and training activities. The end point for data was December 2010. Analyses quantified participants' time to terminal degree, faculty appointment, and first R01; determined their publication productivity; and calculated their rates of training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This group moved into jobs and gained first R01s faster than average. Surprisingly, those who train the most students and fellows do not publish the most. Women and men trained different numbers of undergraduates, PhDs, and postdocs. Women awardees had fewer publications on average than men. Researchers who are highly competitive at the early faculty career stage have generally been both timely in their arrival at important benchmarks and productive in terms of their scientific output. Newly trained researchers and the people and institutions that train them share responsibility for attaining expeditious progress, developing a substantial track record, and staking out fertile intellectual ground from which to grow an independent faculty career.

Benchmarking Academic Libraries: An Australian Case Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Margaret; Trahn, Isabella

1997-01-01

Discusses experiences and outcomes of benchmarking at the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) library that compared acquisitions, cataloging, document delivery, and research support services with those of the University of New South Wales. Highlights include results as a catalyst for change, and the use of common output and performance…

Setting Evidence-Based Language Goals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goertler, Senta; Kraemer, Angelika; Schenker, Theresa

2016-01-01

The purpose of this project was to identify target language benchmarks for the German program at Michigan State University (MSU) based on national and international guidelines and previous research, to assess language skills across course levels and class sections in the entire German program, and to adjust the language benchmarks as needed based…

Benchmarking Attrition: What Can We Learn From Other Industries?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delta Cost Project at American Institutes for Research, 2012

2012-01-01

This brief summarizes Internet-based research into other industries that may offer useful analogies for thinking about student attrition in higher education, in particular for setting realistic benchmarks for reductions in attrition. Reducing attrition to zero or close to zero is not a realistic possibility in higher education. Students are…

The Role of Institutional Research in Conducting Comparative Analysis of Peers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trainer, James F.

2008-01-01

In this age of accountability, transparency, and accreditation, colleges and universities increasingly conduct comparative analyses and engage in benchmarking activities. Meant to inform institutional planning and decision making, comparative analyses and benchmarking are employed to let stakeholders know how an institution stacks up against its…

Utilizing Diffusion Theory to predict carbon dioxide concentration in an indoor environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kramer, Andrew R.

This research details a new method of relating sources of carbon dioxide to carbon dioxide concentration in a room operating in a reduced ventilation mode by utilizing Diffusion Theory. The theoretical basis of this research involved solving Fick's Second Law of Diffusion in spherical coordinates for a source of carbon dioxide flowing at a constant rate and located in the center of an impermeable spherical boundary. The solution was developed using a Laplace Transformation. A spherical diffusion test chamber was constructed and used to validate and benchmark the developed theory. The method was benchmarked by using Dispersion Coefficients for large carbon dioxide flow rates due to diffusion induced convection. The theoretical model was adapted to model a room operating with restricted ventilation in the presence of a known, constant source of carbon dioxide. The room was modeled as a sphere of volume equal to the room and utilized a Dispersion Coefficient that is consistent with published values. The developed Diffusion Model successfully predicted the spatial concentration of carbon dioxide in a room operating in a reduced ventilation mode in the presence of a source of carbon dioxide. The flow rates of carbon dioxide that were used in the room are comparable to the average flow rate of carbon dioxide from a person during quiet breathing, also known as the Tidal Breathing. This indicates the Diffusion Model developed from this research has the potential to correlate carbon dioxide concentration with static occupancy levels which can lead to energy savings through a reduction in air exchange rates when low occupancy is detected.

Information-Theoretic Benchmarking of Land Surface Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nearing, Grey; Mocko, David; Kumar, Sujay; Peters-Lidard, Christa; Xia, Youlong

2016-04-01

Benchmarking is a type of model evaluation that compares model performance against a baseline metric that is derived, typically, from a different existing model. Statistical benchmarking was used to qualitatively show that land surface models do not fully utilize information in boundary conditions [1] several years before Gong et al [2] discovered the particular type of benchmark that makes it possible to *quantify* the amount of information lost by an incorrect or imperfect model structure. This theoretical development laid the foundation for a formal theory of model benchmarking [3]. We here extend that theory to separate uncertainty contributions from the three major components of dynamical systems models [4]: model structures, model parameters, and boundary conditions describe time-dependent details of each prediction scenario. The key to this new development is the use of large-sample [5] data sets that span multiple soil types, climates, and biomes, which allows us to segregate uncertainty due to parameters from the two other sources. The benefit of this approach for uncertainty quantification and segregation is that it does not rely on Bayesian priors (although it is strictly coherent with Bayes' theorem and with probability theory), and therefore the partitioning of uncertainty into different components is *not* dependent on any a priori assumptions. We apply this methodology to assess the information use efficiency of the four land surface models that comprise the North American Land Data Assimilation System (Noah, Mosaic, SAC-SMA, and VIC). Specifically, we looked at the ability of these models to estimate soil moisture and latent heat fluxes. We found that in the case of soil moisture, about 25% of net information loss was from boundary conditions, around 45% was from model parameters, and 30-40% was from the model structures. In the case of latent heat flux, boundary conditions contributed about 50% of net uncertainty, and model structures contributed about 40%. There was relatively little difference between the different models. 1. G. Abramowitz, R. Leuning, M. Clark, A. Pitman, Evaluating the performance of land surface models. Journal of Climate 21, (2008). 2. W. Gong, H. V. Gupta, D. Yang, K. Sricharan, A. O. Hero, Estimating Epistemic & Aleatory Uncertainties During Hydrologic Modeling: An Information Theoretic Approach. Water Resources Research 49, 2253-2273 (2013). 3. G. S. Nearing, H. V. Gupta, The quantity and quality of information in hydrologic models. Water Resources Research 51, 524-538 (2015). 4. H. V. Gupta, G. S. Nearing, Using models and data to learn: A systems theoretic perspective on the future of hydrological science. Water Resources Research 50(6), 5351-5359 (2014). 5. H. V. Gupta et al., Large-sample hydrology: a need to balance depth with breadth. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions 10, 9147-9189 (2013).

75 FR 26057 - Mandatory Reliability Standards for the Calculation of Available Transfer Capability, Capacity...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-11

... Requirement R3.1 of MOD-001-1. C. Benchmarking 14. In the Final Rule, the Commission directed the ERO to develop benchmarking and updating requirements for the MOD Reliability Standards to measure modeled... requirements should specify the frequency for benchmarking and updating the available transfer and flowgate...

Learning Through Benchmarking: Developing a Relational, Prospective Approach to Benchmarking ICT in Learning and Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Robert A.; Moore, Roger R.

2006-01-01

This study discusses benchmarking the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning between two universities with different missions: one an Australian campus-based metropolitan university and the other a British distance-education provider. It argues that the differences notwithstanding, it is possible to…

Development and Application of Benchmark Examples for Mixed-Mode I/II Quasi-Static Delamination Propagation Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2012-01-01

The development of benchmark examples for quasi-static delamination propagation prediction is presented. The example is based on a finite element model of the Mixed-Mode Bending (MMB) specimen for 50% mode II. The benchmarking is demonstrated for Abaqus/Standard, however, the example is independent of the analysis software used and allows the assessment of the automated delamination propagation prediction capability in commercial finite element codes based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). First, a quasi-static benchmark example was created for the specimen. Second, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to propagate under quasi-static loading. Third, the load-displacement as well as delamination length versus applied load/displacement relationships from a propagation analysis and the benchmark results were compared, and good agreement could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. The benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with choosing the input parameters of the particular implementation. Overall, the results are encouraging, but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination fatigue onset and growth is required.

A benchmark for vehicle detection on wide area motion imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Catrambone, Joseph; Amzovski, Ismail; Liang, Pengpeng; Blasch, Erik; Sheaff, Carolyn; Wang, Zhonghai; Chen, Genshe; Ling, Haibin

2015-05-01

Wide area motion imagery (WAMI) has been attracting an increased amount of research attention due to its large spatial and temporal coverage. An important application includes moving target analysis, where vehicle detection is often one of the first steps before advanced activity analysis. While there exist many vehicle detection algorithms, a thorough evaluation of them on WAMI data still remains a challenge mainly due to the lack of an appropriate benchmark data set. In this paper, we address a research need by presenting a new benchmark for wide area motion imagery vehicle detection data. The WAMI benchmark is based on the recently available Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB09) dataset and the Temple Resolved Uncertainty Target History (TRUTH) associated target annotation. Trajectory annotations were provided in the original release of the WPAFB09 dataset, but detailed vehicle annotations were not available with the dataset. In addition, annotations of static vehicles, e.g., in parking lots, are also not identified in the original release. Addressing these issues, we re-annotated the whole dataset with detailed information for each vehicle, including not only a target's location, but also its pose and size. The annotated WAMI data set should be useful to community for a common benchmark to compare WAMI detection, tracking, and identification methods.

BioPreDyn-bench: a suite of benchmark problems for dynamic modelling in systems biology.

PubMed

Villaverde, Alejandro F; Henriques, David; Smallbone, Kieran; Bongard, Sophia; Schmid, Joachim; Cicin-Sain, Damjan; Crombach, Anton; Saez-Rodriguez, Julio; Mauch, Klaus; Balsa-Canto, Eva; Mendes, Pedro; Jaeger, Johannes; Banga, Julio R

2015-02-20

Dynamic modelling is one of the cornerstones of systems biology. Many research efforts are currently being invested in the development and exploitation of large-scale kinetic models. The associated problems of parameter estimation (model calibration) and optimal experimental design are particularly challenging. The community has already developed many methods and software packages which aim to facilitate these tasks. However, there is a lack of suitable benchmark problems which allow a fair and systematic evaluation and comparison of these contributions. Here we present BioPreDyn-bench, a set of challenging parameter estimation problems which aspire to serve as reference test cases in this area. This set comprises six problems including medium and large-scale kinetic models of the bacterium E. coli, baker's yeast S. cerevisiae, the vinegar fly D. melanogaster, Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, and a generic signal transduction network. The level of description includes metabolism, transcription, signal transduction, and development. For each problem we provide (i) a basic description and formulation, (ii) implementations ready-to-run in several formats, (iii) computational results obtained with specific solvers, (iv) a basic analysis and interpretation. This suite of benchmark problems can be readily used to evaluate and compare parameter estimation methods. Further, it can also be used to build test problems for sensitivity and identifiability analysis, model reduction and optimal experimental design methods. The suite, including codes and documentation, can be freely downloaded from the BioPreDyn-bench website, https://sites.google.com/site/biopredynbenchmarks/ .

Issues in Benchmark Metric Selection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Crolotte, Alain

It is true that a metric can influence a benchmark but will esoteric metrics create more problems than they will solve? We answer this question affirmatively by examining the case of the TPC-D metric which used the much debated geometric mean for the single-stream test. We will show how a simple choice influenced the benchmark and its conduct and, to some extent, DBMS development. After examining other alternatives our conclusion is that the “real” measure for a decision-support benchmark is the arithmetic mean.

Microgravity science and applications. Program tasks and bibliography for FY 1994

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

This annual report includes research projects funded by the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, Microgravity Science and Applications Division, during FY 1994. It is a compilation of program tasks (objective, description, significance, progress, students funded under research, and bibliographic citations) for flight research and ground-based research in five major scientific disciplines: benchmark science, biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science. ATD (Advanced Technology Development) program task descriptions are also included. The bibliography cites the related PI (Principal Investigator) publications and presentations for these program tasks in FY 1994. Three appendices include Table of Acronyms, Guest Investigator Index, and Principal Investigator Index.

Microgravity science & applications. Program tasks and bibliography for FY 1995

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

This annual report includes research projects funded by the Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and Applications, Microgravity Science and Applications Division, during FY 1994. It is a compilation of program tasks (objective, description, significance, progress, students funded under research, and bibliographic citations) for flight research and ground based research in five major scientific disciplines: benchmark science, biotechnology, combustion science, fluid physics, and materials science. Advanced technology development (ATD) program task descriptions are also included. The bibliography cites the related principle investigator (PI) publications and presentations for these program tasks in FY 1994. Three appendices include a Table of Acronyms, a Guest Investigator index and a Principle Investigator index.

Optimization of Deep Drilling Performance - Development and Benchmark Testing of Advanced Diamond Product Drill Bits & HP/HT Fluids to Significantly Improve Rates of Penetration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alan Black; Arnis Judzis

2005-09-30

This document details the progress to date on the OPTIMIZATION OF DEEP DRILLING PERFORMANCE--DEVELOPMENT AND BENCHMARK TESTING OF ADVANCED DIAMOND PRODUCT DRILL BITS AND HP/HT FLUIDS TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE RATES OF PENETRATION contract for the year starting October 2004 through September 2005. The industry cost shared program aims to benchmark drilling rates of penetration in selected simulated deep formations and to significantly improve ROP through a team development of aggressive diamond product drill bit--fluid system technologies. Overall the objectives are as follows: Phase 1--Benchmark ''best in class'' diamond and other product drilling bits and fluids and develop concepts for amore » next level of deep drilling performance; Phase 2--Develop advanced smart bit-fluid prototypes and test at large scale; and Phase 3--Field trial smart bit--fluid concepts, modify as necessary and commercialize products. As of report date, TerraTek has concluded all Phase 1 testing and is planning Phase 2 development.« less

Cooperative strategies for forest science management and leadership in an increasingly complex and globalized world: Proceedings of a workshop; 23- 26 August 1998; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Treesearch

Lane G. Eskew; David R. DeYoe; Denver P. Burns; Jean-Claude Mercier

1999-01-01

The purpose of this workshop was to develop organizational networks to help achieve best practices in management and leadership of forest research and foster continuous learning toward that goal through organizational benchmarking. The papers and notes herein document the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Development of STEM Readiness Benchmarks to Assist Educational and Career Decision Making. ACT Research Report Series, 2015 (3)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mattern, Krista; Radunzel, Justine; Westrick, Paul

2015-01-01

Although about 40% of high school graduates who take the ACT® test express interest in pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field, the percentage of first-year students in college who declare a STEM major is substantially lower. The pool of prospective STEM workers shrinks further as the majority of STEM…

Defining Spoken Language Benchmarks and Selecting Measures of Expressive Language Development for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Rogers, Sally; Cooper, Judith; Landa, Rebecca; Lord, Catherine; Paul, Rhea; Rice, Mabel; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Wetherby, Amy; Yoder, Paul

2009-01-01

Purpose: The aims of this article are twofold: (a) to offer a set of recommended measures that can be used for evaluating the efficacy of interventions that target spoken language acquisition as part of treatment research studies or for use in applied settings and (b) to propose and define a common terminology for describing levels of spoken…

Analysis of information quality attribute for SME towards adoption of research result

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Febriani, E.; Dewobroto, W. S.; Anggraini, R. D.

2017-12-01

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) holds significant role in fostering Indonesian economy. However, the research that is supposed to support the development of SMEs business has not yet fully adopted or utilized. Information attributes may be used as the benchmark to find the intention of SMEs from a research result and develop the strategy of quality information for all organizations both SMEs and the researcher. Therefore, because of the importance of information quality attribute required by SMEs, the research aims to analyses the information quality required by SMEs to clarify the information quality into the dimension of information quality. The research was started by distributing online questionnaire to SMEs. The questionnaire result showed that the content dimension is the most aspect required by SMEs, followed by time and form dimension, respectively. Quality information attribute required by SMEs from a research is that the result may be applied to the business.

Benchmarking Customer Service Practices of Air Cargo Carriers: A Case Study Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-09-01

customer toll free hotlines, comment and complaint analysis, and consumer advisory panels (Zemke and Schaaf, 1989:31-34). The correct use of any or all of... customer service criteria. The research also provides a host of customer service criteria that the researchers find important to most consumers . Bhote...AD-A285 014 DTIC ELECI’E SEP 2 9 1994 kOF4 * BENCHMARKING CUSTOMER SERVICE -, PRACTICES OF AIR CARGO CARRIERS: A CASE STUDY APPROACH THESIS Patrick D

IMAGESEER - IMAGEs for Education and Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Le Moigne, Jacqueline; Grubb, Thomas; Milner, Barbara

2012-01-01

IMAGESEER is a new Web portal that brings easy access to NASA image data for non-NASA researchers, educators, and students. The IMAGESEER Web site and database are specifically designed to be utilized by the university community, to enable teaching image processing (IP) techniques on NASA data, as well as to provide reference benchmark data to validate new IP algorithms. Along with the data and a Web user interface front-end, basic knowledge of the application domains, benchmark information, and specific NASA IP challenges (or case studies) are provided.

Assessing student understanding of sound waves and trigonometric reasoning in a technology-rich, project-enhanced environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wilhelm, Jennifer Anne

This case study examined what student content understanding could occur in an inner city Industrial Electronics classroom located at Tree High School where project-based instruction, enhanced with technology, was implemented for the first time. Students participated in a project implementation unit involving sound waves and trigonometric reasoning. The unit was designed to foster common content learning (via benchmark lessons) by all students in the class, and to help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of a sub-set of the larger content unit (via group project research). The objective goal of the implementation design unit was to have students gain conceptual understanding of sound waves, such as what actually waves in a wave, how waves interfere with one another, and what affects the speed of a wave. This design unit also intended for students to develop trigonometric reasoning associated with sinusoidal curves and superposition of sinusoidal waves. Project criteria within this design included implementation features, such as the need for the student to have a driving research question and focus, the need for benchmark lessons to help foster and scaffold content knowledge and understanding, and the need for project milestones to complete throughout the implementation unit to allow students the time for feedback and revision. The Industrial Electronics class at Tree High School consisted of nine students who met daily during double class periods giving 100 minutes of class time per day. The class teacher had been teaching for 18 years (mathematics, physics, and computer science). He had a background in engineering and experience teaching at the college level. Benchmark activities during implementation were used to scaffold fundamental ideas and terminology needed to investigate characteristics of sound and waves. Students participating in benchmark activities analyzed motion and musical waveforms using probeware, and explored wave phenomena using waves simulation software. Benchmark activities were also used to bridge the ideas of triangle trigonometric ratios to the graphs of sinusoidal curves, which could lead to understanding the concepts of frequency, period, amplitude, and wavelength. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Implementing Cognitive Strategy Instruction across the School: The Benchmark Manual for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaskins, Irene; Elliot, Thorne

Improving reading instruction has been the primary focus at the Benchmark School in Media, Pennsylvania. This book describes the various phases of Benchmark's development of a program to create strategic learners, thinkers, and problem solvers across the curriculum. The goal is to provide teachers and administrators with a handbook that can be…

The voice of the customer--Part 2: Benchmarking battery chargers against the Consumer's Ideal Product.

PubMed

Bauer, S M; Lane, J P; Stone, V I; Unnikrishnan, N

1998-01-01

The Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Technology Evaluation and Transfer is exploring how the end users of assistive technology devices define the ideal device. This work is called the Consumer Ideal Product program. In this work, end users identify and establish the importance of a broad range of product design features, along with the related product support and service provided by manufacturers and vendors. This paper describes a method for systematically transforming end-user defined requirements into a form that is useful and accessible to product designers, manufacturers, and vendors. In particular, product requirements, importance weightings, and metrics are developed from the Consumer Ideal Product battery charger outcomes. Six battery charges are benchmarked against these product requirements using the metrics developed. The results suggest improvements for each product's design, service, and support. Overall, the six chargers meet roughly 45-75% of the ideal product's requirements. Many of the suggested improvements are low-cost changes that, if adopted, could provide companies a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Elementary School Students' Science Talk Ability in Inquiry-Oriented Settings in Taiwan: Test Development, Verification, and Performance Benchmarks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Sheau-Wen; Liu, Yu; Chen, Shin-Feng; Wang, Jing-Ru; Kao, Huey-Lien

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a computer-based measure of elementary students' science talk and to report students' benchmarks. The development procedure had three steps: defining the framework of the test, collecting and identifying key reference sets of science talk, and developing and verifying the science talk instrument. The…

BENCHMARKING SUSTAINABILITY ENGINEERING EDUCATION

EPA Science Inventory

The goals of this project are to develop and apply a methodology for benchmarking curricula in sustainability engineering and to identify individuals active in sustainability engineering education.

Assessing potential health risks to fish and humans using mercury concentrations in inland fish from across western Canada and the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lepak, Jesse M.; Hooten, Mevin B.; Eagles-Smith, Collin A.; Tate, Michael T.; Lutz, Michelle A.; Ackerman, Joshua T.; Willacker, James J.; Jackson, Allyson K.; Evers, David C.; Wiener, James G.; Pritz, Colleen Flanagan; Davis, Jay

2016-01-01

Fish represent high quality protein and nutrient sources, but Hg contamination is ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems and can pose health risks to fish and their consumers. Potential health risks posed to fish and humans by Hg contamination in fish were assessed in western Canada and the United States. A large compilation of inland fish Hg concentrations was evaluated in terms of potential health risk to the fish themselves, health risk to predatory fish that consume Hg contaminated fish, and to humans that consume Hg contaminated fish. The probability that a fish collected from a given location would exceed a Hg concentration benchmark relevant to a health risk was calculated. These exceedance probabilities and their associated uncertainties were characterized for fish of multiple size classes at multiple health-relevant benchmarks. The approach was novel and allowed for the assessment of the potential for deleterious health effects in fish and humans associated with Hg contamination in fish across this broad study area. Exceedance probabilities were relatively common at low Hg concentration benchmarks, particularly for fish in larger size classes. Specifically, median exceedances for the largest size classes of fish evaluated at the lowest Hg concentration benchmarks were 0.73 (potential health risks to fish themselves), 0.90 (potential health risk to predatory fish that consume Hg contaminated fish), and 0.97 (potential for restricted fish consumption by humans), but diminished to essentially zero at the highest benchmarks and smallest fish size classes. Exceedances of benchmarks are likely to have deleterious health effects on fish and limit recommended amounts of fish humans consume in western Canada and the United States. Results presented here are not intended to subvert or replace local fish Hg data or consumption advice, but provide a basis for identifying areas of potential health risk and developing more focused future research and monitoring efforts.

Benchmarking the Importance and Use of Labor Market Surveys by Certified Rehabilitation Counselors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barros-Bailey, Mary; Saunders, Jodi L.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this research was to benchmark the importance and use of labor market survey (LMS) among U.S. certified rehabilitation counselors (CRCs). A secondary post hoc analysis of data collected via the "Rehabilitation Skills Inventory--Revised" for the 2011 Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification job analysis resulted in…

Policy Analysis of the English Graduation Benchmark in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shih, Chih-Min

2012-01-01

To nudge students to study English and to improve their English proficiency, many universities in Taiwan have imposed an English graduation benchmark on their students. This article reviews this policy, using the theoretic framework for education policy analysis proposed by Haddad and Demsky (1995). The author presents relevant research findings,…

2010 Recruiting Benchmarks Survey. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NJ1), 2010

2010-01-01

The National Association of Colleges and Employers conducted its annual survey of employer members from June 15, 2010 to August 15, 2010, to benchmark data relevant to college recruiting. From a base of 861 employers holding organizational membership, there were 268 responses for a response rate of 31 percent. Following are some of the major…

Development of Benchmark Examples for Quasi-Static Delamination Propagation and Fatigue Growth Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2012-01-01

The development of benchmark examples for quasi-static delamination propagation and cyclic delamination onset and growth prediction is presented and demonstrated for Abaqus/Standard. The example is based on a finite element model of a Double-Cantilever Beam specimen. The example is independent of the analysis software used and allows the assessment of the automated delamination propagation, onset and growth prediction capabilities in commercial finite element codes based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). First, a quasi-static benchmark example was created for the specimen. Second, based on the static results, benchmark examples for cyclic delamination growth were created. Third, the load-displacement relationship from a propagation analysis and the benchmark results were compared, and good agreement could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. Fourth, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to grow under cyclic loading. The number of cycles to delamination onset and the number of cycles during delamination growth for each growth increment were obtained from the automated analysis and compared to the benchmark examples. Again, good agreement between the results obtained from the growth analysis and the benchmark results could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. The benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with choosing the input parameters of the particular implementation. Selecting the appropriate input parameters, however, was not straightforward and often required an iterative procedure. Overall the results are encouraging, but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination is required.

Development of Benchmark Examples for Static Delamination Propagation and Fatigue Growth Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kruger, Ronald

2011-01-01

The development of benchmark examples for static delamination propagation and cyclic delamination onset and growth prediction is presented and demonstrated for a commercial code. The example is based on a finite element model of an End-Notched Flexure (ENF) specimen. The example is independent of the analysis software used and allows the assessment of the automated delamination propagation, onset and growth prediction capabilities in commercial finite element codes based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). First, static benchmark examples were created for the specimen. Second, based on the static results, benchmark examples for cyclic delamination growth were created. Third, the load-displacement relationship from a propagation analysis and the benchmark results were compared, and good agreement could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. Fourth, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to grow under cyclic loading. The number of cycles to delamination onset and the number of cycles during stable delamination growth for each growth increment were obtained from the automated analysis and compared to the benchmark examples. Again, good agreement between the results obtained from the growth analysis and the benchmark results could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. The benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with the input parameters of the particular implementation. Selecting the appropriate input parameters, however, was not straightforward and often required an iterative procedure. Overall, the results are encouraging but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination is required.

Development and Application of Benchmark Examples for Mode II Static Delamination Propagation and Fatigue Growth Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2011-01-01

The development of benchmark examples for static delamination propagation and cyclic delamination onset and growth prediction is presented and demonstrated for a commercial code. The example is based on a finite element model of an End-Notched Flexure (ENF) specimen. The example is independent of the analysis software used and allows the assessment of the automated delamination propagation, onset and growth prediction capabilities in commercial finite element codes based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). First, static benchmark examples were created for the specimen. Second, based on the static results, benchmark examples for cyclic delamination growth were created. Third, the load-displacement relationship from a propagation analysis and the benchmark results were compared, and good agreement could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. Fourth, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to grow under cyclic loading. The number of cycles to delamination onset and the number of cycles during delamination growth for each growth increment were obtained from the automated analysis and compared to the benchmark examples. Again, good agreement between the results obtained from the growth analysis and the benchmark results could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. The benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with choosing the input parameters of the particular implementation. Selecting the appropriate input parameters, however, was not straightforward and often required an iterative procedure. Overall the results are encouraging, but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination is required.

Benchmark and Framework for Encouraging Research on Multi-Threaded Testing Tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Havelund, Klaus; Stoller, Scott D.; Ur, Shmuel

2003-01-01

A problem that has been getting prominence in testing is that of looking for intermittent bugs. Multi-threaded code is becoming very common, mostly on the server side. As there is no silver bullet solution, research focuses on a variety of partial solutions. In this paper (invited by PADTAD 2003) we outline a proposed project to facilitate research. The project goals are as follows. The first goal is to create a benchmark that can be used to evaluate different solutions. The benchmark, apart from containing programs with documented bugs, will include other artifacts, such as traces, that are useful for evaluating some of the technologies. The second goal is to create a set of tools with open API s that can be used to check ideas without building a large system. For example an instrumentor will be available, that could be used to test temporal noise making heuristics. The third goal is to create a focus for the research in this area around which a community of people who try to solve similar problems with different techniques, could congregate.

A benchmark for comparison of dental radiography analysis algorithms.

PubMed

Wang, Ching-Wei; Huang, Cheng-Ta; Lee, Jia-Hong; Li, Chung-Hsing; Chang, Sheng-Wei; Siao, Ming-Jhih; Lai, Tat-Ming; Ibragimov, Bulat; Vrtovec, Tomaž; Ronneberger, Olaf; Fischer, Philipp; Cootes, Tim F; Lindner, Claudia

2016-07-01

Dental radiography plays an important role in clinical diagnosis, treatment and surgery. In recent years, efforts have been made on developing computerized dental X-ray image analysis systems for clinical usages. A novel framework for objective evaluation of automatic dental radiography analysis algorithms has been established under the auspices of the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging 2015 Bitewing Radiography Caries Detection Challenge and Cephalometric X-ray Image Analysis Challenge. In this article, we present the datasets, methods and results of the challenge and lay down the principles for future uses of this benchmark. The main contributions of the challenge include the creation of the dental anatomy data repository of bitewing radiographs, the creation of the anatomical abnormality classification data repository of cephalometric radiographs, and the definition of objective quantitative evaluation for comparison and ranking of the algorithms. With this benchmark, seven automatic methods for analysing cephalometric X-ray image and two automatic methods for detecting bitewing radiography caries have been compared, and detailed quantitative evaluation results are presented in this paper. Based on the quantitative evaluation results, we believe automatic dental radiography analysis is still a challenging and unsolved problem. The datasets and the evaluation software will be made available to the research community, further encouraging future developments in this field. (http://www-o.ntust.edu.tw/~cweiwang/ISBI2015/). Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Benchmarking health IT among OECD countries: better data for better policy

PubMed Central

Adler-Milstein, Julia; Ronchi, Elettra; Cohen, Genna R; Winn, Laura A Pannella; Jha, Ashish K

2014-01-01

Objective To develop benchmark measures of health information and communication technology (ICT) use to facilitate cross-country comparisons and learning. Materials and methods The effort is led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Approaches to definition and measurement within four ICT domains were compared across seven OECD countries in order to identify functionalities in each domain. These informed a set of functionality-based benchmark measures, which were refined in collaboration with representatives from more than 20 OECD and non-OECD countries. We report on progress to date and remaining work to enable countries to begin to collect benchmark data. Results The four benchmarking domains include provider-centric electronic record, patient-centric electronic record, health information exchange, and tele-health. There was broad agreement on functionalities in the provider-centric electronic record domain (eg, entry of core patient data, decision support), and less agreement in the other three domains in which country representatives worked to select benchmark functionalities. Discussion Many countries are working to implement ICTs to improve healthcare system performance. Although many countries are looking to others as potential models, the lack of consistent terminology and approach has made cross-national comparisons and learning difficult. Conclusions As countries develop and implement strategies to increase the use of ICTs to promote health goals, there is a historic opportunity to enable cross-country learning. To facilitate this learning and reduce the chances that individual countries flounder, a common understanding of health ICT adoption and use is needed. The OECD-led benchmarking process is a crucial step towards achieving this. PMID:23721983

Benchmarking health IT among OECD countries: better data for better policy.

PubMed

Adler-Milstein, Julia; Ronchi, Elettra; Cohen, Genna R; Winn, Laura A Pannella; Jha, Ashish K

2014-01-01

To develop benchmark measures of health information and communication technology (ICT) use to facilitate cross-country comparisons and learning. The effort is led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Approaches to definition and measurement within four ICT domains were compared across seven OECD countries in order to identify functionalities in each domain. These informed a set of functionality-based benchmark measures, which were refined in collaboration with representatives from more than 20 OECD and non-OECD countries. We report on progress to date and remaining work to enable countries to begin to collect benchmark data. The four benchmarking domains include provider-centric electronic record, patient-centric electronic record, health information exchange, and tele-health. There was broad agreement on functionalities in the provider-centric electronic record domain (eg, entry of core patient data, decision support), and less agreement in the other three domains in which country representatives worked to select benchmark functionalities. Many countries are working to implement ICTs to improve healthcare system performance. Although many countries are looking to others as potential models, the lack of consistent terminology and approach has made cross-national comparisons and learning difficult. As countries develop and implement strategies to increase the use of ICTs to promote health goals, there is a historic opportunity to enable cross-country learning. To facilitate this learning and reduce the chances that individual countries flounder, a common understanding of health ICT adoption and use is needed. The OECD-led benchmarking process is a crucial step towards achieving this.

Evaluation of Graph Pattern Matching Workloads in Graph Analysis Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hong, Seokyong; Lee, Sangkeun; Lim, Seung-Hwan

2016-01-01

Graph analysis has emerged as a powerful method for data scientists to represent, integrate, query, and explore heterogeneous data sources. As a result, graph data management and mining became a popular area of research, and led to the development of plethora of systems in recent years. Unfortunately, the number of emerging graph analysis systems and the wide range of applications, coupled with a lack of apples-to-apples comparisons, make it difficult to understand the trade-offs between different systems and the graph operations for which they are designed. A fair comparison of these systems is a challenging task for the following reasons:more » multiple data models, non-standardized serialization formats, various query interfaces to users, and diverse environments they operate in. To address these key challenges, in this paper we present a new benchmark suite by extending the Lehigh University Benchmark (LUBM) to cover the most common capabilities of various graph analysis systems. We provide the design process of the benchmark, which generalizes the workflow for data scientists to conduct the desired graph analysis on different graph analysis systems. Equipped with this extended benchmark suite, we present performance comparison for nine subgraph pattern retrieval operations over six graph analysis systems, namely NetworkX, Neo4j, Jena, Titan, GraphX, and uRiKA. Through the proposed benchmark suite, this study reveals both quantitative and qualitative findings in (1) implications in loading data into each system; (2) challenges in describing graph patterns for each query interface; and (3) different sensitivity of each system to query selectivity. We envision that this study will pave the road for: (i) data scientists to select the suitable graph analysis systems, and (ii) data management system designers to advance graph analysis systems.« less

Principles for Developing Benchmark Criteria for Staff Training in Responsible Gambling.

PubMed

Oehler, Stefan; Banzer, Raphaela; Gruenerbl, Agnes; Malischnig, Doris; Griffiths, Mark D; Haring, Christian

2017-03-01

One approach to minimizing the negative consequences of excessive gambling is staff training to reduce the rate of the development of new cases of harm or disorder within their customers. The primary goal of the present study was to assess suitable benchmark criteria for the training of gambling employees at casinos and lottery retailers. The study utilised the Delphi Method, a survey with one qualitative and two quantitative phases. A total of 21 invited international experts in the responsible gambling field participated in all three phases. A total of 75 performance indicators were outlined and assigned to six categories: (1) criteria of content, (2) modelling, (3) qualification of trainer, (4) framework conditions, (5) sustainability and (6) statistical indicators. Nine of the 75 indicators were rated as very important by 90 % or more of the experts. Unanimous support for importance was given to indicators such as (1) comprehensibility and (2) concrete action-guidance for handling with problem gamblers, Additionally, the study examined the implementation of benchmarking, when it should be conducted, and who should be responsible. Results indicated that benchmarking should be conducted every 1-2 years regularly and that one institution should be clearly defined and primarily responsible for benchmarking. The results of the present study provide the basis for developing a benchmarking for staff training in responsible gambling.

A benchmarking method to measure dietary absorption efficiency of chemicals by fish.

PubMed

Xiao, Ruiyang; Adolfsson-Erici, Margaretha; Åkerman, Gun; McLachlan, Michael S; MacLeod, Matthew

2013-12-01

Understanding the dietary absorption efficiency of chemicals in the gastrointestinal tract of fish is important from both a scientific and a regulatory point of view. However, reported fish absorption efficiencies for well-studied chemicals are highly variable. In the present study, the authors developed and exploited an internal chemical benchmarking method that has the potential to reduce uncertainty and variability and, thus, to improve the precision of measurements of fish absorption efficiency. The authors applied the benchmarking method to measure the gross absorption efficiency for 15 chemicals with a wide range of physicochemical properties and structures. They selected 2,2',5,6'-tetrachlorobiphenyl (PCB53) and decabromodiphenyl ethane as absorbable and nonabsorbable benchmarks, respectively. Quantities of chemicals determined in fish were benchmarked to the fraction of PCB53 recovered in fish, and quantities of chemicals determined in feces were benchmarked to the fraction of decabromodiphenyl ethane recovered in feces. The performance of the benchmarking procedure was evaluated based on the recovery of the test chemicals and precision of absorption efficiency from repeated tests. Benchmarking did not improve the precision of the measurements; after benchmarking, however, the median recovery for 15 chemicals was 106%, and variability of recoveries was reduced compared with before benchmarking, suggesting that benchmarking could account for incomplete extraction of chemical in fish and incomplete collection of feces from different tests. © 2013 SETAC.

AN OVERVIEW OF THE DEVELOPMENT, STATUS, AND APPLICATION OF EQUILIBRIUM PARTITIONING SEDIMENT BENCHMARKS FOR PAH MIXTURES

EPA Science Inventory

This article provides an overview of the development, theoretical basis, regulatory status, and application of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA's)< Equilibrium Partitioning Sediment Benchmarks (ESBs) for PAH mixtures. ESBs are compared to other sediment quality g...

Sparganothis fruitworm degree-day benchmarks provide key treatmen timings for cranberry IPM

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Degree-day benchmarks indicate discrete biological events in the development of insect pests. For the Sparganothis fruitworm, we have isolated all key development events and linked them to degree-day accumulations. These degree-day accumulations can greatly improve treatment timings for cranberry ...

Medical school benchmarking - from tools to programmes.

PubMed

Wilkinson, Tim J; Hudson, Judith N; Mccoll, Geoffrey J; Hu, Wendy C Y; Jolly, Brian C; Schuwirth, Lambert W T

2015-02-01

Benchmarking among medical schools is essential, but may result in unwanted effects. To apply a conceptual framework to selected benchmarking activities of medical schools. We present an analogy between the effects of assessment on student learning and the effects of benchmarking on medical school educational activities. A framework by which benchmarking can be evaluated was developed and applied to key current benchmarking activities in Australia and New Zealand. The analogy generated a conceptual framework that tested five questions to be considered in relation to benchmarking: what is the purpose? what are the attributes of value? what are the best tools to assess the attributes of value? what happens to the results? and, what is the likely "institutional impact" of the results? If the activities were compared against a blueprint of desirable medical graduate outcomes, notable omissions would emerge. Medical schools should benchmark their performance on a range of educational activities to ensure quality improvement and to assure stakeholders that standards are being met. Although benchmarking potentially has positive benefits, it could also result in perverse incentives with unforeseen and detrimental effects on learning if it is undertaken using only a few selected assessment tools.

Clinical Trial Assessment of Infrastructure Matrix Tool to Improve the Quality of Research Conduct in the Community.

PubMed

Dimond, Eileen P; Zon, Robin T; Weiner, Bryan J; St Germain, Diane; Denicoff, Andrea M; Dempsey, Kandie; Carrigan, Angela C; Teal, Randall W; Good, Marjorie J; McCaskill-Stevens, Worta; Grubbs, Stephen S; Dimond, Eileen P; Zon, Robin T; Weiner, Bryan J; St Germain, Diane; Denicoff, Andrea M; Dempsey, Kandie; Carrigan, Angela C; Teal, Randall W; Good, Marjorie J; McCaskill-Stevens, Worta; Grubbs, Stephen S

2016-01-01

Several publications have described minimum standards and exemplary attributes for clinical trial sites to improve research quality. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Cancer Centers Program (NCCCP) developed the clinical trial Best Practice Matrix tool to facilitate research program improvements through annual self-assessments and benchmarking. The tool identified nine attributes, each with three progressive levels, to score clinical trial infrastructural elements from less to more exemplary. The NCCCP sites correlated tool use with research program improvements, and the NCI pursued a formative evaluation to refine the interpretability and measurability of the tool. From 2011 to 2013, 21 NCCCP sites self-assessed their programs with the tool annually. During 2013 to 2014, NCI collaborators conducted a five-step formative evaluation of the matrix tool. Sites reported significant increases in level-three scores across the original nine attributes combined (P<.001). Two specific attributes exhibited significant change: clinical trial portfolio diversity and management (P=.0228) and clinical trial communication (P=.0281). The formative evaluation led to revisions, including renaming the Best Practice Matrix as the Clinical Trial Assessment of Infrastructure Matrix (CT AIM), expanding infrastructural attributes from nine to 11, clarifying metrics, and developing a new scoring tool. Broad community input, cognitive interviews, and pilot testing improved the usability and functionality of the tool. Research programs are encouraged to use the CT AIM to assess and improve site infrastructure. Experience within the NCCCP suggests that the CT AIM is useful for improving quality, benchmarking research performance, reporting progress, and communicating program needs with institutional leaders. The tool model may also be useful in disciplines beyond oncology.

Standardised Benchmarking in the Quest for Orthologs

PubMed Central

Altenhoff, Adrian M.; Boeckmann, Brigitte; Capella-Gutierrez, Salvador; Dalquen, Daniel A.; DeLuca, Todd; Forslund, Kristoffer; Huerta-Cepas, Jaime; Linard, Benjamin; Pereira, Cécile; Pryszcz, Leszek P.; Schreiber, Fabian; Sousa da Silva, Alan; Szklarczyk, Damian; Train, Clément-Marie; Bork, Peer; Lecompte, Odile; von Mering, Christian; Xenarios, Ioannis; Sjölander, Kimmen; Juhl Jensen, Lars; Martin, Maria J.; Muffato, Matthieu; Gabaldón, Toni; Lewis, Suzanna E.; Thomas, Paul D.; Sonnhammer, Erik; Dessimoz, Christophe

2016-01-01

The identification of evolutionarily related genes across different species—orthologs in particular—forms the backbone of many comparative, evolutionary, and functional genomic analyses. Achieving high accuracy in orthology inference is thus essential. Yet the true evolutionary history of genes, required to ascertain orthology, is generally unknown. Furthermore, orthologs are used for very different applications across different phyla, with different requirements in terms of the precision-recall trade-off. As a result, assessing the performance of orthology inference methods remains difficult for both users and method developers. Here, we present a community effort to establish standards in orthology benchmarking and facilitate orthology benchmarking through an automated web-based service (http://orthology.benchmarkservice.org). Using this new service, we characterise the performance of 15 well-established orthology inference methods and resources on a battery of 20 different benchmarks. Standardised benchmarking provides a way for users to identify the most effective methods for the problem at hand, sets a minimal requirement for new tools and resources, and guides the development of more accurate orthology inference methods. PMID:27043882

RBscore&NBench: a high-level web server for nucleic acid binding residues prediction with a large-scale benchmarking database.

PubMed

Miao, Zhichao; Westhof, Eric

2016-07-08

RBscore&NBench combines a web server, RBscore and a database, NBench. RBscore predicts RNA-/DNA-binding residues in proteins and visualizes the prediction scores and features on protein structures. The scoring scheme of RBscore directly links feature values to nucleic acid binding probabilities and illustrates the nucleic acid binding energy funnel on the protein surface. To avoid dataset, binding site definition and assessment metric biases, we compared RBscore with 18 web servers and 3 stand-alone programs on 41 datasets, which demonstrated the high and stable accuracy of RBscore. A comprehensive comparison led us to develop a benchmark database named NBench. The web server is available on: http://ahsoka.u-strasbg.fr/rbscorenbench/. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Developing a Benchmarking Process in Perfusion: A Report of the Perfusion Downunder Collaboration

PubMed Central

Baker, Robert A.; Newland, Richard F.; Fenton, Carmel; McDonald, Michael; Willcox, Timothy W.; Merry, Alan F.

2012-01-01

Abstract: Improving and understanding clinical practice is an appropriate goal for the perfusion community. The Perfusion Downunder Collaboration has established a multi-center perfusion focused database aimed at achieving these goals through the development of quantitative quality indicators for clinical improvement through benchmarking. Data were collected using the Perfusion Downunder Collaboration database from procedures performed in eight Australian and New Zealand cardiac centers between March 2007 and February 2011. At the Perfusion Downunder Meeting in 2010, it was agreed by consensus, to report quality indicators (QI) for glucose level, arterial outlet temperature, and pCO2 management during cardiopulmonary bypass. The values chosen for each QI were: blood glucose ≥4 mmol/L and ≤10 mmol/L; arterial outlet temperature ≤37°C; and arterial blood gas pCO2 ≥ 35 and ≤45 mmHg. The QI data were used to derive benchmarks using the Achievable Benchmark of Care (ABC™) methodology to identify the incidence of QIs at the best performing centers. Five thousand four hundred and sixty-five procedures were evaluated to derive QI and benchmark data. The incidence of the blood glucose QI ranged from 37–96% of procedures, with a benchmark value of 90%. The arterial outlet temperature QI occurred in 16–98% of procedures with the benchmark of 94%; while the arterial pCO2 QI occurred in 21–91%, with the benchmark value of 80%. We have derived QIs and benchmark calculations for the management of several key aspects of cardiopulmonary bypass to provide a platform for improving the quality of perfusion practice. PMID:22730861

Piloting a Process Maturity Model as an e-Learning Benchmarking Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petch, Jim; Calverley, Gayle; Dexter, Hilary; Cappelli, Tim

2007-01-01

As part of a national e-learning benchmarking initiative of the UK Higher Education Academy, the University of Manchester is carrying out a pilot study of a method to benchmark e-learning in an institution. The pilot was designed to evaluate the operational viability of a method based on the e-Learning Maturity Model developed at the University of…

Journal Benchmarking for Strategic Publication Management and for Improving Journal Positioning in the World Ranking Systems

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moskovkin, Vladimir M.; Bocharova, Emilia A.; Balashova, Oksana V.

2014-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce and develop the methodology of journal benchmarking. Design/Methodology/ Approach: The journal benchmarking method is understood to be an analytic procedure of continuous monitoring and comparing of the advance of specific journal(s) against that of competing journals in the same subject area,…

Developing a benchmark for emotional analysis of music

PubMed Central

Yang, Yi-Hsuan; Soleymani, Mohammad

2017-01-01

Music emotion recognition (MER) field rapidly expanded in the last decade. Many new methods and new audio features are developed to improve the performance of MER algorithms. However, it is very difficult to compare the performance of the new methods because of the data representation diversity and scarcity of publicly available data. In this paper, we address these problems by creating a data set and a benchmark for MER. The data set that we release, a MediaEval Database for Emotional Analysis in Music (DEAM), is the largest available data set of dynamic annotations (valence and arousal annotations for 1,802 songs and song excerpts licensed under Creative Commons with 2Hz time resolution). Using DEAM, we organized the ‘Emotion in Music’ task at MediaEval Multimedia Evaluation Campaign from 2013 to 2015. The benchmark attracted, in total, 21 active teams to participate in the challenge. We analyze the results of the benchmark: the winning algorithms and feature-sets. We also describe the design of the benchmark, the evaluation procedures and the data cleaning and transformations that we suggest. The results from the benchmark suggest that the recurrent neural network based approaches combined with large feature-sets work best for dynamic MER. PMID:28282400

Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Simulation of Particle Laden Flows Using the Discrete Element Method with Performance Profiles from the Multiphase Flow with Interface eXchanges (MFiX) Code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Peiyuan; Brown, Timothy; Fullmer, William D.

Five benchmark problems are developed and simulated with the computational fluid dynamics and discrete element model code MFiX. The benchmark problems span dilute and dense regimes, consider statistically homogeneous and inhomogeneous (both clusters and bubbles) particle concentrations and a range of particle and fluid dynamic computational loads. Several variations of the benchmark problems are also discussed to extend the computational phase space to cover granular (particles only), bidisperse and heat transfer cases. A weak scaling analysis is performed for each benchmark problem and, in most cases, the scalability of the code appears reasonable up to approx. 103 cores. Profiling ofmore » the benchmark problems indicate that the most substantial computational time is being spent on particle-particle force calculations, drag force calculations and interpolating between discrete particle and continuum fields. Hardware performance analysis was also carried out showing significant Level 2 cache miss ratios and a rather low degree of vectorization. These results are intended to serve as a baseline for future developments to the code as well as a preliminary indicator of where to best focus performance optimizations.« less

Developing a benchmark for emotional analysis of music.

PubMed

Aljanaki, Anna; Yang, Yi-Hsuan; Soleymani, Mohammad

2017-01-01

Music emotion recognition (MER) field rapidly expanded in the last decade. Many new methods and new audio features are developed to improve the performance of MER algorithms. However, it is very difficult to compare the performance of the new methods because of the data representation diversity and scarcity of publicly available data. In this paper, we address these problems by creating a data set and a benchmark for MER. The data set that we release, a MediaEval Database for Emotional Analysis in Music (DEAM), is the largest available data set of dynamic annotations (valence and arousal annotations for 1,802 songs and song excerpts licensed under Creative Commons with 2Hz time resolution). Using DEAM, we organized the 'Emotion in Music' task at MediaEval Multimedia Evaluation Campaign from 2013 to 2015. The benchmark attracted, in total, 21 active teams to participate in the challenge. We analyze the results of the benchmark: the winning algorithms and feature-sets. We also describe the design of the benchmark, the evaluation procedures and the data cleaning and transformations that we suggest. The results from the benchmark suggest that the recurrent neural network based approaches combined with large feature-sets work best for dynamic MER.

How to Advance TPC Benchmarks with Dependability Aspects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almeida, Raquel; Poess, Meikel; Nambiar, Raghunath; Patil, Indira; Vieira, Marco

Transactional systems are the core of the information systems of most organizations. Although there is general acknowledgement that failures in these systems often entail significant impact both on the proceeds and reputation of companies, the benchmarks developed and managed by the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC) still maintain their focus on reporting bare performance. Each TPC benchmark has to pass a list of dependability-related tests (to verify ACID properties), but not all benchmarks require measuring their performances. While TPC-E measures the recovery time of some system failures, TPC-H and TPC-C only require functional correctness of such recovery. Consequently, systems used in TPC benchmarks are tuned mostly for performance. In this paper we argue that nowadays systems should be tuned for a more comprehensive suite of dependability tests, and that a dependability metric should be part of TPC benchmark publications. The paper discusses WHY and HOW this can be achieved. Two approaches are introduced and discussed: augmenting each TPC benchmark in a customized way, by extending each specification individually; and pursuing a more unified approach, defining a generic specification that could be adjoined to any TPC benchmark.

The demographic impact and development benefits of meeting demand for family planning with modern contraceptive methods.

PubMed

Goodkind, Daniel; Lollock, Lisa; Choi, Yoonjoung; McDevitt, Thomas; West, Loraine

2018-01-01

Meeting demand for family planning can facilitate progress towards all major themes of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership. Many policymakers have embraced a benchmark goal that at least 75% of the demand for family planning in all countries be satisfied with modern contraceptive methods by the year 2030. This study examines the demographic impact (and development implications) of achieving the 75% benchmark in 13 developing countries that are expected to be the furthest from achieving that benchmark. Estimation of the demographic impact of achieving the 75% benchmark requires three steps in each country: 1) translate contraceptive prevalence assumptions (with and without intervention) into future fertility levels based on biometric models, 2) incorporate each pair of fertility assumptions into separate population projections, and 3) compare the demographic differences between the two population projections. Data are drawn from the United Nations, the US Census Bureau, and Demographic and Health Surveys. The demographic impact of meeting the 75% benchmark is examined via projected differences in fertility rates (average expected births per woman's reproductive lifetime), total population, growth rates, age structure, and youth dependency. On average, meeting the benchmark would imply a 16 percentage point increase in modern contraceptive prevalence by 2030 and a 20% decline in youth dependency, which portends a potential demographic dividend to spur economic growth. Improvements in meeting the demand for family planning with modern contraceptive methods can bring substantial benefits to developing countries. To our knowledge, this is the first study to show formally how such improvements can alter population size and age structure. Declines in youth dependency portend a demographic dividend, an added bonus to the already well-known benefits of meeting existing demands for family planning.

All inclusive benchmarking.

PubMed

Ellis, Judith

2006-07-01

The aim of this article is to review published descriptions of benchmarking activity and synthesize benchmarking principles to encourage the acceptance and use of Essence of Care as a new benchmarking approach to continuous quality improvement, and to promote its acceptance as an integral and effective part of benchmarking activity in health services. The Essence of Care, was launched by the Department of Health in England in 2001 to provide a benchmarking tool kit to support continuous improvement in the quality of fundamental aspects of health care, for example, privacy and dignity, nutrition and hygiene. The tool kit is now being effectively used by some frontline staff. However, use is inconsistent, with the value of the tool kit, or the support clinical practice benchmarking requires to be effective, not always recognized or provided by National Health Service managers, who are absorbed with the use of quantitative benchmarking approaches and measurability of comparative performance data. This review of published benchmarking literature, was obtained through an ever-narrowing search strategy commencing from benchmarking within quality improvement literature through to benchmarking activity in health services and including access to not only published examples of benchmarking approaches and models used but the actual consideration of web-based benchmarking data. This supported identification of how benchmarking approaches have developed and been used, remaining true to the basic benchmarking principles of continuous improvement through comparison and sharing (Camp 1989). Descriptions of models and exemplars of quantitative and specifically performance benchmarking activity in industry abound (Camp 1998), with far fewer examples of more qualitative and process benchmarking approaches in use in the public services and then applied to the health service (Bullivant 1998). The literature is also in the main descriptive in its support of the effectiveness of benchmarking activity and although this does not seem to have restricted its popularity in quantitative activity, reticence about the value of the more qualitative approaches, for example Essence of Care, needs to be overcome in order to improve the quality of patient care and experiences. The perceived immeasurability and subjectivity of Essence of Care and clinical practice benchmarks means that these benchmarking approaches are not always accepted or supported by health service organizations as valid benchmarking activity. In conclusion, Essence of Care benchmarking is a sophisticated clinical practice benchmarking approach which needs to be accepted as an integral part of health service benchmarking activity to support improvement in the quality of patient care and experiences.

Cross-Evaluation of Degree Programmes in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kettunen, Juha

2010-01-01

Purpose: This study seeks to develop and describe the benchmarking approach of enhancement-led evaluation in higher education and to present a cross-evaluation process for degree programmes. Design/methodology/approach: The benchmarking approach produces useful information for the development of degree programmes based on self-evaluation,…

RESULTS OF QA/QC TESTING OF EPA BENCHMARK DOSE SOFTWARE VERSION 1.2

EPA Science Inventory

EPA is developing benchmark dose software (BMDS) to support cancer and non-cancer dose-response assessments. Following the recent public review of BMDS version 1.1b, EPA developed a Hill model for evaluating continuous data, and improved the user interface and Multistage, Polyno...

Developments in lithium-ion battery technology in the Peoples Republic of China.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Patil, P. G.; Energy Systems

2008-02-28

Argonne National Laboratory prepared this report, under the sponsorship of the Office of Vehicle Technologies (OVT) of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, for the Vehicles Technologies Team. The information in the report is based on the author's visit to Beijing; Tianjin; and Shanghai, China, to meet with representatives from several organizations (listed in Appendix A) developing and manufacturing lithium-ion battery technology for cell phones and electronics, electric bikes, and electric and hybrid vehicle applications. The purpose of the visit was to assess the status of lithium-ion battery technology in China and tomore » determine if lithium-ion batteries produced in China are available for benchmarking in the United States. With benchmarking, DOE and the U.S. battery development industry would be able to understand the status of the battery technology, which would enable the industry to formulate a long-term research and development program. This report also describes the state of lithium-ion battery technology in the United States, provides information on joint ventures, and includes information on government incentives and policies in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC).« less

78 FR 15559 - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Establishment of the Multi-State Plan Program for the...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-03-11

.... Based on initial comparative research, it appears that the proposed OPM-selected EHB-benchmark plans are... include any discriminatory benefit design elements as defined under 45 CFR 156.125. Response: In response... OPM-selected benchmarks and substitutions not be allowed in States having standard benefit designs...

Toward Policy-Relevant Benchmarks for Interpreting Effect Sizes: Combining Effects with Costs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Douglas N.

2009-01-01

The common reporting of effect sizes has been an important advance in education research in recent years. However, the benchmarks used to interpret the size of these effects--as small, medium, and large--do little to inform educational administration and policy making because they do not account for program costs. The author proposes an approach…

Benchmarks for Expected Annual Academic Growth for Students in the Bottom Quartile of the Normative Distribution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scammacca, Nancy K.; Fall, Anna-Mária; Roberts, Greg

2015-01-01

Effect sizes are commonly reported for the results of educational interventions. However, researchers struggle with interpreting their magnitude in a way that transcends generic guidelines. Effect sizes can be interpreted in a meaningful context by benchmarking them against typical growth for students in the normative distribution. Such benchmarks…

Benchmarking Work Practices and Outcomes in Australian Universities Using an Employee Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Langford, Peter H.

2010-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to benchmark a broad range of work practices and outcomes in Australian universities against other industries. Past research suggests occupational stress experienced by academic staff is worse than experienced by employees in other industries. However, no other practices or outcomes can be compared confidently.…

How Sound Is NSSE? Investigating the Psychometric Properties of NSSE at a Public, Research-Extensive Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Corbin M.; Cabrera, Alberto F.

2011-01-01

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Benchmarks has emerged as a competing paradigm for assessing institutional effectiveness vis-a-vis the U.S. News & World Report. However, Porter (2009) has critiqued it for failing to meet validity and reliability standards. This study investigated whether the NSSE five benchmarks had construct…

Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adolescent Depression: A Benchmarking Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weersing, V. Robin; Iyengar, Satish; Kolko, David J.; Birmaher, Boris; Brent, David A.

2006-01-01

In this study, we examined the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for adolescent depression. Outcomes of 80 youth treated with CBT in an outpatient depression specialty clinic, the Services for Teens at Risk Center (STAR), were compared to a "gold standard" CBT research benchmark. On average, youths treated with CBT in STAR…

New Reactor Physics Benchmark Data in the March 2012 Edition of the IRPhEP Handbook

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

John D. Bess; J. Blair Briggs; Jim Gulliford

2012-11-01

The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was established to preserve integral reactor physics experimental data, including separate or special effects data for nuclear energy and technology applications. Numerous experiments that have been performed worldwide, represent a large investment of infrastructure, expertise, and cost, and are valuable resources of data for present and future research. These valuable assets provide the basis for recording, development, and validation of methods. If the experimental data are lost, the high cost to repeat many of these measurements may be prohibitive. The purpose of the IRPhEP is to provide an extensively peer-reviewed set ofmore » reactor physics-related integral data that can be used by reactor designers and safety analysts to validate the analytical tools used to design next-generation reactors and establish the safety basis for operation of these reactors. Contributors from around the world collaborate in the evaluation and review of selected benchmark experiments for inclusion in the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments (IRPhEP Handbook) [1]. Several new evaluations have been prepared for inclusion in the March 2012 edition of the IRPhEP Handbook.« less

Assessment of Static Delamination Propagation Capabilities in Commercial Finite Element Codes Using Benchmark Analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Orifici, Adrian C.; Krueger, Ronald

2010-01-01

With capabilities for simulating delamination growth in composite materials becoming available, the need for benchmarking and assessing these capabilities is critical. In this study, benchmark analyses were performed to assess the delamination propagation simulation capabilities of the VCCT implementations in Marc TM and MD NastranTM. Benchmark delamination growth results for Double Cantilever Beam, Single Leg Bending and End Notched Flexure specimens were generated using a numerical approach. This numerical approach was developed previously, and involves comparing results from a series of analyses at different delamination lengths to a single analysis with automatic crack propagation. Specimens were analyzed with three-dimensional and two-dimensional models, and compared with previous analyses using Abaqus . The results demonstrated that the VCCT implementation in Marc TM and MD Nastran(TradeMark) was capable of accurately replicating the benchmark delamination growth results and that the use of the numerical benchmarks offers advantages over benchmarking using experimental and analytical results.

Can data-driven benchmarks be used to set the goals of healthy people 2010?

PubMed Central

Allison, J; Kiefe, C I; Weissman, N W

1999-01-01

OBJECTIVES: Expert panels determined the public health goals of Healthy People 2000 subjectively. The present study examined whether data-driven benchmarks provide a better alternative. METHODS: We developed the "pared-mean" method to define from data the best achievable health care practices. We calculated the pared-mean benchmark for screening mammography from the 1994 National Health Interview Survey, using the metropolitan statistical area as the "provider" unit. Beginning with the best-performing provider and adding providers in descending sequence, we established the minimum provider subset that included at least 10% of all women surveyed on this question. The pared-mean benchmark is then the proportion of women in this subset who received mammography. RESULTS: The pared-mean benchmark for screening mammography was 71%, compared with the Healthy People 2000 goal of 60%. CONCLUSIONS: For Healthy People 2010, benchmarks derived from data reflecting the best available care provide viable alternatives to consensus-derived targets. We are currently pursuing additional refinements to the data-driven pared-mean benchmark approach. PMID:9987466

Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) Program Development of a Computer-based Benchmarking and Analytical Tool. Benchmarking and Energy & Water Savings Tool in Dairy Plants (BEST-Dairy)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Xu, Tengfang; Flapper, Joris; Ke, Jing

The overall goal of the project is to develop a computer-based benchmarking and energy and water savings tool (BEST-Dairy) for use in the California dairy industry - including four dairy processes - cheese, fluid milk, butter, and milk powder. BEST-Dairy tool developed in this project provides three options for the user to benchmark each of the dairy product included in the tool, with each option differentiated based on specific detail level of process or plant, i.e., 1) plant level; 2) process-group level, and 3) process-step level. For each detail level, the tool accounts for differences in production and other variablesmore » affecting energy use in dairy processes. The dairy products include cheese, fluid milk, butter, milk powder, etc. The BEST-Dairy tool can be applied to a wide range of dairy facilities to provide energy and water savings estimates, which are based upon the comparisons with the best available reference cases that were established through reviewing information from international and national samples. We have performed and completed alpha- and beta-testing (field testing) of the BEST-Dairy tool, through which feedback from voluntary users in the U.S. dairy industry was gathered to validate and improve the tool's functionality. BEST-Dairy v1.2 was formally published in May 2011, and has been made available for free downloads from the internet (i.e., http://best-dairy.lbl.gov). A user's manual has been developed and published as the companion documentation for use with the BEST-Dairy tool. In addition, we also carried out technology transfer activities by engaging the dairy industry in the process of tool development and testing, including field testing, technical presentations, and technical assistance throughout the project. To date, users from more than ten countries in addition to those in the U.S. have downloaded the BEST-Dairy from the LBNL website. It is expected that the use of BEST-Dairy tool will advance understanding of energy and water usage in individual dairy plants, augment benchmarking activities in the market places, and facilitate implementation of efficiency measures and strategies to save energy and water usage in the dairy industry. Industrial adoption of this emerging tool and technology in the market is expected to benefit dairy plants, which are important customers of California utilities. Further demonstration of this benchmarking tool is recommended, for facilitating its commercialization and expansion in functions of the tool. Wider use of this BEST-Dairy tool and its continuous expansion (in functionality) will help to reduce the actual consumption of energy and water in the dairy industry sector. The outcomes comply very well with the goals set by the AB 1250 for PIER program.« less

How do I know if my forecasts are better? Using benchmarks in hydrological ensemble prediction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pappenberger, F.; Ramos, M. H.; Cloke, H. L.; Wetterhall, F.; Alfieri, L.; Bogner, K.; Mueller, A.; Salamon, P.

2015-03-01

The skill of a forecast can be assessed by comparing the relative proximity of both the forecast and a benchmark to the observations. Example benchmarks include climatology or a naïve forecast. Hydrological ensemble prediction systems (HEPS) are currently transforming the hydrological forecasting environment but in this new field there is little information to guide researchers and operational forecasters on how benchmarks can be best used to evaluate their probabilistic forecasts. In this study, it is identified that the forecast skill calculated can vary depending on the benchmark selected and that the selection of a benchmark for determining forecasting system skill is sensitive to a number of hydrological and system factors. A benchmark intercomparison experiment is then undertaken using the continuous ranked probability score (CRPS), a reference forecasting system and a suite of 23 different methods to derive benchmarks. The benchmarks are assessed within the operational set-up of the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) to determine those that are 'toughest to beat' and so give the most robust discrimination of forecast skill, particularly for the spatial average fields that EFAS relies upon. Evaluating against an observed discharge proxy the benchmark that has most utility for EFAS and avoids the most naïve skill across different hydrological situations is found to be meteorological persistency. This benchmark uses the latest meteorological observations of precipitation and temperature to drive the hydrological model. Hydrological long term average benchmarks, which are currently used in EFAS, are very easily beaten by the forecasting system and the use of these produces much naïve skill. When decomposed into seasons, the advanced meteorological benchmarks, which make use of meteorological observations from the past 20 years at the same calendar date, have the most skill discrimination. They are also good at discriminating skill in low flows and for all catchment sizes. Simpler meteorological benchmarks are particularly useful for high flows. Recommendations for EFAS are to move to routine use of meteorological persistency, an advanced meteorological benchmark and a simple meteorological benchmark in order to provide a robust evaluation of forecast skill. This work provides the first comprehensive evidence on how benchmarks can be used in evaluation of skill in probabilistic hydrological forecasts and which benchmarks are most useful for skill discrimination and avoidance of naïve skill in a large scale HEPS. It is recommended that all HEPS use the evidence and methodology provided here to evaluate which benchmarks to employ; so forecasters can have trust in their skill evaluation and will have confidence that their forecasts are indeed better.

Ionospheric Response to Extremes in the Space Environment: Establishing Benchmarks for the Space Weather Action Plan.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Viereck, R. A.; Azeem, S. I.

2017-12-01

One of the goals of the National Space Weather Action Plan is to establish extreme event benchmarks. These benchmarks are estimates of environmental parameters that impact technologies and systems during extreme space weather events. Quantitative assessment of anticipated conditions during these extreme space weather event will enable operators and users of affected technologies to develop plans for mitigating space weather risks and improve preparedness. The ionosphere is one of the most important regions of space because so many applications either depend on ionospheric space weather for their operation (HF communication, over-the-horizon radars), or can be deleteriously affected by ionospheric conditions (e.g. GNSS navigation and timing, UHF satellite communications, synthetic aperture radar, HF communications). Since the processes that influence the ionosphere vary over time scales from seconds to years, it continues to be a challenge to adequately predict its behavior in many circumstances. Estimates with large uncertainties, in excess of 100%, may result in operators of impacted technologies over or under preparing for such events. The goal of the next phase of the benchmarking activity is to reduce these uncertainties. In this presentation, we will focus on the sources of uncertainty in the ionospheric response to extreme geomagnetic storms. We will then discuss various research efforts required to better understand the underlying processes of ionospheric variability and how the uncertainties in ionospheric response to extreme space weather could be reduced and the estimates improved.

Benchmarking: contexts and details matter.

PubMed

Zheng, Siyuan

2017-07-05

Benchmarking is an essential step in the development of computational tools. We take this opportunity to pitch in our opinions on tool benchmarking, in light of two correspondence articles published in Genome Biology.Please see related Li et al. and Newman et al. correspondence articles: www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1256-5 and www.dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13059-017-1257-4.

Benchmarking in pathology: development of an activity-based costing model.

PubMed

Burnett, Leslie; Wilson, Roger; Pfeffer, Sally; Lowry, John

2012-12-01

Benchmarking in Pathology (BiP) allows pathology laboratories to determine the unit cost of all laboratory tests and procedures, and also provides organisational productivity indices allowing comparisons of performance with other BiP participants. We describe 14 years of progressive enhancement to a BiP program, including the implementation of 'avoidable costs' as the accounting basis for allocation of costs rather than previous approaches using 'total costs'. A hierarchical tree-structured activity-based costing model distributes 'avoidable costs' attributable to the pathology activities component of a pathology laboratory operation. The hierarchical tree model permits costs to be allocated across multiple laboratory sites and organisational structures. This has enabled benchmarking on a number of levels, including test profiles and non-testing related workload activities. The development of methods for dealing with variable cost inputs, allocation of indirect costs using imputation techniques, panels of tests, and blood-bank record keeping, have been successfully integrated into the costing model. A variety of laboratory management reports are produced, including the 'cost per test' of each pathology 'test' output. Benchmarking comparisons may be undertaken at any and all of the 'cost per test' and 'cost per Benchmarking Complexity Unit' level, 'discipline/department' (sub-specialty) level, or overall laboratory/site and organisational levels. We have completed development of a national BiP program. An activity-based costing methodology based on avoidable costs overcomes many problems of previous benchmarking studies based on total costs. The use of benchmarking complexity adjustment permits correction for varying test-mix and diagnostic complexity between laboratories. Use of iterative communication strategies with program participants can overcome many obstacles and lead to innovations.

Benchmarking: applications to transfusion medicine.

PubMed

Apelseth, Torunn Oveland; Molnar, Laura; Arnold, Emmy; Heddle, Nancy M

2012-10-01

Benchmarking is as a structured continuous collaborative process in which comparisons for selected indicators are used to identify factors that, when implemented, will improve transfusion practices. This study aimed to identify transfusion medicine studies reporting on benchmarking, summarize the benchmarking approaches used, and identify important considerations to move the concept of benchmarking forward in the field of transfusion medicine. A systematic review of published literature was performed to identify transfusion medicine-related studies that compared at least 2 separate institutions or regions with the intention of benchmarking focusing on 4 areas: blood utilization, safety, operational aspects, and blood donation. Forty-five studies were included: blood utilization (n = 35), safety (n = 5), operational aspects of transfusion medicine (n = 5), and blood donation (n = 0). Based on predefined criteria, 7 publications were classified as benchmarking, 2 as trending, and 36 as single-event studies. Three models of benchmarking are described: (1) a regional benchmarking program that collects and links relevant data from existing electronic sources, (2) a sentinel site model where data from a limited number of sites are collected, and (3) an institutional-initiated model where a site identifies indicators of interest and approaches other institutions. Benchmarking approaches are needed in the field of transfusion medicine. Major challenges include defining best practices and developing cost-effective methods of data collection. For those interested in initiating a benchmarking program, the sentinel site model may be most effective and sustainable as a starting point, although the regional model would be the ideal goal. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Utilizing a Trauma Systems Approach to Benchmark and Improve Combat Casualty Care

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-01

modern battlefield utilizing evidence - based medicine . The development of injury care benchmarks enhanced the evolution of the combat casualty care performance improvement process within the trauma system.

Seismo-acoustic ray model benchmarking against experimental tank data.

PubMed

Camargo Rodríguez, Orlando; Collis, Jon M; Simpson, Harry J; Ey, Emanuel; Schneiderwind, Joseph; Felisberto, Paulo

2012-08-01

Acoustic predictions of the recently developed traceo ray model, which accounts for bottom shear properties, are benchmarked against tank experimental data from the EPEE-1 and EPEE-2 (Elastic Parabolic Equation Experiment) experiments. Both experiments are representative of signal propagation in a Pekeris-like shallow-water waveguide over a non-flat isotropic elastic bottom, where significant interaction of the signal with the bottom can be expected. The benchmarks show, in particular, that the ray model can be as accurate as a parabolic approximation model benchmarked in similar conditions. The results of benchmarking are important, on one side, as a preliminary experimental validation of the model and, on the other side, demonstrates the reliability of the ray approach for seismo-acoustic applications.

A new numerical benchmark of a freshwater lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stoeckl, L.; Walther, M.; Graf, T.

2016-04-01

A numerical benchmark for 2-D variable-density flow and solute transport in a freshwater lens is presented. The benchmark is based on results of laboratory experiments conducted by Stoeckl and Houben (2012) using a sand tank on the meter scale. This benchmark describes the formation and degradation of a freshwater lens over time as it can be found under real-world islands. An error analysis gave the appropriate spatial and temporal discretization of 1 mm and 8.64 s, respectively. The calibrated parameter set was obtained using the parameter estimation tool PEST. Comparing density-coupled and density-uncoupled results showed that the freshwater-saltwater interface position is strongly dependent on density differences. A benchmark that adequately represents saltwater intrusion and that includes realistic features of coastal aquifers or freshwater lenses was lacking. This new benchmark was thus developed and is demonstrated to be suitable to test variable-density groundwater models applied to saltwater intrusion investigations.

Radiation Detection Computational Benchmark Scenarios

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shaver, Mark W.; Casella, Andrew M.; Wittman, Richard S.

2013-09-24

Modeling forms an important component of radiation detection development, allowing for testing of new detector designs, evaluation of existing equipment against a wide variety of potential threat sources, and assessing operation performance of radiation detection systems. This can, however, result in large and complex scenarios which are time consuming to model. A variety of approaches to radiation transport modeling exist with complementary strengths and weaknesses for different problems. This variety of approaches, and the development of promising new tools (such as ORNL’s ADVANTG) which combine benefits of multiple approaches, illustrates the need for a means of evaluating or comparing differentmore » techniques for radiation detection problems. This report presents a set of 9 benchmark problems for comparing different types of radiation transport calculations, identifying appropriate tools for classes of problems, and testing and guiding the development of new methods. The benchmarks were drawn primarily from existing or previous calculations with a preference for scenarios which include experimental data, or otherwise have results with a high level of confidence, are non-sensitive, and represent problem sets of interest to NA-22. From a technical perspective, the benchmarks were chosen to span a range of difficulty and to include gamma transport, neutron transport, or both and represent different important physical processes and a range of sensitivity to angular or energy fidelity. Following benchmark identification, existing information about geometry, measurements, and previous calculations were assembled. Monte Carlo results (MCNP decks) were reviewed or created and re-run in order to attain accurate computational times and to verify agreement with experimental data, when present. Benchmark information was then conveyed to ORNL in order to guide testing and development of hybrid calculations. The results of those ADVANTG calculations were then sent to PNNL for compilation. This is a report describing the details of the selected Benchmarks and results from various transport codes.« less

Pharmaceutical Market Access: current state of affairs and key challenges - results of the Market Access Launch Excellence Inventory (MALEI).

PubMed

Koch, Marcus A

2015-01-01

To take inventory of the current state of affairs of Market Access Launch Excellence in the life sciences industry. To identify key gaps and challenges for Market Access (MA) and discuss how they can be addressed. To generate a baseline for benchmarking MA launch excellence. An online survey was conducted with pharmaceutical executives primarily working in MA, marketing, or general management. The survey aimed to evaluate MA excellence prerequisites across the product life cycle (rated by importance and level of implementation) and to describe MA activity models in the respective companies. Composite scores were calculated from respondents' ratings and answers. Implementation levels of MA excellence prerequisites generally lagged behind their perceived importance. Item importance and the respective level of implementation correlated well, which can be interpreted as proof of the validity of the questionnaire. The following areas were shown to be particularly underimplemented: 1) early integration of MA and health economic considerations in research and development decision making, 2) developing true partnerships with payers, including the development of services 'beyond the pill', and 3) consideration of human resource and talent management. The concept of importance-adjusted implementation levels as a hybrid parameter was introduced and shown to be a viable tool for benchmarking purposes. More than 70% of respondents indicated that their companies will invest broadly in MA in terms of capital and headcount within the next 3 years. MA (launch) excellence needs to be further developed in order to close implementation gaps across the entire product life cycle. As MA is a comparatively young pharmaceutical discipline in a complex and dynamic environment, this effort will require strategic focus and dedication. The Market Access Launch Excellence Inventory benchmarking tool may help guide decision makers to prioritize their endeavors.

Benchmarking and Threshold Standards in Higher Education. Staff and Educational Development Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Helen, Ed.; Armstrong, Michael, Ed.; Brown, Sally, Ed.

This book explores the issues involved in developing standards in higher education, examining the practical issues involved in benchmarking and offering a critical analysis of the problems associated with this developmental tool. The book focuses primarily on experience in the United Kingdom (UK), but looks also at international activity in this…

Clinically Significant Change to Establish Benchmarks in Residential Drug and Alcohol Treatment Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Billingham, Daniel D.; Kelly, Peter J.; Deane, Frank P.; Crowe, Trevor P.; Buckingham, Mark S.; Craig, Fiona L.

2012-01-01

There is increasing emphasis on the use routine outcome assessment measures to inform quality assurance initiatives. The calculation of reliable and clinically significant change indices is one strategy that organizations could use to develop both internal and externally focused benchmarking processes. The current study aimed to develop reliable…

Developing of Indicators of an E-Learning Benchmarking Model for Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sae-Khow, Jirasak

2014-01-01

This study was the development of e-learning indicators used as an e-learning benchmarking model for higher education institutes. Specifically, it aimed to: 1) synthesize the e-learning indicators; 2) examine content validity by specialists; and 3) explore appropriateness of the e-learning indicators. Review of related literature included…

Developing a Benchmark Tool for Sustainable Consumption: An Iterative Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heiskanen, E.; Timonen, P.; Nissinen, A.; Gronroos, J.; Honkanen, A.; Katajajuuri, J. -M.; Kettunen, J.; Kurppa, S.; Makinen, T.; Seppala, J.; Silvenius, F.; Virtanen, Y.; Voutilainen, P.

2007-01-01

This article presents the development process of a consumer-oriented, illustrative benchmarking tool enabling consumers to use the results of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) to make informed decisions. LCA provides a wealth of information on the environmental impacts of products, but its results are very difficult to present concisely…

On developing the local research environment of the 1990s - The Space Station era

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chase, Robert; Ziel, Fred

1989-01-01

A requirements analysis for the Space Station's polar platform data system has been performed. Based upon this analysis, a cluster, layered cluster, and layered-modular implementation of one specific module within the Eos Data and Information System (EosDIS), an active data base for satellite remote sensing research has been developed. It is found that a distributed system based on a layered-modular architecture and employing current generation work station technologies has the requisite attributes ascribed by the remote sensing research community. Although, based on benchmark testing, probabilistic analysis, failure analysis and user-survey technique analysis, it is found that this architecture presents some operational shortcomings that will not be alleviated with new hardware or software developments. Consequently, the potential of a fully-modular layered architectural design for meeting the needs of Eos researchers has also been evaluated, concluding that it would be well suited to the evolving requirements of this multidisciplinary research community.

Reducing Health Inequities in the United States: Insights and Recommendations from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Health Inequities Think Tank Meeting

PubMed Central

Sampson, Uchechukwu K.A.; Kaplan, Robert M.; Cooper, Richard S.; Diez Roux, Ana V.; Marks, James S.; Engelgau, Michael M.; Peprah, Emmanuel; Mishoe, Helena; Boulware, L. Ebony; Felix, Kaytura L.; Califf, Robert M.; Flack, John M.; Cooper, Lisa A.; Gracia, J. Nadine; Henderson, Jeffrey A.; Davidson, Karina W.; Krishnan, Jerry A.; Lewis, Tené T.; Sanchez, Eduardo; Luban, Naomi L.; Vaccarino, Viola; Wong, Winston F.; Wright, Jackson T.; Meyers, David; Ogedegbe, Olugbenga G.; Presley-Cantrell, Letitia; Chambers, David A.; Belis, Deshirée; Bennett, Glen C.; Boyington, Josephine E; Creazzo, Tony L.; de Jesus, Janet M.; Krishnamurti, Chitra; Lowden, Mia R.; Punturieri, Antonello; Shero, Susan T.; Young, Neal S.; Zou, Shimian; Mensah, George A.

2016-01-01

The National, Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute convened a Think Tank meeting to obtain insight and recommendations regarding the objectives and design of the next generation of research aimed at reducing health inequities in the United States. The panel recommended several specific actions, including: 1) Embrace broad and inclusive research themes; 2) Develop research platforms that optimize the ability to conduct informative and innovative research, and promote systems science approaches; 3) Develop networks of collaborators and stakeholders, and launch transformative studies that can serve as benchmarks; 4) Optimize the use of new data sources, platforms, and natural experiments; and 5) develop unique transdisciplinary training programs to build research capacity. Confronting health inequities will require engaging multiple disciplines and sectors (including communities), using systems science, and intervening through combinations of individual, family, provider, health system, and community-targeted approaches. Details of the panel’s remarks and recommendations are provided in this report. PMID:27470459

Space Weather Action Plan Solar Radio Burst Phase 1 Benchmarks and the Steps to Phase 2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Biesecker, D. A.; White, S. M.; Gopalswamy, N.; Black, C.; Love, J. J.; Pierson, J.

2017-12-01

Solar radio bursts, when at the right frequency and when strong enough, can interfere with radar, communication, and tracking signals. In severe cases, radio bursts can inhibit the successful use of radio communications and disrupt a wide range of systems that are reliant on Position, Navigation, and Timing services on timescales ranging from minutes to hours across wide areas on the dayside of Earth. The White House's Space Weather Action Plan asked for solar radio burst intensity benchmarks for an event occurrence frequency of 1 in 100 years and also a theoretical maximum intensity benchmark. The benchmark team has developed preliminary (phase 1) benchmarks for the VHF (30-300 MHz), UHF (300-3000 MHz), GPS (1176-1602 MHz), F10.7 (2800 MHz), and Microwave (4000-20000) bands. The preliminary benchmarks were derived based on previously published work. Limitations in the published work will be addressed in phase 2 of the benchmark process. In addition, deriving theoretical maxima requires additional work, where it is even possible to, in order to meet the Action Plan objectives. In this presentation, we will present the phase 1 benchmarks, the basis used to derive them, and the limitations of that work. We will also discuss the work that needs to be done to complete the phase 2 benchmarks.

Development and Applications of Benchmark Examples for Static Delamination Propagation Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2013-01-01

The development and application of benchmark examples for the assessment of quasistatic delamination propagation capabilities was demonstrated for ANSYS (TradeMark) and Abaqus/Standard (TradeMark). The examples selected were based on finite element models of Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) and Mixed-Mode Bending (MMB) specimens. First, quasi-static benchmark results were created based on an approach developed previously. Second, the delamination was allowed to propagate under quasi-static loading from its initial location using the automated procedure implemented in ANSYS (TradeMark) and Abaqus/Standard (TradeMark). Input control parameters were varied to study the effect on the computed delamination propagation. Overall, the benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with choosing the appropriate input parameters for the VCCT implementations in ANSYS® and Abaqus/Standard®. However, further assessment for mixed-mode delamination fatigue onset and growth is required. Additionally studies should include the assessment of the propagation capabilities in more complex specimens and on a structural level.

International land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Package v002.00

DOE Data Explorer

Collier, Nathaniel [Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Hoffman, Forrest M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Mu, Mingquan [University of California, Irvine; Randerson, James T. [University of California, Irvine; Riley, William J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

2016-05-09

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

International land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Package v001.00

DOE Data Explorer

Mu, Mingquan [University of California, Irvine; Randerson, James T. [University of California, Irvine; Riley, William J. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Hoffman, Forrest M. [Oak Ridge National Laboratory

2016-05-02

As a contribution to International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) Project, we are providing new analysis approaches, benchmarking tools, and science leadership. The goal of ILAMB is to assess and improve the performance of land models through international cooperation and to inform the design of new measurement campaigns and field studies to reduce uncertainties associated with key biogeochemical processes and feedbacks. ILAMB is expected to be a primary analysis tool for CMIP6 and future model-data intercomparison experiments. This team has developed initial prototype benchmarking systems for ILAMB, which will be improved and extended to include ocean model metrics and diagnostics.

Benchmarking expert system tools

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riley, Gary

1988-01-01

As part of its evaluation of new technologies, the Artificial Intelligence Section of the Mission Planning and Analysis Div. at NASA-Johnson has made timing tests of several expert system building tools. Among the production systems tested were Automated Reasoning Tool, several versions of OPS5, and CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System), an expert system builder developed by the AI section. Also included in the test were a Zetalisp version of the benchmark along with four versions of the benchmark written in Knowledge Engineering Environment, an object oriented, frame based expert system tool. The benchmarks used for testing are studied.

Excited, Proud, and Accomplished: Exploring the Effects of Feedback Supplemented with Web-Based Peer Benchmarking on Self-Regulated Learning in Marketing Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raska, David

2014-01-01

This research explores and tests the effect of an innovative performance feedback practice--feedback supplemented with web-based peer benchmarking--through a lens of social cognitive framework for self-regulated learning. The results suggest that providing performance feedback with references to exemplary peer output is positively associated with…

Thought Experiment to Examine Benchmark Performance for Fusion Nuclear Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Isao; Ohta, Masayuki; Kusaka, Sachie; Sato, Fuminobu; Miyamaru, Hiroyuki

2017-09-01

There are many benchmark experiments carried out so far with DT neutrons especially aiming at fusion reactor development. These integral experiments seemed vaguely to validate the nuclear data below 14 MeV. However, no precise studies exist now. The author's group thus started to examine how well benchmark experiments with DT neutrons can play a benchmarking role for energies below 14 MeV. Recently, as a next phase, to generalize the above discussion, the energy range was expanded to the entire region. In this study, thought experiments with finer energy bins have thus been conducted to discuss how to generally estimate performance of benchmark experiments. As a result of thought experiments with a point detector, the sensitivity for a discrepancy appearing in the benchmark analysis is "equally" due not only to contribution directly conveyed to the deterctor, but also due to indirect contribution of neutrons (named (A)) making neutrons conveying the contribution, indirect controbution of neutrons (B) making the neutrons (A) and so on. From this concept, it would become clear from a sensitivity analysis in advance how well and which energy nuclear data could be benchmarked with a benchmark experiment.

The art and science of using routine outcome measurement in mental health benchmarking.

PubMed

McKay, Roderick; Coombs, Tim; Duerden, David

2014-02-01

To report and critique the application of routine outcome measurement data when benchmarking Australian mental health services. The experience of the authors as participants and facilitators of benchmarking activities is augmented by a review of the literature regarding mental health benchmarking in Australia. Although the published literature is limited, in practice, routine outcome measures, in particular the Health of the National Outcomes Scales (HoNOS) family of measures, are used in a variety of benchmarking activities. Use in exploring similarities and differences in consumers between services and the outcomes of care are illustrated. This requires the rigour of science in data management and interpretation, supplemented by the art that comes from clinical experience, a desire to reflect on clinical practice and the flexibility to use incomplete data to explore clinical practice. Routine outcome measurement data can be used in a variety of ways to support mental health benchmarking. With the increasing sophistication of information development in mental health, the opportunity to become involved in benchmarking will continue to increase. The techniques used during benchmarking and the insights gathered may prove useful to support reflection on practice by psychiatrists and other senior mental health clinicians.

Benchmark Tests for Stirling Convertor Heater Head Life Assessment Conducted

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krause, David L.; Halford, Gary R.; Bowman, Randy R.

2004-01-01

A new in-house test capability has been developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center, where a critical component of the Stirling Radioisotope Generator (SRG) is undergoing extensive testing to aid the development of analytical life prediction methodology and to experimentally aid in verification of the flight-design component's life. The new facility includes two test rigs that are performing creep testing of the SRG heater head pressure vessel test articles at design temperature and with wall stresses ranging from operating level to seven times that (see the following photograph).

Benchmarking hypercube hardware and software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grunwald, Dirk C.; Reed, Daniel A.

1986-01-01

It was long a truism in computer systems design that balanced systems achieve the best performance. Message passing parallel processors are no different. To quantify the balance of a hypercube design, an experimental methodology was developed and the associated suite of benchmarks was applied to several existing hypercubes. The benchmark suite includes tests of both processor speed in the absence of internode communication and message transmission speed as a function of communication patterns.

Development and Application of Benchmark Examples for Mixed-Mode I/II Quasi-Static Delamination Propagation Predictions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2012-01-01

The development of benchmark examples for quasi-static delamination propagation prediction is presented and demonstrated for a commercial code. The examples are based on finite element models of the Mixed-Mode Bending (MMB) specimen. The examples are independent of the analysis software used and allow the assessment of the automated delamination propagation prediction capability in commercial finite element codes based on the virtual crack closure technique (VCCT). First, quasi-static benchmark examples were created for the specimen. Second, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to propagate under quasi-static loading. Third, the load-displacement relationship from a propagation analysis and the benchmark results were compared, and good agreement could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. Good agreement between the results obtained from the automated propagation analysis and the benchmark results could be achieved by selecting input parameters that had previously been determined during analyses of mode I Double Cantilever Beam and mode II End Notched Flexure specimens. The benchmarking procedure proved valuable by highlighting the issues associated with choosing the input parameters of the particular implementation. Overall the results are encouraging, but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination fatigue onset and growth is required.

Benchmark Dataset for Whole Genome Sequence Compression.

PubMed

C L, Biji; S Nair, Achuthsankar

2017-01-01

The research in DNA data compression lacks a standard dataset to test out compression tools specific to DNA. This paper argues that the current state of achievement in DNA compression is unable to be benchmarked in the absence of such scientifically compiled whole genome sequence dataset and proposes a benchmark dataset using multistage sampling procedure. Considering the genome sequence of organisms available in the National Centre for Biotechnology and Information (NCBI) as the universe, the proposed dataset selects 1,105 prokaryotes, 200 plasmids, 164 viruses, and 65 eukaryotes. This paper reports the results of using three established tools on the newly compiled dataset and show that their strength and weakness are evident only with a comparison based on the scientifically compiled benchmark dataset. The sample dataset and the respective links are available @ https://sourceforge.net/projects/benchmarkdnacompressiondataset/.

Developing More Adaptive, Innovative, and Interactive Organizations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doerfel, Marya L.; Ruben, Brent D.

2002-01-01

Presents a comprehensive view of benchmarking, including best-practice approaches to organizational assessment and improvement in higher education (the Malcolm Baldrige and "balanced scorecard" frameworks) and lessons that can be gleaned from the benchmarking process. (EV)

New Multi-group Transport Neutronics (PHISICS) Capabilities for RELAP5-3D and its Application to Phase I of the OECD/NEA MHTGR-350 MW Benchmark

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gerhard Strydom; Cristian Rabiti; Andrea Alfonsi

2012-10-01

PHISICS is a neutronics code system currently under development at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Its goal is to provide state of the art simulation capability to reactor designers. The different modules for PHISICS currently under development are a nodal and semi-structured transport core solver (INSTANT), a depletion module (MRTAU) and a cross section interpolation (MIXER) module. The INSTANT module is the most developed of the mentioned above. Basic functionalities are ready to use, but the code is still in continuous development to extend its capabilities. This paper reports on the effort of coupling the nodal kinetics code package PHISICSmore » (INSTANT/MRTAU/MIXER) to the thermal hydraulics system code RELAP5-3D, to enable full core and system modeling. This will enable the possibility to model coupled (thermal-hydraulics and neutronics) problems with more options for 3D neutron kinetics, compared to the existing diffusion theory neutron kinetics module in RELAP5-3D (NESTLE). In the second part of the paper, an overview of the OECD/NEA MHTGR-350 MW benchmark is given. This benchmark has been approved by the OECD, and is based on the General Atomics 350 MW Modular High Temperature Gas Reactor (MHTGR) design. The benchmark includes coupled neutronics thermal hydraulics exercises that require more capabilities than RELAP5-3D with NESTLE offers. Therefore, the MHTGR benchmark makes extensive use of the new PHISICS/RELAP5-3D coupling capabilities. The paper presents the preliminary results of the three steady state exercises specified in Phase I of the benchmark using PHISICS/RELAP5-3D.« less

FDNS CFD Code Benchmark for RBCC Ejector Mode Operation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Holt, James B.; Ruf, Joe

1999-01-01

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis results are compared with benchmark quality test data from the Propulsion Engineering Research Center's (PERC) Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) experiments to verify fluid dynamic code and application procedures. RBCC engine flowpath development will rely on CFD applications to capture the multi-dimensional fluid dynamic interactions and to quantify their effect on the RBCC system performance. Therefore, the accuracy of these CFD codes must be determined through detailed comparisons with test data. The PERC experiments build upon the well-known 1968 rocket-ejector experiments of Odegaard and Stroup by employing advanced optical and laser based diagnostics to evaluate mixing and secondary combustion. The Finite Difference Navier Stokes (FDNS) code was used to model the fluid dynamics of the PERC RBCC ejector mode configuration. Analyses were performed for both Diffusion and Afterburning (DAB) and Simultaneous Mixing and Combustion (SMC) test conditions. Results from both the 2D and the 3D models are presented.

NASA Indexing Benchmarks: Evaluating Text Search Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Esler, Sandra L.; Nelson, Michael L.

1997-01-01

The current proliferation of on-line information resources underscores the requirement for the ability to index collections of information and search and retrieve them in a convenient manner. This study develops criteria for analytically comparing the index and search engines and presents results for a number of freely available search engines. A product of this research is a toolkit capable of automatically indexing, searching, and extracting performance statistics from each of the focused search engines. This toolkit is highly configurable and has the ability to run these benchmark tests against other engines as well. Results demonstrate that the tested search engines can be grouped into two levels. Level one engines are efficient on small to medium sized data collections, but show weaknesses when used for collections 100MB or larger. Level two search engines are recommended for data collections up to and beyond 100MB.

Towards the quantitative evaluation of visual attention models.

PubMed

Bylinskii, Z; DeGennaro, E M; Rajalingham, R; Ruda, H; Zhang, J; Tsotsos, J K

2015-11-01

Scores of visual attention models have been developed over the past several decades of research. Differences in implementation, assumptions, and evaluations have made comparison of these models very difficult. Taxonomies have been constructed in an attempt at the organization and classification of models, but are not sufficient at quantifying which classes of models are most capable of explaining available data. At the same time, a multitude of physiological and behavioral findings have been published, measuring various aspects of human and non-human primate visual attention. All of these elements highlight the need to integrate the computational models with the data by (1) operationalizing the definitions of visual attention tasks and (2) designing benchmark datasets to measure success on specific tasks, under these definitions. In this paper, we provide some examples of operationalizing and benchmarking different visual attention tasks, along with the relevant design considerations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Integrated Prediction and Mitigation Methods of Materials Damage and Lifetime Assessment during Plasma Operation and Various Instabilities in Fusion Devices

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hassanein, Ahmed

2015-03-31

This report describes implementation of comprehensive and integrated models to evaluate plasma material interactions during normal and abnormal plasma operations. The models in full3D simulations represent state-of-the art worldwide development with numerous benchmarking of various tokamak devices and plasma simulators. In addition, significant number of experimental work has been performed in our center for materials under extreme environment (CMUXE) at Purdue to benchmark the effect of intense particle and heat fluxes on plasma-facing components. This represents one-year worth of work and resulted in more than 23 Journal Publications and numerous conferences presentations. The funding has helped several students to obtainmore » their M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees and many of them are now faculty members in US and around the world teaching and conducting fusion research. Our work has also been recognized through many awards.« less

Self-Assessment of Graduate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Narrative Guide and Companion Survey Instruments. Report of the Task Force on Benchmarks of Success in Graduate Programs: AAMC GREAT Group.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington, DC.

The purpose of this guide, developed by the Association of American Medical Colleges group on Graduate Research, Education, and Training (GREAT), is to outline a model process by which graduate programs can measure program success and that can be adapted to particular circumstances and priorities. The first sections of the guide examine the…

Effectiveness of Social Marketing Interventions to Promote Physical Activity Among Adults: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Xia, Yuan; Deshpande, Sameer; Bonates, Tiberius

2016-11-01

Social marketing managers promote desired behaviors to an audience by making them tangible in the form of environmental opportunities to enhance benefits and reduce barriers. This study proposed "benchmarks," modified from those found in the past literature, that would match important concepts of the social marketing framework and the inclusion of which would ensure behavior change effectiveness. In addition, we analyzed behavior change interventions on a "social marketing continuum" to assess whether the number of benchmarks and the role of specific benchmarks influence the effectiveness of physical activity promotion efforts. A systematic review of social marketing interventions available in academic studies published between 1997 and 2013 revealed 173 conditions in 92 interventions. Findings based on χ 2 , Mallows' Cp, and Logical Analysis of Data tests revealed that the presence of more benchmarks in interventions increased the likelihood of success in promoting physical activity. The presence of more than 3 benchmarks improved the success of the interventions; specifically, all interventions were successful when more than 7.5 benchmarks were present. Further, primary formative research, core product, actual product, augmented product, promotion, and behavioral competition all had a significant influence on the effectiveness of interventions. Social marketing is an effective approach in promoting physical activity among adults when a substantial number of benchmarks are used and when managers understand the audience, make the desired behavior tangible, and promote the desired behavior persuasively.

[Benchmarking and other functions of ROM: back to basics].

PubMed

Barendregt, M

2015-01-01

Since 2011 outcome data in the Dutch mental health care have been collected on a national scale. This has led to confusion about the position of benchmarking in the system known as routine outcome monitoring (rom). To provide insight into the various objectives and uses of aggregated outcome data. A qualitative review was performed and the findings were analysed. Benchmarking is a strategy for finding best practices and for improving efficacy and it belongs to the domain of quality management. Benchmarking involves comparing outcome data by means of instrumentation and is relatively tolerant with regard to the validity of the data. Although benchmarking is a function of rom, it must be differentiated form other functions from rom. Clinical management, public accountability, research, payment for performance and information for patients are all functions of rom which require different ways of data feedback and which make different demands on the validity of the underlying data. Benchmarking is often wrongly regarded as being simply a synonym for 'comparing institutions'. It is, however, a method which includes many more factors; it can be used to improve quality and has a more flexible approach to the validity of outcome data and is less concerned than other rom functions about funding and the amount of information given to patients. Benchmarking can make good use of currently available outcome data.

Understanding Chinese TEFL Academics' Capacity for Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bai, Li; Hudson, Peter

2011-01-01

This study aims to benchmark Chinese TEFL academics' research productivities to identify and address research productivity issues. Using a literature-based survey, this study examined 182 Chinese TEFL academics' research output, perceptions about research, personal dispositions for conducting research and workplace context for conducting research…

Ethics of clinical trials in Nigeria.

PubMed

Okonta, Patrick I

2014-05-01

The conduct of clinical trials for the development and licensing of drugs is a very important aspect of healthcare. Drug research, development and promotion have grown to a multi-billion dollar global business. Like all areas of human endeavour involving generation and control of huge financial resources, it could be subject to deviant behaviour, sharp business practices and unethical practices. The main objective of this review is to highlight potential ethical challenges in the conduct of clinical trials in Nigeria and outline ways in which these can be avoided. Current international and national regulatory and ethical guidelines are reviewed to illustrate the requirements for ethical conduct of clinical trials. Past experiences of unethical conduct of clinical trials especially in developing countries along with the increasing globalisation of research makes it imperative that all players should be aware of the ethical challenges in clinical trials and the benchmarks for ethical conduct of clinical research in Nigeria.

Ethics of clinical trials in Nigeria

PubMed Central

Okonta, Patrick I.

2014-01-01

The conduct of clinical trials for the development and licensing of drugs is a very important aspect of healthcare. Drug research, development and promotion have grown to a multi-billion dollar global business. Like all areas of human endeavour involving generation and control of huge financial resources, it could be subject to deviant behaviour, sharp business practices and unethical practices. The main objective of this review is to highlight potential ethical challenges in the conduct of clinical trials in Nigeria and outline ways in which these can be avoided. Current international and national regulatory and ethical guidelines are reviewed to illustrate the requirements for ethical conduct of clinical trials. Past experiences of unethical conduct of clinical trials especially in developing countries along with the increasing globalisation of research makes it imperative that all players should be aware of the ethical challenges in clinical trials and the benchmarks for ethical conduct of clinical research in Nigeria. PMID:25013247

Using Spoken Language Benchmarks to Characterize the Expressive Language Skills of Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Weismer, Susan Ellis

2015-01-01

Purpose Spoken language benchmarks proposed by Tager-Flusberg et al. (2009) were used to characterize communication profiles of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders and to investigate if there were differences in variables hypothesized to influence language development at different benchmark levels. Method The communication abilities of a large sample of toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (N = 105) were characterized in terms of spoken language benchmarks. The toddlers were grouped according to these benchmarks to investigate whether there were differences in selected variables across benchmark groups at a mean age of 2.5 years. Results The majority of children in the sample presented with uneven communication profiles with relative strengths in phonology and significant weaknesses in pragmatics. When children were grouped according to one expressive language domain, across-group differences were observed in response to joint attention and gestures but not cognition or restricted and repetitive behaviors. Conclusion The spoken language benchmarks are useful for characterizing early communication profiles and investigating features that influence expressive language growth. PMID:26254475

MoMaS reactive transport benchmark using PFLOTRAN

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, H.

2017-12-01

MoMaS benchmark was developed to enhance numerical simulation capability for reactive transport modeling in porous media. The benchmark was published in late September of 2009; it is not taken from a real chemical system, but realistic and numerically challenging tests. PFLOTRAN is a state-of-art massively parallel subsurface flow and reactive transport code that is being used in multiple nuclear waste repository projects at Sandia National Laboratories including Waste Isolation Pilot Plant and Used Fuel Disposition. MoMaS benchmark has three independent tests with easy, medium, and hard chemical complexity. This paper demonstrates how PFLOTRAN is applied to this benchmark exercise and shows results of the easy benchmark test case which includes mixing of aqueous components and surface complexation. Surface complexations consist of monodentate and bidentate reactions which introduces difficulty in defining selectivity coefficient if the reaction applies to a bulk reference volume. The selectivity coefficient becomes porosity dependent for bidentate reaction in heterogeneous porous media. The benchmark is solved by PFLOTRAN with minimal modification to address the issue and unit conversions were made properly to suit PFLOTRAN.

Toward Scalable Benchmarks for Mass Storage Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Miller, Ethan L.

1996-01-01

This paper presents guidelines for the design of a mass storage system benchmark suite, along with preliminary suggestions for programs to be included. The benchmarks will measure both peak and sustained performance of the system as well as predicting both short- and long-term behavior. These benchmarks should be both portable and scalable so they may be used on storage systems from tens of gigabytes to petabytes or more. By developing a standard set of benchmarks that reflect real user workload, we hope to encourage system designers and users to publish performance figures that can be compared with those of other systems. This will allow users to choose the system that best meets their needs and give designers a tool with which they can measure the performance effects of improvements to their systems.

Developing Student Character through Disciplinary Curricula: An Analysis of UK QAA Subject Benchmark Statements

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinlan, Kathleen M.

2016-01-01

What aspects of student character are expected to be developed through disciplinary curricula? This paper examines the UK written curriculum through an analysis of the Quality Assurance Agency's subject benchmark statements for the most popular subjects studied in the UK. It explores the language, principles and intended outcomes that suggest…

Assessing the Accuracy of Generalized Inferences From Comparison Group Studies Using a Within-Study Comparison Approach: The Methodology.

PubMed

Jaciw, Andrew P

2016-06-01

Various studies have examined bias in impact estimates from comparison group studies (CGSs) of job training programs, and in education, where results are benchmarked against experimental results. Such within-study comparison (WSC) approaches investigate levels of bias in CGS-based impact estimates, as well as the success of various design and analytic strategies for reducing bias. This article reviews past literature and summarizes conditions under which CGSs replicate experimental benchmark results. It extends the framework to, and develops the methodology for, situations where results from CGSs are generalized to untreated inference populations. Past research is summarized; methods are developed to examine bias in program impact estimates based on cross-site comparisons in a multisite trial that are evaluated against site-specific experimental benchmarks. Students in Grades K-3 in 79 schools in Tennessee; students in Grades 4-8 in 82 schools in Alabama. Grades K-3 Stanford Achievement Test (SAT) in reading and math scores; Grades 4-8 SAT10 reading scores. Past studies show that bias in CGS-based estimates can be limited through strong design, with local matching, and appropriate analysis involving pretest covariates and variables that represent selection processes. Extension of the methodology to investigate accuracy of generalized estimates from CGSs shows bias from confounders and effect moderators. CGS results, when extrapolated to untreated inference populations, may be biased due to variation in outcomes and impact. Accounting for effects of confounders or moderators may reduce bias. © The Author(s) 2016.

VVER-440 and VVER-1000 reactor dosimetry benchmark - BUGLE-96 versus ALPAN VII.0

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Duo, J. I.

2011-07-01

Document available in abstract form only, full text of document follows: Analytical results of the vodo-vodyanoi energetichesky reactor-(VVER-) 440 and VVER-1000 reactor dosimetry benchmarks developed from engineering mockups at the Nuclear Research Inst. Rez LR-0 reactor are discussed. These benchmarks provide accurate determination of radiation field parameters in the vicinity and over the thickness of the reactor pressure vessel. Measurements are compared to calculated results with two sets of tools: TORT discrete ordinates code and BUGLE-96 cross-section library versus the newly Westinghouse-developed RAPTOR-M3G and ALPAN VII.0. The parallel code RAPTOR-M3G enables detailed neutron distributions in energy and space in reducedmore » computational time. ALPAN VII.0 cross-section library is based on ENDF/B-VII.0 and is designed for reactor dosimetry applications. It uses a unique broad group structure to enhance resolution in thermal-neutron-energy range compared to other analogous libraries. The comparison of fast neutron (E > 0.5 MeV) results shows good agreement (within 10%) between BUGLE-96 and ALPAN VII.O libraries. Furthermore, the results compare well with analogous results of participants of the REDOS program (2005). Finally, the analytical results for fast neutrons agree within 15% with the measurements, for most locations in all three mockups. In general, however, the analytical results underestimate the attenuation through the reactor pressure vessel thickness compared to the measurements. (authors)« less

New Service Excellence Model for eHealth and AAL Solutions - A Framework for Continuous New Service Development.

PubMed

Kriegel, Johannes; Reckwitz, Luise; Auinger, Klemens; Tuttle-Weidinger, Linda; Schmitt-Rüth, Stephanie; Kränzl-Nagl, Renate

2017-01-01

The development of eHealth and AAL (Ambient Assisted Living) services with the aim to reduce the complexity of living environments for the elderly often does not lead to the desired results on the market. The design of an eHealth/AAL specific framework for continuous New Service Development is presented in this paper. Our research addresses this challenge with a new Service Excellence Model (SEM) and outlines the benefits of this specific approach. The research is based on the data of the DALIA project (Assistant for DAily LIfe Activities at Home) and the PenAAL project (Performance Measurement Index for AAL solutions), parts of which the projects were the classification of relevant business dimensions and the development of a related scoring tool for continuous benchmarking and improvement.

Implementation, capabilities, and benchmarking of Shift, a massively parallel Monte Carlo radiation transport code

DOE PAGES

Pandya, Tara M.; Johnson, Seth R.; Evans, Thomas M.; ...

2015-12-21

This paper discusses the implementation, capabilities, and validation of Shift, a massively parallel Monte Carlo radiation transport package developed and maintained at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It has been developed to scale well from laptop to small computing clusters to advanced supercomputers. Special features of Shift include hybrid capabilities for variance reduction such as CADIS and FW-CADIS, and advanced parallel decomposition and tally methods optimized for scalability on supercomputing architectures. Shift has been validated and verified against various reactor physics benchmarks and compares well to other state-of-the-art Monte Carlo radiation transport codes such as MCNP5, CE KENO-VI, and OpenMC. Somemore » specific benchmarks used for verification and validation include the CASL VERA criticality test suite and several Westinghouse AP1000 ® problems. These benchmark and scaling studies show promising results.« less

Development of a Benchmark Example for Delamination Fatigue Growth Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2010-01-01

The development of a benchmark example for cyclic delamination growth prediction is presented and demonstrated for a commercial code. The example is based on a finite element model of a Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen, which is independent of the analysis software used and allows the assessment of the delamination growth prediction capabilities in commercial finite element codes. First, the benchmark result was created for the specimen. Second, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to grow under cyclic loading in a finite element model of a commercial code. The number of cycles to delamination onset and the number of cycles during stable delamination growth for each growth increment were obtained from the analysis. In general, good agreement between the results obtained from the growth analysis and the benchmark results could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters. Overall, the results are encouraging but further assessment for mixed-mode delamination is required

Human Health Benchmarks for Pesticides

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Advanced testing methods now allow pesticides to be detected in water at very low levels. These small amounts of pesticides detected in drinking water or source water for drinking water do not necessarily indicate a health risk. The EPA has developed human health benchmarks for 363 pesticides to enable our partners to better determine whether the detection of a pesticide in drinking water or source waters for drinking water may indicate a potential health risk and to help them prioritize monitoring efforts.The table below includes benchmarks for acute (one-day) and chronic (lifetime) exposures for the most sensitive populations from exposure to pesticides that may be found in surface or ground water sources of drinking water. The table also includes benchmarks for 40 pesticides in drinking water that have the potential for cancer risk. The HHBP table includes pesticide active ingredients for which Health Advisories or enforceable National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (e.g., maximum contaminant levels) have not been developed.

MIPS bacterial genomes functional annotation benchmark dataset.

PubMed

Tetko, Igor V; Brauner, Barbara; Dunger-Kaltenbach, Irmtraud; Frishman, Goar; Montrone, Corinna; Fobo, Gisela; Ruepp, Andreas; Antonov, Alexey V; Surmeli, Dimitrij; Mewes, Hans-Wernen

2005-05-15

Any development of new methods for automatic functional annotation of proteins according to their sequences requires high-quality data (as benchmark) as well as tedious preparatory work to generate sequence parameters required as input data for the machine learning methods. Different program settings and incompatible protocols make a comparison of the analyzed methods difficult. The MIPS Bacterial Functional Annotation Benchmark dataset (MIPS-BFAB) is a new, high-quality resource comprising four bacterial genomes manually annotated according to the MIPS functional catalogue (FunCat). These resources include precalculated sequence parameters, such as sequence similarity scores, InterPro domain composition and other parameters that could be used to develop and benchmark methods for functional annotation of bacterial protein sequences. These data are provided in XML format and can be used by scientists who are not necessarily experts in genome annotation. BFAB is available at http://mips.gsf.de/proj/bfab

Aircraft Engine Gas Path Diagnostic Methods: Public Benchmarking Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Donald L.; Borguet, Sebastien; Leonard, Olivier; Zhang, Xiaodong (Frank)

2013-01-01

Recent technology reviews have identified the need for objective assessments of aircraft engine health management (EHM) technologies. To help address this issue, a gas path diagnostic benchmark problem has been created and made publicly available. This software tool, referred to as the Propulsion Diagnostic Method Evaluation Strategy (ProDiMES), has been constructed based on feedback provided by the aircraft EHM community. It provides a standard benchmark problem enabling users to develop, evaluate and compare diagnostic methods. This paper will present an overview of ProDiMES along with a description of four gas path diagnostic methods developed and applied to the problem. These methods, which include analytical and empirical diagnostic techniques, will be described and associated blind-test-case metric results will be presented and compared. Lessons learned along with recommendations for improving the public benchmarking processes will also be presented and discussed.

Fisk-based criteria to support validation of detection methods for drinking water and air.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

MacDonell, M.; Bhattacharyya, M.; Finster, M.

2009-02-18

This report was prepared to support the validation of analytical methods for threat contaminants under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) program. It is designed to serve as a resource for certain applications of benchmark and fate information for homeland security threat contaminants. The report identifies risk-based criteria from existing health benchmarks for drinking water and air for potential use as validation targets. The focus is on benchmarks for chronic public exposures. The priority sources are standard EPA concentration limits for drinking water and air, along with oral and inhalation toxicity values. Many contaminantsmore » identified as homeland security threats to drinking water or air would convert to other chemicals within minutes to hours of being released. For this reason, a fate analysis has been performed to identify potential transformation products and removal half-lives in air and water so appropriate forms can be targeted for detection over time. The risk-based criteria presented in this report to frame method validation are expected to be lower than actual operational targets based on realistic exposures following a release. Note that many target criteria provided in this report are taken from available benchmarks without assessing the underlying toxicological details. That is, although the relevance of the chemical form and analogues are evaluated, the toxicological interpretations and extrapolations conducted by the authoring organizations are not. It is also important to emphasize that such targets in the current analysis are not health-based advisory levels to guide homeland security responses. This integrated evaluation of chronic public benchmarks and contaminant fate has identified more than 200 risk-based criteria as method validation targets across numerous contaminants and fate products in drinking water and air combined. The gap in directly applicable values is considerable across the full set of threat contaminants, so preliminary indicators were developed from other well-documented benchmarks to serve as a starting point for validation efforts. By this approach, at least preliminary context is available for water or air, and sometimes both, for all chemicals on the NHSRC list that was provided for this evaluation. This means that a number of concentrations presented in this report represent indirect measures derived from related benchmarks or surrogate chemicals, as described within the many results tables provided in this report.« less

Improving Upon String Methods for Transition State Discovery.

PubMed

Chaffey-Millar, Hugh; Nikodem, Astrid; Matveev, Alexei V; Krüger, Sven; Rösch, Notker

2012-02-14

Transition state discovery via application of string methods has been researched on two fronts. The first front involves development of a new string method, named the Searching String method, while the second one aims at estimating transition states from a discretized reaction path. The Searching String method has been benchmarked against a number of previously existing string methods and the Nudged Elastic Band method. The developed methods have led to a reduction in the number of gradient calls required to optimize a transition state, as compared to existing methods. The Searching String method reported here places new beads on a reaction pathway at the midpoint between existing beads, such that the resolution of the path discretization in the region containing the transition state grows exponentially with the number of beads. This approach leads to favorable convergence behavior and generates more accurate estimates of transition states from which convergence to the final transition states occurs more readily. Several techniques for generating improved estimates of transition states from a converged string or nudged elastic band have been developed and benchmarked on 13 chemical test cases. Optimization approaches for string methods, and pitfalls therein, are discussed.

Validation and Verification of Operational Land Analysis Activities at the Air Force Weather Agency

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaw, Michael; Kumar, Sujay V.; Peters-Lidard, Christa D.; Cetola, Jeffrey

2012-01-01

The NASA developed Land Information System (LIS) is the Air Force Weather Agency's (AFWA) operational Land Data Assimilation System (LDAS) combining real time precipitation observations and analyses, global forecast model data, vegetation, terrain, and soil parameters with the community Noah land surface model, along with other hydrology module options, to generate profile analyses of global soil moisture, soil temperature, and other important land surface characteristics. (1) A range of satellite data products and surface observations used to generate the land analysis products (2) Global, 1/4 deg spatial resolution (3) Model analysis generated at 3 hours. AFWA recognizes the importance of operational benchmarking and uncertainty characterization for land surface modeling and is developing standard methods, software, and metrics to verify and/or validate LIS output products. To facilitate this and other needs for land analysis activities at AFWA, the Model Evaluation Toolkit (MET) -- a joint product of the National Center for Atmospheric Research Developmental Testbed Center (NCAR DTC), AFWA, and the user community -- and the Land surface Verification Toolkit (LVT), developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), have been adapted to operational benchmarking needs of AFWA's land characterization activities.

Benchmarking Model Variants in Development of a Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Aretskin-Hariton, Eliot D.; Zinnecker, Alicia M.; Kratz, Jonathan L.; Culley, Dennis E.; Thomas, George L.

2016-01-01

Distributed engine control architecture presents a significant increase in complexity over traditional implementations when viewed from the perspective of system simulation and hardware design and test. Even if the overall function of the control scheme remains the same, the hardware implementation can have a significant effect on the overall system performance due to differences in the creation and flow of data between control elements. A Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation system is under development at NASA Glenn Research Center that enables the exploration of these hardware dependent issues. The system is based on, but not limited to, the Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation 40k (C-MAPSS40k). This paper describes the step-by-step conversion from the self-contained baseline model to the hardware in the loop model, and the validation of each step. As the control model hardware fidelity was improved during HIL system development, benchmarking simulations were performed to verify that engine system performance characteristics remained the same. The results demonstrate the goal of the effort; the new HIL configurations have similar functionality and performance compared to the baseline C-MAPSS40k system.

Data Don't Drive: Building a Practitioner-Driven Culture of Inquiry to Assess Community College Performance. Lumina Foundation for Education Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dowd, Alicia C.

2005-01-01

This report reviews the benchmarking practices that are presently being used at community colleges. It introduces the concept of a "culture of inquiry" as a means for judging their potential value. It classifies benchmarking efforts among three types--performance, diagnostic, and process--and characterizes each by its typical use. The…

The Impact of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System on Third Grade South Carolina Ready English Language Arts Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrington, Shanika

2017-01-01

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate the impact of the district's use of the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System on 3rd grade students' reading achievement as measured by the SC READY ELA test. Educators are increasingly using assessment data in determining students' knowledge and progress. Brady, 2011 stated that…

Planning and design of a knowledge based system for green manufacturing management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamal Mohd Nawawi, Mohd; Mohd Zuki Nik Mohamed, Nik; Shariff Adli Aminuddin, Adam

2013-12-01

This paper presents a conceptual design approach to the development of a hybrid Knowledge Based (KB) system for Green Manufacturing Management (GMM) at the planning and design stages. The research concentrates on the GMM by using a hybrid KB system, which is a blend of KB system and Gauging Absences of Pre-requisites (GAP). The hybrid KB/GAP system identifies all potentials elements of green manufacturing management issues throughout the development of this system. The KB system used in the planning and design stages analyses the gap between the existing and the benchmark organizations for an effective implementation through the GAP analysis technique. The proposed KBGMM model at the design stage explores two components, namely Competitive Priority and Lean Environment modules. Through the simulated results, the KBGMM System has identified, for each modules and sub-module, the problem categories in a prioritized manner. The System finalized all the Bad Points (BP) that need to be improved to achieve benchmark implementation of GMM at the design stage. The System provides valuable decision making information for the planning and design a GMM in term of business organization.

Benchmarks for detecting 'breakthroughs' in clinical trials: empirical assessment of the probability of large treatment effects using kernel density estimation.

PubMed

Miladinovic, Branko; Kumar, Ambuj; Mhaskar, Rahul; Djulbegovic, Benjamin

2014-10-21

To understand how often 'breakthroughs,' that is, treatments that significantly improve health outcomes, can be developed. We applied weighted adaptive kernel density estimation to construct the probability density function for observed treatment effects from five publicly funded cohorts and one privately funded group. 820 trials involving 1064 comparisons and enrolling 331,004 patients were conducted by five publicly funded cooperative groups. 40 cancer trials involving 50 comparisons and enrolling a total of 19,889 patients were conducted by GlaxoSmithKline. We calculated that the probability of detecting treatment with large effects is 10% (5-25%), and that the probability of detecting treatment with very large treatment effects is 2% (0.3-10%). Researchers themselves judged that they discovered a new, breakthrough intervention in 16% of trials. We propose these figures as the benchmarks against which future development of 'breakthrough' treatments should be measured. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Benchmark Evaluation of HTR-PROTEUS Pebble Bed Experimental Program

DOE PAGES

Bess, John D.; Montierth, Leland; Köberl, Oliver; ...

2014-10-09

Benchmark models were developed to evaluate 11 critical core configurations of the HTR-PROTEUS pebble bed experimental program. Various additional reactor physics measurements were performed as part of this program; currently only a total of 37 absorber rod worth measurements have been evaluated as acceptable benchmark experiments for Cores 4, 9, and 10. Dominant uncertainties in the experimental keff for all core configurations come from uncertainties in the ²³⁵U enrichment of the fuel, impurities in the moderator pebbles, and the density and impurity content of the radial reflector. Calculations of k eff with MCNP5 and ENDF/B-VII.0 neutron nuclear data aremore » greater than the benchmark values but within 1% and also within the 3σ uncertainty, except for Core 4, which is the only randomly packed pebble configuration. Repeated calculations of k eff with MCNP6.1 and ENDF/B-VII.1 are lower than the benchmark values and within 1% (~3σ) except for Cores 5 and 9, which calculate lower than the benchmark eigenvalues within 4σ. The primary difference between the two nuclear data libraries is the adjustment of the absorption cross section of graphite. Simulations of the absorber rod worth measurements are within 3σ of the benchmark experiment values. The complete benchmark evaluation details are available in the 2014 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments.« less

HPGMG 1.0: A Benchmark for Ranking High Performance Computing Systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Adams, Mark; Brown, Jed; Shalf, John

2014-05-05

This document provides an overview of the benchmark ? HPGMG ? for ranking large scale general purpose computers for use on the Top500 list [8]. We provide a rationale for the need for a replacement for the current metric HPL, some background of the Top500 list and the challenges of developing such a metric; we discuss our design philosophy and methodology, and an overview of the specification of the benchmark. The primary documentation with maintained details on the specification can be found at hpgmg.org and the Wiki and benchmark code itself can be found in the repository https://bitbucket.org/hpgmg/hpgmg.

Translational benchmark risk analysis

PubMed Central

Piegorsch, Walter W.

2010-01-01

Translational development – in the sense of translating a mature methodology from one area of application to another, evolving area – is discussed for the use of benchmark doses in quantitative risk assessment. Illustrations are presented with traditional applications of the benchmark paradigm in biology and toxicology, and also with risk endpoints that differ from traditional toxicological archetypes. It is seen that the benchmark approach can apply to a diverse spectrum of risk management settings. This suggests a promising future for this important risk-analytic tool. Extensions of the method to a wider variety of applications represent a significant opportunity for enhancing environmental, biomedical, industrial, and socio-economic risk assessments. PMID:20953283

Classical and modern control strategies for the deployment, reconfiguration, and station-keeping of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Benchmark Tetrahedron Constellation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Capo-Lugo, Pedro A.

Formation flying consists of multiple spacecraft orbiting in a required configuration about a planet or through Space. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Benchmark Tetrahedron Constellation is one of the proposed constellations to be launched in the year 2009 and provides the motivation for this investigation. The problem that will be researched here consists of three stages. The first stage contains the deployment of the satellites; the second stage is the reconfiguration process to transfer the satellites through different specific sizes of the NASA benchmark problem; and, the third stage is the station-keeping procedure for the tetrahedron constellation. Every stage contains different control schemes and transfer procedures to obtain/maintain the proposed tetrahedron constellation. In the first stage, the deployment procedure will depend on a combination of two techniques in which impulsive maneuvers and a digital controller are used to deploy the satellites and to maintain the tetrahedron constellation at the following apogee point. The second stage that corresponds to the reconfiguration procedure shows a different control scheme in which the intelligent control systems are implemented to perform this procedure. In this research work, intelligent systems will eliminate the use of complex mathematical models and will reduce the computational time to perform different maneuvers. Finally, the station-keeping process, which is the third stage of this research problem, will be implemented with a two-level hierarchical control scheme to maintain the separation distance constraints of the NASA Benchmark Tetrahedron Constellation. For this station-keeping procedure, the system of equations defining the dynamics of a pair of satellites is transformed to take in account the perturbation due to the oblateness of the Earth and the disturbances due to solar pressure. The control procedures used in this research will be transformed from a continuous control system to a digital control system which will simplify the implementation into the computer onboard the satellite. In addition, this research will show an introductory chapter on attitude dynamics that can be used to maintain the orientation of the satellites, and an adaptive intelligent control scheme will be proposed to maintain the desired orientation of the spacecraft. In conclusion, a solution for the dynamics of the NASA Benchmark Tetrahedron Constellation will be presented in this research work. The main contribution of this work is the use of discrete control schemes, impulsive maneuvers, and intelligent control schemes that can be used to reduce the computational time in which these control schemes can be easily implemented in the computer onboard the satellite. These contributions are explained through the deployment, reconfiguration, and station-keeping process of the proposed NASA Benchmark Tetrahedron Constellation.

Determining the sample size required to establish whether a medical device is non-inferior to an external benchmark.

PubMed

Sayers, Adrian; Crowther, Michael J; Judge, Andrew; Whitehouse, Michael R; Blom, Ashley W

2017-08-28

The use of benchmarks to assess the performance of implants such as those used in arthroplasty surgery is a widespread practice. It provides surgeons, patients and regulatory authorities with the reassurance that implants used are safe and effective. However, it is not currently clear how or how many implants should be statistically compared with a benchmark to assess whether or not that implant is superior, equivalent, non-inferior or inferior to the performance benchmark of interest.We aim to describe the methods and sample size required to conduct a one-sample non-inferiority study of a medical device for the purposes of benchmarking. Simulation study. Simulation study of a national register of medical devices. We simulated data, with and without a non-informative competing risk, to represent an arthroplasty population and describe three methods of analysis (z-test, 1-Kaplan-Meier and competing risks) commonly used in surgical research. We evaluate the performance of each method using power, bias, root-mean-square error, coverage and CI width. 1-Kaplan-Meier provides an unbiased estimate of implant net failure, which can be used to assess if a surgical device is non-inferior to an external benchmark. Small non-inferiority margins require significantly more individuals to be at risk compared with current benchmarking standards. A non-inferiority testing paradigm provides a useful framework for determining if an implant meets the required performance defined by an external benchmark. Current contemporary benchmarking standards have limited power to detect non-inferiority, and substantially larger samples sizes, in excess of 3200 procedures, are required to achieve a power greater than 60%. It is clear when benchmarking implant performance, net failure estimated using 1-KM is preferential to crude failure estimated by competing risk models. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Benchmark datasets for 3D MALDI- and DESI-imaging mass spectrometry.

PubMed

Oetjen, Janina; Veselkov, Kirill; Watrous, Jeramie; McKenzie, James S; Becker, Michael; Hauberg-Lotte, Lena; Kobarg, Jan Hendrik; Strittmatter, Nicole; Mróz, Anna K; Hoffmann, Franziska; Trede, Dennis; Palmer, Andrew; Schiffler, Stefan; Steinhorst, Klaus; Aichler, Michaela; Goldin, Robert; Guntinas-Lichius, Orlando; von Eggeling, Ferdinand; Thiele, Herbert; Maedler, Kathrin; Walch, Axel; Maass, Peter; Dorrestein, Pieter C; Takats, Zoltan; Alexandrov, Theodore

2015-01-01

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical chemistry technique for the 3D molecular analysis of a tissue specimen, entire organ, or microbial colonies on an agar plate. 3D-imaging MS has unique advantages over existing 3D imaging techniques, offers novel perspectives for understanding the spatial organization of biological processes, and has growing potential to be introduced into routine use in both biology and medicine. Owing to the sheer quantity of data generated, the visualization, analysis, and interpretation of 3D imaging MS data remain a significant challenge. Bioinformatics research in this field is hampered by the lack of publicly available benchmark datasets needed to evaluate and compare algorithms. High-quality 3D imaging MS datasets from different biological systems at several labs were acquired, supplied with overview images and scripts demonstrating how to read them, and deposited into MetaboLights, an open repository for metabolomics data. 3D imaging MS data were collected from five samples using two types of 3D imaging MS. 3D matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging (MALDI) MS data were collected from murine pancreas, murine kidney, human oral squamous cell carcinoma, and interacting microbial colonies cultured in Petri dishes. 3D desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) imaging MS data were collected from a human colorectal adenocarcinoma. With the aim to stimulate computational research in the field of computational 3D imaging MS, selected high-quality 3D imaging MS datasets are provided that could be used by algorithm developers as benchmark datasets.

A Seafloor Benchmark for 3-dimensional Geodesy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chadwell, C. D.; Webb, S. C.; Nooner, S. L.

2014-12-01

We have developed an inexpensive, permanent seafloor benchmark to increase the longevity of seafloor geodetic measurements. The benchmark provides a physical tie to the sea floor lasting for decades (perhaps longer) on which geodetic sensors can be repeatedly placed and removed with millimeter resolution. Global coordinates estimated with seafloor geodetic techniques will remain attached to the benchmark allowing for the interchange of sensors as they fail or become obsolete, or for the sensors to be removed and used elsewhere, all the while maintaining a coherent series of positions referenced to the benchmark. The benchmark has been designed to free fall from the sea surface with transponders attached. The transponder can be recalled via an acoustic command sent from the surface to release from the benchmark and freely float to the sea surface for recovery. The duration of the sensor attachment to the benchmark will last from a few days to a few years depending on the specific needs of the experiment. The recovered sensors are then available to be reused at other locations, or again at the same site in the future. Three pins on the sensor frame mate precisely and unambiguously with three grooves on the benchmark. To reoccupy a benchmark a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) uses its manipulator arm to place the sensor pins into the benchmark grooves. In June 2014 we deployed four benchmarks offshore central Oregon. We used the ROV Jason to successfully demonstrate the removal and replacement of packages onto the benchmark. We will show the benchmark design and its operational capabilities. Presently models of megathrust slip within the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) are mostly constrained by the sub-aerial GPS vectors from the Plate Boundary Observatory, a part of Earthscope. More long-lived seafloor geodetic measures are needed to better understand the earthquake and tsunami risk associated with a large rupture of the thrust fault within the Cascadia subduction zone. Using a ROV to place and remove sensors on the benchmarks will significantly reduce the number of sensors required by the community to monitor offshore strain in subduction zones.

Performance analysis of fusion nuclear-data benchmark experiments for light to heavy materials in MeV energy region with a neutron spectrum shifter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murata, Isao; Ohta, Masayuki; Miyamaru, Hiroyuki; Kondo, Keitaro; Yoshida, Shigeo; Iida, Toshiyuki; Ochiai, Kentaro; Konno, Chikara

2011-10-01

Nuclear data are indispensable for development of fusion reactor candidate materials. However, benchmarking of the nuclear data in MeV energy region is not yet adequate. In the present study, benchmark performance in the MeV energy region was investigated theoretically for experiments by using a 14 MeV neutron source. We carried out a systematical analysis for light to heavy materials. As a result, the benchmark performance for the neutron spectrum was confirmed to be acceptable, while for gamma-rays it was not sufficiently accurate. Consequently, a spectrum shifter has to be applied. Beryllium had the best performance as a shifter. Moreover, a preliminary examination of whether it is really acceptable that only the spectrum before the last collision is considered in the benchmark performance analysis. It was pointed out that not only the last collision but also earlier collisions should be considered equally in the benchmark performance analysis.

Economic corridor of industrial development in Indonesia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berawi, M. A.; Miraj, P.; Sidqi, H.

2017-12-01

Indonesia as an archipelago country categorize its regional development into six corridors from Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali-Nusa Tenggara and Papua-Maluku. Currently, industrial development becomes one of the highest contributing factors to the national economic growth. However, each region in the nation experience inequality of development mainly related to the infrastructure sector. Thus, the research aims to develop a sustainable economic corridor by considering the characteristics and its potential. The research uses a qualitative approach through a desk study, benchmarking and in-depth interview. Location Quotient is used for the method of the analysis tool. The results show each characteristic of every corridor in the country. Sumatera as national plantation and processing industry corridor, Java as cyber technology innovation and services center, Kalimantan as national energy reserves and processing, Sulawesi as national aquaculture and processing industry, Bali - Nusa Tenggara as national eco-tourism center, and Papua - Maluku as national ore mining and processing.

The philosophy of benchmark testing a standards-based picture archiving and communications system.

PubMed

Richardson, N E; Thomas, J A; Lyche, D K; Romlein, J; Norton, G S; Dolecek, Q E

1999-05-01

The Department of Defense issued its requirements for a Digital Imaging Network-Picture Archiving and Communications System (DIN-PACS) in a Request for Proposals (RFP) to industry in January 1997, with subsequent contracts being awarded in November 1997 to the Agfa Division of Bayer and IBM Global Government Industry. The Government's technical evaluation process consisted of evaluating a written technical proposal as well as conducting a benchmark test of each proposed system at the vendor's test facility. The purpose of benchmark testing was to evaluate the performance of the fully integrated system in a simulated operational environment. The benchmark test procedures and test equipment were developed through a joint effort between the Government, academic institutions, and private consultants. Herein the authors discuss the resources required and the methods used to benchmark test a standards-based PACS.

XWeB: The XML Warehouse Benchmark

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mahboubi, Hadj; Darmont, Jérôme

With the emergence of XML as a standard for representing business data, new decision support applications are being developed. These XML data warehouses aim at supporting On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) operations that manipulate irregular XML data. To ensure feasibility of these new tools, important performance issues must be addressed. Performance is customarily assessed with the help of benchmarks. However, decision support benchmarks do not currently support XML features. In this paper, we introduce the XML Warehouse Benchmark (XWeB), which aims at filling this gap. XWeB derives from the relational decision support benchmark TPC-H. It is mainly composed of a test data warehouse that is based on a unified reference model for XML warehouses and that features XML-specific structures, and its associate XQuery decision support workload. XWeB's usage is illustrated by experiments on several XML database management systems.

"Best practice" in inflammatory bowel disease: an international survey and audit.

PubMed

Van Der Eijk, Ingrid; Verheggen, Frank W.; Russel, Maurice G.; Buckley, Martin; Katsanos, Kostas; Munkholm, Pia; Engdahl, Ingemar; Politi, Patrizia; Odes, Selwyn; Fossen, Jan; Stockbrügger, Reinhold W.

2004-04-01

Background: An observational study was conducted at eight university and four district hospitals in eight countries collaborating in clinical and epidemiological research in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) to compare European health care facilities and to define current "best practice" with regard to IBD. Methods: The approach used in this multi-national survey was unique. Existing quality norms, developed for total hospital care by a specialized organization, were restricted to IBD-specific care and adapted to the frame of reference of the study group. In each center, these norms were surveyed by means of questionnaires and professional audits in all participating centers. The collected data were reported to the center, compared to data from other hospitals, and used to benchmark. Group consensus was reached with regard to defining current "best practice". Results: The observations in each center involved patient-oriented processes, technical and patient safety, and quality of the medical standard. Several findings could be directly implemented to improve IBD care in another hospital (benchmarks). These included a confidential relationship between health care worker(s) and patients, and availability of patient data. Conclusions: The observed benchmarks, in combination with other subjectively chosen "positive" procedures, have been defined as current "best practice in IBD", representing practical guidelines towards better quality of care in IBD.

Variant effect prediction tools assessed using independent, functional assay-based datasets: implications for discovery and diagnostics.

PubMed

Mahmood, Khalid; Jung, Chol-Hee; Philip, Gayle; Georgeson, Peter; Chung, Jessica; Pope, Bernard J; Park, Daniel J

2017-05-16

Genetic variant effect prediction algorithms are used extensively in clinical genomics and research to determine the likely consequences of amino acid substitutions on protein function. It is vital that we better understand their accuracies and limitations because published performance metrics are confounded by serious problems of circularity and error propagation. Here, we derive three independent, functionally determined human mutation datasets, UniFun, BRCA1-DMS and TP53-TA, and employ them, alongside previously described datasets, to assess the pre-eminent variant effect prediction tools. Apparent accuracies of variant effect prediction tools were influenced significantly by the benchmarking dataset. Benchmarking with the assay-determined datasets UniFun and BRCA1-DMS yielded areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves in the modest ranges of 0.52 to 0.63 and 0.54 to 0.75, respectively, considerably lower than observed for other, potentially more conflicted datasets. These results raise concerns about how such algorithms should be employed, particularly in a clinical setting. Contemporary variant effect prediction tools are unlikely to be as accurate at the general prediction of functional impacts on proteins as reported prior. Use of functional assay-based datasets that avoid prior dependencies promises to be valuable for the ongoing development and accurate benchmarking of such tools.

The impact of database quality on keystroke dynamics authentication

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Panasiuk, Piotr; Rybnik, Mariusz; Saeed, Khalid; Rogowski, Marcin

2016-06-01

This paper concerns keystroke dynamics, also partially in the context of touchscreen devices. The authors concentrate on the impact of database quality and propose their algorithm to test database quality issues. The algorithm is used on their own as well as the well-known . Following specific problems were researched: classification accuracy, development of user typing proficiency, time precision during sample acquisition, representativeness of training set, sample length.

Defining Spoken Language Benchmarks and Selecting Measures of Expressive Language Development for Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

PubMed Central

Tager-Flusberg, Helen; Rogers, Sally; Cooper, Judith; Landa, Rebecca; Lord, Catherine; Paul, Rhea; Rice, Mabel; Stoel-Gammon, Carol; Wetherby, Amy; Yoder, Paul

2010-01-01

Purpose The aims of this article are twofold: (a) to offer a set of recommended measures that can be used for evaluating the efficacy of interventions that target spoken language acquisition as part of treatment research studies or for use in applied settings and (b) to propose and define a common terminology for describing levels of spoken language ability in the expressive modality and to set benchmarks for determining a child’s language level in order to establish a framework for comparing outcomes across intervention studies. Method The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders assembled a group of researchers with interests and experience in the study of language development and disorders in young children with autism spectrum disorders. The group worked for 18 months through a series of conference calls and correspondence, culminating in a meeting held in December 2007 to achieve consensus on these aims. Results The authors recommend moving away from using the term functional speech, replacing it with a developmental framework. Rather, they recommend multiple sources of information to define language phases, including natural language samples, parent report, and standardized measures. They also provide guidelines and objective criteria for defining children’s spoken language expression in three major phases that correspond to developmental levels between 12 and 48 months of age. PMID:19380608

U.S. EPA'S ACUTE REFERENCE EXPOSURE METHODOLOGY FOR ACUTE INHALATION EXPOSURES

EPA Science Inventory

The US EPA National Center for Environmental Assessment has developed a methodology to derive acute inhalation toxicity benchmarks, called acute reference exposures (AREs), for noncancer effects. The methodology provides guidance for the derivation of chemical-specific benchmark...

Data Race Benchmark Collection

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liao, Chunhua; Lin, Pei-Hung; Asplund, Joshua

2017-03-21

This project is a benchmark suite of Open-MP parallel codes that have been checked for data races. The programs are marked to show which do and do not have races. This allows them to be leveraged while testing and developing race detection tools.

Specific entrustable professional activities for undergraduate medical internships: a method compatible with the academic curriculum.

PubMed

Hamui-Sutton, Alicia; Monterrosas-Rojas, Ana María; Ortiz-Montalvo, Armando; Flores-Morones, Felipe; Torruco-García, Uri; Navarrete-Martínez, Andrea; Arrioja-Guerrero, Araceli

2017-08-25

Competency-based education has been considered the most important pedagogical trend in Medicine in the last two decades. In clinical contexts, competencies are implemented through Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) which are observable and measurable. The aim of this paper is to describe the methodology used in the design of educational tools to assess students´ competencies in clinical practice during their undergraduate internship (UI). In this paper, we present the construction of specific APROCs (Actividades Profesionales Confiables) in Surgery (S), Gynecology and Obstetrics (GO) and Family Medicine (FM) rotations with three levels of performance. The study considered a mixed method exploratory type design, a qualitative phase followed by a quantitative validation exercise. In the first stage data was obtained from three rotations (FM, GO and S) through focus groups about real and expected activities of medical interns. Triangulation with other sources was made to construct benchmarks. In the second stage, narrative descriptions with the three levels were validated by professors who teach the different subjects using the Delphi technique. The results may be described both curricular and methodological wise. From the curricular point of view, APROCs were identified in three UI rotations within clinical contexts in Mexico City, benchmarks were developed by levels and validated by experts' consensus. In regard to methodological issues, this research contributed to the development of a strategy, following six steps, to build APROCs using mixed methods. Developing benchmarks provides a regular and standardized language that helps to evaluate student's performance and define educational strategies efficiently and accurately. The university academic program was aligned with APROCs in clinical contexts to assure the acquisition of competencies by students.

Benchmarking a geostatistical procedure for the homogenisation of annual precipitation series

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Caineta, Júlio; Ribeiro, Sara; Henriques, Roberto; Soares, Amílcar; Costa, Ana Cristina

2014-05-01

The European project COST Action ES0601, Advances in homogenisation methods of climate series: an integrated approach (HOME), has brought to attention the importance of establishing reliable homogenisation methods for climate data. In order to achieve that, a benchmark data set, containing monthly and daily temperature and precipitation data, was created to be used as a comparison basis for the effectiveness of those methods. Several contributions were submitted and evaluated by a number of performance metrics, validating the results against realistic inhomogeneous data. HOME also led to the development of new homogenisation software packages, which included feedback and lessons learned during the project. Preliminary studies have suggested a geostatistical stochastic approach, which uses Direct Sequential Simulation (DSS), as a promising methodology for the homogenisation of precipitation data series. Based on the spatial and temporal correlation between the neighbouring stations, DSS calculates local probability density functions at a candidate station to detect inhomogeneities. The purpose of the current study is to test and compare this geostatistical approach with the methods previously presented in the HOME project, using surrogate precipitation series from the HOME benchmark data set. The benchmark data set contains monthly precipitation surrogate series, from which annual precipitation data series were derived. These annual precipitation series were subject to exploratory analysis and to a thorough variography study. The geostatistical approach was then applied to the data set, based on different scenarios for the spatial continuity. Implementing this procedure also promoted the development of a computer program that aims to assist on the homogenisation of climate data, while minimising user interaction. Finally, in order to compare the effectiveness of this methodology with the homogenisation methods submitted during the HOME project, the obtained results were evaluated using the same performance metrics. This comparison opens new perspectives for the development of an innovative procedure based on the geostatistical stochastic approach. Acknowledgements: The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of "Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia" (FCT), Portugal, through the research project PTDC/GEO-MET/4026/2012 ("GSIMCLI - Geostatistical simulation with local distributions for the homogenization and interpolation of climate data").

Curriculum-Based Measurement of Oral Reading: An Evaluation of Growth Rates and Seasonal Effects among Students Served in General and Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christ, Theodore J.; Silberglitt, Benjamin; Yeo, Seungsoo; Cormier, Damien

2010-01-01

Curriculum-based measurement of oral reading (CBM-R) is often used to benchmark growth in the fall, winter, and spring. CBM-R is also used to set goals and monitor student progress between benchmarking occasions. The results of previous research establish an expectation that weekly growth on CBM-R tasks is consistently linear throughout the…

Benchmarks of fairness for health care reform: a policy tool for developing countries.

PubMed Central

Daniels, N.; Bryant, J.; Castano, R. A.; Dantes, O. G.; Khan, K. S.; Pannarunothai, S.

2000-01-01

Teams of collaborators from Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, and Thailand have adapted a policy tool originally developed for evaluating health insurance reforms in the United States into "benchmarks of fairness" for assessing health system reform in developing countries. We describe briefly the history of the benchmark approach, the tool itself, and the uses to which it may be put. Fairness is a wide term that includes exposure to risk factors, access to all forms of care, and to financing. It also includes efficiency of management and resource allocation, accountability, and patient and provider autonomy. The benchmarks standardize the criteria for fairness. Reforms are then evaluated by scoring according to the degree to which they improve the situation, i.e. on a scale of -5 to 5, with zero representing the status quo. The object is to promote discussion about fairness across the disciplinary divisions that keep policy analysts and the public from understanding how trade-offs between different effects of reforms can affect the overall fairness of the reform. The benchmarks can be used at both national and provincial or district levels, and we describe plans for such uses in the collaborating sites. A striking feature of the adaptation process is that there was wide agreement on this ethical framework among the collaborating sites despite their large historical, political and cultural differences. PMID:10916911

Ontology for Semantic Data Integration in the Domain of IT Benchmarking.

PubMed

Pfaff, Matthias; Neubig, Stefan; Krcmar, Helmut

2018-01-01

A domain-specific ontology for IT benchmarking has been developed to bridge the gap between a systematic characterization of IT services and their data-based valuation. Since information is generally collected during a benchmark exercise using questionnaires on a broad range of topics, such as employee costs, software licensing costs, and quantities of hardware, it is commonly stored as natural language text; thus, this information is stored in an intrinsically unstructured form. Although these data form the basis for identifying potentials for IT cost reductions, neither a uniform description of any measured parameters nor the relationship between such parameters exists. Hence, this work proposes an ontology for the domain of IT benchmarking, available at https://w3id.org/bmontology. The design of this ontology is based on requirements mainly elicited from a domain analysis, which considers analyzing documents and interviews with representatives from Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Information and Communications Technology companies over the last eight years. The development of the ontology and its main concepts is described in detail (i.e., the conceptualization of benchmarking events, questionnaires, IT services, indicators and their values) together with its alignment with the DOLCE-UltraLite foundational ontology.

Three essays of economics and policy on renewable energy and energy efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meng, Yuxi

In face of the crisis in energy security, environmental contamination, and climate change, energy saving and carbon emission reduction have become the top concerns of the whole human world. To address those concerns, renewable energy and energy efficiency are the two fields that many countries are paying attention to, which are also my research focus. The dissertation consists of three papers, including the innovation behavior of renewable energy producers, the impact of renewable energy policy on renewable innovation, and the market feedback to energy efficient building benchmarking ordinance. Here are the main conclusions I have reached in this dissertation. First, through the study on foreign patenting intention with the case study of Chinese solar PV industry, I looked at the patenting behaviors of 15 non-Chinese solar PV producers in solar PV technologies in China, and pointed out that foreign firms may file patents in the home country or production base of their competitors in order to earn the competitive edge in the global market. The second study is about the "Innovation by Generating" process. I specifically focused on Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) in the United States and the innovation performance within each state, and found out that wind power generation in RPS states has developed rapidly after the adoption of RPS, while the "Innovating by Generating" effect is more significant in solar PV technologies. In general, the innovations of the two technology groups are not prominently encouraged by RPS. My last study is about the benchmarking law and market response in the scenario of Philadelphia Benchmarking Law. By comparing the rental rate of LEED/EnergyStar buildings and ordinary buildings in the city of Philadelphia before and after the adoption of the building energy efficiency benchmarking law, I believe that the passage of Philadelphia Benchmarking Law may be helpful in improving the public awareness and understanding of energy efficiency information of buildings.

Evaluating the Effect of Labeled Benchmarks on Children’s Number Line Estimation Performance and Strategy Use

PubMed Central

Peeters, Dominique; Sekeris, Elke; Verschaffel, Lieven; Luwel, Koen

2017-01-01

Some authors argue that age-related improvements in number line estimation (NLE) performance result from changes in strategy use. More specifically, children’s strategy use develops from only using the origin of the number line, to using the origin and the endpoint, to eventually also relying on the midpoint of the number line. Recently, Peeters et al. (unpublished) investigated whether the provision of additional unlabeled benchmarks at 25, 50, and 75% of the number line, positively affects third and fifth graders’ NLE performance and benchmark-based strategy use. It was found that only the older children benefitted from the presence of these benchmarks at the quartiles of the number line (i.e., 25 and 75%), as they made more use of these benchmarks, leading to more accurate estimates. A possible explanation for this lack of improvement in third graders might be their inability to correctly link the presented benchmarks with their corresponding numerical values. In the present study, we investigated whether labeling these benchmarks with their corresponding numerical values, would have a positive effect on younger children’s NLE performance and quartile-based strategy use as well. Third and sixth graders were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a control condition with an empty number line bounded by 0 at the origin and 1,000 at the endpoint, (b) an unlabeled condition with three additional external benchmarks without numerical labels at 25, 50, and 75% of the number line, and (c) a labeled condition in which these benchmarks were labeled with 250, 500, and 750, respectively. Results indicated that labeling the benchmarks has a positive effect on third graders’ NLE performance and quartile-based strategy use, whereas sixth graders already benefited from the mere provision of unlabeled benchmarks. These findings imply that children’s benchmark-based strategy use can be stimulated by adding additional externally provided benchmarks on the number line, but that, depending on children’s age and familiarity with the number range, these additional external benchmarks might need to be labeled. PMID:28713302

Evaluating the Effect of Labeled Benchmarks on Children's Number Line Estimation Performance and Strategy Use.

PubMed

Peeters, Dominique; Sekeris, Elke; Verschaffel, Lieven; Luwel, Koen

2017-01-01

Some authors argue that age-related improvements in number line estimation (NLE) performance result from changes in strategy use. More specifically, children's strategy use develops from only using the origin of the number line, to using the origin and the endpoint, to eventually also relying on the midpoint of the number line. Recently, Peeters et al. (unpublished) investigated whether the provision of additional unlabeled benchmarks at 25, 50, and 75% of the number line, positively affects third and fifth graders' NLE performance and benchmark-based strategy use. It was found that only the older children benefitted from the presence of these benchmarks at the quartiles of the number line (i.e., 25 and 75%), as they made more use of these benchmarks, leading to more accurate estimates. A possible explanation for this lack of improvement in third graders might be their inability to correctly link the presented benchmarks with their corresponding numerical values. In the present study, we investigated whether labeling these benchmarks with their corresponding numerical values, would have a positive effect on younger children's NLE performance and quartile-based strategy use as well. Third and sixth graders were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a control condition with an empty number line bounded by 0 at the origin and 1,000 at the endpoint, (b) an unlabeled condition with three additional external benchmarks without numerical labels at 25, 50, and 75% of the number line, and (c) a labeled condition in which these benchmarks were labeled with 250, 500, and 750, respectively. Results indicated that labeling the benchmarks has a positive effect on third graders' NLE performance and quartile-based strategy use, whereas sixth graders already benefited from the mere provision of unlabeled benchmarks. These findings imply that children's benchmark-based strategy use can be stimulated by adding additional externally provided benchmarks on the number line, but that, depending on children's age and familiarity with the number range, these additional external benchmarks might need to be labeled.

Benchmarking initiatives in the water industry.

PubMed

Parena, R; Smeets, E

2001-01-01

Customer satisfaction and service care are every day pushing professionals in the water industry to seek to improve their performance, lowering costs and increasing the provided service level. Process Benchmarking is generally recognised as a systematic mechanism of comparing one's own utility with other utilities or businesses with the intent of self-improvement by adopting structures or methods used elsewhere. The IWA Task Force on Benchmarking, operating inside the Statistics and Economics Committee, has been committed to developing a general accepted concept of Process Benchmarking to support water decision-makers in addressing issues of efficiency. In a first step the Task Force disseminated among the Committee members a questionnaire focused on providing suggestions about the kind, the evolution degree and the main concepts of Benchmarking adopted in the represented Countries. A comparison among the guidelines adopted in The Netherlands and Scandinavia has recently challenged the Task Force in drafting a methodology for a worldwide process benchmarking in water industry. The paper provides a framework of the most interesting benchmarking experiences in the water sector and describes in detail both the final results of the survey and the methodology focused on identification of possible improvement areas.

Deuteron nuclear data for the design of accelerator-based neutron sources: Measurement, model analysis, evaluation, and application

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watanabe, Yukinobu; Kin, Tadahiro; Araki, Shouhei; Nakayama, Shinsuke; Iwamoto, Osamu

2017-09-01

A comprehensive research program on deuteron nuclear data motivated by development of accelerator-based neutron sources is being executed. It is composed of measurements of neutron and gamma-ray yields and production cross sections, modelling of deuteron-induced reactions and code development, nuclear data evaluation and benchmark test, and its application to medical radioisotopes production. The goal of this program is to develop a state-of-the-art deuteron nuclear data library up to 200 MeV which will be useful for the design of future (d,xn) neutron sources. The current status and future plan are reviewed.

Benchmarking of Neutron Production of Heavy-Ion Transport Codes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Remec, Igor; Ronningen, Reginald M.; Heilbronn, Lawrence

Accurate prediction of radiation fields generated by heavy ion interactions is important in medical applications, space missions, and in design and operation of rare isotope research facilities. In recent years, several well-established computer codes in widespread use for particle and radiation transport calculations have been equipped with the capability to simulate heavy ion transport and interactions. To assess and validate these capabilities, we performed simulations of a series of benchmark-quality heavy ion experiments with the computer codes FLUKA, MARS15, MCNPX, and PHITS. We focus on the comparisons of secondary neutron production. Results are encouraging; however, further improvements in models andmore » codes and additional benchmarking are required.« less

Benchmarking of Heavy Ion Transport Codes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Remec, Igor; Ronningen, Reginald M.; Heilbronn, Lawrence

Accurate prediction of radiation fields generated by heavy ion interactions is important in medical applications, space missions, and in designing and operation of rare isotope research facilities. In recent years, several well-established computer codes in widespread use for particle and radiation transport calculations have been equipped with the capability to simulate heavy ion transport and interactions. To assess and validate these capabilities, we performed simulations of a series of benchmark-quality heavy ion experiments with the computer codes FLUKA, MARS15, MCNPX, and PHITS. We focus on the comparisons of secondary neutron production. Results are encouraging; however, further improvements in models andmore » codes and additional benchmarking are required.« less

Experimental flutter boundaries with unsteady pressure distributions for the NACA 0012 Benchmark Model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rivera, Jose A., Jr.; Dansberry, Bryan E.; Farmer, Moses G.; Eckstrom, Clinton V.; Seidel, David A.; Bennett, Robert M.

1991-01-01

The Structural Dynamics Div. at NASA-Langley has started a wind tunnel activity referred to as the Benchmark Models Program. The objective is to acquire test data that will be useful for developing and evaluating aeroelastic type Computational Fluid Dynamics codes currently in use or under development. The progress is described which was achieved in testing the first model in the Benchmark Models Program. Experimental flutter boundaries are presented for a rigid semispan model (NACA 0012 airfoil section) mounted on a flexible mount system. Also, steady and unsteady pressure measurements taken at the flutter condition are presented. The pressure data were acquired over the entire model chord located at the 60 pct. span station.

Benchmarks: Reports of the NASA Science Institutes Team

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Diaz, A. V.

1995-01-01

This report results from a benchmarking study undertaken by NASA as part of its planning for the possible creation of new science Institutes. Candidate Institutes under consideration cover a range of scientific and technological activities ranging from biomedical to astrophysical research and from the global hydrological cycle to microgravity material science. Should NASA create these Institutes, the intent will be to preserve and strengthen key science and technology activities now being performed by Government employees at NASA Field Centers. Because the success of these projected non-Government-operated Institutes is vital for the continued development of space science and applications, NASA has sought to identify the best practices of successful existing scientific and technological research institutions as they carry out those processes that will be most important for the new science Institutes. While many individuals and organizations may be interested in our findings, the primary use of this report will be to formulate plas for establishing the new science Institutes. As a result, the report is organized to that the "best practices" of the finest institutes are associated with characteristics of all institutes. These characteristics or "attributes" serve as the headings for the main body of this report.

Structural Life and Reliability Metrics: Benchmarking and Verification of Probabilistic Life Prediction Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Litt, Jonathan S.; Soditus, Sherry; Hendricks, Robert C.; Zaretsky, Erwin V.

2002-01-01

Over the past two decades there has been considerable effort by NASA Glenn and others to develop probabilistic codes to predict with reasonable engineering certainty the life and reliability of critical components in rotating machinery and, more specifically, in the rotating sections of airbreathing and rocket engines. These codes have, to a very limited extent, been verified with relatively small bench rig type specimens under uniaxial loading. Because of the small and very narrow database the acceptance of these codes within the aerospace community has been limited. An alternate approach to generating statistically significant data under complex loading and environments simulating aircraft and rocket engine conditions is to obtain, catalog and statistically analyze actual field data. End users of the engines, such as commercial airlines and the military, record and store operational and maintenance information. This presentation describes a cooperative program between the NASA GRC, United Airlines, USAF Wright Laboratory, U.S. Army Research Laboratory and Australian Aeronautical & Maritime Research Laboratory to obtain and analyze these airline data for selected components such as blades, disks and combustors. These airline data will be used to benchmark and compare existing life prediction codes.

Benchmarking the Performance of Employment and Training Programs: A Pilot Effort of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Jobs Initiative.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Welch, Doug

As part of its Jobs Initiative (JI) program in six metropolitan areas Denver, Milwaukee, New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Seattle the Annie E. Casey Foundation sought to develop and test a method for establishing benchmarks for workforce development agencies. Data collected from 10 projects in the JI from April through March, 2000,…

Benchmarking Is Associated With Improved Quality of Care in Type 2 Diabetes

PubMed Central

Hermans, Michel P.; Elisaf, Moses; Michel, Georges; Muls, Erik; Nobels, Frank; Vandenberghe, Hans; Brotons, Carlos

2013-01-01

OBJECTIVE To assess prospectively the effect of benchmarking on quality of primary care for patients with type 2 diabetes by using three major modifiable cardiovascular risk factors as critical quality indicators. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Primary care physicians treating patients with type 2 diabetes in six European countries were randomized to give standard care (control group) or standard care with feedback benchmarked against other centers in each country (benchmarking group). In both groups, laboratory tests were performed every 4 months. The primary end point was the percentage of patients achieving preset targets of the critical quality indicators HbA1c, LDL cholesterol, and systolic blood pressure (SBP) after 12 months of follow-up. RESULTS Of 4,027 patients enrolled, 3,996 patients were evaluable and 3,487 completed 12 months of follow-up. Primary end point of HbA1c target was achieved in the benchmarking group by 58.9 vs. 62.1% in the control group (P = 0.398) after 12 months; 40.0 vs. 30.1% patients met the SBP target (P < 0.001); 54.3 vs. 49.7% met the LDL cholesterol target (P = 0.006). Percentages of patients meeting all three targets increased during the study in both groups, with a statistically significant increase observed in the benchmarking group. The percentage of patients achieving all three targets at month 12 was significantly larger in the benchmarking group than in the control group (12.5 vs. 8.1%; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS In this prospective, randomized, controlled study, benchmarking was shown to be an effective tool for increasing achievement of critical quality indicators and potentially reducing patient cardiovascular residual risk profile. PMID:23846810

PFLOTRAN Verification: Development of a Testing Suite to Ensure Software Quality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hammond, G. E.; Frederick, J. M.

2016-12-01

In scientific computing, code verification ensures the reliability and numerical accuracy of a model simulation by comparing the simulation results to experimental data or known analytical solutions. The model is typically defined by a set of partial differential equations with initial and boundary conditions, and verification ensures whether the mathematical model is solved correctly by the software. Code verification is especially important if the software is used to model high-consequence systems which cannot be physically tested in a fully representative environment [Oberkampf and Trucano (2007)]. Justified confidence in a particular computational tool requires clarity in the exercised physics and transparency in its verification process with proper documentation. We present a quality assurance (QA) testing suite developed by Sandia National Laboratories that performs code verification for PFLOTRAN, an open source, massively-parallel subsurface simulator. PFLOTRAN solves systems of generally nonlinear partial differential equations describing multiphase, multicomponent and multiscale reactive flow and transport processes in porous media. PFLOTRAN's QA test suite compares the numerical solutions of benchmark problems in heat and mass transport against known, closed-form, analytical solutions, including documentation of the exercised physical process models implemented in each PFLOTRAN benchmark simulation. The QA test suite development strives to follow the recommendations given by Oberkampf and Trucano (2007), which describes four essential elements in high-quality verification benchmark construction: (1) conceptual description, (2) mathematical description, (3) accuracy assessment, and (4) additional documentation and user information. Several QA tests within the suite will be presented, including details of the benchmark problems and their closed-form analytical solutions, implementation of benchmark problems in PFLOTRAN simulations, and the criteria used to assess PFLOTRAN's performance in the code verification procedure. References Oberkampf, W. L., and T. G. Trucano (2007), Verification and Validation Benchmarks, SAND2007-0853, 67 pgs., Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM.

78 FR 59410 - Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-26

... SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION [Docket Number: 2013-0008] Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs Commercialization Benchmark AGENCY: Small Business... Business Administration (SBA) is reopening the comment period for the Small Business Innovation Research...

A behavioral framework to guide research on central auditory development and plasticity

PubMed Central

Sanes, Dan H.; Woolley, Sarah M. N.

2011-01-01

The auditory CNS is influenced profoundly by sounds heard during development. Auditory deprivation and augmented sound exposure can each perturb the maturation of neural computations as well as their underlying synaptic properties. However, we have learned little about the emergence of perceptual skills in these same model systems, and especially how perception is influenced by early acoustic experience. Here, we argue that developmental studies must take greater advantage of behavioral benchmarks. We discuss quantitative measures of perceptual development, and suggest how they can play a much larger role in guiding experimental design. Most importantly, including behavioral measures will allow us to establish empirical connections among environment, neural development, and perception. PMID:22196328

Computers for real time flight simulation: A market survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bekey, G. A.; Karplus, W. J.

1977-01-01

An extensive computer market survey was made to determine those available systems suitable for current and future flight simulation studies at Ames Research Center. The primary requirement is for the computation of relatively high frequency content (5 Hz) math models representing powered lift flight vehicles. The Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) was used as a benchmark vehicle for computation comparison studies. The general nature of helicopter simulations and a description of the benchmark model are presented, and some of the sources of simulation difficulties are examined. A description of various applicable computer architectures is presented, along with detailed discussions of leading candidate systems and comparisons between them.

The Paucity Problem: Where Have All the Space Reactor Experiments Gone?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bess, John D.; Marshall, Margaret A.

2016-10-01

The Handbooks of the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) together contain a plethora of documented and evaluated experiments essential in the validation of nuclear data, neutronics codes, and modeling of various nuclear systems. Unfortunately, only a minute selection of handbook data (twelve evaluations) are of actual experimental facilities and mockups designed specifically for space nuclear research. There is a paucity problem, such that the multitude of space nuclear experimental activities performed in the past several decades have yet to be recovered and made available in such detail that themore » international community could benefit from these valuable historical research efforts. Those experiments represent extensive investments in infrastructure, expertise, and cost, as well as constitute significantly valuable resources of data supporting past, present, and future research activities. The ICSBEP and IRPhEP were established to identify and verify comprehensive sets of benchmark data; evaluate the data, including quantification of biases and uncertainties; compile the data and calculations in a standardized format; and formally document the effort into a single source of verified benchmark data. See full abstract in attached document.« less

Spherical harmonic results for the 3D Kobayashi Benchmark suite

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brown, P N; Chang, B; Hanebutte, U R

1999-03-02

Spherical harmonic solutions are presented for the Kobayashi benchmark suite. The results were obtained with Ardra, a scalable, parallel neutron transport code developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). The calculations were performed on the IBM ASCI Blue-Pacific computer at LLNL.

Parallelization of NAS Benchmarks for Shared Memory Multiprocessors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Waheed, Abdul; Yan, Jerry C.; Saini, Subhash (Technical Monitor)

1998-01-01

This paper presents our experiences of parallelizing the sequential implementation of NAS benchmarks using compiler directives on SGI Origin2000 distributed shared memory (DSM) system. Porting existing applications to new high performance parallel and distributed computing platforms is a challenging task. Ideally, a user develops a sequential version of the application, leaving the task of porting to new generations of high performance computing systems to parallelization tools and compilers. Due to the simplicity of programming shared-memory multiprocessors, compiler developers have provided various facilities to allow the users to exploit parallelism. Native compilers on SGI Origin2000 support multiprocessing directives to allow users to exploit loop-level parallelism in their programs. Additionally, supporting tools can accomplish this process automatically and present the results of parallelization to the users. We experimented with these compiler directives and supporting tools by parallelizing sequential implementation of NAS benchmarks. Results reported in this paper indicate that with minimal effort, the performance gain is comparable with the hand-parallelized, carefully optimized, message-passing implementations of the same benchmarks.

Graph 500 on OpenSHMEM: Using a Practical Survey of Past Work to Motivate Novel Algorithmic Developments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Grossman, Max; Pritchard Jr., Howard Porter; Budimlic, Zoran

2016-12-22

Graph500 [14] is an effort to offer a standardized benchmark across large-scale distributed platforms which captures the behavior of common communicationbound graph algorithms. Graph500 differs from other large-scale benchmarking efforts (such as HPL [6] or HPGMG [7]) primarily in the irregularity of its computation and data access patterns. The core computational kernel of Graph500 is a breadth-first search (BFS) implemented on an undirected graph. The output of Graph500 is a spanning tree of the input graph, usually represented by a predecessor mapping for every node in the graph. The Graph500 benchmark defines several pre-defined input sizes for implementers to testmore » against. This report summarizes investigation into implementing the Graph500 benchmark on OpenSHMEM, and focuses on first building a strong and practical understanding of the strengths and limitations of past work before proposing and developing novel extensions.« less

A New Performance Improvement Model: Adding Benchmarking to the Analysis of Performance Indicator Data.

PubMed

Al-Kuwaiti, Ahmed; Homa, Karen; Maruthamuthu, Thennarasu

2016-01-01

A performance improvement model was developed that focuses on the analysis and interpretation of performance indicator (PI) data using statistical process control and benchmarking. PIs are suitable for comparison with benchmarks only if the data fall within the statistically accepted limit-that is, show only random variation. Specifically, if there is no significant special-cause variation over a period of time, then the data are ready to be benchmarked. The proposed Define, Measure, Control, Internal Threshold, and Benchmark model is adapted from the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) model. The model consists of the following five steps: Step 1. Define the process; Step 2. Monitor and measure the variation over the period of time; Step 3. Check the variation of the process; if stable (no significant variation), go to Step 4; otherwise, control variation with the help of an action plan; Step 4. Develop an internal threshold and compare the process with it; Step 5.1. Compare the process with an internal benchmark; and Step 5.2. Compare the process with an external benchmark. The steps are illustrated through the use of health care-associated infection (HAI) data collected for 2013 and 2014 from the Infection Control Unit, King Fahd Hospital, University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Monitoring variation is an important strategy in understanding and learning about a process. In the example, HAI was monitored for variation in 2013, and the need to have a more predictable process prompted the need to control variation by an action plan. The action plan was successful, as noted by the shift in the 2014 data, compared to the historical average, and, in addition, the variation was reduced. The model is subject to limitations: For example, it cannot be used without benchmarks, which need to be calculated the same way with similar patient populations, and it focuses only on the "Analyze" part of the DMAIC model.

Assessment of the monitoring and evaluation system for integrated community case management (ICCM) in Ethiopia: a comparison against global benchmark indicators.

PubMed

Mamo, Dereje; Hazel, Elizabeth; Lemma, Israel; Guenther, Tanya; Bekele, Abeba; Demeke, Berhanu

2014-10-01

Program managers require feasible, timely, reliable, and valid measures of iCCM implementation to identify problems and assess progress. The global iCCM Task Force developed benchmark indicators to guide implementers to develop or improve monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. To assesses Ethiopia's iCCM M&E system by determining the availability and feasibility of the iCCM benchmark indicators. We conducted a desk review of iCCM policy documents, monitoring tools, survey reports, and other rele- vant documents; and key informant interviews with government and implementing partners involved in iCCM scale-up and M&E. Currently, Ethiopia collects data to inform most (70% [33/47]) iCCM benchmark indicators, and modest extra effort could boost this to 83% (39/47). Eight (17%) are not available given the current system. Most benchmark indicators that track coordination and policy, human resources, service delivery and referral, supervision, and quality assurance are available through the routine monitoring systems or periodic surveys. Indicators for supply chain management are less available due to limited consumption data and a weak link with treatment data. Little information is available on iCCM costs. Benchmark indicators can detail the status of iCCM implementation; however, some indicators may not fit country priorities, and others may be difficult to collect. The government of Ethiopia and partners should review and prioritize the benchmark indicators to determine which should be included in the routine M&E system, especially since iCCMdata are being reviewed for addition to the HMIS. Moreover, the Health Extension Worker's reporting burden can be minimized by an integrated reporting approach.

Global-local methodologies and their application to nonlinear analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noor, Ahmed K.

1989-01-01

An assessment is made of the potential of different global-local analysis strategies for predicting the nonlinear and postbuckling responses of structures. Two postbuckling problems of composite panels are used as benchmarks and the application of different global-local methodologies to these benchmarks is outlined. The key elements of each of the global-local strategies are discussed and future research areas needed to realize the full potential of global-local methodologies are identified.

Report from the First CERT-RMM Users Group Workshop Series

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-01

deploy processes to support our programs – Benchmark our programs to determine current gaps – Complements current work in CMMI® and ISO 27001 19...benchmarking program performance through process analytics and Lean/Six Sigma activities to ensure Performance Excellence. • Provides ISO Standards...Office www.cmu.edu/ iso 29 Carnegie Mellon University • Est 1967 in Pittsburgh, PA • Global, private research university • Ranked 22nd • 15,000

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bailey, David H.

The NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB) are a suite of parallel computer performance benchmarks. They were originally developed at the NASA Ames Research Center in 1991 to assess high-end parallel supercomputers. Although they are no longer used as widely as they once were for comparing high-end system performance, they continue to be studied and analyzed a great deal in the high-performance computing community. The acronym 'NAS' originally stood for the Numerical Aeronautical Simulation Program at NASA Ames. The name of this organization was subsequently changed to the Numerical Aerospace Simulation Program, and more recently to the NASA Advanced Supercomputing Center, althoughmore » the acronym remains 'NAS.' The developers of the original NPB suite were David H. Bailey, Eric Barszcz, John Barton, David Browning, Russell Carter, LeoDagum, Rod Fatoohi, Samuel Fineberg, Paul Frederickson, Thomas Lasinski, Rob Schreiber, Horst Simon, V. Venkatakrishnan and Sisira Weeratunga. The original NAS Parallel Benchmarks consisted of eight individual benchmark problems, each of which focused on some aspect of scientific computing. The principal focus was in computational aerophysics, although most of these benchmarks have much broader relevance, since in a much larger sense they are typical of many real-world scientific computing applications. The NPB suite grew out of the need for a more rational procedure to select new supercomputers for acquisition by NASA. The emergence of commercially available highly parallel computer systems in the late 1980s offered an attractive alternative to parallel vector supercomputers that had been the mainstay of high-end scientific computing. However, the introduction of highly parallel systems was accompanied by a regrettable level of hype, not only on the part of the commercial vendors but even, in some cases, by scientists using the systems. As a result, it was difficult to discern whether the new systems offered any fundamental performance advantage over vector supercomputers, and, if so, which of the parallel offerings would be most useful in real-world scientific computation. In part to draw attention to some of the performance reporting abuses prevalent at the time, the present author wrote a humorous essay 'Twelve Ways to Fool the Masses,' which described in a light-hearted way a number of the questionable ways in which both vendor marketing people and scientists were inflating and distorting their performance results. All of this underscored the need for an objective and scientifically defensible measure to compare performance on these systems.« less

Reactions of Fe+ and FeO+ with C2H2, C2H4, and C2H6: Temperature-Dependent Kinetics

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-12

studies to lead to the development of efficient quantum chemical calculation methods by offering benchmarks for testing and refinement. Due to the...EXPERIMENTAL METHODS All measurements were performed on the Air Force Research Laboratory’s variable temperature selected ion flow tube (VT- SIFT) instrument...correct within error, indicating that they are in the low-pressure limit,52,53 and the termolecular rate constant is obtained from the slope. In contrast

Development of risk-based nanomaterial groups for occupational exposure control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kuempel, E. D.; Castranova, V.; Geraci, C. L.; Schulte, P. A.

2012-09-01

Given the almost limitless variety of nanomaterials, it will be virtually impossible to assess the possible occupational health hazard of each nanomaterial individually. The development of science-based hazard and risk categories for nanomaterials is needed for decision-making about exposure control practices in the workplace. A possible strategy would be to select representative (benchmark) materials from various mode of action (MOA) classes, evaluate the hazard and develop risk estimates, and then apply a systematic comparison of new nanomaterials with the benchmark materials in the same MOA class. Poorly soluble particles are used here as an example to illustrate quantitative risk assessment methods for possible benchmark particles and occupational exposure control groups, given mode of action and relative toxicity. Linking such benchmark particles to specific exposure control bands would facilitate the translation of health hazard and quantitative risk information to the development of effective exposure control practices in the workplace. A key challenge is obtaining sufficient dose-response data, based on standard testing, to systematically evaluate the nanomaterials' physical-chemical factors influencing their biological activity. Categorization processes involve both science-based analyses and default assumptions in the absence of substance-specific information. Utilizing data and information from related materials may facilitate initial determinations of exposure control systems for nanomaterials.

Benchmarking Gas Path Diagnostic Methods: A Public Approach

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, Donald L.; Bird, Jeff; Davison, Craig; Volponi, Al; Iverson, R. Eugene

2008-01-01

Recent technology reviews have identified the need for objective assessments of engine health management (EHM) technology. The need is two-fold: technology developers require relevant data and problems to design and validate new algorithms and techniques while engine system integrators and operators need practical tools to direct development and then evaluate the effectiveness of proposed solutions. This paper presents a publicly available gas path diagnostic benchmark problem that has been developed by the Propulsion and Power Systems Panel of The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP) to help address these needs. The problem is coded in MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and coupled with a non-linear turbofan engine simulation to produce "snap-shot" measurements, with relevant noise levels, as if collected from a fleet of engines over their lifetime of use. Each engine within the fleet will experience unique operating and deterioration profiles, and may encounter randomly occurring relevant gas path faults including sensor, actuator and component faults. The challenge to the EHM community is to develop gas path diagnostic algorithms to reliably perform fault detection and isolation. An example solution to the benchmark problem is provided along with associated evaluation metrics. A plan is presented to disseminate this benchmark problem to the engine health management technical community and invite technology solutions.

Correlational effect size benchmarks.

PubMed

Bosco, Frank A; Aguinis, Herman; Singh, Kulraj; Field, James G; Pierce, Charles A

2015-03-01

Effect size information is essential for the scientific enterprise and plays an increasingly central role in the scientific process. We extracted 147,328 correlations and developed a hierarchical taxonomy of variables reported in Journal of Applied Psychology and Personnel Psychology from 1980 to 2010 to produce empirical effect size benchmarks at the omnibus level, for 20 common research domains, and for an even finer grained level of generality. Results indicate that the usual interpretation and classification of effect sizes as small, medium, and large bear almost no resemblance to findings in the field, because distributions of effect sizes exhibit tertile partitions at values approximately one-half to one-third those intuited by Cohen (1988). Our results offer information that can be used for research planning and design purposes, such as producing better informed non-nil hypotheses and estimating statistical power and planning sample size accordingly. We also offer information useful for understanding the relative importance of the effect sizes found in a particular study in relationship to others and which research domains have advanced more or less, given that larger effect sizes indicate a better understanding of a phenomenon. Also, our study offers information about research domains for which the investigation of moderating effects may be more fruitful and provide information that is likely to facilitate the implementation of Bayesian analysis. Finally, our study offers information that practitioners can use to evaluate the relative effectiveness of various types of interventions. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Clinical audit of emergency unit before and after establishment of the emergency medicine department.

PubMed

Amini, Afshin; Dindoost, Payam; Moghimi, Mehrdad; Kariman, Hamid; Shahrami, Ali; Dolatabadi, Ali Arhami; Ali-Mohammadi, Hossein; Alavai-Moghaddam, Mostafa; Derakhshanfar, Hojjat; Hatamabadi, HamidReza; Heidari, Kamran; Alamdari, Shahram; Meibodi, Mohammad Kalantar; Shojaee, Majid; Foroozanfar, Mohammad Mehdi; Hashemi, Behrooz; Sabzeghaba, Anita; Kabir, Ali

2012-02-01

To assess the deficiencies and potential areas through a medical audit of the emergency departments, in six general hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences at Tehran, Iran, after preparing specific wards-based international standards. A checklist was completed for all hospitals which met our eligibility criteria mainly observation and interviews with head nurses and managers of the emergency medicine unit of the hospitals before (2003) and after (2008) the establishment of emergency departments there. Domains studied included staffing, education and continuing professional development (CPD), facility (design), equipment, ancillary services, medical records, manuals and references, research, administration, pre-hospital care, information systems, disaster planning, bench-marking and hospital accreditation. Education and CPD (p = 0.042), design and facility (p = 0.027), equipment (p = 0.028), and disaster (p = 0.026) had significantly improved after the establishment of emergency departments. Nearly all domains showed a positive change though it was non-significant in a few. In terms of observation, better improvement was seen in disaster, security, design, and research. According to the score for each domain compared to what it was in the earlier phase, better improvement was observed in hospital accreditation, information systems, security, disaster planning, and research. Security, disaster planning, research, design and facility had improved in hospitals that wave studied, while equipment, records, ancillary services, administration and bench-marking had the lowest improvement even after the establishment of emergency department, and, hence, needed specific attention.

A Knowledge Database on Thermal Control in Manufacturing Processes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirasawa, Shigeki; Satoh, Isao

A prototype version of a knowledge database on thermal control in manufacturing processes, specifically, molding, semiconductor manufacturing, and micro-scale manufacturing has been developed. The knowledge database has search functions for technical data, evaluated benchmark data, academic papers, and patents. The database also displays trends and future roadmaps for research topics. It has quick-calculation functions for basic design. This paper summarizes present research topics and future research on thermal control in manufacturing engineering to collate the information to the knowledge database. In the molding process, the initial mold and melt temperatures are very important parameters. In addition, thermal control is related to many semiconductor processes, and the main parameter is temperature variation in wafers. Accurate in-situ temperature measurment of wafers is important. And many technologies are being developed to manufacture micro-structures. Accordingly, the knowledge database will help further advance these technologies.

U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System Cost Benchmark: Q1 2017

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fu, Ran; Feldman, David; Margolis, Robert

This report benchmarks U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) system installed costs as of the first quarter of 2017 (Q1 2017). We use a bottom-up methodology, accounting for all system and projectdevelopment costs incurred during the installation to model the costs for residential, commercial, and utility-scale systems. In general, we attempt to model the typical installation techniques and business operations from an installed-cost perspective. Costs are represented from the perspective of the developer/installer; thus, all hardware costs represent the price at which components are purchased by the developer/installer, not accounting for preexisting supply agreements or other contracts. Importantly, the benchmark also representsmore » the sales price paid to the installer; therefore, it includes profit in the cost of the hardware, 1 along with the profit the installer/developer receives, as a separate cost category. However, it does not include any additional net profit, such as a developer fee or price gross-up, which is common in the marketplace. We adopt this approach owing to the wide variation in developer profits in all three sectors, where project pricing is highly dependent on region and project specifics such as local retail electricity rate structures, local rebate and incentive structures, competitive environment, and overall project or deal structures. Finally, our benchmarks are national averages weighted by state installed capacities.« less

Design and development of a community carbon cycle benchmarking system for CMIP5 models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mu, M.; Hoffman, F. M.; Lawrence, D. M.; Riley, W. J.; Keppel-Aleks, G.; Randerson, J. T.

2013-12-01

Benchmarking has been widely used to assess the ability of atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and land surface models to capture the spatial and temporal variability of observations during the historical period. For the carbon cycle and terrestrial ecosystems, the design and development of an open-source community platform has been an important goal as part of the International Land Model Benchmarking (ILAMB) project. Here we designed and developed a software system that enables the user to specify the models, benchmarks, and scoring systems so that results can be tailored to specific model intercomparison projects. We used this system to evaluate the performance of CMIP5 Earth system models (ESMs). Our scoring system used information from four different aspects of climate, including the climatological mean spatial pattern of gridded surface variables, seasonal cycle dynamics, the amplitude of interannual variability, and long-term decadal trends. We used this system to evaluate burned area, global biomass stocks, net ecosystem exchange, gross primary production, and ecosystem respiration from CMIP5 historical simulations. Initial results indicated that the multi-model mean often performed better than many of the individual models for most of the observational constraints.

Benchmarking in pathology: development of a benchmarking complexity unit and associated key performance indicators.

PubMed

Neil, Amanda; Pfeffer, Sally; Burnett, Leslie

2013-01-01

This paper details the development of a new type of pathology laboratory productivity unit, the benchmarking complexity unit (BCU). The BCU provides a comparative index of laboratory efficiency, regardless of test mix. It also enables estimation of a measure of how much complex pathology a laboratory performs, and the identification of peer organisations for the purposes of comparison and benchmarking. The BCU is based on the theory that wage rates reflect productivity at the margin. A weighting factor for the ratio of medical to technical staff time was dynamically calculated based on actual participant site data. Given this weighting, a complexity value for each test, at each site, was calculated. The median complexity value (number of BCUs) for that test across all participating sites was taken as its complexity value for the Benchmarking in Pathology Program. The BCU allowed implementation of an unbiased comparison unit and test listing that was found to be a robust indicator of the relative complexity for each test. Employing the BCU data, a number of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were developed, including three that address comparative organisational complexity, analytical depth and performance efficiency, respectively. Peer groups were also established using the BCU combined with simple organisational and environmental metrics. The BCU has enabled productivity statistics to be compared between organisations. The BCU corrects for differences in test mix and workload complexity of different organisations and also allows for objective stratification into peer groups.

Benchmarking of neutron production of heavy-ion transport codes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Remec, I.; Ronningen, R. M.; Heilbronn, L.

Document available in abstract form only, full text of document follows: Accurate prediction of radiation fields generated by heavy ion interactions is important in medical applications, space missions, and in design and operation of rare isotope research facilities. In recent years, several well-established computer codes in widespread use for particle and radiation transport calculations have been equipped with the capability to simulate heavy ion transport and interactions. To assess and validate these capabilities, we performed simulations of a series of benchmark-quality heavy ion experiments with the computer codes FLUKA, MARS15, MCNPX, and PHITS. We focus on the comparisons of secondarymore » neutron production. Results are encouraging; however, further improvements in models and codes and additional benchmarking are required. (authors)« less

The Functional Genomics Network in the evolution of biological text mining over the past decade.

PubMed

Blaschke, Christian; Valencia, Alfonso

2013-03-25

Different programs of The European Science Foundation (ESF) have contributed significantly to connect researchers in Europe and beyond through several initiatives. This support was particularly relevant for the development of the areas related with extracting information from papers (text-mining) because it supported the field in its early phases long before it was recognized by the community. We review the historical development of text mining research and how it was introduced in bioinformatics. Specific applications in (functional) genomics are described like it's integration in genome annotation pipelines and the support to the analysis of high-throughput genomics experimental data, and we highlight the activities of evaluation of methods and benchmarking for which the ESF programme support was instrumental. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SU-E-T-148: Benchmarks and Pre-Treatment Reviews: A Study of Quality Assurance Effectiveness

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lowenstein, J; Nguyen, H; Roll, J

Purpose: To determine the impact benchmarks and pre-treatment reviews have on improving the quality of submitted clinical trial data. Methods: Benchmarks are used to evaluate a site’s ability to develop a treatment that meets a specific protocol’s treatment guidelines prior to placing their first patient on the protocol. A pre-treatment review is an actual patient placed on the protocol in which the dosimetry and contour volumes are evaluated to be per protocol guidelines prior to allowing the beginning of the treatment. A key component of these QA mechanisms is that sites are provided timely feedback to educate them on howmore » to plan per the protocol and prevent protocol deviations on patients accrued to a protocol. For both benchmarks and pre-treatment reviews a dose volume analysis (DVA) was performed using MIM softwareTM. For pre-treatment reviews a volume contour evaluation was also performed. Results: IROC Houston performed a QA effectiveness analysis of a protocol which required both benchmarks and pre-treatment reviews. In 70 percent of the patient cases submitted, the benchmark played an effective role in assuring that the pre-treatment review of the cases met protocol requirements. The 35 percent of sites failing the benchmark subsequently modified there planning technique to pass the benchmark before being allowed to submit a patient for pre-treatment review. However, in 30 percent of the submitted cases the pre-treatment review failed where the majority (71 percent) failed the DVA. 20 percent of sites submitting patients failed to correct their dose volume discrepancies indicated by the benchmark case. Conclusion: Benchmark cases and pre-treatment reviews can be an effective QA tool to educate sites on protocol guidelines and to minimize deviations. Without the benchmark cases it is possible that 65 percent of the cases undergoing a pre-treatment review would have failed to meet the protocols requirements.Support: U24-CA-180803.« less

Assessment of composite motif discovery methods.

PubMed

Klepper, Kjetil; Sandve, Geir K; Abul, Osman; Johansen, Jostein; Drablos, Finn

2008-02-26

Computational discovery of regulatory elements is an important area of bioinformatics research and more than a hundred motif discovery methods have been published. Traditionally, most of these methods have addressed the problem of single motif discovery - discovering binding motifs for individual transcription factors. In higher organisms, however, transcription factors usually act in combination with nearby bound factors to induce specific regulatory behaviours. Hence, recent focus has shifted from single motifs to the discovery of sets of motifs bound by multiple cooperating transcription factors, so called composite motifs or cis-regulatory modules. Given the large number and diversity of methods available, independent assessment of methods becomes important. Although there have been several benchmark studies of single motif discovery, no similar studies have previously been conducted concerning composite motif discovery. We have developed a benchmarking framework for composite motif discovery and used it to evaluate the performance of eight published module discovery tools. Benchmark datasets were constructed based on real genomic sequences containing experimentally verified regulatory modules, and the module discovery programs were asked to predict both the locations of these modules and to specify the single motifs involved. To aid the programs in their search, we provided position weight matrices corresponding to the binding motifs of the transcription factors involved. In addition, selections of decoy matrices were mixed with the genuine matrices on one dataset to test the response of programs to varying levels of noise. Although some of the methods tested tended to score somewhat better than others overall, there were still large variations between individual datasets and no single method performed consistently better than the rest in all situations. The variation in performance on individual datasets also shows that the new benchmark datasets represents a suitable variety of challenges to most methods for module discovery.

SIGACE Code for Generating High-Temperature ACE Files; Validation and Benchmarking

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sharma, Amit R.; Ganesan, S.; Trkov, A.

2005-05-24

A code named SIGACE has been developed as a tool for MCNP users within the scope of a research contract awarded by the Nuclear Data Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) (Ref: 302-F4-IND-11566 B5-IND-29641). A new recipe has been evolved for generating high-temperature ACE files for use with the MCNP code. Under this scheme the low-temperature ACE file is first converted to an ENDF formatted file using the ACELST code and then Doppler broadened, essentially limited to the data in the resolved resonance region, to any desired higher temperature using SIGMA1. The SIGACE code then generates a high-temperaturemore » ACE file for use with the MCNP code. A thinning routine has also been introduced in the SIGACE code for reducing the size of the ACE files. The SIGACE code and the recipe for generating ACE files at higher temperatures has been applied to the SEFOR fast reactor benchmark problem (sodium-cooled fast reactor benchmark described in ENDF-202/BNL-19302, 1974 document). The calculated Doppler coefficient is in good agreement with the experimental value. A similar calculation using ACE files generated directly with the NJOY system also agrees with our SIGACE computed results. The SIGACE code and the recipe is further applied to study the numerical benchmark configuration of selected idealized PWR pin cell configurations with five different fuel enrichments as reported by Mosteller and Eisenhart. The SIGACE code that has been tested with several FENDL/MC files will be available, free of cost, upon request, from the Nuclear Data Section of the IAEA.« less

Phase field benchmark problems for dendritic growth and linear elasticity

DOE PAGES

Jokisaari, Andrea M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, Jonathan E.; ...

2018-03-26

We present the second set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being jointly developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with input from other members in the phase field community. As the integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to materials design has gained traction, there is an increasing need for quantitative phase field results. New algorithms and numerical implementations increase computational capabilities, necessitating standard problems to evaluate their impact on simulated microstructure evolution as well as their computational performance. We propose one benchmark problem formore » solidifiication and dendritic growth in a single-component system, and one problem for linear elasticity via the shape evolution of an elastically constrained precipitate. We demonstrate the utility and sensitivity of the benchmark problems by comparing the results of 1) dendritic growth simulations performed with different time integrators and 2) elastically constrained precipitate simulations with different precipitate sizes, initial conditions, and elastic moduli. As a result, these numerical benchmark problems will provide a consistent basis for evaluating different algorithms, both existing and those to be developed in the future, for accuracy and computational efficiency when applied to simulate physics often incorporated in phase field models.« less

Benchmark study on glyphosate-resistant crop systems in the United States. Part 2: Perspectives.

PubMed

Owen, Micheal D K; Young, Bryan G; Shaw, David R; Wilson, Robert G; Jordan, David L; Dixon, Philip M; Weller, Stephen C

2011-07-01

A six-state, 5 year field project was initiated in 2006 to study weed management methods that foster the sustainability of genetically engineered (GE) glyphosate-resistant (GR) crop systems. The benchmark study field-scale experiments were initiated following a survey, conducted in the winter of 2005-2006, of farmer opinions on weed management practices and their views on GR weeds and management tactics. The main survey findings supported the premise that growers were generally less aware of the significance of evolved herbicide resistance and did not have a high recognition of the strong selection pressure from herbicides on the evolution of herbicide-resistant (HR) weeds. The results of the benchmark study survey indicated that there are educational challenges to implement sustainable GR-based crop systems and helped guide the development of the field-scale benchmark study. Paramount is the need to develop consistent and clearly articulated science-based management recommendations that enable farmers to reduce the potential for HR weeds. This paper provides background perspectives about the use of GR crops, the impact of these crops and an overview of different opinions about the use of GR crops on agriculture and society, as well as defining how the benchmark study will address these issues. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

Preliminary Results for the OECD/NEA Time Dependent Benchmark using Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake-IQS and TDKENO

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

DeHart, Mark D.; Mausolff, Zander; Weems, Zach

2016-08-01

One goal of the MAMMOTH M&S project is to validate the analysis capabilities within MAMMOTH. Historical data has shown limited value for validation of full three-dimensional (3D) multi-physics methods. Initial analysis considered the TREAT startup minimum critical core and one of the startup transient tests. At present, validation is focusing on measurements taken during the M8CAL test calibration series. These exercises will valuable in preliminary assessment of the ability of MAMMOTH to perform coupled multi-physics calculations; calculations performed to date are being used to validate the neutron transport solver Rattlesnake\\cite{Rattlesnake} and the fuels performance code BISON. Other validation projects outsidemore » of TREAT are available for single-physics benchmarking. Because the transient solution capability of Rattlesnake is one of the key attributes that makes it unique for TREAT transient simulations, validation of the transient solution of Rattlesnake using other time dependent kinetics benchmarks has considerable value. The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has recently developed a computational benchmark for transient simulations. This benchmark considered both two-dimensional (2D) and 3D configurations for a total number of 26 different transients. All are negative reactivity insertions, typically returning to the critical state after some time.« less

Scale/TSUNAMI Sensitivity Data for ICSBEP Evaluations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rearden, Bradley T; Reed, Davis Allan; Lefebvre, Robert A

2011-01-01

The Tools for Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analysis Methodology Implementation (TSUNAMI) software developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) as part of the Scale code system provide unique methods for code validation, gap analysis, and experiment design. For TSUNAMI analysis, sensitivity data are generated for each application and each existing or proposed experiment used in the assessment. The validation of diverse sets of applications requires potentially thousands of data files to be maintained and organized by the user, and a growing number of these files are available through the International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments (IHECSBE) distributed through themore » International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Program (ICSBEP). To facilitate the use of the IHECSBE benchmarks in rigorous TSUNAMI validation and gap analysis techniques, ORNL generated SCALE/TSUNAMI sensitivity data files (SDFs) for several hundred benchmarks for distribution with the IHECSBE. For the 2010 edition of IHECSBE, the sensitivity data were generated using 238-group cross-section data based on ENDF/B-VII.0 for 494 benchmark experiments. Additionally, ORNL has developed a quality assurance procedure to guide the generation of Scale inputs and sensitivity data, as well as a graphical user interface to facilitate the use of sensitivity data in identifying experiments and applying them in validation studies.« less

WWTP dynamic disturbance modelling--an essential module for long-term benchmarking development.

PubMed

Gernaey, K V; Rosen, C; Jeppsson, U

2006-01-01

Intensive use of the benchmark simulation model No. 1 (BSM1), a protocol for objective comparison of the effectiveness of control strategies in biological nitrogen removal activated sludge plants, has also revealed a number of limitations. Preliminary definitions of the long-term benchmark simulation model No. 1 (BSM1_LT) and the benchmark simulation model No. 2 (BSM2) have been made to extend BSM1 for evaluation of process monitoring methods and plant-wide control strategies, respectively. Influent-related disturbances for BSM1_LT/BSM2 are to be generated with a model, and this paper provides a general overview of the modelling methods used. Typical influent dynamic phenomena generated with the BSM1_LT/BSM2 influent disturbance model, including diurnal, weekend, seasonal and holiday effects, as well as rainfall, are illustrated with simulation results. As a result of the work described in this paper, a proposed influent model/file has been released to the benchmark developers for evaluation purposes. Pending this evaluation, a final BSM1_LT/BSM2 influent disturbance model definition is foreseen. Preliminary simulations with dynamic influent data generated by the influent disturbance model indicate that default BSM1 activated sludge plant control strategies will need extensions for BSM1_LT/BSM2 to efficiently handle 1 year of influent dynamics.

Development of Benchmark Examples for Delamination Onset and Fatigue Growth Prediction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald

2011-01-01

An approach for assessing the delamination propagation and growth capabilities in commercial finite element codes was developed and demonstrated for the Virtual Crack Closure Technique (VCCT) implementations in ABAQUS. The Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen was chosen as an example. First, benchmark results to assess delamination propagation capabilities under static loading were created using models simulating specimens with different delamination lengths. For each delamination length modeled, the load and displacement at the load point were monitored. The mixed-mode strain energy release rate components were calculated along the delamination front across the width of the specimen. A failure index was calculated by correlating the results with the mixed-mode failure criterion of the graphite/epoxy material. The calculated critical loads and critical displacements for delamination onset for each delamination length modeled were used as a benchmark. The load/displacement relationship computed during automatic propagation should closely match the benchmark case. Second, starting from an initially straight front, the delamination was allowed to propagate based on the algorithms implemented in the commercial finite element software. The load-displacement relationship obtained from the propagation analysis results and the benchmark results were compared. Good agreements could be achieved by selecting the appropriate input parameters, which were determined in an iterative procedure.

Phase field benchmark problems for dendritic growth and linear elasticity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jokisaari, Andrea M.; Voorhees, P. W.; Guyer, Jonathan E.

We present the second set of benchmark problems for phase field models that are being jointly developed by the Center for Hierarchical Materials Design (CHiMaD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) along with input from other members in the phase field community. As the integrated computational materials engineering (ICME) approach to materials design has gained traction, there is an increasing need for quantitative phase field results. New algorithms and numerical implementations increase computational capabilities, necessitating standard problems to evaluate their impact on simulated microstructure evolution as well as their computational performance. We propose one benchmark problem formore » solidifiication and dendritic growth in a single-component system, and one problem for linear elasticity via the shape evolution of an elastically constrained precipitate. We demonstrate the utility and sensitivity of the benchmark problems by comparing the results of 1) dendritic growth simulations performed with different time integrators and 2) elastically constrained precipitate simulations with different precipitate sizes, initial conditions, and elastic moduli. As a result, these numerical benchmark problems will provide a consistent basis for evaluating different algorithms, both existing and those to be developed in the future, for accuracy and computational efficiency when applied to simulate physics often incorporated in phase field models.« less

Standardized Radiation Shield Design Methods: 2005 HZETRN

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, John W.; Tripathi, Ram K.; Badavi, Francis F.; Cucinotta, Francis A.

2006-01-01

Research committed by the Langley Research Center through 1995 resulting in the HZETRN code provides the current basis for shield design methods according to NASA STD-3000 (2005). With this new prominence, the database, basic numerical procedures, and algorithms are being re-examined with new methods of verification and validation being implemented to capture a well defined algorithm for engineering design processes to be used in this early development phase of the Bush initiative. This process provides the methodology to transform the 1995 HZETRN research code into the 2005 HZETRN engineering code to be available for these early design processes. In this paper, we will review the basic derivations including new corrections to the codes to insure improved numerical stability and provide benchmarks for code verification.

Toward community standards in the quest for orthologs

PubMed Central

Dessimoz, Christophe; Gabaldón, Toni; Roos, David S.; Sonnhammer, Erik L. L.; Herrero, Javier; Altenhoff, Adrian; Apweiler, Rolf; Ashburner, Michael; Blake, Judith; Boeckmann, Brigitte; Bridge, Alan; Bruford, Elspeth; Cherry, Mike; Conte, Matthieu; Dannie, Durand; Datta, Ruchira; Dessimoz, Christophe; Domelevo Entfellner, Jean-Baka; Ebersberger, Ingo; Gabaldón, Toni; Galperin, Michael; Herrero, Javier; Joseph, Jacob; Koestler, Tina; Kriventseva, Evgenia; Lecompte, Odile; Leunissen, Jack; Lewis, Suzanna; Linard, Benjamin; Livstone, Michael S.; Lu, Hui-Chun; Martin, Maria; Mazumder, Raja; Messina, David; Miele, Vincent; Muffato, Matthieu; Perrière, Guy; Punta, Marco; Roos, David; Rouard, Mathieu; Schmitt, Thomas; Schreiber, Fabian; Silva, Alan; Sjölander, Kimmen; Škunca, Nives; Sonnhammer, Erik; Stanley, Eleanor; Szklarczyk, Radek; Thomas, Paul; Uchiyama, Ikuo; Van Bel, Michiel; Vandepoele, Klaas; Vilella, Albert J.; Yates, Andrew; Zdobnov, Evgeny

2012-01-01

The identification of orthologs—genes pairs descended from a common ancestor through speciation, rather than duplication—has emerged as an essential component of many bioinformatics applications, ranging from the annotation of new genomes to experimental target prioritization. Yet, the development and application of orthology inference methods is hampered by the lack of consensus on source proteomes, file formats and benchmarks. The second ‘Quest for Orthologs’ meeting brought together stakeholders from various communities to address these challenges. We report on achievements and outcomes of this meeting, focusing on topics of particular relevance to the research community at large. The Quest for Orthologs consortium is an open community that welcomes contributions from all researchers interested in orthology research and applications. Contact: dessimoz@ebi.ac.uk PMID:22332236

Healthcare Energy Efficiency Research and Development

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Black, Douglas R.; Lai, Judy; Lanzisera, Steven M

2011-01-31

Hospitals are known to be among the most energy intensive commercial buildings in California. Estimates of energy end-uses (e.g. for heating, cooling, lighting, etc.) in hospitals are uncertain for lack of information about hospital-specific mechanical system operations and process loads. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed and demonstrated a benchmarking system designed specifically for hospitals. Version 1.0 featured metrics to assess energy performance for the broad variety of ventilation and thermal systems that are present in California hospitals. It required moderate to extensive sub-metering or supplemental monitoring. In this new project, we developed a companion handbook with detailed equations that canmore » be used toconvert data from energy and other sensors that may be added to or already part of hospital heating, ventilation and cooling systems into metrics described in the benchmarking document.This report additionally includes a case study and guidance on including metering into designs for new hospitals, renovations and retrofits. Despite widespread concern that this end-use is large and growing, there is limited reliable information about energy use by distributed medical equipment and other miscellaneouselectrical loads in hospitals. This report proposes a framework for quantifying aggregate energy use of medical equipment and miscellaneous loads. Novel approaches are suggested and tried in an attempt to obtain data to support this framework.« less

Inlets, ducts, and nozzles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbott, John M.; Anderson, Bernhard H.; Rice, Edward J.

1990-01-01

The internal fluid mechanics research program in inlets, ducts, and nozzles consists of a balanced effort between the development of computational tools (both parabolized Navier-Stokes and full Navier-Stokes) and the conduct of experimental research. The experiments are designed to better understand the fluid flow physics, to develop new or improved flow models, and to provide benchmark quality data sets for validation of the computational methods. The inlet, duct, and nozzle research program is described according to three major classifications of flow phenomena: (1) highly 3-D flow fields; (2) shock-boundary-layer interactions; and (3) shear layer control. Specific examples of current and future elements of the research program are described for each of these phenomenon. In particular, the highly 3-D flow field phenomenon is highlighted by describing the computational and experimental research program in transition ducts having a round-to-rectangular area variation. In the case of shock-boundary-layer interactions, the specific details of research for normal shock-boundary-layer interactions are described. For shear layer control, research in vortex generators and the use of aerodynamic excitation for enhancement of the jet mixing process are described.

Montreal Archive of Sleep Studies: an open-access resource for instrument benchmarking and exploratory research.

PubMed

O'Reilly, Christian; Gosselin, Nadia; Carrier, Julie; Nielsen, Tore

2014-12-01

Manual processing of sleep recordings is extremely time-consuming. Efforts to automate this process have shown promising results, but automatic systems are generally evaluated on private databases, not allowing accurate cross-validation with other systems. In lacking a common benchmark, the relative performances of different systems are not compared easily and advances are compromised. To address this fundamental methodological impediment to sleep study, we propose an open-access database of polysomnographic biosignals. To build this database, whole-night recordings from 200 participants [97 males (aged 42.9 ± 19.8 years) and 103 females (aged 38.3 ± 18.9 years); age range: 18-76 years] were pooled from eight different research protocols performed in three different hospital-based sleep laboratories. All recordings feature a sampling frequency of 256 Hz and an electroencephalography (EEG) montage of 4-20 channels plus standard electro-oculography (EOG), electromyography (EMG), electrocardiography (ECG) and respiratory signals. Access to the database can be obtained through the Montreal Archive of Sleep Studies (MASS) website (http://www.ceams-carsm.ca/en/MASS), and requires only affiliation with a research institution and prior approval by the applicant's local ethical review board. Providing the research community with access to this free and open sleep database is expected to facilitate the development and cross-validation of sleep analysis automation systems. It is also expected that such a shared resource will be a catalyst for cross-centre collaborations on difficult topics such as improving inter-rater agreement on sleep stage scoring. © 2014 European Sleep Research Society.

NASA IMAGESEER: NASA IMAGEs for Science, Education, Experimentation and Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Le Moigne, Jacqueline; Grubb, Thomas G.; Milner, Barbara C.

2012-01-01

A number of web-accessible databases, including medical, military or other image data, offer universities and other users the ability to teach or research new Image Processing techniques on relevant and well-documented data. However, NASA images have traditionally been difficult for researchers to find, are often only available in hard-to-use formats, and do not always provide sufficient context and background for a non-NASA Scientist user to understand their content. The new IMAGESEER (IMAGEs for Science, Education, Experimentation and Research) database seeks to address these issues. Through a graphically-rich web site for browsing and downloading all of the selected datasets, benchmarks, and tutorials, IMAGESEER provides a widely accessible database of NASA-centric, easy to read, image data for teaching or validating new Image Processing algorithms. As such, IMAGESEER fosters collaboration between NASA and research organizations while simultaneously encouraging development of new and enhanced Image Processing algorithms. The first prototype includes a representative sampling of NASA multispectral and hyperspectral images from several Earth Science instruments, along with a few small tutorials. Image processing techniques are currently represented with cloud detection, image registration, and map cover/classification. For each technique, corresponding data are selected from four different geographic regions, i.e., mountains, urban, water coastal, and agriculture areas. Satellite images have been collected from several instruments - Landsat-5 and -7 Thematic Mappers, Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) Advanced Land Imager (ALI) and Hyperion, and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). After geo-registration, these images are available in simple common formats such as GeoTIFF and raw formats, along with associated benchmark data.

FDNS CFD Code Benchmark for RBCC Ejector Mode Operation: Continuing Toward Dual Rocket Effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

West, Jeff; Ruf, Joseph H.; Turner, James E. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis results are compared with benchmark quality test data from the Propulsion Engineering Research Center's (PERC) Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) experiments to verify fluid dynamic code and application procedures. RBCC engine flowpath development will rely on CFD applications to capture the multi -dimensional fluid dynamic interactions and to quantify their effect on the RBCC system performance. Therefore, the accuracy of these CFD codes must be determined through detailed comparisons with test data. The PERC experiments build upon the well-known 1968 rocket-ejector experiments of Odegaard and Stroup by employing advanced optical and laser based diagnostics to evaluate mixing and secondary combustion. The Finite Difference Navier Stokes (FDNS) code [2] was used to model the fluid dynamics of the PERC RBCC ejector mode configuration. Analyses were performed for the Diffusion and Afterburning (DAB) test conditions at the 200-psia thruster operation point, Results with and without downstream fuel injection are presented.

Numerical Investigations of the Benchmark Supercritical Wing in Transonic Flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chwalowski, Pawel; Heeg, Jennifer; Biedron, Robert T.

2017-01-01

This paper builds on the computational aeroelastic results published previously and generated in support of the second Aeroelastic Prediction Workshop for the NASA Benchmark Supercritical Wing (BSCW) configuration. The computational results are obtained using FUN3D, an unstructured grid Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes solver developed at the NASA Langley Research Center. The analysis results show the effects of the temporal and spatial resolution, the coupling scheme between the flow and the structural solvers, and the initial excitation conditions on the numerical flutter onset. Depending on the free stream condition and the angle of attack, the above parameters do affect the flutter onset. Two conditions are analyzed: Mach 0.74 with angle of attack 0 and Mach 0.85 with angle of attack 5. The results are presented in the form of the damping values computed from the wing pitch angle response as a function of the dynamic pressure or in the form of dynamic pressure as a function of the Mach number.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's inhalation RfD methodology: Risk assessment for air toxics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jarabek, A.M.; Menache, M.G.; Overton, J.H. Jr.

1990-10-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has advocated the establishment of general and scientific guidelines for the evaluation of toxicological data and their use in deriving benchmark values to protect exposed populations from adverse health effects. The Agency's reference dose (RfD) methodology for deriving benchmark values for noncancer toxicity originally addressed risk assessment of oral exposures. This paper presents a brief background on the development of the inhalation reference dose (RfDi) methodology, including concepts and issues related to addressing the dynamics of the respiratory system as the portal of entry. Different dosimetric adjustments are described that were incorporated intomore » the methodology to account for the nature of the inhaled agent (particle or gas) and the site of the observed toxic effects (respiratory or extra-respiratory). Impacts of these adjustments on the extrapolation of toxicity data of inhaled agents for human health risk assessment and future research directions are also discussed.« less

U. S. Environmental Protection Agency's inhalation RFD methodology: Risk assessment for air toxics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jarabek, A.M.; Menache, M.G.; Overton, J.H.

1989-01-01

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has advocated the establishment of general and scientific guidelines for the evaluation of toxicological data and their use in deriving benchmark values to protect exposed populations from adverse health effects. The Agency's reference dose (RfD) methodology for deriving benchmark values for noncancer toxicity originally addressed risk assessment of oral exposures. The paper presents a brief background on the development of the inhalation reference dose (RFDi) methodology, including concepts and issues related to addressing the dynamics of the respiratory system as the portal of entry. Different dosimetric adjustments are described that were incorporated intomore » the methodology to account for the nature of the inhaled agent (particle or gas) and the site of the observed toxic effects (respiratory or extrarespiratory). Impacts of these adjustments on the extrapolation of toxicity data of inhaled agents for human health risk assessment and future research directions are also discussed.« less

Scaling of Multimillion-Atom Biological Molecular Dynamics Simulation on a Petascale Supercomputer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Schulz, Roland; Lindner, Benjamin; Petridis, Loukas

2009-01-01

A strategy is described for a fast all-atom molecular dynamics simulation of multimillion-atom biological systems on massively parallel supercomputers. The strategy is developed using benchmark systems of particular interest to bioenergy research, comprising models of cellulose and lignocellulosic biomass in an aqueous solution. The approach involves using the reaction field (RF) method for the computation of long-range electrostatic interactions, which permits efficient scaling on many thousands of cores. Although the range of applicability of the RF method for biomolecular systems remains to be demonstrated, for the benchmark systems the use of the RF produces molecular dipole moments, Kirkwood G factors,more » other structural properties, and mean-square fluctuations in excellent agreement with those obtained with the commonly used Particle Mesh Ewald method. With RF, three million- and five million atom biological systems scale well up to 30k cores, producing 30 ns/day. Atomistic simulations of very large systems for time scales approaching the microsecond would, therefore, appear now to be within reach.« less

Scaling of Multimillion-Atom Biological Molecular Dynamics Simulation on a Petascale Supercomputer.

PubMed

Schulz, Roland; Lindner, Benjamin; Petridis, Loukas; Smith, Jeremy C

2009-10-13

A strategy is described for a fast all-atom molecular dynamics simulation of multimillion-atom biological systems on massively parallel supercomputers. The strategy is developed using benchmark systems of particular interest to bioenergy research, comprising models of cellulose and lignocellulosic biomass in an aqueous solution. The approach involves using the reaction field (RF) method for the computation of long-range electrostatic interactions, which permits efficient scaling on many thousands of cores. Although the range of applicability of the RF method for biomolecular systems remains to be demonstrated, for the benchmark systems the use of the RF produces molecular dipole moments, Kirkwood G factors, other structural properties, and mean-square fluctuations in excellent agreement with those obtained with the commonly used Particle Mesh Ewald method. With RF, three million- and five million-atom biological systems scale well up to ∼30k cores, producing ∼30 ns/day. Atomistic simulations of very large systems for time scales approaching the microsecond would, therefore, appear now to be within reach.

Pharmaceutical Market Access: current state of affairs and key challenges – results of the Market Access Launch Excellence Inventory (MALEI)

PubMed Central

Koch, Marcus A.

2015-01-01

Objectives To take inventory of the current state of affairs of Market Access Launch Excellence in the life sciences industry. To identify key gaps and challenges for Market Access (MA) and discuss how they can be addressed. To generate a baseline for benchmarking MA launch excellence. Methodology An online survey was conducted with pharmaceutical executives primarily working in MA, marketing, or general management. The survey aimed to evaluate MA excellence prerequisites across the product life cycle (rated by importance and level of implementation) and to describe MA activity models in the respective companies. Composite scores were calculated from respondents’ ratings and answers. Results Implementation levels of MA excellence prerequisites generally lagged behind their perceived importance. Item importance and the respective level of implementation correlated well, which can be interpreted as proof of the validity of the questionnaire. The following areas were shown to be particularly underimplemented: 1) early integration of MA and health economic considerations in research and development decision making, 2) developing true partnerships with payers, including the development of services ‘beyond the pill’, and 3) consideration of human resource and talent management. The concept of importance-adjusted implementation levels as a hybrid parameter was introduced and shown to be a viable tool for benchmarking purposes. More than 70% of respondents indicated that their companies will invest broadly in MA in terms of capital and headcount within the next 3 years. Conclusions MA (launch) excellence needs to be further developed in order to close implementation gaps across the entire product life cycle. As MA is a comparatively young pharmaceutical discipline in a complex and dynamic environment, this effort will require strategic focus and dedication. The Market Access Launch Excellence Inventory benchmarking tool may help guide decision makers to prioritize their endeavors. PMID:29785250

Benchmarking for the Effective Use of Student Evaluation Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smithson, John; Birks, Melanie; Harrison, Glenn; Nair, Chenicheri Sid; Hitchins, Marnie

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine current approaches to interpretation of student evaluation data and present an innovative approach to developing benchmark targets for the effective and efficient use of these data. Design/Methodology/Approach: This article discusses traditional approaches to gathering and using student feedback…

Conceptual Models, Choices, and Benchmarks for Building Quality Work Cultures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Acker-Hocevar, Michele

1996-01-01

The two models in Florida's Educational Quality Benchmark System represent a new way of thinking about developing schools' work culture. The Quality Performance System Model identifies nine dimensions of work within a quality system. The Change Process Model provides a theoretical framework for changing existing beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors…

Clear, Complete, and Justified Problem Formulations for Aquatic Life Benchmark Values: Specifying the Dimensions

EPA Science Inventory

Nations that develop water quality benchmark values have relied primarily on standard data and methods. However, experience with chemicals such as Se, ammonia, and tributyltin has shown that standard methods do not adequately address some taxa, modes of exposure and effects. Deve...

Learning Probe: Benchmarking for Excellence. Questionnaire. Second Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Jane; Yarrow, David; Appleby, Alex

This document is a questionnaire designed for work-based learning providers. It is a diagnostic benchmarking tool developed to give organizations a snapshot of their current state. Following a brief introduction, there are instructions for filling in the questionnaire, which includes both open-ended response and scoring according to a…

Austin Community College Benchmarking Update.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin Community Coll., TX. Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

Austin Community College contracted with MGT of America, Inc. in spring 1999 to develop a peer and benchmark (best) practices analysis on key indicators. These indicators were updated in spring 2002 using data from eight Texas community colleges and four non-Texas institutions that represent large, comprehensive, urban community colleges, similar…

Canada's Composite Learning Index: A Path Towards Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cappon, Paul; Laughlin, Jarrett

2013-01-01

In the development of learning cities/communities, benchmarking progress is a key element. Not only does it permit cities/communities to assess their current strengths and weaknesses, it also engenders a dialogue within and between cities/communities on the means of enhancing learning conditions. Benchmarking thereby is a potentially motivational…

Quality Assurance Testing of Version 1.3 of U.S. EPA Benchmark Dose Software (Presentation)

EPA Science Inventory

EPA benchmark dose software (BMDS) issued to evaluate chemical dose-response data in support of Agency risk assessments, and must therefore be dependable. Quality assurance testing methods developed for BMDS were designed to assess model dependability with respect to curve-fitt...

CLEAR, COMPLETE, AND JUSTIFIED PROBLEM FORMULATIONS FOR AQUATIC LIFE BENCHMARK VALUES: SPECIFYING THE DIMENSIONS

EPA Science Inventory

Nations that develop water quality benchmark values have relied primarily on standard data and methods. However, experience with chemicals such as Se, ammonia, and tributyltin has shown that standard methods do not adequately address some taxa, modes of exposure and effects. Deve...

Meeting the privacy requirements for the development of a multi-centre patient registry in Canada: the Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry.

PubMed

Noonan, Vanessa K; Thorogood, Nancy P; Joshi, Phalgun B; Fehlings, Michael G; Craven, B Catharine; Linassi, Gary; Fourney, Daryl R; Kwon, Brian K; Bailey, Christopher S; Tsai, Eve C; Drew, Brian M; Ahn, Henry; Tsui, Deborah; Dvorak, Marcel F

2013-05-01

Privacy legislation addresses concerns regarding the privacy of personal information; however, its interpretation by research ethics boards has resulted in significant challenges to the collection, management, use and disclosure of personal health information for multi-centre research studies. This paper describes the strategy used to develop the national Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry (RHSCIR) in accordance with privacy statutes and benchmarked against best practices. An analysis of the regional and national privacy legislation was conducted to determine the requirements for each of the 31 local RHSCIR sites and the national RHSCIR office. A national privacy and security framework was created for RHSCIR that includes a governance structure, standard operating procedures, training processes, physical and technical security and privacy impact assessments. The framework meets a high-water mark in ensuring privacy and security of personal health information nationally and may assist in the development of other national or international research initiatives. Copyright © 2013 Longwoods Publishing.

Meeting the Privacy Requirements for the Development of a Multi-Centre Patient Registry in Canada: The Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry

PubMed Central

Noonan, Vanessa K.; Thorogood, Nancy P.; Joshi, Phalgun B.; Fehlings, Michael G.; Craven, B. Catharine; Linassi, Gary; Fourney, Daryl R.; Kwon, Brian K.; Bailey, Christopher S.; Tsai, Eve C.; Drew, Brian M.; Ahn, Henry; Tsui, Deborah; Dvorak, Marcel F.

2013-01-01

Privacy legislation addresses concerns regarding the privacy of personal information; however, its interpretation by research ethics boards has resulted in significant challenges to the collection, management, use and disclosure of personal health information for multi-centre research studies. This paper describes the strategy used to develop the national Rick Hansen Spinal Cord Injury Registry (RHSCIR) in accordance with privacy statutes and benchmarked against best practices. An analysis of the regional and national privacy legislation was conducted to determine the requirements for each of the 31 local RHSCIR sites and the national RHSCIR office. A national privacy and security framework was created for RHSCIR that includes a governance structure, standard operating procedures, training processes, physical and technical security and privacy impact assessments. The framework meets a high-water mark in ensuring privacy and security of personal health information nationally and may assist in the development of other national or international research initiatives. PMID:23968640

Game playing.

PubMed

Rosin, Christopher D

2014-03-01

Game playing has been a core domain of artificial intelligence research since the beginnings of the field. Game playing provides clearly defined arenas within which computational approaches can be readily compared to human expertise through head-to-head competition and other benchmarks. Game playing research has identified several simple core algorithms that provide successful foundations, with development focused on the challenges of defeating human experts in specific games. Key developments include minimax search in chess, machine learning from self-play in backgammon, and Monte Carlo tree search in Go. These approaches have generalized successfully to additional games. While computers have surpassed human expertise in a wide variety of games, open challenges remain and research focuses on identifying and developing new successful algorithmic foundations. WIREs Cogn Sci 2014, 5:193-205. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1278 CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Technical Report: Benchmarking for Quasispecies Abundance Inference with Confidence Intervals from Metagenomic Sequence Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McLoughlin, K.

2016-01-22

The software application “MetaQuant” was developed by our group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). It is designed to profile microbial populations in a sample using data from whole-genome shotgun (WGS) metagenomic DNA sequencing. Several other metagenomic profiling applications have been described in the literature. We ran a series of benchmark tests to compare the performance of MetaQuant against that of a few existing profiling tools, using real and simulated sequence datasets. This report describes our benchmarking procedure and results.

Global-local methodologies and their application to nonlinear analysis. [for structural postbuckling study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Noor, Ahmed K.

1986-01-01

An assessment is made of the potential of different global-local analysis strategies for predicting the nonlinear and postbuckling responses of structures. Two postbuckling problems of composite panels are used as benchmarks and the application of different global-local methodologies to these benchmarks is outlined. The key elements of each of the global-local strategies are discussed and future research areas needed to realize the full potential of global-local methodologies are identified.

Simulator for SUPO, a Benchmark Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor (AHR)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Klein, Steven Karl; Determan, John C.

2015-10-14

A simulator has been developed for SUPO (Super Power) an aqueous homogeneous reactor (AHR) that operated at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) from 1951 to 1974. During that period SUPO accumulated approximately 600,000 kWh of operation. It is considered the benchmark for steady-state operation of an AHR. The SUPO simulator was developed using the process that resulted in a simulator for an accelerator-driven subcritical system, which has been previously reported.

Validation of mechanical models for reinforced concrete structures: Presentation of the French project ``Benchmark des Poutres de la Rance''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

L'Hostis, V.; Brunet, C.; Poupard, O.; Petre-Lazar, I.

2006-11-01

Several ageing models are available for the prediction of the mechanical consequences of rebar corrosion. They are used for service life prediction of reinforced concrete structures. Concerning corrosion diagnosis of reinforced concrete, some Non Destructive Testing (NDT) tools have been developed, and have been in use for some years. However, these developments require validation on existing concrete structures. The French project “Benchmark des Poutres de la Rance” contributes to this aspect. It has two main objectives: (i) validation of mechanical models to estimate the influence of rebar corrosion on the load bearing capacity of a structure, (ii) qualification of the use of the NDT results to collect information on steel corrosion within reinforced-concrete structures. Ten French and European institutions from both academic research laboratories and industrial companies contributed during the years 2004 and 2005. This paper presents the project that was divided into several work packages: (i) the reinforced concrete beams were characterized from non-destructive testing tools, (ii) the mechanical behaviour of the beams was experimentally tested, (iii) complementary laboratory analysis were performed and (iv) finally numerical simulations results were compared to the experimental results obtained with the mechanical tests.

SensorWeb 3G: Extending On-Orbit Sensor Capabilities to Enable Near Realtime User Configurability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandl, Daniel; Cappelaere, Pat; Frye, Stuart; Sohlberg, Rob; Ly, Vuong; Chien, Steve; Tran, Daniel; Davies, Ashley; Sullivan, Don; Ames, Troy;

ICSBEP Benchmarks For Nuclear Data Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Briggs, J. Blair

2005-05-24

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) was initiated in 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The ICSBEP became an official activity of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995. Representatives from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Japan, the Russian Federation, Hungary, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro (formerly Yugoslavia), Kazakhstan, Spain, Israel, Brazil, Poland, and the Czech Republic are now participating. South Africa, India, China, and Germany are considering participation. The purpose of the ICSBEP is to identify, evaluate, verify, and formally document a comprehensive andmore » internationally peer-reviewed set of criticality safety benchmark data. The work of the ICSBEP is published as an OECD handbook entitled ''International Handbook of Evaluated Criticality Safety Benchmark Experiments.'' The 2004 Edition of the Handbook contains benchmark specifications for 3331 critical or subcritical configurations that are intended for use in validation efforts and for testing basic nuclear data. New to the 2004 Edition of the Handbook is a draft criticality alarm / shielding type benchmark that should be finalized in 2005 along with two other similar benchmarks. The Handbook is being used extensively for nuclear data testing and is expected to be a valuable resource for code and data validation and improvement efforts for decades to come. Specific benchmarks that are useful for testing structural materials such as iron, chromium, nickel, and manganese; beryllium; lead; thorium; and 238U are highlighted.« less

In Search of a Time Efficient Approach to Crack and Delamination Growth Predictions in Composites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Krueger, Ronald; Carvalho, Nelson

2016-01-01

Analysis benchmarking was used to assess the accuracy and time efficiency of algorithms suitable for automated delamination growth analysis. First, the Floating Node Method (FNM) was introduced and its combination with a simple exponential growth law (Paris Law) and Virtual Crack Closure technique (VCCT) was discussed. Implementation of the method into a user element (UEL) in Abaqus/Standard(Registered TradeMark) was also presented. For the assessment of growth prediction capabilities, an existing benchmark case based on the Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) specimen was briefly summarized. Additionally, the development of new benchmark cases based on the Mixed-Mode Bending (MMB) specimen to assess the growth prediction capabilities under mixed-mode I/II conditions was discussed in detail. A comparison was presented, in which the benchmark cases were used to assess the existing low-cycle fatigue analysis tool in Abaqus/Standard(Registered TradeMark) in comparison to the FNM-VCCT fatigue growth analysis implementation. The low-cycle fatigue analysis tool in Abaqus/Standard(Registered TradeMark) was able to yield results that were in good agreement with the DCB benchmark example. Results for the MMB benchmark cases, however, only captured the trend correctly. The user element (FNM-VCCT) always yielded results that were in excellent agreement with all benchmark cases, at a fraction of the analysis time. The ability to assess the implementation of two methods in one finite element code illustrated the value of establishing benchmark solutions.

INL Results for Phases I and III of the OECD/NEA MHTGR-350 Benchmark

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gerhard Strydom; Javier Ortensi; Sonat Sen

2013-09-01

The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) Technology Development Office (TDO) Methods Core Simulation group led the construction of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Modular High Temperature Reactor (MHTGR) 350 MW benchmark for comparing and evaluating prismatic VHTR analysis codes. The benchmark is sponsored by the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), and the project will yield a set of reference steady-state, transient, and lattice depletion problems that can be used by the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and vendors to assess their code suits. The Methods group is responsible formore » defining the benchmark specifications, leading the data collection and comparison activities, and chairing the annual technical workshops. This report summarizes the latest INL results for Phase I (steady state) and Phase III (lattice depletion) of the benchmark. The INSTANT, Pronghorn and RattleSnake codes were used for the standalone core neutronics modeling of Exercise 1, and the results obtained from these codes are compared in Section 4. Exercise 2 of Phase I requires the standalone steady-state thermal fluids modeling of the MHTGR-350 design, and the results for the systems code RELAP5-3D are discussed in Section 5. The coupled neutronics and thermal fluids steady-state solution for Exercise 3 are reported in Section 6, utilizing the newly developed Parallel and Highly Innovative Simulation for INL Code System (PHISICS)/RELAP5-3D code suit. Finally, the lattice depletion models and results obtained for Phase III are compared in Section 7. The MHTGR-350 benchmark proved to be a challenging simulation set of problems to model accurately, and even with the simplifications introduced in the benchmark specification this activity is an important step in the code-to-code verification of modern prismatic VHTR codes. A final OECD/NEA comparison report will compare the Phase I and III results of all other international participants in 2014, while the remaining Phase II transient case results will be reported in 2015.« less

Development of new geomagnetic storm ground response scaling factors for utilization in hazard assessments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pulkkinen, A. A.; Bernabeu, E.; Weigel, R. S.; Kelbert, A.; Rigler, E. J.; Bedrosian, P.; Love, J. J.

2017-12-01

Development of realistic storm scenarios that can be played through the exposed systems is one of the key requirements for carrying out quantitative space weather hazards assessments. In the geomagnetically induced currents (GIC) and power grids context, these scenarios have to quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of the geoelectric field that drives the potentially hazardous currents in the system. In response to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) order 779, a team of scientists and engineers that worked under the auspices of North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), has developed extreme geomagnetic storm and geoelectric field benchmark(s) that use various scaling factors that account for geomagnetic latitude and ground structure of the locations of interest. These benchmarks, together with the information generated in the National Space Weather Action Plan, are the foundation for the hazards assessments that the industry will be carrying out in response to the FERC order and under the auspices of the National Science and Technology Council. While the scaling factors developed in the past work were based on the best available information, there is now significant new information available for parts of the U.S. pertaining to the ground response to external geomagnetic field excitation. The significant new information includes the results magnetotelluric surveys that have been conducted over the past few years across the contiguous US and results from previous surveys that have been made available in a combined online database. In this paper, we distill this new information in the framework of the NERC benchmark and in terms of updated ground response scaling factors thereby allowing straightforward utilization in the hazard assessments. We also outline the path forward for improving the overall extreme event benchmark scenario(s) including generalization of the storm waveforms and geoelectric field spatial patterns.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR) relative value unit workload model, its limitations and the evolution to a safety, quality and performance framework.

PubMed

Pitman, A; Jones, D N; Stuart, D; Lloydhope, K; Mallitt, K; O'Rourke, P

2009-10-01

The study reports on the evolution of the Australian radiologist relative value unit (RVU) model of measuring radiologist reporting workloads in teaching hospital departments, and aims to outline a way forward for the development of a broad national safety, quality and performance framework that enables value mapping, measurement and benchmarking. The Radiology International Benchmarking Project of Queensland Health provided a suitable high-level national forum where the existing Pitman-Jones RVU model was applied to contemporaneous data, and its shortcomings and potential avenues for future development were analysed. Application of the Pitman-Jones model to Queensland data and also a Victorian benchmark showed that the original recommendation of 40,000 crude RVU per full-time equivalent consultant radiologist (97-98 baseline level) has risen only moderately, to now lie around 45,000 crude RVU/full-time equivalent. Notwithstanding this, the model has a number of weaknesses and is becoming outdated, as it cannot capture newer time-consuming examinations particularly in CT. A significant re-evaluation of the value of medical imaging is required, and is now occurring. We must rethink how we measure, benchmark, display and continually improve medical imaging safety, quality and performance, throughout the imaging care cycle and beyond. It will be necessary to ensure alignment with patient needs, as well as clinical and organisational objectives. Clear recommendations for the development of an updated national reporting workload RVU system are available, and an opportunity now exists for developing a much broader national model. A more sophisticated and balanced multidimensional safety, quality and performance framework that enables measurement and benchmarking of all important elements of health-care service is needed.

Deepthi Vaidhynathan | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Complex Systems Simulation and Optimization Group on performance analysis and benchmarking latest . Research Interests High Performance Computing|Embedded System |Microprocessors & Microcontrollers

Approaches to Manufacturing Alpha Emitters For Radioimmunotherapeutic Drugs

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gaylord King, A.; Givens, Kenneth R.; Miller, William H.

Several alpha emitting isotopes have been proposed for radioimmunotherapy. To produce these nuclides reliably and in quantities needed, unique manufacturing approaches will be required. This paper describes the approaches that are being developed for the manufacture of 225Actinium (225 Ac) that decays to 213Bismuth (213 Bi) and the commercial manufacturing approaches. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) currently supplies the actinium used for research and medical use. Today the ORNL 233U stockpiles only provide sufficient material for research quantities of 213 Bi. At the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), in Karlsruhe, researchers have also developed a method of irradiating radium-226 withmore » protons in a cyclotron to produce actinium- 225 through the reaction 226Ra (p, 2n) 225Ac. Researchers from the Missouri University (MU), the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR), MedActinium, Inc. and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are working on a collaborative effort to benchmark and optimize the production of 213Bi via neutron bombardment of 226Ra. MedActinium, Inc., in collaboration with commercial and institutional investigators at PG Research Foundation (PGRF) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), is developing commercial approaches to manufacturing these unique radioimmunotherapeutic drugs.« less

IEA Wind Task 36 Forecasting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giebel, Gregor; Cline, Joel; Frank, Helmut; Shaw, Will; Pinson, Pierre; Hodge, Bri-Mathias; Kariniotakis, Georges; Sempreviva, Anna Maria; Draxl, Caroline

2017-04-01

Wind power forecasts have been used operatively for over 20 years. Despite this fact, there are still several possibilities to improve the forecasts, both from the weather prediction side and from the usage of the forecasts. The new International Energy Agency (IEA) Task on Wind Power Forecasting tries to organise international collaboration, among national weather centres with an interest and/or large projects on wind forecast improvements (NOAA, DWD, UK MetOffice, …) and operational forecaster and forecast users. The Task is divided in three work packages: Firstly, a collaboration on the improvement of the scientific basis for the wind predictions themselves. This includes numerical weather prediction model physics, but also widely distributed information on accessible datasets for verification. Secondly, we will be aiming at an international pre-standard (an IEA Recommended Practice) on benchmarking and comparing wind power forecasts, including probabilistic forecasts aiming at industry and forecasters alike. This WP will also organise benchmarks, in cooperation with the IEA Task WakeBench. Thirdly, we will be engaging end users aiming at dissemination of the best practice in the usage of wind power predictions, especially probabilistic ones. The Operating Agent is Gregor Giebel of DTU, Co-Operating Agent is Joel Cline of the US Department of Energy. Collaboration in the task is solicited from everyone interested in the forecasting business. We will collaborate with IEA Task 31 Wakebench, which developed the Windbench benchmarking platform, which this task will use for forecasting benchmarks. The task runs for three years, 2016-2018. Main deliverables are an up-to-date list of current projects and main project results, including datasets which can be used by researchers around the world to improve their own models, an IEA Recommended Practice on performance evaluation of probabilistic forecasts, a position paper regarding the use of probabilistic forecasts, and one or more benchmark studies implemented on the Windbench platform hosted at CENER. Additionally, spreading of relevant information in both the forecasters and the users community is paramount. The poster also shows the work done in the first half of the Task, e.g. the collection of available datasets and the learnings from a public workshop on 9 June in Barcelona on Experiences with the Use of Forecasts and Gaps in Research. Participation is open for all interested parties in member states of the IEA Annex on Wind Power, see ieawind.org for the up-to-date list. For collaboration, please contact the author grgi@dtu.dk).

Towards a sharp-interface volume-of-fluid methodology for modeling evaporation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pathak, Ashish; Raessi, Mehdi

2017-11-01

In modeling evaporation, the diffuse-interface (one-domain) formulation yields inaccurate results. Recent efforts approaching the problem via a sharp-interface (two-domain) formulation have shown significant improvements. The reasons behind their better performance are discussed in the present work. All available sharp-interface methods, however, exclusively employ the level-set. In the present work, we develop a sharp-interface evaporation model in a volume-of-fluid (VOF) framework in order to leverage its mass-conserving property as well as its ability to handle large topographical changes. We start with a critical review of the assumptions underlying the mathematical equations governing evaporation. For example, it is shown that the assumption of incompressibility can only be applied in special circumstances. The famous D2 law used for benchmarking is valid exclusively to steady-state test problems. Transient is present over significant lifetime of a micron-size droplet. Therefore, a 1D spherical fully transient model is developed to provide a benchmark transient solution. Finally, a 3D Cartesian Navier-Stokes evaporation solver is developed. Some preliminary validation test-cases are presented for static and moving drop evaporation. This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the Department of Defense, Tank and Automotive Research, Development, and Engineering Center, under Award Number DEEE0007292.

Improving patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia (2012-2015): trending, improvement and benchmarking.

PubMed

Alswat, Khalid; Abdalla, Rawia Ahmad Mustafa; Titi, Maher Abdelraheim; Bakash, Maram; Mehmood, Faiza; Zubairi, Beena; Jamal, Diana; El-Jardali, Fadi

2017-08-02

Measuring patient safety culture can provide insight into areas for improvement and help monitor changes over time. This study details the findings of a re-assessment of patient safety culture in a multi-site Medical City in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Results were compared to an earlier assessment conducted in 2012 and benchmarked with regional and international studies. Such assessments can provide hospital leadership with insight on how their hospital is performing on patient safety culture composites as a result of quality improvement plans. This paper also explored the association between patient safety culture predictors and patient safety grade, perception of patient safety, frequency of events reported and number of events reported. We utilized a customized version of the patient safety culture survey developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The Medical City is a tertiary care teaching facility composed of two sites (total capacity of 904 beds). Data was analyzed using SPSS 24 at a significance level of 0.05. A t-Test was used to compare results from the 2012 survey to that conducted in 2015. Two adopted Generalized Estimating Equations in addition to two linear models were used to assess the association between composites and patient safety culture outcomes. Results were also benchmarked against similar initiatives in Lebanon, Palestine and USA. Areas of strength in 2015 included Teamwork within units, and Organizational Learning-Continuous Improvement; areas requiring improvement included Non-Punitive Response to Error, and Staffing. Comparing results to the 2012 survey revealed improvement on some areas but non-punitive response to error and Staffing remained the lowest scoring composites in 2015. Regression highlighted significant association between managerial support, organizational learning and feedback and improved survey outcomes. Comparison to international benchmarks revealed that the hospital is performing at or better than benchmark on several composites. The Medical City has made significant progress on several of the patient safety culture composites despite still having areas requiring additional improvement. Patient safety culture outcomes are evidently linked to better performance on specific composites. While results are comparable with regional and international benchmarks, findings confirm that regular assessment can allow hospitals to better understand and visualize changes in their performance and identify additional areas for improvement.

The process of internationalization of the nursing and midwifery curriculum: A qualitative study.

PubMed

Abdul-Mumin, Khadizah H

2016-11-01

There is an abundance of literature on internationalization of curricula. However, research on how a curriculum is internationalized to accommodate non-mobile students studying in their home countries is limited. To describe the process undertaken by curriculum developers in internationalizing the Brunei nursing and midwifery curriculum through curriculum design. A descriptive qualitative research design. A nursing and midwifery higher education institution in Brunei. Seventeen nurse/midwife academics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 curriculum developers. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: expectations of an internationalized curriculum; formation of a committee; benchmarking and setting standards; and designing the curriculum for internationalization. This study has implications for the development of an internationally-oriented curriculum that takes into account the cultural context of a specific country. The findings highlight the need to involve students in curriculum design, a practice that is not common in Brunei. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Study on kinematic and compliance test of suspension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jing, Lixin; Wu, Liguang; Li, Xuepeng; Zhang, Yu

2017-09-01

Chassis performance development is a major difficulty in vehicle research and development, which is the main factor restricting the independent development of vehicles in China. These years, through a large number of studies, chassis engineers have found that the suspension K&C characteristics as a quasi-static characteristic of the suspension provides a technical route for the suspension performance R&D, and the suspension K&C test has become an important means of vehicle benchmarking, optimization and verification. However, the research on suspension K&C test is less in china, and the test conditions and setting requirements vary greatly from OEM to OEM. In this paper, the influence of different settings on the characteristics of the suspension is obtained through experiments, and the causes of the differences are analyzed; in order to fully reflect the suspension characteristics, the author recommends the appropriate test case and settings.

OPTIMIZATION OF DEEP DRILLING PERFORMANCE--DEVELOPMENT AND BENCHMARK TESTING OF ADVANCED DIAMOND PRODUCT DRILL BITS & HP/HT FLUIDS TO SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVE RATES OF PENETRATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alan Black; Arnis Judzis

2004-10-01

The industry cost shared program aims to benchmark drilling rates of penetration in selected simulated deep formations and to significantly improve ROP through a team development of aggressive diamond product drill bit--fluid system technologies. Overall the objectives are as follows: Phase 1--Benchmark ''best in class'' diamond and other product drilling bits and fluids and develop concepts for a next level of deep drilling performance; Phase 2--Develop advanced smart bit-fluid prototypes and test at large scale; and Phase 3--Field trial smart bit-fluid concepts, modify as necessary and commercialize products. As of report date, TerraTek has concluded all major preparations for themore » high pressure drilling campaign. Baker Hughes encountered difficulties in providing additional pumping capacity before TerraTek's scheduled relocation to another facility, thus the program was delayed further to accommodate the full testing program.« less