Development and use of mathematical models and software frameworks for integrated analysis of agricultural systems and associated water use impacts

USGS Publications Warehouse

Fowler, K. R.; Jenkins, E.W.; Parno, M.; Chrispell, J.C.; Colón, A. I.; Hanson, Randall T.

2016-01-01

The development of appropriate water management strategies requires, in part, a methodology for quantifying and evaluating the impact of water policy decisions on regional stakeholders. In this work, we describe the framework we are developing to enhance the body of resources available to policy makers, farmers, and other community members in their e orts to understand, quantify, and assess the often competing objectives water consumers have with respect to usage. The foundation for the framework is the construction of a simulation-based optimization software tool using two existing software packages. In particular, we couple a robust optimization software suite (DAKOTA) with the USGS MF-OWHM water management simulation tool to provide a flexible software environment that will enable the evaluation of one or multiple (possibly competing) user-defined (or stakeholder) objectives. We introduce the individual software components and outline the communication strategy we defined for the coupled development. We present numerical results for case studies related to crop portfolio management with several defined objectives. The objectives are not optimally satisfied for any single user class, demonstrating the capability of the software tool to aid in the evaluation of a variety of competing interests.

Conceptual framework for development of comprehensive e-health evaluation tool.

PubMed

Khoja, Shariq; Durrani, Hammad; Scott, Richard E; Sajwani, Afroz; Piryani, Usha

2013-01-01

The main objective of this study was to develop an e-health evaluation tool based on a conceptual framework including relevant theories for evaluating use of technology in health programs. This article presents the development of an evaluation framework for e-health programs. The study was divided into three stages: Stage 1 involved a detailed literature search of different theories and concepts on evaluation of e-health, Stage 2 plotted e-health theories to identify relevant themes, and Stage 3 developed a matrix of evaluation themes and stages of e-health programs. The framework identifies and defines different stages of e-health programs and then applies evaluation theories to each of these stages for development of the evaluation tool. This framework builds on existing theories of health and technology evaluation and presents a conceptual framework for developing an e-health evaluation tool to examine and measure different factors that play a definite role in the success of e-health programs. The framework on the horizontal axis divides e-health into different stages of program implementation, while the vertical axis identifies different themes and areas of consideration for e-health evaluation. The framework helps understand various aspects of e-health programs and their impact that require evaluation at different stages of the life cycle. The study led to the development of a new and comprehensive e-health evaluation tool, named the Khoja-Durrani-Scott Framework for e-Health Evaluation.

Framework for Evaluating the Impact of Advanced Practice Nursing Roles.

PubMed

Bryant-Lukosius, Denise; Spichiger, Elisabeth; Martin, Jacqueline; Stoll, Hansruedi; Kellerhals, Sabine Degen; Fliedner, Monica; Grossmann, Florian; Henry, Morag; Herrmann, Luzia; Koller, Antje; Schwendimann, René; Ulrich, Anja; Weibel, Lukas; Callens, Betty; De Geest, Sabina

2016-03-01

To address the gap in evidence-based information required to support the development of advanced practice nursing (APN) roles in Switzerland, stakeholders identified the need for guidance to generate strategic evaluation data. This article describes an evaluation framework developed to inform decisions about the effective utilization of APN roles across the country. A participatory approach was used by an international group of stakeholders. Published literature and an evidenced-based framework for introducing APN roles were analyzed and applied to define the purpose, target audiences, and essential elements of the evaluation framework. Through subsequent meetings and review by an expert panel, the framework was developed and refined. A framework to evaluate different types of APN roles as they evolve to meet dynamic population health, practice setting, and health system needs was created. It includes a matrix of key concepts to guide evaluations across three stages of APN role development: introduction, implementation, and long-term sustainability. For each stage, evaluation objectives and questions examining APN role structures, processes, and outcomes from different perspectives (e.g., patients, providers, managers, policy-makers) were identified. A practical, robust framework based on well-established evaluation concepts and current understanding of APN roles can be used to conduct systematic evaluations. The evaluation framework is sufficiently generic to allow application in developed countries globally, both for evaluation as well as research purposes. © 2016 Sigma Theta Tau International.

Automated robot-assisted surgical skill evaluation: Predictive analytics approach.

PubMed

Fard, Mahtab J; Ameri, Sattar; Darin Ellis, R; Chinnam, Ratna B; Pandya, Abhilash K; Klein, Michael D

2018-02-01

Surgical skill assessment has predominantly been a subjective task. Recently, technological advances such as robot-assisted surgery have created great opportunities for objective surgical evaluation. In this paper, we introduce a predictive framework for objective skill assessment based on movement trajectory data. Our aim is to build a classification framework to automatically evaluate the performance of surgeons with different levels of expertise. Eight global movement features are extracted from movement trajectory data captured by a da Vinci robot for surgeons with two levels of expertise - novice and expert. Three classification methods - k-nearest neighbours, logistic regression and support vector machines - are applied. The result shows that the proposed framework can classify surgeons' expertise as novice or expert with an accuracy of 82.3% for knot tying and 89.9% for a suturing task. This study demonstrates and evaluates the ability of machine learning methods to automatically classify expert and novice surgeons using global movement features. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Frameworks for evaluating health research capacity strengthening: a qualitative study

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background Health research capacity strengthening (RCS) projects are often complex and hard to evaluate. In order to inform health RCS evaluation efforts, we aimed to describe and compare key characteristics of existing health RCS evaluation frameworks: their process of development, purpose, target users, structure, content and coverage of important evaluation issues. A secondary objective was to explore what use had been made of the ESSENCE framework, which attempts to address one such issue: harmonising the evaluation requirements of different funders. Methods We identified and analysed health RCS evaluation frameworks published by seven funding agencies between 2004 and 2012, using a mixed methods approach involving structured qualitative analyses of documents, a stakeholder survey and consultations with key contacts in health RCS funding agencies. Results The frameworks were intended for use predominantly by the organisations themselves, and most were oriented primarily towards funders’ internal organisational performance requirements. The frameworks made limited reference to theories that specifically concern RCS. Generic devices, such as logical frameworks, were typically used to document activities, outputs and outcomes, but with little emphasis on exploring underlying assumptions or contextual constraints. Usage of the ESSENCE framework appeared limited. Conclusions We believe that there is scope for improving frameworks through the incorporation of more accessible information about how to do evaluation in practice; greater involvement of stakeholders, following evaluation capacity building principles; greater emphasis on explaining underlying rationales of frameworks; and structuring frameworks so that they separate generic and project-specific aspects of health RCS evaluation. The third and fourth of these improvements might assist harmonisation. PMID:24330628

A Patient-Centered Framework for Evaluating Digital Maturity of Health Services: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Callahan, Ryan; Darzi, Ara; Mayer, Erik

2016-01-01

Background Digital maturity is the extent to which digital technologies are used as enablers to deliver a high-quality health service. Extensive literature exists about how to assess the components of digital maturity, but it has not been used to design a comprehensive framework for evaluation. Consequently, the measurement systems that do exist are limited to evaluating digital programs within one service or care setting, meaning that digital maturity evaluation is not accounting for the needs of patients across their care pathways. Objective The objective of our study was to identify the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity and to create a novel, evidence-based tool for evaluating digital maturity across patient care pathways. Methods We systematically reviewed the literature to find the best methods and metrics for evaluating digital maturity. We searched the PubMed database for all papers relevant to digital maturity evaluation. Papers were selected if they provided insight into how to appraise digital systems within the health service and if they indicated the factors that constitute or facilitate digital maturity. Papers were analyzed to identify methodology for evaluating digital maturity and indicators of digitally mature systems. We then used the resulting information about methodology to design an evaluation framework. Following that, the indicators of digital maturity were extracted and grouped into increasing levels of maturity and operationalized as metrics within the evaluation framework. Results We identified 28 papers as relevant to evaluating digital maturity, from which we derived 5 themes. The first theme concerned general evaluation methodology for constructing the framework (7 papers). The following 4 themes were the increasing levels of digital maturity: resources and ability (6 papers), usage (7 papers), interoperability (3 papers), and impact (5 papers). The framework includes metrics for each of these levels at each stage of the typical patient care pathway. Conclusions The framework uses a patient-centric model that departs from traditional service-specific measurements and allows for novel insights into how digital programs benefit patients across the health system. Trial Registration N/A PMID:27080852

How to Deal with Emotional Abuse and Neglect--Further Development of a Conceptual Framework (FRAMEA)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glaser, Danya

2011-01-01

Objective: To develop further the understanding of emotional abuse and neglect. Methods: Building on previous work, this paper describes the further development of a conceptual framework for the recognition and management of emotional abuse and neglect. Training in this framework is currently being evaluated. The paper also briefly reviews more…

Critical evaluation of international health programs: Reframing global health and evaluation.

PubMed

Chi, Chunhuei; Tuepker, Anaïs; Schoon, Rebecca; Núñez Mondaca, Alicia

2018-04-01

Striking changes in the funding and implementation of international health programs in recent decades have stimulated debate about the role of communities in deciding which health programs to implement. An important yet neglected piece of that discussion is the need to change norms in program evaluation so that analysis of community ownership, beyond various degrees of "participation," is seen as central to strong evaluation practices. This article challenges mainstream evaluation practices and proposes a framework of Critical Evaluation with 3 levels: upstream evaluation assessing the "who" and "how" of programming decisions; midstream evaluation focusing on the "who" and "how" of selecting program objectives; and downstream evaluation, the focus of current mainstream evaluation, which assesses whether the program achieved its stated objectives. A vital tenet of our framework is that a community possesses the right to determine the path of its health development. A prerequisite of success, regardless of technical outcomes, is that programs must address communities' high priority concerns. Current participatory methods still seldom practice community ownership of program selection because they are vulnerable to funding agencies' predetermined priorities. In addition to critiquing evaluation practices and proposing an alternative framework, we acknowledge likely challenges and propose directions for future research. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Educational Evaluation: The State of the Field.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolf, Richard M., Ed.

1987-01-01

Educational evaluation is discussed. Topics include: an evaluation framework, educational objectives and study design from a 20-year perspective, a sample study, educational evaluation for local school improvement, decision-oriented evaluation studies, reporting study results, and professional standards for assuring the quality of educational…

Evaluation of stormwater harvesting sites using multi criteria decision methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Inamdar, P. M.; Sharma, A. K.; Cook, Stephen; Perera, B. J. C.

2018-07-01

Selection of suitable urban stormwater harvesting sites and associated project planning are often complex due to spatial, temporal, economic, environmental and social factors, and related various other variables. This paper is aimed at developing a comprehensive methodology framework for evaluating of stormwater harvesting sites in urban areas using Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). At the first phase, framework selects potential stormwater harvesting (SWH) sites using spatial characteristics in a GIS environment. In second phase, MCDA methodology is used for evaluating and ranking of SWH sites in multi-objective and multi-stakeholder environment. The paper briefly describes first phase of framework and focuses chiefly on the second phase of framework. The application of the methodology is also demonstrated over a case study comprising of the local government area, City of Melbourne (CoM), Australia for the benefit of wider water professionals engaged in this area. Nine performance measures (PMs) were identified to characterise the objectives and system performance related to the eight alternative SWH sites for the demonstration of the application of developed methodology. To reflect the stakeholder interests in the current study, four stakeholder participant groups were identified, namely, water authorities (WA), academics (AC), consultants (CS), and councils (CL). The decision analysis methodology broadly consisted of deriving PROMETHEE II rankings of eight alternative SWH sites in the CoM case study, under two distinct group decision making scenarios. The major innovation of this work is the development and application of comprehensive methodology framework that assists in the selection of potential sites for SWH, and facilitates the ranking in multi-objective and multi-stakeholder environment. It is expected that the proposed methodology will assist the water professionals and managers with better knowledge that will reduce the subjectivity in the selection and evaluation of SWH sites.

A proposed framework for the systematic review and integrated assessment (SYRINA) of endocrine disrupting chemicals.

PubMed

Vandenberg, Laura N; Ågerstrand, Marlene; Beronius, Anna; Beausoleil, Claire; Bergman, Åke; Bero, Lisa A; Bornehag, Carl-Gustaf; Boyer, C Scott; Cooper, Glinda S; Cotgreave, Ian; Gee, David; Grandjean, Philippe; Guyton, Kathryn Z; Hass, Ulla; Heindel, Jerrold J; Jobling, Susan; Kidd, Karen A; Kortenkamp, Andreas; Macleod, Malcolm R; Martin, Olwenn V; Norinder, Ulf; Scheringer, Martin; Thayer, Kristina A; Toppari, Jorma; Whaley, Paul; Woodruff, Tracey J; Rudén, Christina

2016-07-14

The issue of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) is receiving wide attention from both the scientific and regulatory communities. Recent analyses of the EDC literature have been criticized for failing to use transparent and objective approaches to draw conclusions about the strength of evidence linking EDC exposures to adverse health or environmental outcomes. Systematic review methodologies are ideal for addressing this issue as they provide transparent and consistent approaches to study selection and evaluation. Objective methods are needed for integrating the multiple streams of evidence (epidemiology, wildlife, laboratory animal, in vitro, and in silico data) that are relevant in assessing EDCs. We have developed a framework for the systematic review and integrated assessment (SYRINA) of EDC studies. The framework was designed for use with the International Program on Chemical Safety (IPCS) and World Health Organization (WHO) definition of an EDC, which requires appraisal of evidence regarding 1) association between exposure and an adverse effect, 2) association between exposure and endocrine disrupting activity, and 3) a plausible link between the adverse effect and the endocrine disrupting activity. Building from existing methodologies for evaluating and synthesizing evidence, the SYRINA framework includes seven steps: 1) Formulate the problem; 2) Develop the review protocol; 3) Identify relevant evidence; 4) Evaluate evidence from individual studies; 5) Summarize and evaluate each stream of evidence; 6) Integrate evidence across all streams; 7) Draw conclusions, make recommendations, and evaluate uncertainties. The proposed method is tailored to the IPCS/WHO definition of an EDC but offers flexibility for use in the context of other definitions of EDCs. When using the SYRINA framework, the overall objective is to provide the evidence base needed to support decision making, including any action to avoid/minimise potential adverse effects of exposures. This framework allows for the evaluation and synthesis of evidence from multiple evidence streams. Finally, a decision regarding regulatory action is not only dependent on the strength of evidence, but also the consequences of action/inaction, e.g. limited or weak evidence may be sufficient to justify action if consequences are serious or irreversible.

Judgment under uncertainty; a probabilistic evaluation framework for decision-making about sanitation systems in low-income countries.

PubMed

Malekpour, Shirin; Langeveld, Jeroen; Letema, Sammy; Clemens, François; van Lier, Jules B

2013-03-30

This paper introduces the probabilistic evaluation framework, to enable transparent and objective decision-making in technology selection for sanitation solutions in low-income countries. The probabilistic framework recognizes the often poor quality of the available data for evaluations. Within this framework, the evaluations will be done based on the probabilities that the expected outcomes occur in practice, considering the uncertainties in evaluation parameters. Consequently, the outcome of evaluations will not be single point estimates; but there exists a range of possible outcomes. A first trial application of this framework for evaluation of sanitation options in the Nyalenda settlement in Kisumu, Kenya, showed how the range of values that an evaluation parameter may obtain in practice would influence the evaluation outcomes. In addition, as the probabilistic evaluation requires various site-specific data, sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the influence of each data set quality on the evaluation outcomes. Based on that, data collection activities could be (re)directed, in a trade-off between the required investments in those activities and the resolution of the decisions that are to be made. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rapid Prototyping of an Aircraft Model in an Object-Oriented Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kenney, P. Sean

2003-01-01

A team was created to participate in the Mars Scout Opportunity. Trade studies determined that an aircraft provided the best opportunity to complete the science objectives of the team. A high fidelity six degree of freedom flight simulation was required to provide credible evidence that the aircraft design fulfilled mission objectives and to support the aircraft design process by providing performance evaluations. The team created the simulation using the Langley Standard Real-Time Simulation in C++ (LaSRS++) application framework. A rapid prototyping approach was necessary because the team had only three months to both develop the aircraft simulation model and evaluate aircraft performance as the design and mission parameters matured. The design of LaSRS++ enabled rapid-prototyping in several ways. First, the framework allowed component models to be designed, implemented, unit-tested, and integrated quickly. Next, the framework provides a highly reusable infrastructure that allowed developers to maximize code reuse while concentrating on aircraft and mission specific features. Finally, the framework reduces risk by providing reusable components that allow developers to build a quality product with a compressed testing cycle that relies heavily on unit testing of new components.

A framework to support preceptors' evaluation and development of new nurses' clinical judgment.

PubMed

Nielsen, Ann; Lasater, Kathie; Stock, Mary

2016-07-01

In today's complex, fast-paced world of hospital nursing, new graduate nurses do not have well-developed clinical judgment skills. Nurse preceptors are charged with bridging the gap between new graduates' learning in school and their autonomous practice as RNs. In one large, urban medical center in the U.S., a clinical judgment model and rubric were used as a framework for a new evaluation and orientation process. Preceptors of new graduate nurses who had used the former and new processes described their experiences using the framework. The findings indicated that having a structured framework provided objective ways to evaluate and help develop new graduate nurses' clinical judgment. It is hypothesized that academic clinical supervisors may find such a framework useful to prepare students for transition to practice. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Privacy Protection by Masking Moving Objects for Security Cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yabuta, Kenichi; Kitazawa, Hitoshi; Tanaka, Toshihisa

Because of an increasing number of security cameras, it is crucial to establish a system that protects the privacy of objects in the recorded images. To this end, we propose a framework of image processing and data hiding for security monitoring and privacy protection. First, we state the requirements of the proposed monitoring systems and suggest possible implementation that satisfies those requirements. The underlying concept of our proposed framework is as follows: (1) in the recorded images, the objects whose privacy should be protected are deteriorated by appropriate image processing; (2) the original objects are encrypted and watermarked into the output image, which is encoded using an image compression standard; (3) real-time processing is performed such that no future frame is required to generate on output bitstream. It should be noted that in this framework, anyone can observe the decoded image that includes the deteriorated objects that are unrecognizable or invisible. On the other hand, for crime investigation, this system allows a limited number of users to observe the original objects by using a special viewer that decrypts and decodes the watermarked objects with a decoding password. Moreover, the special viewer allows us to select the objects to be decoded and displayed. We provide an implementation example, experimental results, and performance evaluations to support our proposed framework.

A scoping review about conference objectives and evaluative practices: how do we get more out of them?

PubMed

Neves, Justin; Lavis, John N; Ranson, M Kent

2012-08-02

Large multi-day conferences have often been criticized as ineffective ways to improve social outcomes and to influence policy or practice. Unfortunately, many conference evaluations have also been inadequate in determining the impact of a conference on its associated social sector, with little evidence gathered or analyzed to substantiate or refute these criticisms. The aim of this scoping review is to investigate and report stakeholders' objectives for planning or participating in large multi-day conferences and how these objectives are being evaluated. We conducted a scoping review supplemented by a small number of key informant interviews. Eight bibliographic databases were systematically searched to identify papers describing conference objectives and/or evaluations. We developed a conference evaluation framework based on theoretical models and empirical findings, which structured the descriptive synthesis of the data. We identified 3,073 potential papers for review, of which 44 were included in this study. Our evaluation framework connects five key elements in planning a conference and its evaluation (number in brackets refers to number of themes identified): conference objectives (8), purpose of evaluation (7), evaluation methods (5), indicators of success (9) and theories/models (8). Further analysis of indicators of success identified three categories of indicators with differing scopes (i.e. immediate, prospective or follow-up) as well as empirical links between the purpose of evaluations and these indicators. Conference objectives and evaluations were largely correlated with the type of conference (i.e. academic, political/governmental or business) but diverse overall. While much can be done to improve the quality and usefulness of conference evaluations, there are innovative assessments that are currently being utilized by some conferences and warrant further investigation. This review provides conference evaluators and organizers a simple resource to improve their own assessments by highlighting and categorizing potential objectives and evaluation strategies.

A scoping review about conference objectives and evaluative practices: how do we get more out of them?

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Large multi-day conferences have often been criticized as ineffective ways to improve social outcomes and to influence policy or practice. Unfortunately, many conference evaluations have also been inadequate in determining the impact of a conference on its associated social sector, with little evidence gathered or analyzed to substantiate or refute these criticisms. The aim of this scoping review is to investigate and report stakeholders’ objectives for planning or participating in large multi-day conferences and how these objectives are being evaluated. We conducted a scoping review supplemented by a small number of key informant interviews. Eight bibliographic databases were systematically searched to identify papers describing conference objectives and/or evaluations. We developed a conference evaluation framework based on theoretical models and empirical findings, which structured the descriptive synthesis of the data. We identified 3,073 potential papers for review, of which 44 were included in this study. Our evaluation framework connects five key elements in planning a conference and its evaluation (number in brackets refers to number of themes identified): conference objectives (8), purpose of evaluation (7), evaluation methods (5), indicators of success (9) and theories/models (8). Further analysis of indicators of success identified three categories of indicators with differing scopes (i.e. immediate, prospective or follow-up) as well as empirical links between the purpose of evaluations and these indicators. Conference objectives and evaluations were largely correlated with the type of conference (i.e. academic, political/governmental or business) but diverse overall. While much can be done to improve the quality and usefulness of conference evaluations, there are innovative assessments that are currently being utilized by some conferences and warrant further investigation. This review provides conference evaluators and organizers a simple resource to improve their own assessments by highlighting and categorizing potential objectives and evaluation strategies. PMID:22857399

A Conceptual Framework for the Evaluation of Emergency Risk Communications

PubMed Central

Lin, Leesa; Gamhewage, Gaya M.

2017-01-01

Objectives. To articulate a conceptual framework in support of evaluation activities in emergency risk communications (ERC). Methods. The framework proposed is based on a systematic review of the scientific literature (2001–2016) combined with data derived from a series of semistructured interviews with experts and practitioners in ERC, and it is designed to support local, national, and international public health organizations in implementing evaluation studies in ERC. Results. We identified a list of ERC outcomes from the full-text review of 152 articles and categorized these into 3 groups, depending upon the level at which the outcome was measured: (1) information environment, (2) population, and (3) public health system. We analyzed interviewees’ data from 18 interviews to identify practices and processes related to the effectiveness of ERC and included these as key structural components and processes in the developed evaluation framework. Conclusions. Researchers and public health practitioners interested in the evaluation of ERC can use the conceptual framework described in this article to guide the development of evaluation studies and methods for assessing communication outcomes related to public health emergencies. PMID:28892436

Developing a monitoring and evaluation framework to integrate and formalize the informal waste and recycling sector: the case of the Philippine National Framework Plan.

PubMed

Serrona, Kevin Roy B; Yu, Jeongsoo; Aguinaldo, Emelita; Florece, Leonardo M

2014-09-01

The Philippines has been making inroads in solid waste management with the enactment and implementation of the Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Waste Management Act of 2000. Said legislation has had tremendous influence in terms of how the national and local government units confront the challenges of waste management in urban and rural areas using the reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery framework or 4Rs. One of the sectors needing assistance is the informal waste sector whose aspiration is legal recognition of their rank and integration of their waste recovery activities in mainstream waste management. To realize this, the Philippine National Solid Waste Management Commission initiated the formulation of the National Framework Plan for the Informal Waste Sector, which stipulates approaches, strategies and methodologies to concretely involve the said sector in different spheres of local waste management, such as collection, recycling and disposal. What needs to be fleshed out is the monitoring and evaluation component in order to gauge qualitative and quantitative achievements vis-a-vis the Framework Plan. In the process of providing an enabling environment for the informal waste sector, progress has to be monitored and verified qualitatively and quantitatively and measured against activities, outputs, objectives and goals. Using the Framework Plan as the reference, this article developed monitoring and evaluation indicators using the logical framework approach in project management. The primary objective is to institutionalize monitoring and evaluation, not just in informal waste sector plans, but in any waste management initiatives to ensure that envisaged goals are achieved. © The Author(s) 2014.

Educational Evaluation: Key Characteristics. ACER Research Series No. 102.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maling-Keepes, Jillian

A set of 13 key characteristics is presented as a framework for educational evaluation studies: (1) program's stage of development when evaluator is appointed; (2) program's openness to revision; (3) program uniformity from site to site; (4) specificity of program objectives; (5) evaluator's independence; (6) evaluator's orientation to value…

Defining ecological and economical hydropoweroperations: a framework for managing dam releasesto meet multiple conflicting objectives

USGS Publications Warehouse

Irwin, Elise R.

2014-01-01

Hydroelectric dams are a flexible source of power, provide flood control, and contribute to the economic growth of local communities through real-estate and recreation. Yet the impoundment of rivers can alter and fragment miles of critical riverine habitat needed for other competing needs such as downstream consumptive water use, fish and wildlife population viability, or other forms of recreation. Multiple conflicting interests can compromise progressive management especially with recognized uncertainties related to whether management actions will fulfill the objectives of policy makers, resource managers and/or facility owners. Decision analytic tools were used in a stakeholder-driven process to develop and implement a template for evaluation and prediction of the effects of water resource management of multiple-use systems under the context provided by R.L. Harris Dam on the Tallapoosa River, Alabama, USA. The approach provided a transparent and structured framework for decision-making and incorporated both existing and new data to meet multiple management objectives. Success of the template has been evaluated by the stakeholder governing body in an adaptive resource management framework since 2005 and is ongoing. Consequences of management of discharge at the dam were evaluated annually relative to stakeholder satisfaction to allow for adjustment of both management scenarios and objectives. This template can be applied to attempt to resolve conflict inherent in many dam-regulated systems where management decisions impact diverse values of stakeholders.

Real-time visual tracking of less textured three-dimensional objects on mobile platforms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Byung-Kuk; Park, Jungsik; Park, Hanhoon; Park, Jong-Il

2012-12-01

Natural feature-based approaches are still challenging for mobile applications (e.g., mobile augmented reality), because they are feasible only in limited environments such as highly textured and planar scenes/objects, and they need powerful mobile hardware for fast and reliable tracking. In many cases where conventional approaches are not effective, three-dimensional (3-D) knowledge of target scenes would be beneficial. We present a well-established framework for real-time visual tracking of less textured 3-D objects on mobile platforms. Our framework is based on model-based tracking that efficiently exploits partially known 3-D scene knowledge such as object models and a background's distinctive geometric or photometric knowledge. Moreover, we elaborate on implementation in order to make it suitable for real-time vision processing on mobile hardware. The performance of the framework is tested and evaluated on recent commercially available smartphones, and its feasibility is shown by real-time demonstrations.

Individual performance review in hospital practice: the development of a framework and evaluation of doctors' attitudes to its value and implementation.

PubMed

Trebble, T M; Cruickshank, L; Hockey, P M; Heyworth, N; Powell, T; Clarke, N

2013-11-01

Appraisal, or independent performance review (IPR) is used in human resources management in the commercial and public sectors to evaluate the performance of an employee against agreed local organisational expectations and objectives, and to identify their requirements for development and effective management. IPR for NHS consultants may provide essential information for job planning, contribute towards medical appraisal for revalidation, and facilitate productivity and quality improvement. To develop a framework for IPR for consultants, and to determine attitudes on its value, process and content. Information from commercial, public and voluntary sector models and published and other literature sources were used to develop an IPR framework. This was assessed through a three-cycle action research methodology involving qualitative interviews with 22 consultants (predominantly with medical management roles). The domains of the IPR framework included: (1) performance against objectives; (2) behaviour and leadership; (3) talent management; (4) agreed future objectives. A number of themes were identified from the consultant interviews including: ineffective current appraisal systems reflecting a lack of valid performance data and allotted time; a lack of empowerment of medical managers to address performance issues; IPR as a more explicit system, offering value in evaluating doctors performance; and the dependence of successful implementation on the engagement of the Trust executive. IPR may have value for performance evaluation of consultants, contributing toward job planning and complementing medical appraisal. Support by their employing organisation and engagement with medical managers in design and implementation is likely to be essential.

Deep Spatial-Temporal Joint Feature Representation for Video Object Detection.

PubMed

Zhao, Baojun; Zhao, Boya; Tang, Linbo; Han, Yuqi; Wang, Wenzheng

2018-03-04

With the development of deep neural networks, many object detection frameworks have shown great success in the fields of smart surveillance, self-driving cars, and facial recognition. However, the data sources are usually videos, and the object detection frameworks are mostly established on still images and only use the spatial information, which means that the feature consistency cannot be ensured because the training procedure loses temporal information. To address these problems, we propose a single, fully-convolutional neural network-based object detection framework that involves temporal information by using Siamese networks. In the training procedure, first, the prediction network combines the multiscale feature map to handle objects of various sizes. Second, we introduce a correlation loss by using the Siamese network, which provides neighboring frame features. This correlation loss represents object co-occurrences across time to aid the consistent feature generation. Since the correlation loss should use the information of the track ID and detection label, our video object detection network has been evaluated on the large-scale ImageNet VID dataset where it achieves a 69.5% mean average precision (mAP).

A framework provided an outline toward the proper evaluation of potential screening strategies.

PubMed

Adriaensen, Wim J; Matheï, Cathy; Buntinx, Frank J; Arbyn, Marc

2013-06-01

Screening tests are often introduced into clinical practice without proper evaluation, despite the increasing awareness that screening is a double-edged sword that can lead to either net benefits or harms. Our objective was to develop a comprehensive framework for the evaluation of new screening strategies. Elaborating on the existing concepts proposed by experts, a stepwise framework is proposed to evaluate whether a potential screening test can be introduced as a screening strategy into clinical practice. The principle of screening strategy evaluation is illustrated for cervical cancer, which is a template for screening because of the existence of an easily detectable and treatable precursor lesion. The evaluation procedure consists of six consecutive steps. In steps 1-4, the technical accuracy, place of the test in the screening pathway, diagnostic accuracy, and longitudinal sensitivity and specificity of the screening test are assessed. In steps 5 and 6, the impact of the screening strategy on the patient and population levels, respectively, is evaluated. The framework incorporates a harm and benefit trade-off and cost-effectiveness analysis. Our framework provides an outline toward the proper evaluation of potential screening strategies before considering implementation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Maintenance = reuse-oriented software development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Basili, Victor R.

1989-01-01

Maintenance is viewed as a reuse process. In this context, a set of models that can be used to support the maintenance process is discussed. A high level reuse framework is presented that characterizes the object of reuse, the process for adapting that object for its target application, and the reused object within its target application. Based upon this framework, a qualitative comparison is offered of the three maintenance process models with regard to their strengths and weaknesses and the circumstances in which they are appropriate. To provide a more systematic, quantitative approach for evaluating the appropriateness of the particular maintenance model, a measurement scheme is provided, based upon the reuse framework, in the form of an organized set of questions that need to be answered. To support the reuse perspective, a set of reuse enablers are discussed.

The Sloan-C Pillars and Boundary Objects As a Framework for Evaluating Blended Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laumakis, Mark; Graham, Charles; Dziuban, Chuck

2009-01-01

The authors contend that blended learning represents a boundary object; a construct that brings together constituencies from a variety of backgrounds with each of these cohorts defining the object somewhat differently. The Sloan-C Pillars (learning effectiveness, access, cost effectiveness, student satisfaction, and faculty satisfaction) provide…

Evaluation of the causal framework used for setting national ambient air quality standards.

PubMed

Goodman, Julie E; Prueitt, Robyn L; Sax, Sonja N; Bailey, Lisa A; Rhomberg, Lorenz R

2013-11-01

Abstract A scientifically sound assessment of the potential hazards associated with a substance requires a systematic, objective and transparent evaluation of the weight of evidence (WoE) for causality of health effects. We critically evaluated the current WoE framework for causal determination used in the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) assessments of the scientific data on air pollutants for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) review process, including its methods for literature searches; study selection, evaluation and integration; and causal judgments. The causal framework used in recent NAAQS evaluations has many valuable features, but it could be more explicit in some cases, and some features are missing that should be included in every WoE evaluation. Because of this, it has not always been applied consistently in evaluations of causality, leading to conclusions that are not always supported by the overall WoE, as we demonstrate using EPA's ozone Integrated Science Assessment as a case study. We propose additions to the NAAQS causal framework based on best practices gleaned from a previously conducted survey of available WoE frameworks. A revision of the NAAQS causal framework so that it more closely aligns with these best practices and the full and consistent application of the framework will improve future assessments of the potential health effects of criteria air pollutants by making the assessments more thorough, transparent, and scientifically sound.

System modeling with the DISC framework: evidence from safety-critical domains.

PubMed

Reiman, Teemu; Pietikäinen, Elina; Oedewald, Pia; Gotcheva, Nadezhda

2012-01-01

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the development and application of the Design for Integrated Safety Culture (DISC) framework for system modeling by evaluating organizational potential for safety in nuclear and healthcare domains. The DISC framework includes criteria for good safety culture and a description of functions that the organization needs to implement in order to orient the organization toward the criteria. Three case studies will be used to illustrate the utilization of the DISC framework in practice.

Secure and Efficient Regression Analysis Using a Hybrid Cryptographic Framework: Development and Evaluation

PubMed Central

Jiang, Xiaoqian; Aziz, Md Momin Al; Wang, Shuang; Mohammed, Noman

2018-01-01

Background Machine learning is an effective data-driven tool that is being widely used to extract valuable patterns and insights from data. Specifically, predictive machine learning models are very important in health care for clinical data analysis. The machine learning algorithms that generate predictive models often require pooling data from different sources to discover statistical patterns or correlations among different attributes of the input data. The primary challenge is to fulfill one major objective: preserving the privacy of individuals while discovering knowledge from data. Objective Our objective was to develop a hybrid cryptographic framework for performing regression analysis over distributed data in a secure and efficient way. Methods Existing secure computation schemes are not suitable for processing the large-scale data that are used in cutting-edge machine learning applications. We designed, developed, and evaluated a hybrid cryptographic framework, which can securely perform regression analysis, a fundamental machine learning algorithm using somewhat homomorphic encryption and a newly introduced secure hardware component of Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to ensure both privacy and efficiency at the same time. Results Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method provides a better trade-off in terms of security and efficiency than solely secure hardware-based methods. Besides, there is no approximation error. Computed model parameters are exactly similar to plaintext results. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this kind of secure computation model using a hybrid cryptographic framework, which leverages both somewhat homomorphic encryption and Intel SGX, is not proposed or evaluated to this date. Our proposed framework ensures data security and computational efficiency at the same time. PMID:29506966

Multiobject relative fuzzy connectedness and its implications in image segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Udupa, Jayaram K.; Saha, Punam K.

2001-07-01

The notion of fuzzy connectedness captures the idea of hanging-togetherness of image elements in an object by assigning a strength of connectedness to every possible path between every possible pair of image elements. This concept leads to powerful image segmentation algorithms based on dynamic programming whose effectiveness has been demonstrated on 1000s of images in a variety of applications. In a previous framework, we introduced the notion of relative fuzzy connectedness for separating a foreground object from a background object. In this framework, an image element c is considered to belong to that among these two objects with respect to whose reference image element c has the higher strength of connectedness. In fuzzy connectedness, a local fuzzy reflation called affinity is used on the image domain. This relation was required for theoretical reasons to be of fixed form in the previous framework. In the present paper, we generalize relative connectedness to multiple objects, allowing all objects (of importance) to compete among themselves to grab membership of image elements based on their relative strength of connectedness to reference elements. We also allow affinity to be tailored to the individual objects. We present a theoretical and algorithmic framework and demonstrate that the objects defined are independent of the reference elements chosen as long as they are not in the fuzzy boundary between objects. Examples from medical imaging are presented to illustrate visually the effectiveness of multiple object relative fuzzy connectedness. A quantitative evaluation based on 160 mathematical phantom images demonstrates objectively the effectiveness of relative fuzzy connectedness with object- tailored affinity relation.

Implementation and Evaluation of Weather Responsive Traffic Estimation and Prediction System

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-06-01

The objective of the project is to develop a framework and procedures for implementing and evaluating weather-responsive traffic management (WRTM) strategies using Traffic Estimation and Prediction System (TrEPS) methodologies. In a previous FHWA-fun...

Litigation and complaints procedures: objectives, effectiveness and alternatives.

PubMed Central

Whelan, C J

1988-01-01

Recent debates about redress mechanisms for medical accident victims have been sidetracked by fears of an American-style medical malpractice crisis. What is required is a framework within which the debate can resume. This paper proposes such a framework by focusing on the compensation and deterrence objectives and placing them in the wider context of the social costs of providing medical services. The framework is then used to assess and compare the effectiveness of differing approaches. In particular, the American and British experiences of litigation, including the concept of 'defensive medicine', are evaluated. Also discussed briefly are alternatives to court-based complaints procedures including 'no-fault' schemes, professional ethics and internal complaints mechanisms. PMID:3392721

Land management planning: a method of evaluating alternatives

Treesearch

Andres Weintraub; Richard Adams; Linda Yellin

1982-01-01

A method is described for developing and evaluating alternatives in land management planning. A structured set of 15 steps provides a framework for such an evaluation. when multiple objectives and uncertainty must be considered in the planning process. The method is consistent with other processes used in organizational evaluation, and allows for the interaction of...

A framework for the evaluation of patient information leaflets

PubMed Central

Garner, Mark; Ning, Zhenye; Francis, Jill

2011-01-01

Abstract Background  The provision of patient information leaflets (PILs) is an important part of health care. PILs require evaluation, but the frameworks that are used for evaluation are largely under‐informed by theory. Most evaluation to date has been based on indices of readability, yet several writers argue that readability is not enough. We propose a framework for evaluating PILs that reflect the central role of the patient perspective in communication and use methods for evaluation based on simple linguistic principles. The proposed framework  The framework has three elements that give rise to three approaches to evaluation. Each element is a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective communication. Readability (focussing on text) may be assessed using existing well‐established procedures. Comprehensibility (focussing on reader and text) may be assessed using multiple‐choice questions based on the lexical and semantic features of the text. Communicative effectiveness (focussing on reader) explores the relationship between the emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses of the reader and the objectives of the PIL. Suggested methods for assessment are described, based on our preliminary empirical investigations. Conclusions  The tripartite model of communicative effectiveness is a patient‐centred framework for evaluating PILs. It may assist the field in moving beyond readability to broader indicators of the quality and appropriateness of printed information provided to patients. PMID:21332620

The Legacy Ecosystem Management Framework: From Theory to Application in the Detention Pond Case Study

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

Coty, J; Stevenson, M; Vogt, K A

The Detention Pond is a constructed and lined storm water treatment basin at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that serves multiple stakeholder objectives and programmatic goals. This paper examines the process and outcome involved in the development of a new management plan for the Detention Pond. The plan was created using a new ecosystem management tool, the Legacy Framework. This stakeholder-driven conceptual framework provides an interdisciplinary methodology for determining ecosystem health, appropriate management strategies, and sensitive indicators. The conceptual framework, the Detention Ponds project, and the use of the framework in the context of the project, are described and evaluated, andmore » evaluative criteria for this and other ecosystem management frameworks are offered. The project benefited in several ways from use of the Legacy Framework, although refinements to the framework are suggested. The stakeholder process created a context and environment in which team members became receptive to using an ecosystem management approach to evaluate and support management alternatives previously not considered. This allowed for the unanimous agreement to pursue support from upper management and organizational funding to implement a progressive management strategy. The greatly improved stakeholder relations resulted in upper management support for the project.« less

Effective integrated frameworks for assessing mining sustainability.

PubMed

Virgone, K M; Ramirez-Andreotta, M; Mainhagu, J; Brusseau, M L

2018-05-28

The objectives of this research are to review existing methods used for assessing mining sustainability, analyze the limited prior research that has evaluated the methods, and identify key characteristics that would constitute an enhanced sustainability framework that would serve to improve sustainability reporting in the mining industry. Five of the most relevant frameworks were selected for comparison in this analysis, and the results show that there are many commonalities among the five, as well as some disparities. In addition, relevant components are missing from all five. An enhanced evaluation system and framework were created to provide a more holistic, comprehensive method for sustainability assessment and reporting. The proposed framework has five components that build from and encompass the twelve evaluation characteristics used in the analysis. The components include Foundation, Focus, Breadth, Quality Assurance, and Relevance. The enhanced framework promotes a comprehensive, location-specific reporting approach with a concise set of well-defined indicators. Built into the framework is quality assurance, as well as a defined method to use information from sustainability reports to inform decisions. The framework incorporates human health and socioeconomic aspects via initiatives such as community-engaged research, economic valuations, and community-initiated environmental monitoring.

Software Engineering Support of the Third Round of Scientific Grand Challenge Investigations: Earth System Modeling Software Framework Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Talbot, Bryan; Zhou, Shu-Jia; Higgins, Glenn; Zukor, Dorothy (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

One of the most significant challenges in large-scale climate modeling, as well as in high-performance computing in other scientific fields, is that of effectively integrating many software models from multiple contributors. A software framework facilitates the integration task, both in the development and runtime stages of the simulation. Effective software frameworks reduce the programming burden for the investigators, freeing them to focus more on the science and less on the parallel communication implementation. while maintaining high performance across numerous supercomputer and workstation architectures. This document surveys numerous software frameworks for potential use in Earth science modeling. Several frameworks are evaluated in depth, including Parallel Object-Oriented Methods and Applications (POOMA), Cactus (from (he relativistic physics community), Overture, Goddard Earth Modeling System (GEMS), the National Center for Atmospheric Research Flux Coupler, and UCLA/UCB Distributed Data Broker (DDB). Frameworks evaluated in less detail include ROOT, Parallel Application Workspace (PAWS), and Advanced Large-Scale Integrated Computational Environment (ALICE). A host of other frameworks and related tools are referenced in this context. The frameworks are evaluated individually and also compared with each other.

MVIAeval: a web tool for comprehensively evaluating the performance of a new missing value imputation algorithm.

PubMed

Wu, Wei-Sheng; Jhou, Meng-Jhun

2017-01-13

Missing value imputation is important for microarray data analyses because microarray data with missing values would significantly degrade the performance of the downstream analyses. Although many microarray missing value imputation algorithms have been developed, an objective and comprehensive performance comparison framework is still lacking. To solve this problem, we previously proposed a framework which can perform a comprehensive performance comparison of different existing algorithms. Also the performance of a new algorithm can be evaluated by our performance comparison framework. However, constructing our framework is not an easy task for the interested researchers. To save researchers' time and efforts, here we present an easy-to-use web tool named MVIAeval (Missing Value Imputation Algorithm evaluator) which implements our performance comparison framework. MVIAeval provides a user-friendly interface allowing users to upload the R code of their new algorithm and select (i) the test datasets among 20 benchmark microarray (time series and non-time series) datasets, (ii) the compared algorithms among 12 existing algorithms, (iii) the performance indices from three existing ones, (iv) the comprehensive performance scores from two possible choices, and (v) the number of simulation runs. The comprehensive performance comparison results are then generated and shown as both figures and tables. MVIAeval is a useful tool for researchers to easily conduct a comprehensive and objective performance evaluation of their newly developed missing value imputation algorithm for microarray data or any data which can be represented as a matrix form (e.g. NGS data or proteomics data). Thus, MVIAeval will greatly expedite the progress in the research of missing value imputation algorithms.

Addressing wild turkey population declines using structured decision making

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robinson, Kelly F.; Fuller, Angela K.; Schiavone, Michael V.; Swift, Bryan L.; Diefenbach, Duane R.; Siemer, William F.; Decker, Daniel J.

2017-01-01

We present a case study from New York, USA, of the use of structured decision making (SDM) to identify fall turkey harvest regulations that best meet stakeholder objectives, in light of recent apparent declines in abundance of wild turkeys in the northeastern United States. We used the SDM framework to incorporate the multiple objectives associated with turkey hunting, stakeholder desires, and region-specific ecological and environmental factors that could influence fall harvest. We identified a set of 4 fall harvest regulations, composed of different season lengths and bag limits, and evaluated their relative achievement of the objectives. We used a stochastic turkey population model, statistical modeling, and expert elicitation to evaluate the consequences of each harvest regulation on each of the objectives. We conducted a statewide mail survey of fall turkey hunters in New York to gather the necessary information to evaluate tradeoffs among multiple objectives associated with hunter satisfaction. The optimal fall harvest regulation was a 2-week season and allowed for the harvest of 1 bird/hunter. This regulation was the most conservative of those evaluated, reflecting the concerns about recent declines in turkey abundance among agency wildlife biologists and the hunting public. Depending on the region of the state, the 2-week, 1-bird regulation was predicted to result in 7–32% more turkeys on the landscape after 5 years. The SDM process provided a transparent framework for setting fall turkey harvest regulations and reduced potential stakeholder conflict by explicitly taking the multiple objectives of different stakeholder groups into account.

SERVAL: a new framework for the evaluation of animal health surveillance.

PubMed

Drewe, J A; Hoinville, L J; Cook, A J C; Floyd, T; Gunn, G; Stärk, K D C

2015-02-01

Animal health surveillance programmes may change in response to altering requirements or perceived weaknesses but are seldom subjected to any formal evaluation to ensure that they provide valuable information in an efficient manner. The literature on the evaluation of animal health surveillance systems is sparse, and those that are published may be unstructured and therefore incomplete. To address this gap, we have developed SERVAL, a SuRveillance EVALuation framework, which is novel and aims to be generic and therefore suitable for the evaluation of any animal health surveillance system. The inclusion of socio-economic criteria ensures that economic evaluation is an integral part of this framework. SERVAL was developed with input from a technical workshop of international experts followed by a consultation process involving providers and users of surveillance and evaluation data. It has been applied to a range of case studies encompassing different surveillance and evaluation objectives. Here, we describe the development, structure and application of the SERVAL framework. We discuss users' experiences in applying SERVAL to evaluate animal health surveillance systems in Great Britain. © 2013 Crown Copyright. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

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

Goodman, Julie, E-mail: jgoodman@gradientcorp.com

Background: The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently developed a framework for evaluating mechanistic evidence that includes a list of 10 key characteristics of carcinogens. This framework is useful for identifying and organizing large bodies of literature on carcinogenic mechanisms, but it lacks sufficient guidance for conducting evaluations that fully integrate mechanistic evidence into hazard assessments. Objectives: We summarize the framework, and suggest approaches to strengthen the evaluation of mechanistic evidence using this framework. Discussion: While the framework is useful for organizing mechanistic evidence, its lack of guidance for implementation limits its utility for understanding human carcinogenic potential.more » Specifically, it does not include explicit guidance for evaluating the biological significance of mechanistic endpoints, inter- and intra-individual variability, or study quality and relevance. It also does not explicitly address how mechanistic evidence should be integrated with other realms of evidence. Because mechanistic evidence is critical to understanding human cancer hazards, we recommend that IARC develop transparent and systematic guidelines for the use of this framework so that mechanistic evidence will be evaluated and integrated in a robust manner, and concurrently with other realms of evidence, to reach a final human cancer hazard conclusion. Conclusions: IARC does not currently provide a standardized approach to evaluating mechanistic evidence. Incorporating the recommendations discussed here will make IARC analyses of mechanistic evidence more transparent, and lead to assessments of cancer hazards that reflect the weight of the scientific evidence and allow for scientifically defensible decision-making. - Highlights: • IARC has a revised framework for evaluating literature on carcinogenic mechanisms. • The framework is based on 10 key characteristics of carcinogens. • IARC should develop transparent and systematic guidelines for using the framework. • It should better address biological significance, study quality, and relevance. • It should better address integrating mechanistic evidence with other evidence.« less

Expected frontiers: Incorporating weather uncertainty into a policy analysis using an integrated bi-level multi-objective optimization framework

EPA Science Inventory

Weather is the main driver in both plant use of nutrients and fate and transport of nutrients in the environment. In previous work, we evaluated a green tax for control of agricultural nutrients in a bi-level optimization framework that linked deterministic models. In this study,...

A Proposed Framework between Internal, External and Pedagogy Dimensions in Adoption of Interactive Multimedia e-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lahwal, Fathia; Al-Ajlan, Ajlan S.; Amain, Mohamad

2016-01-01

This study focuses on interactive multimedia e-learning aims to improve our understanding about the dynamics of e-learning. The objective is to critical evaluate and better understand the interrelationships in the proposed framework between internal, external and the pedagogy dimensions in adoption of interactive multimedia and e-learning. It…

Using a Learning Progression Framework to Assess and Evaluate Student Growth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Briggs, Derek C.; Diaz-Bilello, Elena; Peck, Fred; Alzen, Jessica; Chattergoon, Rajendra; Johnson, Raymond

2015-01-01

This report describes the use of a Learning Progression Framework (LPF) to support the Student Learning Objectives (SLO) process. The report highlights a few common threats we currently see in the SLO process implemented at various states and districts, and offers the LPF as a possible solution for addressing these threats. This report was…

Assessment of Intralaminar Progressive Damage and Failure Analysis Using an Efficient Evaluation Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hyder, Imran; Schaefer, Joseph; Justusson, Brian; Wanthal, Steve; Leone, Frank; Rose, Cheryl

2017-01-01

Reducing the timeline for development and certification for composite structures has been a long standing objective of the aerospace industry. This timeline can be further exacerbated when attempting to integrate new fiber-reinforced composite materials due to the large number of testing required at every level of design. computational progressive damage and failure analysis (PDFA) attempts to mitigate this effect; however, new PDFA methods have been slow to be adopted in industry since material model evaluation techniques have not been fully defined. This study presents an efficient evaluation framework which uses a piecewise verification and validation (V&V) approach for PDFA methods. Specifically, the framework is applied to evaluate PDFA research codes within the context of intralaminar damage. Methods are incrementally taken through various V&V exercises specifically tailored to study PDFA intralaminar damage modeling capability. Finally, methods are evaluated against a defined set of success criteria to highlight successes and limitations.

Physically Based Modeling and Simulation with Dynamic Spherical Volumetric Simplex Splines

PubMed Central

Tan, Yunhao; Hua, Jing; Qin, Hong

2009-01-01

In this paper, we present a novel computational modeling and simulation framework based on dynamic spherical volumetric simplex splines. The framework can handle the modeling and simulation of genus-zero objects with real physical properties. In this framework, we first develop an accurate and efficient algorithm to reconstruct the high-fidelity digital model of a real-world object with spherical volumetric simplex splines which can represent with accuracy geometric, material, and other properties of the object simultaneously. With the tight coupling of Lagrangian mechanics, the dynamic volumetric simplex splines representing the object can accurately simulate its physical behavior because it can unify the geometric and material properties in the simulation. The visualization can be directly computed from the object’s geometric or physical representation based on the dynamic spherical volumetric simplex splines during simulation without interpolation or resampling. We have applied the framework for biomechanic simulation of brain deformations, such as brain shifting during the surgery and brain injury under blunt impact. We have compared our simulation results with the ground truth obtained through intra-operative magnetic resonance imaging and the real biomechanic experiments. The evaluations demonstrate the excellent performance of our new technique. PMID:20161636

Evaluation readiness: improved evaluation planning using a data inventory framework.

PubMed

Cohen, A B; Hall, K C; Cohodes, D R

1985-01-01

Factors intrinsic to many programs, such as ambiguously stated objectives, inadequately defined performance measures, and incomplete or unreliable databases, often conspire to limit the evaluability of these programs. Current evaluation planning approaches are somewhat constrained in their ability to overcome these obstacles and to achieve full preparedness for evaluation. In this paper, the concept of evaluation readiness is introduced as a complement to other evaluation planning approaches, most notably that of evaluability assessment. The basic products of evaluation readiness--the formal program definition and the data inventory framework--are described, along with a guide for assuring more timely and appropriate evaluation response capability to support the decision making needs of program managers. The utility of evaluation readiness for program planning, as well as for effective management, is also discussed.

Probability-Based Recognition Framework for Underwater Landmarks Using Sonar Images †.

PubMed

Lee, Yeongjun; Choi, Jinwoo; Ko, Nak Yong; Choi, Hyun-Taek

2017-08-24

This paper proposes a probability-based framework for recognizing underwater landmarks using sonar images. Current recognition methods use a single image, which does not provide reliable results because of weaknesses of the sonar image such as unstable acoustic source, many speckle noises, low resolution images, single channel image, and so on. However, using consecutive sonar images, if the status-i.e., the existence and identity (or name)-of an object is continuously evaluated by a stochastic method, the result of the recognition method is available for calculating the uncertainty, and it is more suitable for various applications. Our proposed framework consists of three steps: (1) candidate selection, (2) continuity evaluation, and (3) Bayesian feature estimation. Two probability methods-particle filtering and Bayesian feature estimation-are used to repeatedly estimate the continuity and feature of objects in consecutive images. Thus, the status of the object is repeatedly predicted and updated by a stochastic method. Furthermore, we develop an artificial landmark to increase detectability by an imaging sonar, which we apply to the characteristics of acoustic waves, such as instability and reflection depending on the roughness of the reflector surface. The proposed method is verified by conducting basin experiments, and the results are presented.

Strategic Frameworks for Human Performance and Human Systems Integration: Spotlight on General Systems Performance Theory and Nonlinear Causal Resource Analysis

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-12-14

Robotics Research Institute Auditorium Riverbend Campus, Fort Worth, TX Report Documentation Page Form ApprovedOMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burden...for HP and HSI. Format Participants were presented with information on frameworks and the benefits they can have in support of the various roles... benefit from understanding human performance. She concluded with the objectives of the workshop: 1. Evaluate strategic frameworks for representing

Evaluation of a performance appraisal framework for radiation therapists in planning and simulation

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

Becker, Jillian, E-mail: jillian.becker@health.qld.gov.au; Bridge, Pete; Brown, Elizabeth

2015-06-15

Constantly evolving technology and techniques within radiation therapy require practitioners to maintain a continuous approach to professional development and training. Systems of performance appraisal and adoption of regular feedback mechanisms are vital to support this development yet frequently lack structure and rely on informal peer support. A Radiation Therapy Performance Appraisal Framework (RT-PAF) for radiation therapists in planning and simulation was developed to define expectations of practice and promote a supportive and objective culture of performance and skills appraisal. Evaluation of the framework was conducted via an anonymous online survey tool. Nine peer reviewers and fourteen recipients provided feedback onmore » its effectiveness and the challenges and limitations of the approach. Findings from the evaluation were positive and suggested that both groups gained benefit from and expressed a strong interest in embedding the approach more routinely. Respondents identified common challenges related to the limited ability to implement suggested development strategies; this was strongly associated with time and rostering issues. This framework successfully defined expectations for practice and provided a fair and objective feedback process that focussed on skills development. It empowered staff to maintain their skills and reach their professional potential. Management support, particularly in regard to provision of protected time was highlighted as critical to the framework's ongoing success. The demonstrated benefits arising in terms of staff satisfaction and development highlight the importance of this commitment to the modern radiation therapy workforce.« less

Building an automated SOAP classifier for emergency department reports.

PubMed

Mowery, Danielle; Wiebe, Janyce; Visweswaran, Shyam; Harkema, Henk; Chapman, Wendy W

2012-02-01

Information extraction applications that extract structured event and entity information from unstructured text can leverage knowledge of clinical report structure to improve performance. The Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (SOAP) framework, used to structure progress notes to facilitate problem-specific, clinical decision making by physicians, is one example of a well-known, canonical structure in the medical domain. Although its applicability to structuring data is understood, its contribution to information extraction tasks has not yet been determined. The first step to evaluating the SOAP framework's usefulness for clinical information extraction is to apply the model to clinical narratives and develop an automated SOAP classifier that classifies sentences from clinical reports. In this quantitative study, we applied the SOAP framework to sentences from emergency department reports, and trained and evaluated SOAP classifiers built with various linguistic features. We found the SOAP framework can be applied manually to emergency department reports with high agreement (Cohen's kappa coefficients over 0.70). Using a variety of features, we found classifiers for each SOAP class can be created with moderate to outstanding performance with F(1) scores of 93.9 (subjective), 94.5 (objective), 75.7 (assessment), and 77.0 (plan). We look forward to expanding the framework and applying the SOAP classification to clinical information extraction tasks. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Inc.

A framework for evaluating the appropriateness of clinical decision support alerts and responses

PubMed Central

Waitman, Lemuel R; Lewis, Julia B; Wright, Julie A; Choma, David P; Miller, Randolph A; Peterson, Josh F

2011-01-01

Objective Alerting systems, a type of clinical decision support, are increasingly prevalent in healthcare, yet few studies have concurrently measured the appropriateness of alerts with provider responses to alerts. Recent reports of suboptimal alert system design and implementation highlight the need for better evaluation to inform future designs. The authors present a comprehensive framework for evaluating the clinical appropriateness of synchronous, interruptive medication safety alerts. Methods Through literature review and iterative testing, metrics were developed that describe successes, justifiable overrides, provider non-adherence, and unintended adverse consequences of clinical decision support alerts. The framework was validated by applying it to a medication alerting system for patients with acute kidney injury (AKI). Results Through expert review, the framework assesses each alert episode for appropriateness of the alert display and the necessity and urgency of a clinical response. Primary outcomes of the framework include the false positive alert rate, alert override rate, provider non-adherence rate, and rate of provider response appropriateness. Application of the framework to evaluate an existing AKI medication alerting system provided a more complete understanding of the process outcomes measured in the AKI medication alerting system. The authors confirmed that previous alerts and provider responses were most often appropriate. Conclusion The new evaluation model offers a potentially effective method for assessing the clinical appropriateness of synchronous interruptive medication alerts prior to evaluating patient outcomes in a comparative trial. More work can determine the generalizability of the framework for use in other settings and other alert types. PMID:21849334

Towards a hierarchical optimization modeling framework for ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Background:Bilevel optimization has been recognized as a 2-player Stackelberg game where players are represented as leaders and followers and each pursue their own set of objectives. Hierarchical optimization problems, which are a generalization of bilevel, are especially difficult because the optimization is nested, meaning that the objectives of one level depend on solutions to the other levels. We introduce a hierarchical optimization framework for spatially targeting multiobjective green infrastructure (GI) incentive policies under uncertainties related to policy budget, compliance, and GI effectiveness. We demonstrate the utility of the framework using a hypothetical urban watershed, where the levels are characterized by multiple levels of policy makers (e.g., local, regional, national) and policy followers (e.g., landowners, communities), and objectives include minimization of policy cost, implementation cost, and risk; reduction of combined sewer overflow (CSO) events; and improvement in environmental benefits such as reduced nutrient run-off and water availability. Conclusions: While computationally expensive, this hierarchical optimization framework explicitly simulates the interaction between multiple levels of policy makers (e.g., local, regional, national) and policy followers (e.g., landowners, communities) and is especially useful for constructing and evaluating environmental and ecological policy. Using the framework with a hypothetical urba

Evaluation of Moving Object Detection Based on Various Input Noise Using Fixed Camera

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiaee, N.; Hashemizadeh, E.; Zarrinpanjeh, N.

2017-09-01

Detecting and tracking objects in video has been as a research area of interest in the field of image processing and computer vision. This paper evaluates the performance of a novel method for object detection algorithm in video sequences. This process helps us to know the advantage of this method which is being used. The proposed framework compares the correct and wrong detection percentage of this algorithm. This method was evaluated with the collected data in the field of urban transport which include car and pedestrian in fixed camera situation. The results show that the accuracy of the algorithm will decreases because of image resolution reduction.

Evaluating Intervention Effects in a Diagnostic Classification Model Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madison, Matthew J.; Bradshaw, Laine

2018-01-01

The evaluation of intervention effects is an important objective of educational research. One way to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention is to conduct an experiment that assigns individuals to control and treatment groups. In the context of pretest/posttest designed studies, this is referred to as a control-group pretest/posttest design.…

Learning of perceptual grouping for object segmentation on RGB-D data☆

PubMed Central

Richtsfeld, Andreas; Mörwald, Thomas; Prankl, Johann; Zillich, Michael; Vincze, Markus

2014-01-01

Object segmentation of unknown objects with arbitrary shape in cluttered scenes is an ambitious goal in computer vision and became a great impulse with the introduction of cheap and powerful RGB-D sensors. We introduce a framework for segmenting RGB-D images where data is processed in a hierarchical fashion. After pre-clustering on pixel level parametric surface patches are estimated. Different relations between patch-pairs are calculated, which we derive from perceptual grouping principles, and support vector machine classification is employed to learn Perceptual Grouping. Finally, we show that object hypotheses generation with Graph-Cut finds a globally optimal solution and prevents wrong grouping. Our framework is able to segment objects, even if they are stacked or jumbled in cluttered scenes. We also tackle the problem of segmenting objects when they are partially occluded. The work is evaluated on publicly available object segmentation databases and also compared with state-of-the-art work of object segmentation. PMID:24478571

Health policy in times of austerity-A conceptual framework for evaluating effects of policy on efficiency and equity illustrated with examples from Europe since 2008.

PubMed

Wenzl, Martin; Naci, Huseyin; Mossialos, Elias

2017-09-01

The objective of this paper is to provide a framework for evaluation of changes in health policy against overarching health system goals. We propose a categorisation of policies into seven distinct health system domains. We then develop existing analytical concepts of insurance coverage and cost-effectiveness further to evaluate the effects of policies in each domain on equity and efficiency. The framework is illustrated with likely effects of policy changes implemented in a sample of European countries since 2008. Our illustrative analysis suggests that cost containment has been the main focus and that countries have implemented a mix of measures that are efficient or efficiency neutral. Similarly, policies are likely to have mixed effects on equity. Additional user charges were a common theme but these were frequently accompanied by additional exemptions, making their likely effects on equity difficult to evaluate. We provide a framework for future, and more detailed, evaluations of changes in health policy. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Expert consensus on best evaluative practices in community-based rehabilitation.

PubMed

Grandisson, Marie; Thibeault, Rachel; Hébert, Michèle; Cameron, Debra

2016-01-01

The objective of this study was to generate expert consensus on best evaluative practices for community-based rehabilitation (CBR). This consensus includes key features of the evaluation process and methods, and discussion of whether a shared framework should be used to report findings and, if so, which framework should play this role. A Delphi study with two predefined rounds was conducted. Experts in CBR from a wide range of geographical areas and disciplinary backgrounds were recruited to complete the questionnaires. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed to generate the recommendations for best practices in CBR evaluation. A panel of 42 experts reached consensus on 13 recommendations for best evaluative practices in CBR. In regard to the critical qualities of sound CBR evaluation processes, panellists emphasized that these processes should be inclusive, participatory, empowering and respectful of local cultures and languages. The group agreed that evaluators should consider the use of mixed methods and participatory tools, and should combine indicators from a universal list of CBR indicators with locally generated ones. The group also agreed that a common framework should guide CBR evaluations, and that this framework should be a flexible combination between the CBR Matrix and the CBR Principles. An expert panel reached consensus on key features of best evaluative practices in CBR. Knowledge transfer initiatives are now required to develop guidelines, tools and training opportunities to facilitate CBR program evaluations. CBR evaluation processes should strive to be inclusive, participatory, empowering and respectful of local cultures and languages. CBR evaluators should strongly consider using mixed methods, participatory tools, a combination of indicators generated with the local community and with others from a bank of CBR indicators. CBR evaluations should be situated within a shared, but flexible, framework. This shared framework could combine the CBR Matrix and the CBR Principles.

Objectivity and reliability in qualitative analysis: realist, contextualist and radical constructionist epistemologies.

PubMed

Madill, A; Jordan, A; Shirley, C

2000-02-01

The effect of the individual analyst on research findings can create a credibility problem for qualitative approaches from the perspective of evaluative criteria utilized in quantitative psychology. This paper explicates the ways in which objectivity and reliability are understood in qualitative analysis conducted from within three distinct epistemological frameworks: realism, contextual constructionism, and radical constructionism. It is argued that quality criteria utilized in quantitative psychology are appropriate to the evaluation of qualitative analysis only to the extent that it is conducted within a naive or scientific realist framework. The discussion is illustrated with reference to the comparison of two independent grounded theory analyses of identical material. An implication of this illustration is to identify the potential to develop a radical constructionist strand of grounded theory.

The Role of Family Functioning in the Stress Process of Dementia Caregivers: A Structural Family Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitrani, Victoria B.; Lewis, John E.; Feaster, Daniel J.; Czaja, Sara J.; Eisdorfer, Carl; Schulz, Richard; Szapocznik, Jose

2006-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role of family functioning in the stress process in a sample of caregivers of dementia patients by using a structural family framework. The stress-process model of caregiver distress included family functioning as an intervening variable in the relationship between objective burden and…

SupportNet for Frontline Behavioral Health Providers

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-06-30

social -cognitive theory perspective ( Bandura , 1997), the proposed website and integrated treatment would enhance the perceived social environmental...Objective 2: We will evaluate the utility of social cognitive theory as a framework for understanding the stress process for military mental health...healthcare providers. SupportNet, based on the theoretical framework of social cognitive theory , utilizes web-based support system with coaching to

Explicit optimization of plan quality measures in intensity-modulated radiation therapy treatment planning.

PubMed

Engberg, Lovisa; Forsgren, Anders; Eriksson, Kjell; Hårdemark, Björn

2017-06-01

To formulate convex planning objectives of treatment plan multicriteria optimization with explicit relationships to the dose-volume histogram (DVH) statistics used in plan quality evaluation. Conventional planning objectives are designed to minimize the violation of DVH statistics thresholds using penalty functions. Although successful in guiding the DVH curve towards these thresholds, conventional planning objectives offer limited control of the individual points on the DVH curve (doses-at-volume) used to evaluate plan quality. In this study, we abandon the usual penalty-function framework and propose planning objectives that more closely relate to DVH statistics. The proposed planning objectives are based on mean-tail-dose, resulting in convex optimization. We also demonstrate how to adapt a standard optimization method to the proposed formulation in order to obtain a substantial reduction in computational cost. We investigated the potential of the proposed planning objectives as tools for optimizing DVH statistics through juxtaposition with the conventional planning objectives on two patient cases. Sets of treatment plans with differently balanced planning objectives were generated using either the proposed or the conventional approach. Dominance in the sense of better distributed doses-at-volume was observed in plans optimized within the proposed framework. The initial computational study indicates that the DVH statistics are better optimized and more efficiently balanced using the proposed planning objectives than using the conventional approach. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

A fuzzy logic expert system for evaluating policy progress towards sustainability goals.

PubMed

Cisneros-Montemayor, Andrés M; Singh, Gerald G; Cheung, William W L

2017-12-16

Evaluating progress towards environmental sustainability goals can be difficult due to a lack of measurable benchmarks and insufficient or uncertain data. Marine settings are particularly challenging, as stakeholders and objectives tend to be less well defined and ecosystem components have high natural variability and are difficult to observe directly. Fuzzy logic expert systems are useful analytical frameworks to evaluate such systems, and we develop such a model here to formally evaluate progress towards sustainability targets based on diverse sets of indicators. Evaluation criteria include recent (since policy enactment) and historical (from earliest known state) change, type of indicators (state, benefit, pressure, response), time span and spatial scope, and the suitability of an indicator in reflecting progress toward a specific objective. A key aspect of the framework is that all assumptions are transparent and modifiable to fit different social and ecological contexts. We test the method by evaluating progress towards four Aichi Biodiversity Targets in Canadian oceans, including quantitative progress scores, information gaps, and the sensitivity of results to model and data assumptions. For Canadian marine systems, national protection plans and biodiversity awareness show good progress, but species and ecosystem states overall do not show strong improvement. Well-defined goals are vital for successful policy implementation, as ambiguity allows for conflicting potential indicators, which in natural systems increases uncertainty in progress evaluations. Importantly, our framework can be easily adapted to assess progress towards policy goals with different themes, globally or in specific regions.

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

Dale, Virginia H.; Efroymson, Rebecca Ann; Kline, Keith L.

A framework for selecting and evaluating indicators of bioenergy sustainability is presented. This framework is designed to facilitate decision-making about which indicators are useful for assessing sustainability of bioenergy systems and supporting their deployment. Efforts to develop sustainability indicators in the United States and Europe are reviewed. The first steps of the framework for indicator selection are defining the sustainability goals and other goals for a bioenergy project or program, gaining an understanding of the context, and identifying the values of stakeholders. From the goals, context, and stakeholders, the objectives for analysis and criteria for indicator selection can be developed.more » The user of the framework identifies and ranks indicators, applies them in an assessment, and then evaluates their effectiveness, while identifying gaps that prevent goals from being met, assessing lessons learned, and moving toward best practices. The framework approach emphasizes that the selection of appropriate criteria and indicators is driven by the specific purpose of an analysis. Realistic goals and measures of bioenergy sustainability can be developed systematically with the help of the framework presented here.« less

MRBrainS Challenge: Online Evaluation Framework for Brain Image Segmentation in 3T MRI Scans.

PubMed

Mendrik, Adriënne M; Vincken, Koen L; Kuijf, Hugo J; Breeuwer, Marcel; Bouvy, Willem H; de Bresser, Jeroen; Alansary, Amir; de Bruijne, Marleen; Carass, Aaron; El-Baz, Ayman; Jog, Amod; Katyal, Ranveer; Khan, Ali R; van der Lijn, Fedde; Mahmood, Qaiser; Mukherjee, Ryan; van Opbroek, Annegreet; Paneri, Sahil; Pereira, Sérgio; Persson, Mikael; Rajchl, Martin; Sarikaya, Duygu; Smedby, Örjan; Silva, Carlos A; Vrooman, Henri A; Vyas, Saurabh; Wang, Chunliang; Zhao, Liang; Biessels, Geert Jan; Viergever, Max A

2015-01-01

Many methods have been proposed for tissue segmentation in brain MRI scans. The multitude of methods proposed complicates the choice of one method above others. We have therefore established the MRBrainS online evaluation framework for evaluating (semi)automatic algorithms that segment gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on 3T brain MRI scans of elderly subjects (65-80 y). Participants apply their algorithms to the provided data, after which their results are evaluated and ranked. Full manual segmentations of GM, WM, and CSF are available for all scans and used as the reference standard. Five datasets are provided for training and fifteen for testing. The evaluated methods are ranked based on their overall performance to segment GM, WM, and CSF and evaluated using three evaluation metrics (Dice, H95, and AVD) and the results are published on the MRBrainS13 website. We present the results of eleven segmentation algorithms that participated in the MRBrainS13 challenge workshop at MICCAI, where the framework was launched, and three commonly used freeware packages: FreeSurfer, FSL, and SPM. The MRBrainS evaluation framework provides an objective and direct comparison of all evaluated algorithms and can aid in selecting the best performing method for the segmentation goal at hand.

MRBrainS Challenge: Online Evaluation Framework for Brain Image Segmentation in 3T MRI Scans

PubMed Central

Mendrik, Adriënne M.; Vincken, Koen L.; Kuijf, Hugo J.; Breeuwer, Marcel; Bouvy, Willem H.; de Bresser, Jeroen; Alansary, Amir; de Bruijne, Marleen; Carass, Aaron; El-Baz, Ayman; Jog, Amod; Katyal, Ranveer; Khan, Ali R.; van der Lijn, Fedde; Mahmood, Qaiser; Mukherjee, Ryan; van Opbroek, Annegreet; Paneri, Sahil; Pereira, Sérgio; Rajchl, Martin; Sarikaya, Duygu; Smedby, Örjan; Silva, Carlos A.; Vrooman, Henri A.; Vyas, Saurabh; Wang, Chunliang; Zhao, Liang; Biessels, Geert Jan; Viergever, Max A.

2015-01-01

Many methods have been proposed for tissue segmentation in brain MRI scans. The multitude of methods proposed complicates the choice of one method above others. We have therefore established the MRBrainS online evaluation framework for evaluating (semi)automatic algorithms that segment gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on 3T brain MRI scans of elderly subjects (65–80 y). Participants apply their algorithms to the provided data, after which their results are evaluated and ranked. Full manual segmentations of GM, WM, and CSF are available for all scans and used as the reference standard. Five datasets are provided for training and fifteen for testing. The evaluated methods are ranked based on their overall performance to segment GM, WM, and CSF and evaluated using three evaluation metrics (Dice, H95, and AVD) and the results are published on the MRBrainS13 website. We present the results of eleven segmentation algorithms that participated in the MRBrainS13 challenge workshop at MICCAI, where the framework was launched, and three commonly used freeware packages: FreeSurfer, FSL, and SPM. The MRBrainS evaluation framework provides an objective and direct comparison of all evaluated algorithms and can aid in selecting the best performing method for the segmentation goal at hand. PMID:26759553

An Evaluation Framework and Comparative Analysis of the Widely Used First Programming Languages

PubMed Central

Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Khan, Sher Afzal; Ahmad, Farooq; Islam, Saeed; Abid, Adnan

2014-01-01

Computer programming is the core of computer science curriculum. Several programming languages have been used to teach the first course in computer programming, and such languages are referred to as first programming language (FPL). The pool of programming languages has been evolving with the development of new languages, and from this pool different languages have been used as FPL at different times. Though the selection of an appropriate FPL is very important, yet it has been a controversial issue in the presence of many choices. Many efforts have been made for designing a good FPL, however, there is no ample way to evaluate and compare the existing languages so as to find the most suitable FPL. In this article, we have proposed a framework to evaluate the existing imperative, and object oriented languages for their suitability as an appropriate FPL. Furthermore, based on the proposed framework we have devised a customizable scoring function to compute a quantitative suitability score for a language, which reflects its conformance to the proposed framework. Lastly, we have also evaluated the conformance of the widely used FPLs to the proposed framework, and have also computed their suitability scores. PMID:24586449

An evaluation framework and comparative analysis of the widely used first programming languages.

PubMed

Farooq, Muhammad Shoaib; Khan, Sher Afzal; Ahmad, Farooq; Islam, Saeed; Abid, Adnan

2014-01-01

Computer programming is the core of computer science curriculum. Several programming languages have been used to teach the first course in computer programming, and such languages are referred to as first programming language (FPL). The pool of programming languages has been evolving with the development of new languages, and from this pool different languages have been used as FPL at different times. Though the selection of an appropriate FPL is very important, yet it has been a controversial issue in the presence of many choices. Many efforts have been made for designing a good FPL, however, there is no ample way to evaluate and compare the existing languages so as to find the most suitable FPL. In this article, we have proposed a framework to evaluate the existing imperative, and object oriented languages for their suitability as an appropriate FPL. Furthermore, based on the proposed framework we have devised a customizable scoring function to compute a quantitative suitability score for a language, which reflects its conformance to the proposed framework. Lastly, we have also evaluated the conformance of the widely used FPLs to the proposed framework, and have also computed their suitability scores.

How to assess driver's interaction with partially automated driving systems - A framework for early concept assessment.

PubMed

van den Beukel, Arie P; van der Voort, Mascha C

2017-03-01

The introduction of partially automated driving systems changes the driving task into supervising the automation with an occasional need to intervene. To develop interface solutions that adequately support drivers in this new role, this study proposes and evaluates an assessment framework that allows designers to evaluate driver-support within relevant real-world scenarios. Aspects identified as requiring assessment in terms of driver-support within the proposed framework are Accident Avoidance, gained Situation Awareness (SA) and Concept Acceptance. Measurement techniques selected to operationalise these aspects and the associated framework are pilot-tested with twenty-four participants in a driving simulator experiment. The objective of the test is to determine the reliability of the applied measurements for the assessment of the framework and whether the proposed framework is effective in predicting the level of support offered by the concepts. Based on the congruency between measurement scores produced in the test and scores with predefined differences in concept-support, this study demonstrates the framework's reliability. A remaining concern is the framework's weak sensitivity to small differences in offered support. The article concludes that applying the framework is especially advantageous for evaluating early design phases and can successfully contribute to the efficient development of driver's in-control and safe means of operating partially automated vehicles. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Guidelines for Evaluating Sex Therapy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuriansky, Judith B.; Sharpe, Lawrence

1976-01-01

Clinical advances in the treatment of human sexual dysfunctions must be documented by objective and scientific assessments of changes in patients as a result of the therapy. The principle guidelines for evaluating such changes presented in this paper provide a framework for reliable investigations to determine which treatments work best. (Author)

Visual Representations of Microcosm in Textbooks of Chemistry: Constructing a Systemic Network for Their Main Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Papageorgiou, George; Amariotakis, Vasilios; Spiliotopoulou, Vasiliki

2017-01-01

The main objective of this work is to analyse the visual representations (VRs) of the microcosm depicted in nine Greek secondary chemistry school textbooks of the last three decades in order to construct a systemic network for their main conceptual framework and to evaluate the contribution of each one of the resulting categories to the network.…

A framework for selecting indicators of bioenergy sustainability

DOE PAGES

Dale, Virginia H.; Efroymson, Rebecca Ann; Kline, Keith L.; ...

2015-05-11

A framework for selecting and evaluating indicators of bioenergy sustainability is presented. This framework is designed to facilitate decision-making about which indicators are useful for assessing sustainability of bioenergy systems and supporting their deployment. Efforts to develop sustainability indicators in the United States and Europe are reviewed. The first steps of the framework for indicator selection are defining the sustainability goals and other goals for a bioenergy project or program, gaining an understanding of the context, and identifying the values of stakeholders. From the goals, context, and stakeholders, the objectives for analysis and criteria for indicator selection can be developed.more » The user of the framework identifies and ranks indicators, applies them in an assessment, and then evaluates their effectiveness, while identifying gaps that prevent goals from being met, assessing lessons learned, and moving toward best practices. The framework approach emphasizes that the selection of appropriate criteria and indicators is driven by the specific purpose of an analysis. Realistic goals and measures of bioenergy sustainability can be developed systematically with the help of the framework presented here.« less

Probability-Based Recognition Framework for Underwater Landmarks Using Sonar Images †

PubMed Central

Choi, Jinwoo; Choi, Hyun-Taek

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a probability-based framework for recognizing underwater landmarks using sonar images. Current recognition methods use a single image, which does not provide reliable results because of weaknesses of the sonar image such as unstable acoustic source, many speckle noises, low resolution images, single channel image, and so on. However, using consecutive sonar images, if the status—i.e., the existence and identity (or name)—of an object is continuously evaluated by a stochastic method, the result of the recognition method is available for calculating the uncertainty, and it is more suitable for various applications. Our proposed framework consists of three steps: (1) candidate selection, (2) continuity evaluation, and (3) Bayesian feature estimation. Two probability methods—particle filtering and Bayesian feature estimation—are used to repeatedly estimate the continuity and feature of objects in consecutive images. Thus, the status of the object is repeatedly predicted and updated by a stochastic method. Furthermore, we develop an artificial landmark to increase detectability by an imaging sonar, which we apply to the characteristics of acoustic waves, such as instability and reflection depending on the roughness of the reflector surface. The proposed method is verified by conducting basin experiments, and the results are presented. PMID:28837068

Autonomic Management of Application Workflows on Hybrid Computing Infrastructure

DOE PAGES

Kim, Hyunjoo; el-Khamra, Yaakoub; Rodero, Ivan; ...

2011-01-01

In this paper, we present a programming and runtime framework that enables the autonomic management of complex application workflows on hybrid computing infrastructures. The framework is designed to address system and application heterogeneity and dynamics to ensure that application objectives and constraints are satisfied. The need for such autonomic system and application management is becoming critical as computing infrastructures become increasingly heterogeneous, integrating different classes of resources from high-end HPC systems to commodity clusters and clouds. For example, the framework presented in this paper can be used to provision the appropriate mix of resources based on application requirements and constraints.more » The framework also monitors the system/application state and adapts the application and/or resources to respond to changing requirements or environment. To demonstrate the operation of the framework and to evaluate its ability, we employ a workflow used to characterize an oil reservoir executing on a hybrid infrastructure composed of TeraGrid nodes and Amazon EC2 instances of various types. Specifically, we show how different applications objectives such as acceleration, conservation and resilience can be effectively achieved while satisfying deadline and budget constraints, using an appropriate mix of dynamically provisioned resources. Our evaluations also demonstrate that public clouds can be used to complement and reinforce the scheduling and usage of traditional high performance computing infrastructure.« less

Consensus Statement on Electronic Health Predictive Analytics: A Guiding Framework to Address Challenges

PubMed Central

Amarasingham, Ruben; Audet, Anne-Marie J.; Bates, David W.; Glenn Cohen, I.; Entwistle, Martin; Escobar, G. J.; Liu, Vincent; Etheredge, Lynn; Lo, Bernard; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Ram, Sudha; Saria, Suchi; Schilling, Lisa M.; Shahi, Anand; Stewart, Walter F.; Steyerberg, Ewout W.; Xie, Bin

2016-01-01

Context: The recent explosion in available electronic health record (EHR) data is motivating a rapid expansion of electronic health care predictive analytic (e-HPA) applications, defined as the use of electronic algorithms that forecast clinical events in real time with the intent to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. There is an urgent need for a systematic framework to guide the development and application of e-HPA to ensure that the field develops in a scientifically sound, ethical, and efficient manner. Objectives: Building upon earlier frameworks of model development and utilization, we identify the emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA, propose a framework that enables us to realize these opportunities, address these challenges, and motivate e-HPA stakeholders to both adopt and continuously refine the framework as the applications of e-HPA emerge. Methods: To achieve these objectives, 17 experts with diverse expertise including methodology, ethics, legal, regulation, and health care delivery systems were assembled to identify emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA and to propose a framework to guide the development and application of e-HPA. Findings: The framework proposed by the panel includes three key domains where e-HPA differs qualitatively from earlier generations of models and algorithms (Data Barriers, Transparency, and Ethics) and areas where current frameworks are insufficient to address the emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA (Regulation and Certification; and Education and Training). The following list of recommendations summarizes the key points of the framework: Data Barriers: Establish mechanisms within the scientific community to support data sharing for predictive model development and testing.Transparency: Set standards around e-HPA validation based on principles of scientific transparency and reproducibility.Ethics: Develop both individual-centered and society-centered risk-benefit approaches to evaluate e-HPA.Regulation and Certification: Construct a self-regulation and certification framework within e-HPA.Education and Training: Make significant changes to medical, nursing, and paraprofessional curricula by including training for understanding, evaluating, and utilizing predictive models. PMID:27141516

A Reconstruction of Development of the Periodic Table Based on History and Philosophy of Science and Its Implications for General Chemistry Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brito, Angmary; Rodriguez, Maria A.; Niaz, Mansoor

2005-01-01

The objectives of this study are: (a) elaboration of a history and philosophy of science (HPS) framework based on a reconstruction of the development of the periodic table; (b) formulation of seven criteria based on the framework; and (c) evaluation of 57 freshman college-level general chemistry textbooks with respect to the presentation of the…

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,

Sustainable development of process facilities: state-of-the-art review of pollution prevention frameworks.

PubMed

Hossain, Khandoker A; Khan, Faisal I; Hawboldt, Kelly

2008-01-15

Pollution prevention (P2) strategy is receiving significant attention in industries all over the world, over end-of-pipe pollution control and management strategy. This paper is a review of the existing pollution prevention frameworks. The reviewed frameworks contributed significantly to bring the P2 approach into practice and gradually improved it towards a sustainable solution; nevertheless, some objectives are yet to be achieved. In this context, the paper has proposed a P2 framework 'IP2M' addressing the limitations for systematic implementation of the P2 program in industries at design as well as retrofit stages. The main features of the proposed framework are that, firstly, it has integrated cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA) tool with other adequate P2 opportunity analysis tools in P2 opportunity analysis phase and secondly, it has re-used the risk-based cradle-to-gate LCA during the environmental evaluation of different P2 options. Furthermore, in multi-objective optimization phase, it simultaneously considers the P2 options with available end-of-pipe control options in order to select the sustainable environmental management option.

An Ex Post Facto Evaluation Framework for Place-Based Police Interventions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Braga, Anthony A.; Hureau, David M.; Papachristos, Andrew V.

2011-01-01

Background: A small but growing body of research evidence suggests that place-based police interventions generate significant crime control gains. While place-based policing strategies have been adopted by a majority of U.S. police departments, very few agencies make a priori commitments to rigorous evaluations. Objective: Recent methodological…

Minimizing the influence of unconscious bias in evaluations: a practical guide.

PubMed

Goldyne, Adam J

2007-01-01

The forensic psychiatrist's efforts to strive for objectivity may be impaired by unrecognized unconscious biases. The author presents a framework for understanding such biases. He then offers a practical approach for individual forensic psychiatrists who want to identify and minimize the influence of previously unrecognized biases on their evaluations.

Framework for Optimizing the Evaluation of Data From Contaminated Soil in Sweden

EPA Science Inventory

The Swedish guidelines for the evaluation of data for the purpose of a risk assessment at contaminated sites are of a qualitative character, as opposed to the USEPA’s Data Quality Objective Process. In Sweden, this can sometimes be a problem because the demands on data quality ar...

A Generalized Decision Framework Using Multi-objective Optimization for Water Resources Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basdekas, L.; Stewart, N.; Triana, E.

2013-12-01

Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) is currently engaged in an Integrated Water Resource Plan (IWRP) to address the complex planning scenarios, across multiple time scales, currently faced by CSU. The modeling framework developed for the IWRP uses a flexible data-centered Decision Support System (DSS) with a MODSIM-based modeling system to represent the operation of the current CSU raw water system coupled with a state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithm. Three basic components are required for the framework, which can be implemented for planning horizons ranging from seasonal to interdecadal. First, a water resources system model is required that is capable of reasonable system simulation to resolve performance metrics at the appropriate temporal and spatial scales of interest. The system model should be an existing simulation model, or one developed during the planning process with stakeholders, so that 'buy-in' has already been achieved. Second, a hydrologic scenario tool(s) capable of generating a range of plausible inflows for the planning period of interest is required. This may include paleo informed or climate change informed sequences. Third, a multi-objective optimization model that can be wrapped around the system simulation model is required. The new generation of multi-objective optimization models do not require parameterization which greatly reduces problem complexity. Bridging the gap between research and practice will be evident as we use a case study from CSU's planning process to demonstrate this framework with specific competing water management objectives. Careful formulation of objective functions, choice of decision variables, and system constraints will be discussed. Rather than treating results as theoretically Pareto optimal in a planning process, we use the powerful multi-objective optimization models as tools to more efficiently and effectively move out of the inferior decision space. The use of this framework will help CSU evaluate tradeoffs in a continually changing world.

Constructing a Validity Argument for the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS): A Systematic Review of Validity Evidence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hatala, Rose; Cook, David A.; Brydges, Ryan; Hawkins, Richard

2015-01-01

In order to construct and evaluate the validity argument for the Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS), based on Kane's framework, we conducted a systematic review. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, Web of Science, Scopus, and selected reference lists through February 2013. Working in duplicate, we selected…

Beyond Effectiveness: A Pragmatic Evaluation Framework for Learning and Continuous Quality Improvement of e-Learning Interventions in Healthcare.

PubMed

Dafalla, Tarig Dafalla Mohamed; Kushniruk, Andre W; Borycki, Elizabeth M

2015-01-01

A pragmatic evaluation framework for evaluating the usability and usefulness of an e-learning intervention for a patient clinical information scheduling system is presented in this paper. The framework was conceptualized based on two different but related concepts (usability and usefulness) and selection of appropriate and valid methods of data collection and analysis that included: (1) Low-Cost Rapid Usability Engineering (LCRUE), (2) Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), (3) Heuristic Evaluation (HE) criteria for web-based learning, and (4) Software Usability Measurement Inventory (SUMI). The results of the analysis showed some areas where usability that were related to General Interface Usability (GIU), instructional design and content was problematic; some of which might account for the poorly rated aspects of usability when subjectively measured. This paper shows that using a pragmatic framework can be a useful way, not only for measuring the usability and usefulness, but also for providing a practical objective evidences for learning and continuous quality improvement of e-learning systems. The findings should be of interest to educators, developers, designers, researchers, and usability practitioners involved in the development of e-learning systems in healthcare. This framework could be an appropriate method for assessing the usability, usefulness and safety of health information systems both in the laboratory and in the clinical context.

Applying the RE-AIM conceptual framework for the promotion of physical activity in low- and middle-income countries

PubMed Central

Lee, Rebecca E.; Galavíz, Karla I.; Soltero, Erica G.; Rosales Chavez, Jose; Jauregui, Edtna; Lévesque, Lucie; Hernández, Luis Ortiz; Lopez y Taylor, Juan; Estabrooks, Paul A.

2017-01-01

ABSTRACT Objective: the RE-AIM framework has been widely used to evaluate internal and external validity of interventions aimed to promote physical activity, helping to provide comprehensive evaluation of the reach, efficacy, adoption, implementation and maintenance of research and programming. Despite this progress, the RE-AIM framework has not been used widely in Latin America. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the RE-AIM framework, the process and materials developed for a one-day workshop in Guadalajara, and the acceptability and satisfaction of participants that attended the workshop. Methods: lecture, interactive examples and an agenda were developed for a one-day RE-AIM workshop over a three month period. Results: thirty two health care practitioners (M age = 30.6, SD=9.9 years) attended the workshop. Most (100%) rated the workshop as credible, useful (100%) and intended to apply it in current or future research (95%). Conclusion: results suggest intuitive appeal of the RE-AIM framework, and provide a strategy for introducing the utility and practical application of the framework in practice settings in Mexico and Latin America.

Toward Advancing Nano-Object Count Metrology: A Best Practice Framework

PubMed Central

Boyko, Volodymyr; Meyers, Greg; Voetz, Matthias; Wohlleben, Wendel

2013-01-01

Background: A movement among international agencies and policy makers to classify industrial materials by their number content of sub–100-nm particles could have broad implications for the development of sustainable nanotechnologies. Objectives: Here we highlight current particle size metrology challenges faced by the chemical industry due to these emerging number percent content thresholds, provide a suggested best-practice framework for nano-object identification, and identify research needs as a path forward. Discussion: Harmonized methods for identifying nanomaterials by size and count for many real-world samples do not currently exist. Although particle size remains the sole discriminating factor for classifying a material as “nano,” inconsistencies in size metrology will continue to confound policy and decision making. Moreover, there are concerns that the casting of a wide net with still-unproven metrology methods may stifle the development and judicious implementation of sustainable nanotechnologies. Based on the current state of the art, we propose a tiered approach for evaluating materials. To enable future risk-based refinements of these emerging definitions, we recommend that this framework also be considered in environmental and human health research involving the implications of nanomaterials. Conclusion: Substantial scientific scrutiny is needed in the area of nanomaterial metrology to establish best practices and to develop suitable methods before implementing definitions based solely on number percent nano-object content for regulatory purposes. Strong cooperation between industry, academia, and research institutions will be required to fully develop and implement detailed frameworks for nanomaterial identification with respect to emerging count-based metrics. Citation: Brown SC, Boyko V, Meyers G, Voetz M, Wohlleben W. 2013. Toward advancing nano-object count metrology: a best practice framework. Environ Health Perspect 121:1282–1291; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1306957 PMID:24076973

Secure and Efficient Regression Analysis Using a Hybrid Cryptographic Framework: Development and Evaluation.

PubMed

Sadat, Md Nazmus; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Aziz, Md Momin Al; Wang, Shuang; Mohammed, Noman

2018-03-05

Machine learning is an effective data-driven tool that is being widely used to extract valuable patterns and insights from data. Specifically, predictive machine learning models are very important in health care for clinical data analysis. The machine learning algorithms that generate predictive models often require pooling data from different sources to discover statistical patterns or correlations among different attributes of the input data. The primary challenge is to fulfill one major objective: preserving the privacy of individuals while discovering knowledge from data. Our objective was to develop a hybrid cryptographic framework for performing regression analysis over distributed data in a secure and efficient way. Existing secure computation schemes are not suitable for processing the large-scale data that are used in cutting-edge machine learning applications. We designed, developed, and evaluated a hybrid cryptographic framework, which can securely perform regression analysis, a fundamental machine learning algorithm using somewhat homomorphic encryption and a newly introduced secure hardware component of Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to ensure both privacy and efficiency at the same time. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method provides a better trade-off in terms of security and efficiency than solely secure hardware-based methods. Besides, there is no approximation error. Computed model parameters are exactly similar to plaintext results. To the best of our knowledge, this kind of secure computation model using a hybrid cryptographic framework, which leverages both somewhat homomorphic encryption and Intel SGX, is not proposed or evaluated to this date. Our proposed framework ensures data security and computational efficiency at the same time. ©Md Nazmus Sadat, Xiaoqian Jiang, Md Momin Al Aziz, Shuang Wang, Noman Mohammed. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 05.03.2018.

Value Driven Outcomes (VDO): a pragmatic, modular, and extensible software framework for understanding and improving health care costs and outcomes

PubMed Central

Kawamoto, Kensaku; Martin, Cary J; Williams, Kip; Tu, Ming-Chieh; Park, Charlton G; Hunter, Cheri; Staes, Catherine J; Bray, Bruce E; Deshmukh, Vikrant G; Holbrook, Reid A; Morris, Scott J; Fedderson, Matthew B; Sletta, Amy; Turnbull, James; Mulvihill, Sean J; Crabtree, Gordon L; Entwistle, David E; McKenna, Quinn L; Strong, Michael B; Pendleton, Robert C; Lee, Vivian S

2015-01-01

Objective To develop expeditiously a pragmatic, modular, and extensible software framework for understanding and improving healthcare value (costs relative to outcomes). Materials and methods In 2012, a multidisciplinary team was assembled by the leadership of the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and charged with rapidly developing a pragmatic and actionable analytics framework for understanding and enhancing healthcare value. Based on an analysis of relevant prior work, a value analytics framework known as Value Driven Outcomes (VDO) was developed using an agile methodology. Evaluation consisted of measurement against project objectives, including implementation timeliness, system performance, completeness, accuracy, extensibility, adoption, satisfaction, and the ability to support value improvement. Results A modular, extensible framework was developed to allocate clinical care costs to individual patient encounters. For example, labor costs in a hospital unit are allocated to patients based on the hours they spent in the unit; actual medication acquisition costs are allocated to patients based on utilization; and radiology costs are allocated based on the minutes required for study performance. Relevant process and outcome measures are also available. A visualization layer facilitates the identification of value improvement opportunities, such as high-volume, high-cost case types with high variability in costs across providers. Initial implementation was completed within 6 months, and all project objectives were fulfilled. The framework has been improved iteratively and is now a foundational tool for delivering high-value care. Conclusions The framework described can be expeditiously implemented to provide a pragmatic, modular, and extensible approach to understanding and improving healthcare value. PMID:25324556

[A framework for evaluating primary health care in Latin America].

PubMed

Haggerty, Jeannie L; Yavich, Natalia; Báscolo, Ernesto Pablo

2009-11-01

To determine the relevancy of applying the Canadian primary health care (PHC) assessment strategy to Latin America and to propose any modifications that might be needed for reaching a consensus in Latin America. The Delphi method was used to reach a consensus among 29 experts engaged in PHC development or evaluation in Latin America. Four virtual sessions and a face-to-face meeting were held to discuss the PHC evaluation logic model and the seven goals and six conditioning factors that make up the Canadian strategy, as well as any questions regarding the evaluation and indicators. The relevance of each concept was ranked according to the perspective of the Latin American countries. The experts considered the Canadian strategy's objectives and conditioning factors to be highly relevant to assessing PHC in Latin America, though they acknowledged that additional modification would increase relevance. The chief suggestions were to create a PHC vision and mission, to include additional objectives and conditioning factors, and to rework the original set. The objectives that concerned coordination and integrated comprehensive care did not achieve a high degree of consensus because of ambiguities in the original text and multiple interpretations of statements regarding certain aspects of the evaluation. Considerable progress was made on the road to building a PHC evaluation framework for the Region of the Americas. Indicators and information-gathering tools, which can be appropriately and practically applied in diverse contexts, need to be developed.

A Framework for Including Family Health Spillovers in Economic Evaluation

PubMed Central

Al-Janabi, Hareth; van Exel, Job; Brouwer, Werner; Coast, Joanna

2016-01-01

Health care interventions may affect the health of patients’ family networks. It has been suggested that these “health spillovers” should be included in economic evaluation, but there is not a systematic method for doing this. In this article, we develop a framework for including health spillovers in economic evaluation. We focus on extra-welfarist economic evaluations where the objective is to maximize health benefits from a health care budget (the “health care perspective”). Our framework involves adapting the conventional cost-effectiveness decision rule to include 2 multiplier effects to internalize the spillover effects. These multiplier effects express the ratio of total health effects (for patients and their family networks) to patient health effects. One multiplier effect is specified for health benefit generated from providing a new intervention, one for health benefit displaced by funding this intervention. We show that using multiplier effects to internalize health spillovers could change the optimal funding decisions and generate additional health benefits to society. PMID:26377370

Study of the Effectiveness and Efficiency of Charter Schools in Indiana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akey, Terri; Plucker, Jonathan A.; Hansen, John A.; Michael, Robert; Branon, Suzanne; Fagen, Rebecca; Zhou, Gary

2008-01-01

In July of 2007, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy (CEEP) at Indiana University was contracted to conduct an evaluation of the Indiana charter schools. The evaluation has been designed to ensure that all objectives of the provisions of HEA 1001-2007 are fulfilled. In addition, the framework of the study is based in IC 20-24-2-1,…

Incorporating equity considerations in transport infrastructure evaluation: Current practice and a proposed methodology.

PubMed

Thomopoulos, N; Grant-Muller, S; Tight, M R

2009-11-01

Interest has re-emerged on the issue of how to incorporate equity considerations in the appraisal of transport projects and large road infrastructure projects in particular. This paper offers a way forward in addressing some of the theoretical and practical concerns that have presented difficulties to date in incorporating equity concerns in the appraisal of such projects. Initially an overview of current practice within transport regarding the appraisal of equity considerations in Europe is offered based on an extensive literature review. Acknowledging the value of a framework approach, research towards introducing a theoretical framework is then presented. The proposed framework is based on the well established MCA Analytic Hierarchy Process and is also contrasted with the use of a CBA based approach. The framework outlined here offers an additional support tool to decision makers who will be able to differentiate choices based on their views on specific equity principles and equity types. It also holds the potential to become a valuable tool for evaluators as a result of the option to assess predefined equity perspectives of decision makers against both the project objectives and the estimated project impacts. This framework may also be of further value to evaluators outside transport.

SU-F-T-342: Dosimetric Constraint Prediction Guided Automatic Mulit-Objective Optimization for Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy

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

Song, T; Zhou, L; Li, Y

Purpose: For intensity modulated radiotherapy, the plan optimization is time consuming with difficulties of selecting objectives and constraints, and their relative weights. A fast and automatic multi-objective optimization algorithm with abilities to predict optimal constraints and manager their trade-offs can help to solve this problem. Our purpose is to develop such a framework and algorithm for a general inverse planning. Methods: There are three main components contained in this proposed multi-objective optimization framework: prediction of initial dosimetric constraints, further adjustment of constraints and plan optimization. We firstly use our previously developed in-house geometry-dosimetry correlation model to predict the optimal patient-specificmore » dosimetric endpoints, and treat them as initial dosimetric constraints. Secondly, we build an endpoint(organ) priority list and a constraint adjustment rule to repeatedly tune these constraints from their initial values, until every single endpoint has no room for further improvement. Lastly, we implement a voxel-independent based FMO algorithm for optimization. During the optimization, a model for tuning these voxel weighting factors respecting to constraints is created. For framework and algorithm evaluation, we randomly selected 20 IMRT prostate cases from the clinic and compared them with our automatic generated plans, in both the efficiency and plan quality. Results: For each evaluated plan, the proposed multi-objective framework could run fluently and automatically. The voxel weighting factor iteration time varied from 10 to 30 under an updated constraint, and the constraint tuning time varied from 20 to 30 for every case until no more stricter constraint is allowed. The average total costing time for the whole optimization procedure is ∼30mins. By comparing the DVHs, better OAR dose sparing could be observed in automatic generated plan, for 13 out of the 20 cases, while others are with competitive results. Conclusion: We have successfully developed a fast and automatic multi-objective optimization for intensity modulated radiotherapy. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No: 81571771)« less

[A preliminary study on the forming quality of titanium alloy removable partial denture frameworks fabricated by selective laser melting].

PubMed

Liu, Y F; Yu, H; Wang, W N; Gao, B

2017-06-09

Objective: To evaluate the processing accuracy, internal quality and suitability of the titanium alloy frameworks of removable partial denture (RPD) fabricated by selective laser melting (SLM) technique, and to provide reference for clinical application. Methods: The plaster model of one clinical patient was used as the working model, and was scanned and reconstructed into a digital working model. A RPD framework was designed on it. Then, eight corresponding RPD frameworks were fabricated using SLM technique. Three-dimensional (3D) optical scanner was used to scan and obtain the 3D data of the frameworks and the data was compared with the original computer aided design (CAD) model to evaluate their processing precision. The traditional casting pure titanium frameworks was used as the control group, and the internal quality was analyzed by X-ray examination. Finally, the fitness of the frameworks was examined on the plaster model. Results: The overall average deviation of the titanium alloy RPD framework fabricated by SLM technology was (0.089±0.076) mm, the root mean square error was 0.103 mm. No visible pores, cracks and other internal defects was detected in the frameworks. The framework fits on the plaster model completely, and its tissue surface fitted on the plaster model well. There was no obvious movement. Conclusions: The titanium alloy RPD framework fabricated by SLM technology is of good quality.

The Web-based CanMEDS Resident Learning Portfolio Project (WEBCAM): how we got started.

PubMed

Glen, Peter; Balaa, Fady; Momoli, Franco; Martin, Louise; Found, Dorothy; Arnaout, Angel

2016-12-01

The CanMEDS framework is ubiquitous in Canadian postgraduate medical education; however, training programs do not have a universal method of assessing competence. We set out to develop a novel portfolio that allowed trainees to generate a longitudinal record of their training and development within the framework. The portfolio provided an objective means for the residency program director to document and evaluate resident progress within the CanMEDS roles.

A research framework for the development and implementation of interventions preventing work-related musculoskeletal disorders.

PubMed

van der Beek, Allard J; Dennerlein, Jack T; Huysmans, Maaike A; Mathiassen, Svend Erik; Burdorf, Alex; van Mechelen, Willem; van Dieën, Jaap H; Frings-Dresen, Monique Hw; Holtermann, Andreas; Janwantanakul, Prawit; van der Molen, Henk F; Rempel, David; Straker, Leon; Walker-Bone, Karen; Coenen, Pieter

2017-11-01

Objectives Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) are highly prevalent and put a large burden on (working) society. Primary prevention of work-related MSD focuses often on physical risk factors (such as manual lifting and awkward postures) but has not been too successful in reducing the MSD burden. This may partly be caused by insufficient knowledge of etiological mechanisms and/or a lack of adequately feasible interventions (theory failure and program failure, respectively), possibly due to limited integration of research disciplines. A research framework could link research disciplines thereby strengthening the development and implementation of preventive interventions. Our objective was to define and describe such a framework for multi-disciplinary research on work-related MSD prevention. Methods We described a framework for MSD prevention research, partly based on frameworks from other research fields (ie, sports injury prevention and public health). Results The framework is composed of a repeated sequence of six steps comprising the assessment of (i) incidence and severity of MSD, (ii) risk factors for MSD, and (iii) underlying mechanisms; and the (iv) development, (v) evaluation, and (vi) implementation of preventive intervention(s). Conclusions In the present framework for optimal work-related MSD prevention, research disciplines are linked. This framework can thereby help to improve theories and strengthen the development and implementation of prevention strategies for work-related MSD.

Use of Theory in Behavior Change Interventions: An Analysis of Programs to Increase Physical Activity in Posttreatment Breast Cancer Survivors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bluethmann, Shirley M.; Bartholomew, L. Kay; Murphy, Caitlin C.; Vernon, Sally W.

2017-01-01

Objective: Theory use may enhance effectiveness of behavioral interventions, yet critics question whether theory-based interventions have been sufficiently scrutinized. This study applied a framework to evaluate theory use in physical activity interventions for breast cancer survivors. The aims were to (1) evaluate theory application intensity and…

Assessing the Impact of a Multi-Agency Project on Afghan Basic Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Yijie; McNerney, Frank

2006-01-01

This study investigates the impact of activities done in the basic education sub-sector by a consortium of four non-government organizations in four provinces in Afghanistan from January 2004 to June 2005. The evaluation uses the project objectives and components as the evaluation framework, and data collected through survey questionnaires,…

Suicide Risk Assessment Training for Psychology Doctoral Programs: Core Competencies and a Framework for Training

PubMed Central

Cramer, Robert J.; Johnson, Shara M.; McLaughlin, Jennifer; Rausch, Emilie M.; Conroy, Mary Alice

2014-01-01

Clinical and counseling psychology programs currently lack adequate evidence-based competency goals and training in suicide risk assessment. To begin to address this problem, this article proposes core competencies and an integrated training framework that can form the basis for training and research in this area. First, we evaluate the extent to which current training is effective in preparing trainees for suicide risk assessment. Within this discussion, sample and methodological issues are reviewed. Second, as an extension of these methodological training issues, we integrate empirically- and expert-derived suicide risk assessment competencies from several sources with the goal of streamlining core competencies for training purposes. Finally, a framework for suicide risk assessment training is outlined. The approach employs Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) methodology, an approach commonly utilized in medical competency training. The training modality also proposes the Suicide Competency Assessment Form (SCAF), a training tool evaluating self- and observer-ratings of trainee core competencies. The training framework and SCAF are ripe for empirical evaluation and potential training implementation. PMID:24672588

Suicide Risk Assessment Training for Psychology Doctoral Programs: Core Competencies and a Framework for Training.

PubMed

Cramer, Robert J; Johnson, Shara M; McLaughlin, Jennifer; Rausch, Emilie M; Conroy, Mary Alice

2013-02-01

Clinical and counseling psychology programs currently lack adequate evidence-based competency goals and training in suicide risk assessment. To begin to address this problem, this article proposes core competencies and an integrated training framework that can form the basis for training and research in this area. First, we evaluate the extent to which current training is effective in preparing trainees for suicide risk assessment. Within this discussion, sample and methodological issues are reviewed. Second, as an extension of these methodological training issues, we integrate empirically- and expert-derived suicide risk assessment competencies from several sources with the goal of streamlining core competencies for training purposes. Finally, a framework for suicide risk assessment training is outlined. The approach employs Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) methodology, an approach commonly utilized in medical competency training. The training modality also proposes the Suicide Competency Assessment Form (SCAF), a training tool evaluating self- and observer-ratings of trainee core competencies. The training framework and SCAF are ripe for empirical evaluation and potential training implementation.

Developing CORBA-Based Distributed Scientific Applications From Legacy Fortran Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sang, Janche; Kim, Chan; Lopez, Isaac

2000-01-01

An efficient methodology is presented for integrating legacy applications written in Fortran into a distributed object framework. Issues and strategies regarding the conversion and decomposition of Fortran codes into Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) objects are discussed. Fortran codes are modified as little as possible as they are decomposed into modules and wrapped as objects. A new conversion tool takes the Fortran application as input and generates the C/C++ header file and Interface Definition Language (IDL) file. In addition, the performance of the client server computing is evaluated.

Building a framework for ergonomic research on laparoscopic instrument handles.

PubMed

Li, Zheng; Wang, Guohui; Tan, Juan; Sun, Xulong; Lin, Hao; Zhu, Shaihong

2016-06-01

Laparoscopic surgery carries the advantage of minimal invasiveness, but ergonomic design of the instruments used has progressed slowly. Previous studies have demonstrated that the handle of laparoscopic instruments is vital for both surgical performance and surgeon's health. This review provides an overview of the sub-discipline of handle ergonomics, including an evaluation framework, objective and subjective assessment systems, data collection and statistical analyses. Furthermore, a framework for ergonomic research on laparoscopic instrument handles is proposed to standardize work on instrument design. Copyright © 2016 IJS Publishing Group Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Onboard Science Data Analysis: Opportunities, Benefits, and Effects on Mission Design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Stolorz, P.; Cheeseman, P.

1998-01-01

Much of the initial focus for spacecraft autonomy has been on developing new software and systems concepts to automate engineering functions of the spacecraft: guidance, navigation and control, fault protection, and resources management. However, the ultimate objectives of NASA missions are science objectives, which implies that we need a new framework for perfoming science data evaluation and observation planning autonomously onboard spacecraft.

A user-friendly tool to evaluate the effectiveness of no-take marine reserves.

PubMed

Villaseñor-Derbez, Juan Carlos; Faro, Caio; Wright, Melaina; Martínez, Jael; Fitzgerald, Sean; Fulton, Stuart; Mancha-Cisneros, Maria Del Mar; McDonald, Gavin; Micheli, Fiorenza; Suárez, Alvin; Torre, Jorge; Costello, Christopher

2018-01-01

Marine reserves are implemented to achieve a variety of objectives, but are seldom rigorously evaluated to determine whether those objectives are met. In the rare cases when evaluations do take place, they typically focus on ecological indicators and ignore other relevant objectives such as socioeconomics and governance. And regardless of the objectives, the diversity of locations, monitoring protocols, and analysis approaches hinder the ability to compare results across case studies. Moreover, analysis and evaluation of reserves is generally conducted by outside researchers, not the reserve managers or users, plausibly thereby hindering effective local management and rapid response to change. We present a framework and tool, called "MAREA", to overcome these challenges. Its purpose is to evaluate the extent to which any given reserve has achieved its stated objectives. MAREA provides specific guidance on data collection and formatting, and then conducts rigorous causal inference analysis based on data input by the user, providing real-time outputs about the effectiveness of the reserve. MAREA's ease of use, standardization of state-of-the-art inference methods, and ability to analyze marine reserve effectiveness across ecological, socioeconomic, and governance objectives could dramatically further our understanding and support of effective marine reserve management.

A user-friendly tool to evaluate the effectiveness of no-take marine reserves

PubMed Central

Fitzgerald, Sean; Fulton, Stuart; Mancha-Cisneros, Maria del Mar; McDonald, Gavin; Micheli, Fiorenza; Suárez, Alvin; Torre, Jorge

2018-01-01

Marine reserves are implemented to achieve a variety of objectives, but are seldom rigorously evaluated to determine whether those objectives are met. In the rare cases when evaluations do take place, they typically focus on ecological indicators and ignore other relevant objectives such as socioeconomics and governance. And regardless of the objectives, the diversity of locations, monitoring protocols, and analysis approaches hinder the ability to compare results across case studies. Moreover, analysis and evaluation of reserves is generally conducted by outside researchers, not the reserve managers or users, plausibly thereby hindering effective local management and rapid response to change. We present a framework and tool, called “MAREA”, to overcome these challenges. Its purpose is to evaluate the extent to which any given reserve has achieved its stated objectives. MAREA provides specific guidance on data collection and formatting, and then conducts rigorous causal inference analysis based on data input by the user, providing real-time outputs about the effectiveness of the reserve. MAREA’s ease of use, standardization of state-of-the-art inference methods, and ability to analyze marine reserve effectiveness across ecological, socioeconomic, and governance objectives could dramatically further our understanding and support of effective marine reserve management. PMID:29381762

The Protected Areas Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) framework: A simplified process for making management decisions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Farrell, T.A.; Marion, J.L.

2002-01-01

Ecotourism and protected area visitation in Central and South America have resulted in ecological impacts, which some protected areas managers have addressed by employing visitor impact management frameworks. In this paper, we propose the Protected Area Visitor Impact Management (PAVIM) framework as an alternative to carrying capacity and other frameworks such as Limits of Acceptable Change. We use a set of evaluation criteria to compare the relative positive and negative attributes of carrying capacity, other decision-making frameworks and the new framework, within the context of their actual and potential use in Central and South America. Positive attributes of PAVIM include simplicity, flexibility, cost effectiveness, timeliness, and incorporating input from stakeholders and local residents. Negative attributes include diminished objectivity and cultural sensitivity issues. Further research and application of PAVIM are recommended.

An interdisciplinary framework for participatory modeling design and evaluation—What makes models effective participatory decision tools?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falconi, Stefanie M.; Palmer, Richard N.

2017-02-01

Increased requirements for public involvement in water resources management (WRM) over the past century have stimulated the development of more collaborative decision-making methods. Participatory modeling (PM) uses computer models to inform and engage stakeholders in the planning process in order to influence collaborative decisions in WRM. Past evaluations of participatory models focused on process and final outcomes, yet, were hindered by diversity of purpose and inconsistent documentation. This paper presents a two-stage framework for evaluating PM based on mechanisms for improving model effectiveness as participatory tools. The five dimensions characterize the "who, when, how, and why" of each participatory effort (stage 1). Models are evaluated as "boundary objects," a concept used to describe tools that bridge understanding and translate different bodies of knowledge to improve credibility, salience, and legitimacy (stage 2). This evaluation framework is applied to five existing case studies from the literature. Though the goals of participation can be diverse, the novel contribution of the two-stage proposed framework is the flexibility it has to evaluate a wide range of cases that differ in scope, modeling approach, and participatory context. Also, the evaluation criteria provide a structured vocabulary based on clear mechanisms that extend beyond previous process-based and outcome-based evaluations. Effective models are those that take advantage of mechanisms that facilitate dialogue and resolution and improve the accessibility and applicability of technical knowledge. Furthermore, the framework can help build more complete records and systematic documentation of evidence to help standardize the field of PM.

Development of hospital disaster resilience: conceptual framework and potential measurement.

PubMed

Zhong, Shuang; Clark, Michele; Hou, Xiang-Yu; Zang, Yu-Li; Fitzgerald, Gerard

2014-11-01

Despite 'hospital resilience' gaining prominence in recent years, it remains poorly defined. This article aims to define hospital resilience, build a preliminary conceptual framework and highlight possible approaches to measurement. Searches were conducted of the commonly used health databases to identify relevant literature and reports. Search terms included 'resilience and framework or model' or 'evaluation or assess or measure and hospital and disaster or emergency or mass casualty and resilience or capacity or preparedness or response or safety'. Articles were retrieved that focussed on disaster resilience frameworks and the evaluation of various hospital capacities. A total of 1480 potentially eligible publications were retrieved initially but the final analysis was conducted on 47 articles, which appeared to contribute to the study objectives. Four disaster resilience frameworks and 11 evaluation instruments of hospital disaster capacity were included. Hospital resilience is a comprehensive concept derived from existing disaster resilience frameworks. It has four key domains: hospital safety; disaster preparedness and resources; continuity of essential medical services; recovery and adaptation. These domains were categorised according to four criteria, namely, robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness and rapidity. A conceptual understanding of hospital resilience is essential for an intellectual basis for an integrated approach to system development. This article (1) defines hospital resilience; (2) constructs conceptual framework (including key domains); (3) proposes comprehensive measures for possible inclusion in an evaluation instrument; and (4) develops a matrix of critical issues to enhance hospital resilience to cope with future disasters. 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.

Choices, Frameworks and Refinement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Campbell, Roy H.; Islam, Nayeem; Johnson, Ralph; Kougiouris, Panos; Madany, Peter

1991-01-01

In this paper we present a method for designing operating systems using object-oriented frameworks. A framework can be refined into subframeworks. Constraints specify the interactions between the subframeworks. We describe how we used object-oriented frameworks to design Choices, an object-oriented operating system.

Participatory methods for Inuit public health promotion and programme evaluation in Nunatsiavut, Canada.

PubMed

Saini, Manpreet

2017-01-01

Engaging stakeholders is crucial for health promotion and programme evaluations; understanding how to best engage stakeholders is less clear, especially within Indigenous communities. The objectives of this thesis research were to use participatory methods to: (1) co-develop and evaluate a whiteboard video for use as a public health promotion tool in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, and (2) develop and validate a framework for participatory evaluation of Inuit public health initiatives in Nunatsiavut, Labrador. Data collection tools included interactive workshops, community events, interviews, focus-group discussions and surveys. Results indicated the whiteboard video was an engaging and suitable medium for sharing public health messaging due to its contextually relevant elements. Participants identified 4 foundational evaluation framework components necessary to conduct appropriate evaluations, including: (1) community engagement, (2) collaborative evaluation development, (3) tailored evaluation data collection and (4) evaluation scope. This research illustrates stakeholder participation is critical to develop and evaluate contextually relevant public health initiatives in Nunatsiavut, Labrador and should be considered in other Indigenous communities.

[Developing local actions: allowing individual talents be expressed and utilised within a strategic framework].

PubMed

Coruble, Gérard; Vandoorne, Chantal

2005-01-01

The Regional Health Programme of Children and Adolescents in Province Alpes Cote d'Azur (PRSJ), developed between March 1998 and May 1999, is characterised by its scope and complexity. It is more a strategic framework for action than an operational programme. To carry out this action, it was adapted to the level of intervention, on the one hand, using instruments at the regional level adapted for professional interventions, and, on the other hand, through the development of territory-based approaches founded on the creation of networks. Evaluations have shown that the actors found the framework proposed by PRSJ positive and adopted it. They expressed their creativity with more spontaneity in the networks with therapeutic objectives, than those responding to health determinants, which needed initial local support. Local communities appeared as the ideal setting for dissemination and sustainability of PRSJ's objectives. PRSJ's strategic framework allowed local actors to express their talent. This mode of action, which accommodates not only programmatic focus within the context of practitioners on the ground, but also, epidemiology and socio-geographic interventions, are pertinent. To go beyond the explicit milestones set by the strategic orientations of the programme, different elements strengthening the framework are highlighted.

International validation of quality indicators for evaluating priority setting in low income countries: process and key lessons.

PubMed

Kapiriri, Lydia

2017-06-19

While there have been efforts to develop frameworks to guide healthcare priority setting; there has been limited focus on evaluation frameworks. Moreover, while the few frameworks identify quality indicators for successful priority setting, they do not provide the users with strategies to verify these indicators. Kapiriri and Martin (Health Care Anal 18:129-147, 2010) developed a framework for evaluating priority setting in low and middle income countries. This framework provides BOTH parameters for successful priority setting and proposes means of their verification. Before its use in real life contexts, this paper presents results from a validation process of the framework. The framework validation involved 53 policy makers and priority setting researchers at the global, national and sub-national levels (in Uganda). They were requested to indicate the relative importance of the proposed parameters as well as the feasibility of obtaining the related information. We also pilot tested the proposed means of verification. Almost all the respondents evaluated all the parameters, including the contextual factors, as 'very important'. However, some respondents at the global level thought 'presence of incentives to comply', 'reduced disagreements', 'increased public understanding,' 'improved institutional accountability' and 'meeting the ministry of health objectives', which could be a reflection of their levels of decision making. All the proposed means of verification were assessed as feasible with the exception of meeting observations which would require an insider. These findings results were consistent with those obtained from the pilot testing. These findings are relevant to policy makers and researchers involved in priority setting in low and middle income countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few initiatives that has involved potential users of a framework (at the global and in a Low Income Country) in its validation. The favorable validation of all the parameters at the national and sub-national levels implies that the framework has potential usefulness at those levels, as is. The parameters that were disputed at the global level necessitate further discussion when using the framework at that level. The next step is to use the validated framework in evaluating actual priority setting at the different levels.

Standardized evaluation framework for evaluating coronary artery stenosis detection, stenosis quantification and lumen segmentation algorithms in computed tomography angiography.

PubMed

Kirişli, H A; Schaap, M; Metz, C T; Dharampal, A S; Meijboom, W B; Papadopoulou, S L; Dedic, A; Nieman, K; de Graaf, M A; Meijs, M F L; Cramer, M J; Broersen, A; Cetin, S; Eslami, A; Flórez-Valencia, L; Lor, K L; Matuszewski, B; Melki, I; Mohr, B; Oksüz, I; Shahzad, R; Wang, C; Kitslaar, P H; Unal, G; Katouzian, A; Örkisz, M; Chen, C M; Precioso, F; Najman, L; Masood, S; Ünay, D; van Vliet, L; Moreno, R; Goldenberg, R; Vuçini, E; Krestin, G P; Niessen, W J; van Walsum, T

2013-12-01

Though conventional coronary angiography (CCA) has been the standard of reference for diagnosing coronary artery disease in the past decades, computed tomography angiography (CTA) has rapidly emerged, and is nowadays widely used in clinical practice. Here, we introduce a standardized evaluation framework to reliably evaluate and compare the performance of the algorithms devised to detect and quantify the coronary artery stenoses, and to segment the coronary artery lumen in CTA data. The objective of this evaluation framework is to demonstrate the feasibility of dedicated algorithms to: (1) (semi-)automatically detect and quantify stenosis on CTA, in comparison with quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) and CTA consensus reading, and (2) (semi-)automatically segment the coronary lumen on CTA, in comparison with expert's manual annotation. A database consisting of 48 multicenter multivendor cardiac CTA datasets with corresponding reference standards are described and made available. The algorithms from 11 research groups were quantitatively evaluated and compared. The results show that (1) some of the current stenosis detection/quantification algorithms may be used for triage or as a second-reader in clinical practice, and that (2) automatic lumen segmentation is possible with a precision similar to that obtained by experts. The framework is open for new submissions through the website, at http://coronary.bigr.nl/stenoses/. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The potential of using the Ecosystem Approach in the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive.

PubMed

Vlachopoulou, M; Coughlin, D; Forrow, D; Kirk, S; Logan, P; Voulvoulis, N

2014-02-01

The Ecosystem Approach provides a framework for looking at whole ecosystems in decision making to ensure that society can maintain a healthy and resilient natural environment now and for future generations. Although not explicitly mentioned in the Water Framework Directive, the Ecosystem Approach appears to be a promising concept to help its implementation, on the basis that there is a connection between the aims and objectives of the Directive (including good ecological status) and the provision of ecosystem services. In this paper, methodological linkages between the Ecosystem Approach and the Water Framework Directive have been reviewed and a framework is proposed that links its implementation to the Ecosystem Approach taking into consideration all ecosystem services and water management objectives. Individual River Basin Management Plan objectives are qualitatively assessed as to how strong their link is with individual ecosystem services. The benefits of using this approach to provide a preliminary assessment of how it could support future implementation of the Directive have been identified and discussed. Findings also demonstrate its potential to encourage more systematic and systemic thinking as it can provide a consistent framework for identifying shared aims and evaluating alternative water management scenarios and options in decision making. Allowing for a broad consideration of the benefits, costs and tradeoffs that occur in each case, this approach can further improve the economic case for certain measures, and can also help restore the shift in focus from strict legislative compliance towards a more holistic implementation that can deliver the wider aims and intentions of the Directive. © 2013.

Hybrid Optimization Parallel Search PACKage

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

2009-11-10

HOPSPACK is open source software for solving optimization problems without derivatives. Application problems may have a fully nonlinear objective function, bound constraints, and linear and nonlinear constraints. Problem variables may be continuous, integer-valued, or a mixture of both. The software provides a framework that supports any derivative-free type of solver algorithm. Through the framework, solvers request parallel function evaluation, which may use MPI (multiple machines) or multithreading (multiple processors/cores on one machine). The framework provides a Cache and Pending Cache of saved evaluations that reduces execution time and facilitates restarts. Solvers can dynamically create other algorithms to solve subproblems, amore » useful technique for handling multiple start points and integer-valued variables. HOPSPACK ships with the Generating Set Search (GSS) algorithm, developed at Sandia as part of the APPSPACK open source software project.« less

Bibliometrics as a Performance Measurement Tool for Research Evaluation: The Case of Research Funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, David; Picard-Aitken, Michelle; Cote, Gregoire; Caruso, Julie; Valentim, Rodolfo; Edmonds, Stuart; Williams, Gregory Thomas; Macaluso, Benoit; Robitaille, Jean-Pierre; Bastien, Nicolas; Laframboise, Marie-Claude; Lebeau, Louis-Michel; Mirabel, Philippe; Lariviere, Vincent; Archambault, Eric

2010-01-01

As bibliometric indicators are objective, reliable, and cost-effective measures of peer-reviewed research outputs, they are expected to play an increasingly important role in research assessment/management. Recently, a bibliometric approach was developed and integrated within the evaluation framework of research funded by the National Cancer…

Linking Governance to Sustainable Management Outcomes: Applying Dynamic Indicator Profiles to River Basin Organization Case Studies around the World.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Y.; Bouckaert, F. W.

2017-12-01

Institutional best practice for integrated river basin management advocates the river basin organisation (RBO) model as pivotal to achieve sustainable management outcomes and stakeholder engagement. The model has been widely practiced in transboundary settings and is increasingly adopted at national scales, though its effectiveness remains poorly studied. A meta-analysis of four river basins has been conducted to assess governance models and linking it to evaluation of biophysical management outcomes. The analysis is based on a Theory of Change framework, and includes functional dynamic governance indicator profiles, coupled to sustainable ecosystem management outcome profiles. The governance and outcome profiles, informed by context specific indicators, demand that targets for setting objectives are required in multiple dimensions, and trajectory outlines are a useful tool to track progress along the journey mapped out by the Theory of Change framework. Priorities, trade-offs and objectives vary in each basin, but the diagnostics tool allows comparison between basins in their capacity to reach targets through successive evaluations. The distance between capacity and target scores determines how program planning should be prioritized and resources allocated for implementation; this is a dynamic process requiring regular evaluations and adaptive management. The findings of this study provide a conceptual framework for combining dimensions of integrated water management principles that bridge tensions between (i) stakeholder engagement and participatory management (bottom-up approach) using localized knowledge and (ii) decision-making, control-and-command, system-scale, accountable and equitable management (top-down approach).The notion of adaptive management is broadened to include whole-of-program learnings, rather than single hypothesis based learning adjustments. This triple loop learning combines exploitative methods refinement with explorative evaluation of underlying paradigms. The significance of these findings suggests that in order to achieve effective management outcomes, a framework is required that combines governance performance with evaluations of bio-physical outcomes.

Selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites: a multicriteria decision analysis approach.

PubMed

Betrie, Getnet D; Sadiq, Rehan; Morin, Kevin A; Tesfamariam, Solomon

2013-04-15

The selection of remedial alternatives for mine sites is a complex task because it involves multiple criteria and often with conflicting objectives. However, an existing framework used to select remedial alternatives lacks multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) aids and does not consider uncertainty in the selection of alternatives. The objective of this paper is to improve the existing framework by introducing deterministic and probabilistic MCDA methods. The Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) methods have been implemented in this study. The MCDA analysis involves processing inputs to the PROMETHEE methods that are identifying the alternatives, defining the criteria, defining the criteria weights using analytical hierarchical process (AHP), defining the probability distribution of criteria weights, and conducting Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS); running the PROMETHEE methods using these inputs; and conducting a sensitivity analysis. A case study was presented to demonstrate the improved framework at a mine site. The results showed that the improved framework provides a reliable way of selecting remedial alternatives as well as quantifying the impact of different criteria on selecting alternatives. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Proposal of a framework for evaluating military surveillance systems for early detection of outbreaks on duty areas

PubMed Central

Meynard, Jean-Baptiste; Chaudet, Herve; Green, Andrew D; Jefferson, Henry L; Texier, Gaetan; Webber, Daniel; Dupuy, Bruce; Boutin, Jean-Paul

2008-01-01

Background In recent years a wide variety of epidemiological surveillance systems have been developed to provide early identification of outbreaks of infectious disease. Each system has had its own strengths and weaknesses. In 2002 a Working Group of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) produced a framework for evaluation, which proved suitable for many public health surveillance systems. However this did not easily adapt to the military setting, where by necessity a variety of different parameters are assessed, different constraints placed on the systems, and different objectives required. This paper describes a proposed framework for evaluation of military syndromic surveillance systems designed to detect outbreaks of disease on operational deployments. Methods The new framework described in this paper was developed from the cumulative experience of British and French military syndromic surveillance systems. The methods included a general assessment framework (CDC), followed by more specific methods of conducting evaluation. These included Knowledge/Attitude/Practice surveys (KAP surveys), technical audits, ergonomic studies, simulations and multi-national exercises. A variety of military constraints required integration into the evaluation. Examples of these include the variability of geographical conditions in the field, deployment to areas without prior knowledge of naturally-occurring disease patterns, the differences in field sanitation between locations and over the length of deployment, the mobility of military forces, turnover of personnel, continuity of surveillance across different locations, integration with surveillance systems from other nations working alongside each other, compatibility with non-medical information systems, and security. Results A framework for evaluation has been developed that can be used for military surveillance systems in a staged manner consisting of initial, intermediate and final evaluations. For each stage of the process parameters for assessment have been defined and methods identified. Conclusion The combined experiences of French and British syndromic surveillance systems developed for use in deployed military forces has allowed the development of a specific evaluation framework. The tool is suitable for use by all nations who wish to evaluate syndromic surveillance in their own military forces. It could also be useful for civilian mobile systems or for national security surveillance systems. PMID:18447944

Valuing hydrological alteration in multi-objective water resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizzi, Simone; Pianosi, Francesca; Soncini-Sessa, Rodolfo

2012-11-01

SummaryThe management of water through the impoundment of rivers by dams and reservoirs is necessary to support key human activities such as hydropower production, agriculture and flood risk mitigation. Advances in multi-objective optimization techniques and ever growing computing power make it possible to design reservoir operating policies that represent Pareto-optimal tradeoffs between multiple interests. On the one hand, such optimization methods can enhance performances of commonly targeted objectives (such as hydropower production or water supply), on the other hand they risk strongly penalizing all the interests not directly (i.e. mathematically) included in the optimization algorithm. The alteration of the downstream hydrological regime is a well established cause of ecological degradation and its evaluation and rehabilitation is commonly required by recent legislation (as the Water Framework Directive in Europe). However, it is rarely embedded in reservoir optimization routines and, even when explicitly considered, the criteria adopted for its evaluation are doubted and not commonly trusted, undermining the possibility of real implementation of environmentally friendly policies. The main challenges in defining and assessing hydrological alterations are: how to define a reference state (referencing); how to define criteria upon which to build mathematical indicators of alteration (measuring); and finally how to aggregate the indicators in a single evaluation index (valuing) that can serve as objective function in the optimization problem. This paper aims to address these issues by: (i) discussing the benefits and constrains of different approaches to referencing, measuring and valuing hydrological alteration; (ii) testing two alternative indices of hydrological alteration, one based on the established framework of Indicators of Hydrological Alteration (Richter et al., 1996), and one satisfying the mathematical properties required by widely used optimization methods based on dynamic programming; (iii) demonstrating and discussing these indices by application River Ticino, in Italy; (iv) providing a framework to effectively include hydrological alteration within reservoir operation optimization.

Marginal Shape Deep Learning: Applications to Pediatric Lung Field Segmentation.

PubMed

Mansoor, Awais; Cerrolaza, Juan J; Perez, Geovanny; Biggs, Elijah; Nino, Gustavo; Linguraru, Marius George

2017-02-11

Representation learning through deep learning (DL) architecture has shown tremendous potential for identification, localization, and texture classification in various medical imaging modalities. However, DL applications to segmentation of objects especially to deformable objects are rather limited and mostly restricted to pixel classification. In this work, we propose marginal shape deep learning (MaShDL), a framework that extends the application of DL to deformable shape segmentation by using deep classifiers to estimate the shape parameters. MaShDL combines the strength of statistical shape models with the automated feature learning architecture of DL. Unlike the iterative shape parameters estimation approach of classical shape models that often leads to a local minima, the proposed framework is robust to local minima optimization and illumination changes. Furthermore, since the direct application of DL framework to a multi-parameter estimation problem results in a very high complexity, our framework provides an excellent run-time performance solution by independently learning shape parameter classifiers in marginal eigenspaces in the decreasing order of variation. We evaluated MaShDL for segmenting the lung field from 314 normal and abnormal pediatric chest radiographs and obtained a mean Dice similarity coefficient of 0.927 using only the four highest modes of variation (compared to 0.888 with classical ASM 1 (p-value=0.01) using same configuration). To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of using DL framework for parametrized shape learning for the delineation of deformable objects.

Marginal shape deep learning: applications to pediatric lung field segmentation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mansoor, Awais; Cerrolaza, Juan J.; Perez, Geovany; Biggs, Elijah; Nino, Gustavo; Linguraru, Marius George

2017-02-01

Representation learning through deep learning (DL) architecture has shown tremendous potential for identification, local- ization, and texture classification in various medical imaging modalities. However, DL applications to segmentation of objects especially to deformable objects are rather limited and mostly restricted to pixel classification. In this work, we propose marginal shape deep learning (MaShDL), a framework that extends the application of DL to deformable shape segmentation by using deep classifiers to estimate the shape parameters. MaShDL combines the strength of statistical shape models with the automated feature learning architecture of DL. Unlike the iterative shape parameters estimation approach of classical shape models that often leads to a local minima, the proposed framework is robust to local minima optimization and illumination changes. Furthermore, since the direct application of DL framework to a multi-parameter estimation problem results in a very high complexity, our framework provides an excellent run-time performance solution by independently learning shape parameter classifiers in marginal eigenspaces in the decreasing order of variation. We evaluated MaShDL for segmenting the lung field from 314 normal and abnormal pediatric chest radiographs and obtained a mean Dice similarity coefficient of 0:927 using only the four highest modes of variation (compared to 0:888 with classical ASM1 (p-value=0:01) using same configuration). To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of using DL framework for parametrized shape learning for the delineation of deformable objects.

Marginal Shape Deep Learning: Applications to Pediatric Lung Field Segmentation

PubMed Central

Mansoor, Awais; Cerrolaza, Juan J.; Perez, Geovanny; Biggs, Elijah; Nino, Gustavo; Linguraru, Marius George

2017-01-01

Representation learning through deep learning (DL) architecture has shown tremendous potential for identification, localization, and texture classification in various medical imaging modalities. However, DL applications to segmentation of objects especially to deformable objects are rather limited and mostly restricted to pixel classification. In this work, we propose marginal shape deep learning (MaShDL), a framework that extends the application of DL to deformable shape segmentation by using deep classifiers to estimate the shape parameters. MaShDL combines the strength of statistical shape models with the automated feature learning architecture of DL. Unlike the iterative shape parameters estimation approach of classical shape models that often leads to a local minima, the proposed framework is robust to local minima optimization and illumination changes. Furthermore, since the direct application of DL framework to a multi-parameter estimation problem results in a very high complexity, our framework provides an excellent run-time performance solution by independently learning shape parameter classifiers in marginal eigenspaces in the decreasing order of variation. We evaluated MaShDL for segmenting the lung field from 314 normal and abnormal pediatric chest radiographs and obtained a mean Dice similarity coefficient of 0.927 using only the four highest modes of variation (compared to 0.888 with classical ASM1 (p-value=0.01) using same configuration). To the best of our knowledge this is the first demonstration of using DL framework for parametrized shape learning for the delineation of deformable objects. PMID:28592911

Evaluation of the suitability of root cause analysis frameworks for the investigation of community-acquired pressure ulcers: a systematic review and documentary analysis.

PubMed

McGraw, Caroline; Drennan, Vari M

2015-02-01

To evaluate the suitability of root cause analysis frameworks for the investigation of community-acquired pressure ulcers. The objective was to identify the extent to which these frameworks take account of the setting where the ulcer originated as being the person's home rather than a hospital setting. Pressure ulcers involving full-thickness skin loss are increasingly being regarded as indicators of nursing patient safety failure, requiring investigation using root cause analysis frameworks. Evidence suggests that root cause analysis frameworks developed in hospital settings ignore the unique dimensions of risk in home healthcare settings. A systematic literature review and documentary analysis of frameworks used to investigate community-acquired grade three and four pressure ulcers by home nursing services in England. No published papers were identified for inclusion in the review. Fifteen patient safety investigative frameworks were collected and analysed. Twelve of the retrieved frameworks were intended for the investigation of community-acquired pressure ulcers; seven of which took account of the setting where the ulcer originated as being the patient's home. This study provides evidence to suggest that many of the root cause analysis frameworks used to investigate community-acquired pressure ulcers in England are unsuitable for this purpose. This study provides researchers and practitioners with evidence of the need to develop appropriate home nursing root cause analysis frameworks to investigate community-acquired pressure ulcers. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

LIFE CYCLE DESIGN OF AMORPHOUS SILICON PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

EPA Science Inventory

The life cycle design framework was applied to photovoltaic module design. The primary objective of this project was to develop and evaluate design metrics for assessing and guiding the Improvement of PV product systems. Two metrics were used to assess life cycle energy perform...

A data set for evaluating the performance of multi-class multi-object video tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Avishek; Stamatescu, Victor; Wong, Sebastien C.; Wigley, Grant; Kearney, David

2017-05-01

One of the challenges in evaluating multi-object video detection, tracking and classification systems is having publically available data sets with which to compare different systems. However, the measures of performance for tracking and classification are different. Data sets that are suitable for evaluating tracking systems may not be appropriate for classification. Tracking video data sets typically only have ground truth track IDs, while classification video data sets only have ground truth class-label IDs. The former identifies the same object over multiple frames, while the latter identifies the type of object in individual frames. This paper describes an advancement of the ground truth meta-data for the DARPA Neovision2 Tower data set to allow both the evaluation of tracking and classification. The ground truth data sets presented in this paper contain unique object IDs across 5 different classes of object (Car, Bus, Truck, Person, Cyclist) for 24 videos of 871 image frames each. In addition to the object IDs and class labels, the ground truth data also contains the original bounding box coordinates together with new bounding boxes in instances where un-annotated objects were present. The unique IDs are maintained during occlusions between multiple objects or when objects re-enter the field of view. This will provide: a solid foundation for evaluating the performance of multi-object tracking of different types of objects, a straightforward comparison of tracking system performance using the standard Multi Object Tracking (MOT) framework, and classification performance using the Neovision2 metrics. These data have been hosted publically.

NASA System Safety Handbook. Volume 2: System Safety Concepts, Guidelines, and Implementation Examples

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dezfuli, Homayoon; Benjamin, Allan; Everett, Christopher; Feather, Martin; Rutledge, Peter; Sen, Dev; Youngblood, Robert

2015-01-01

This is the second of two volumes that collectively comprise the NASA System Safety Handbook. Volume 1 (NASASP-210-580) was prepared for the purpose of presenting the overall framework for System Safety and for providing the general concepts needed to implement the framework. Volume 2 provides guidance for implementing these concepts as an integral part of systems engineering and risk management. This guidance addresses the following functional areas: 1.The development of objectives that collectively define adequate safety for a system, and the safety requirements derived from these objectives that are levied on the system. 2.The conduct of system safety activities, performed to meet the safety requirements, with specific emphasis on the conduct of integrated safety analysis (ISA) as a fundamental means by which systems engineering and risk management decisions are risk-informed. 3.The development of a risk-informed safety case (RISC) at major milestone reviews to argue that the systems safety objectives are satisfied (and therefore that the system is adequately safe). 4.The evaluation of the RISC (including supporting evidence) using a defined set of evaluation criteria, to assess the veracity of the claims made therein in order to support risk acceptance decisions.

Evaluation of Web Accessibility of Consumer Health Information Websites

PubMed Central

Zeng, Xiaoming; Parmanto, Bambang

2003-01-01

The objectives of the study are to construct a comprehensive framework for web accessibility evaluation, to evaluate the current status of web accessibility of consumer health information websites and to investigate the relationship between web accessibility and property of the websites. We selected 108 consumer health information websites from the directory service of a Web search engine. We used Web accessibility specifications to construct a framework for the measurement of Web Accessibility Barriers (WAB) of website. We found that none of the websites is completely accessible to people with disabilities, but governmental and educational health information websites exhibit better performance on web accessibility than other categories of websites. We also found that the correlation between the WAB score and the popularity of a website is statistically significant. PMID:14728272

Evaluation of web accessibility of consumer health information websites.

PubMed

Zeng, Xiaoming; Parmanto, Bambang

2003-01-01

The objectives of the study are to construct a comprehensive framework for web accessibility evaluation, to evaluate the current status of web accessibility of consumer health information websites and to investigate the relationship between web accessibility and property of the websites. We selected 108 consumer health information websites from the directory service of a Web search engine. We used Web accessibility specifications to construct a framework for the measurement of Web Accessibility Barriers (WAB) of website. We found that none of the websites is completely accessible to people with disabilities, but governmental and educational health information websites exhibit better performance on web accessibility than other categories of websites. We also found that the correlation between the WAB score and the popularity of a website is statistically significant.

A Social Studies Curriculum for a Modern World. The Marin Social Studies Project. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lester, G. Sidney; And Others

The major portion of this report provides a narrative summary and description of the work of the project, its context, evaluation, and recommendations. The major objectives of this three-year project were to: 1) field test and evaluate new K-12 social studies curriculum project materials, and 2) design a new K-12 social studies framework based on…

The 'global health' education framework: a conceptual guide for monitoring, evaluation and practice

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background In the past decades, the increasing importance of and rapid changes in the global health arena have provoked discussions on the implications for the education of health professionals. In the case of Germany, it remains yet unclear whether international or global aspects are sufficiently addressed within medical education. Evaluation challenges exist in Germany and elsewhere due to a lack of conceptual guides to develop, evaluate or assess education in this field. Objective To propose a framework conceptualising 'global health' education (GHE) in practice, to guide the evaluation and monitoring of educational interventions and reforms through a set of key indicators that characterise GHE. Methods Literature review; deduction. Results and Conclusion Currently, 'new' health challenges and educational needs as a result of the globalisation process are discussed and linked to the evolving term 'global health'. The lack of a common definition of this term complicates attempts to analyse global health in the field of education. The proposed GHE framework addresses these problems and presents a set of key characteristics of education in this field. The framework builds on the models of 'social determinants of health' and 'globalisation and health' and is oriented towards 'health for all' and 'health equity'. It provides an action-oriented construct for a bottom-up engagement with global health by the health workforce. Ten indicators are deduced for use in monitoring and evaluation. PMID:21501519

Sociotechnical systems as a framework for regulatory system design and evaluation: Using Work Domain Analysis to examine a new regulatory system.

PubMed

Carden, Tony; Goode, Natassia; Read, Gemma J M; Salmon, Paul M

2017-03-15

Like most work systems, the domain of adventure activities has seen a series of serious incidents and subsequent calls to improve regulation. Safety regulation systems aim to promote safety and reduce accidents. However, there is scant evidence they have led to improved safety outcomes. In fact there is some evidence that the poor integration of regulatory system components has led to adverse safety outcomes in some contexts. Despite this, there is an absence of methods for evaluating regulatory and compliance systems. This article argues that sociotechnical systems theory and methods provide a suitable framework for evaluating regulatory systems. This is demonstrated through an analysis of a recently introduced set of adventure activity regulations. Work Domain Analysis (WDA) was used to describe the regulatory system in terms of its functional purposes, values and priority measures, purpose-related functions, object-related processes and cognitive objects. This allowed judgement to be made on the nature of the new regulatory system and on the constraints that may impact its efficacy following implementation. Importantly, the analysis suggests that the new system's functional purpose of ensuring safe activities is not fully supported in terms of the functions and objects available to fulfil them. Potential improvements to the design of the system are discussed along with the implications for regulatory system design and evaluation across the safety critical domains generally. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Legal framework for food fortification: examples from Vietnam and Indonesia.

PubMed

Dijkhuizen, Marjoleine Amma; Wieringa, Frank Tammo; Soekarjo, Damayanti; Van, Khan Tran; Laillou, Arnaud

2013-06-01

Food fortification is a cost-effective, powerful, and sustainable strategy to combat micronutrient deficiency, with the potential to reach large sections of the population with minimal cost and effort. However, the implementation of food fortification on a systematic and large scale, for instance in national programs, has often been challenging. This paper takes a closer look at food fortification efforts and legislation mechanisms in Vietnam and Indonesia in order to determine specific factors and components in the legal framework that are crucial to the success of fortification programs. Fortification efforts in Indonesia and Vietnam are evaluated using published data as well as unpublished data from detailed evaluation reports, and compared with respect to the specific circumstances, constraints, objectives and results in each country. The legal framework is a crucial factor for the success of food fortification programs, as it shapes to a large extent the implementation of food fortification. The legal framework is instrumental to ensure the quality, safety, availability, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability of food fortification. In the first place, the legal framework should specify the fortificants and fortification levels, as well as the food vehicles and the fortification procedures. In addition, it should ensure the commitment of policy makers and producers to fortification, regulate the costing, describe and ensure information and communication such as product labeling integrate social marketing into the implementation, and provide the means to monitor and enforce fortification. A clear public health objective, together with careful consideration of the choices and restrictions dictated by the specific national environments, will help to develop legal frameworks that optimize the potential success of food fortification strategies. The lessons from these experiences show that a mandatory approach to fortification, with costing, monitoring and enforcement, and social marketing clearly defined and well embedded in the legal framework and in the implementation structures, is the best foundation for an effective, sustainable, and feasible food fortification program.

A Framework for Realistic Modeling and Display of Object Surface Appearance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darling, Benjamin A.

With advances in screen and video hardware technology, the type of content presented on computers has progressed from text and simple shapes to high-resolution photographs, photorealistic renderings, and high-definition video. At the same time, there have been significant advances in the area of content capture, with the development of devices and methods for creating rich digital representations of real-world objects. Unlike photo or video capture, which provide a fixed record of the light in a scene, these new technologies provide information on the underlying properties of the objects, allowing their appearance to be simulated for novel lighting and viewing conditions. These capabilities provide an opportunity to continue the computer display progression, from high-fidelity image presentations to digital surrogates that recreate the experience of directly viewing objects in the real world. In this dissertation, a framework was developed for representing objects with complex color, gloss, and texture properties and displaying them onscreen to appear as if they are part of the real-world environment. At its core, there is a conceptual shift from a traditional image-based display workflow to an object-based one. Instead of presenting the stored patterns of light from a scene, the objective is to reproduce the appearance attributes of a stored object by simulating its dynamic patterns of light for the real viewing and lighting geometry. This is accomplished using a computational approach where the physical light sources are modeled and the observer and display screen are actively tracked. Surface colors are calculated for the real spectral composition of the illumination with a custom multispectral rendering pipeline. In a set of experiments, the accuracy of color and gloss reproduction was evaluated by measuring the screen directly with a spectroradiometer. Gloss reproduction was assessed by comparing gonio measurements of the screen output to measurements of the real samples in the same measurement configuration. A chromatic adaptation experiment was performed to evaluate color appearance in the framework and explore the factors that contribute to differences when viewing self-luminous displays as opposed to reflective objects. A set of sample applications was developed to demonstrate the potential utility of the object display technology for digital proofing, psychophysical testing, and artwork display.

Visual shape perception as Bayesian inference of 3D object-centered shape representations.

PubMed

Erdogan, Goker; Jacobs, Robert A

2017-11-01

Despite decades of research, little is known about how people visually perceive object shape. We hypothesize that a promising approach to shape perception is provided by a "visual perception as Bayesian inference" framework which augments an emphasis on visual representation with an emphasis on the idea that shape perception is a form of statistical inference. Our hypothesis claims that shape perception of unfamiliar objects can be characterized as statistical inference of 3D shape in an object-centered coordinate system. We describe a computational model based on our theoretical framework, and provide evidence for the model along two lines. First, we show that, counterintuitively, the model accounts for viewpoint-dependency of object recognition, traditionally regarded as evidence against people's use of 3D object-centered shape representations. Second, we report the results of an experiment using a shape similarity task, and present an extensive evaluation of existing models' abilities to account for the experimental data. We find that our shape inference model captures subjects' behaviors better than competing models. Taken as a whole, our experimental and computational results illustrate the promise of our approach and suggest that people's shape representations of unfamiliar objects are probabilistic, 3D, and object-centered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

a Novel Framework for Remote Sensing Image Scene Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jiang, S.; Zhao, H.; Wu, W.; Tan, Q.

2018-04-01

High resolution remote sensing (HRRS) images scene classification aims to label an image with a specific semantic category. HRRS images contain more details of the ground objects and their spatial distribution patterns than low spatial resolution images. Scene classification can bridge the gap between low-level features and high-level semantics. It can be applied in urban planning, target detection and other fields. This paper proposes a novel framework for HRRS images scene classification. This framework combines the convolutional neural network (CNN) and XGBoost, which utilizes CNN as feature extractor and XGBoost as a classifier. Then, this framework is evaluated on two different HRRS images datasets: UC-Merced dataset and NWPU-RESISC45 dataset. Our framework achieved satisfying accuracies on two datasets, which is 95.57 % and 83.35 % respectively. From the experiments result, our framework has been proven to be effective for remote sensing images classification. Furthermore, we believe this framework will be more practical for further HRRS scene classification, since it costs less time on training stage.

A Microsoft Kinect-Based Point-of-Care Gait Assessment Framework for Multiple Sclerosis Patients.

PubMed

Gholami, Farnood; Trojan, Daria A; Kovecses, Jozsef; Haddad, Wassim M; Gholami, Behnood

2017-09-01

Gait impairment is a prevalent and important difficulty for patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), a common neurological disorder. An easy to use tool to objectively evaluate gait in MS patients in a clinical setting can assist clinicians to perform an objective assessment. The overall objective of this study is to develop a framework to quantify gait abnormalities in MS patients using the Microsoft Kinect for the Windows sensor; an inexpensive, easy to use, portable camera. Specifically, we aim to evaluate its feasibility for utilization in a clinical setting, assess its reliability, evaluate the validity of gait indices obtained, and evaluate a novel set of gait indices based on the concept of dynamic time warping. In this study, ten ambulatory MS patients, and ten age and sex-matched normal controls were studied at one session in a clinical setting with gait assessment using a Kinect camera. The expanded disability status scale (EDSS) clinical ambulation score was calculated for the MS subjects, and patients completed the Multiple Sclerosis walking scale (MSWS). Based on this study, we established the potential feasibility of using a Microsoft Kinect camera in a clinical setting. Seven out of the eight gait indices obtained using the proposed method were reliable with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from 0.61 to 0.99. All eight MS gait indices were significantly different from those of the controls (p-values less than 0.05). Finally, seven out of the eight MS gait indices were correlated with the objective and subjective gait measures (Pearson's correlation coefficients greater than 0.40). This study shows that the Kinect camera is an easy to use tool to assess gait in MS patients in a clinical setting.

Impact of service quality management (SQM) practices on Indian railways : study of South Central Railways.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-09-01

The main objective of this study is to present a framework developed for assisting Railways to monitor and : control the quality of services provided to passengers. The study evaluated the passenger Rail Service quality of : Indian Railways by develo...

A Framework Incorporating Community Preferences in Use Attainment and Related Water Quality Decision-Making (2010 Final)

EPA Science Inventory

The report is intended to assist water quality officials, watershed managers, members of stakeholder groups, and other interested individuals in fully evaluating ecological and socioeconomic objectives and the gains and losses that often are involved in use attainment decisions. ...

Effectiveness of the Mississippi communities for healthy living (MCHL) nutrition intervention

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The objective of our study was to determine the effectiveness of two nutrition interventions targeting women's social/civic organizations in the Lower Mississippi Delta. Diffusion of Innovation theory and the RE-AIM structured framework for program development and evaluation guided the 6-month MCHL ...

A FRAMEWORK TO DESIGN AND OPTIMIZE CHEMICAL FLOODING PROCESSES

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

Mojdeh Delshad; Gary A. Pope; Kamy Sepehrnoori

2005-07-01

The goal of this proposed research is to provide an efficient and user friendly simulation framework for screening and optimizing chemical/microbial enhanced oil recovery processes. The framework will include (1) a user friendly interface to identify the variables that have the most impact on oil recovery using the concept of experimental design and response surface maps, (2) UTCHEM reservoir simulator to perform the numerical simulations, and (3) an economic model that automatically imports the simulation production data to evaluate the profitability of a particular design. Such a reservoir simulation framework is not currently available to the oil industry. The objectivesmore » of Task 1 are to develop three primary modules representing reservoir, chemical, and well data. The modules will be interfaced with an already available experimental design model. The objective of the Task 2 is to incorporate UTCHEM reservoir simulator and the modules with the strategic variables and developing the response surface maps to identify the significant variables from each module. The objective of the Task 3 is to develop the economic model designed specifically for the chemical processes targeted in this proposal and interface the economic model with UTCHEM production output. Task 4 is on the validation of the framework and performing simulations of oil reservoirs to screen, design and optimize the chemical processes.« less

A Framework to Design and Optimize Chemical Flooding Processes

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

Mojdeh Delshad; Gary A. Pope; Kamy Sepehrnoori

2006-08-31

The goal of this proposed research is to provide an efficient and user friendly simulation framework for screening and optimizing chemical/microbial enhanced oil recovery processes. The framework will include (1) a user friendly interface to identify the variables that have the most impact on oil recovery using the concept of experimental design and response surface maps, (2) UTCHEM reservoir simulator to perform the numerical simulations, and (3) an economic model that automatically imports the simulation production data to evaluate the profitability of a particular design. Such a reservoir simulation framework is not currently available to the oil industry. The objectivesmore » of Task 1 are to develop three primary modules representing reservoir, chemical, and well data. The modules will be interfaced with an already available experimental design model. The objective of the Task 2 is to incorporate UTCHEM reservoir simulator and the modules with the strategic variables and developing the response surface maps to identify the significant variables from each module. The objective of the Task 3 is to develop the economic model designed specifically for the chemical processes targeted in this proposal and interface the economic model with UTCHEM production output. Task 4 is on the validation of the framework and performing simulations of oil reservoirs to screen, design and optimize the chemical processes.« less

A FRAMEWORK TO DESIGN AND OPTIMIZE CHEMICAL FLOODING PROCESSES

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

Mojdeh Delshad; Gary A. Pope; Kamy Sepehrnoori

2004-11-01

The goal of this proposed research is to provide an efficient and user friendly simulation framework for screening and optimizing chemical/microbial enhanced oil recovery processes. The framework will include (1) a user friendly interface to identify the variables that have the most impact on oil recovery using the concept of experimental design and response surface maps, (2) UTCHEM reservoir simulator to perform the numerical simulations, and (3) an economic model that automatically imports the simulation production data to evaluate the profitability of a particular design. Such a reservoir simulation framework is not currently available to the oil industry. The objectivesmore » of Task 1 are to develop three primary modules representing reservoir, chemical, and well data. The modules will be interfaced with an already available experimental design model. The objective of the Task 2 is to incorporate UTCHEM reservoir simulator and the modules with the strategic variables and developing the response surface maps to identify the significant variables from each module. The objective of the Task 3 is to develop the economic model designed specifically for the chemical processes targeted in this proposal and interface the economic model with UTCHEM production output. Task 4 is on the validation of the framework and performing simulations of oil reservoirs to screen, design and optimize the chemical processes.« less

Framework for Architecture Trade Study Using MBSE and Performance Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ryan, Jessica; Sarkani, Shahram; Mazzuchim, Thomas

2012-01-01

Increasing complexity in modern systems as well as cost and schedule constraints require a new paradigm of system engineering to fulfill stakeholder needs. Challenges facing efficient trade studies include poor tool interoperability, lack of simulation coordination (design parameters) and requirements flowdown. A recent trend toward Model Based System Engineering (MBSE) includes flexible architecture definition, program documentation, requirements traceability and system engineering reuse. As a new domain MBSE still lacks governing standards and commonly accepted frameworks. This paper proposes a framework for efficient architecture definition using MBSE in conjunction with Domain Specific simulation to evaluate trade studies. A general framework is provided followed with a specific example including a method for designing a trade study, defining candidate architectures, planning simulations to fulfill requirements and finally a weighted decision analysis to optimize system objectives.

Challenges in Evaluating Clinical Governance Systems in Iran: A Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Hooshmand, Elaheh; Tourani, Sogand; Ravaghi, Hamid; Ebrahimipour, Hossein

2014-01-01

Background: In spite of the pivotal role of clinical governance in enhancing quality of services provided by hospitals across the country, a scientific framework with specific criteria for evaluating hospitals has not been developed so far. Objectives: This study was conducted with the aim to identify the challenges involved in evaluating systems of clinical governance in Iran. Materials and Methods: For the purposes of this qualitative study, 15 semi-structured interviews with experts in the field were conducted in 2011 and the data were analyzed using framework analysis method. Results: Five major challenges in evaluating clinical governance include managing human resources, improving clinical quality, managing development, organizing clinical governance, and providing patient-oriented healthcare system. Conclusions: Healthcare system in Iran requires a clinical governance program which has a patient-oriented approach in philosophy, operation, and effectiveness in order to meet the challenges ahead. PMID:24910799

Teaching Assistant Professional Development in Biology: Designed for and Driven by Multidimensional Data

PubMed Central

Long, Tammy M.; Ebert-May, Diane

2014-01-01

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are increasingly responsible for instruction in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Various professional development (PD) programs have been developed and implemented to prepare TAs for this role, but data about effectiveness are lacking and are derived almost exclusively from self-reported surveys. In this study, we describe the design of a reformed PD (RPD) model and apply Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Framework to evaluate multiple outcomes of TA PD before, during, and after implementing RPD. This framework allows evaluation that includes both direct measures and self-reported data. In RPD, TAs created and aligned learning objectives and assessments and incorporated more learner-centered instructional practices in their teaching. However, these data are inconsistent with TAs’ self-reported perceptions about RPD and suggest that single measures are insufficient to evaluate TA PD programs. PMID:26086654

A framework for assessing Health Economic Evaluation (HEE) quality appraisal instruments.

PubMed

Langer, Astrid

2012-08-16

Health economic evaluations support the health care decision-making process by providing information on costs and consequences of health interventions. The quality of such studies is assessed by health economic evaluation (HEE) quality appraisal instruments. At present, there is no instrument for measuring and improving the quality of such HEE quality appraisal instruments. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to establish a framework for assessing the quality of HEE quality appraisal instruments to support and improve their quality, and to apply this framework to those HEE quality appraisal instruments which have been subject to more scrutiny than others, in order to test the framework and to demonstrate the shortcomings of existing HEE quality appraisal instruments. To develop the quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments, the experiences of using appraisal tools for clinical guidelines are used. Based on a deductive iterative process, clinical guideline appraisal instruments identified through literature search are reviewed, consolidated, and adapted to produce the final quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments. The final quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments consists of 36 items organized within 7 dimensions, each of which captures a specific domain of quality. Applying the quality assessment framework to four existing HEE quality appraisal instruments, it is found that these four quality appraisal instruments are of variable quality. The framework described in this study should be regarded as a starting point for appraising the quality of HEE quality appraisal instruments. This framework can be used by HEE quality appraisal instrument producers to support and improve the quality and acceptance of existing and future HEE quality appraisal instruments. By applying this framework, users of HEE quality appraisal instruments can become aware of methodological deficiencies inherent in existing HEE quality appraisal instruments. These shortcomings of existing HEE quality appraisal instruments are illustrated by the pilot test.

A framework for assessing Health Economic Evaluation (HEE) quality appraisal instruments

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

Background Health economic evaluations support the health care decision-making process by providing information on costs and consequences of health interventions. The quality of such studies is assessed by health economic evaluation (HEE) quality appraisal instruments. At present, there is no instrument for measuring and improving the quality of such HEE quality appraisal instruments. Therefore, the objectives of this study are to establish a framework for assessing the quality of HEE quality appraisal instruments to support and improve their quality, and to apply this framework to those HEE quality appraisal instruments which have been subject to more scrutiny than others, in order to test the framework and to demonstrate the shortcomings of existing HEE quality appraisal instruments. Methods To develop the quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments, the experiences of using appraisal tools for clinical guidelines are used. Based on a deductive iterative process, clinical guideline appraisal instruments identified through literature search are reviewed, consolidated, and adapted to produce the final quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments. Results The final quality assessment framework for HEE quality appraisal instruments consists of 36 items organized within 7 dimensions, each of which captures a specific domain of quality. Applying the quality assessment framework to four existing HEE quality appraisal instruments, it is found that these four quality appraisal instruments are of variable quality. Conclusions The framework described in this study should be regarded as a starting point for appraising the quality of HEE quality appraisal instruments. This framework can be used by HEE quality appraisal instrument producers to support and improve the quality and acceptance of existing and future HEE quality appraisal instruments. By applying this framework, users of HEE quality appraisal instruments can become aware of methodological deficiencies inherent in existing HEE quality appraisal instruments. These shortcomings of existing HEE quality appraisal instruments are illustrated by the pilot test. PMID:22894708

A conceptual framework for evaluation of public health and primary care system performance in iran.

PubMed

Jahanmehr, Nader; Rashidian, Arash; Khosravi, Ardeshir; Farzadfar, Farshad; Shariati, Mohammad; Majdzadeh, Reza; Akbari Sari, Ali; Mesdaghinia, Alireza

2015-01-26

The main objective of this study was to design a conceptual framework, according to the policies and priorities of the ministry of health to evaluate provincial public health and primary care performance and to assess their share in the overall health impacts of the community. We used several tools and techniques, including system thinking, literature review to identify relevant attributes of health system performance framework and interview with the key stakeholders. The PubMed, Scopus, web of science, Google Scholar and two specialized databases of Persian language literature (IranMedex and SID) were searched using main terms and keywords. Following decision-making and collective agreement among the different stakeholders, 51 core indicators were chosen from among 602 obtained indicators in a four stage process, for monitoring and evaluation of Health Deputies. We proposed a conceptual framework by identifying the performance area for Health Deputies between other determinants of health, as well as introducing a chain of results, for performance, consisting of Input, Process, Output and Outcome indicators. We also proposed 5 dimensions for measuring the performance of Health Deputies, consisting of efficiency, effectiveness, equity, access and improvement of health status. The proposed Conceptual Framework illustrates clearly the Health Deputies success in achieving best results and consequences of health in the country. Having the relative commitment of the ministry of health and Health Deputies at the University of Medical Sciences is essential for full implementation of this framework and providing the annual performance report.

Many-objective robust decision making for water allocation under climate change.

PubMed

Yan, Dan; Ludwig, Fulco; Huang, He Qing; Werners, Saskia E

2017-12-31

Water allocation is facing profound challenges due to climate change uncertainties. To identify adaptive water allocation strategies that are robust to climate change uncertainties, a model framework combining many-objective robust decision making and biophysical modeling is developed for large rivers. The framework was applied to the Pearl River basin (PRB), China where sufficient flow to the delta is required to reduce saltwater intrusion in the dry season. Before identifying and assessing robust water allocation plans for the future, the performance of ten state-of-the-art MOEAs (multi-objective evolutionary algorithms) is evaluated for the water allocation problem in the PRB. The Borg multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (Borg MOEA), which is a self-adaptive optimization algorithm, has the best performance during the historical periods. Therefore it is selected to generate new water allocation plans for the future (2079-2099). This study shows that robust decision making using carefully selected MOEAs can help limit saltwater intrusion in the Pearl River Delta. However, the framework could perform poorly due to larger than expected climate change impacts on water availability. Results also show that subjective design choices from the researchers and/or water managers could potentially affect the ability of the model framework, and cause the most robust water allocation plans to fail under future climate change. Developing robust allocation plans in a river basin suffering from increasing water shortage requires the researchers and water managers to well characterize future climate change of the study regions and vulnerabilities of their tools. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experience with low-cost telemedicine in three different settings. Recommendations based on a proposed framework for network performance evaluation

PubMed Central

Wootton, Richard; Vladzymyrskyy, Anton; Zolfo, Maria; Bonnardot, Laurent

2011-01-01

Background Telemedicine has been used for many years to support doctors in the developing world. Several networks provide services in different settings and in different ways. However, to draw conclusions about which telemedicine networks are successful requires a method of evaluating them. No general consensus or validated framework exists for this purpose. Objective To define a basic method of performance measurement that can be used to improve and compare teleconsultation networks; to employ the proposed framework in an evaluation of three existing networks; to make recommendations about the future implementation and follow-up of such networks. Methods Analysis based on the experience of three telemedicine networks (in operation for 7–10 years) that provide services to doctors in low-resource settings and which employ the same basic design. Findings Although there are many possible indicators and metrics that might be relevant, five measures for each of the three user groups appear to be sufficient for the proposed framework. In addition, from the societal perspective, information about clinical- and cost-effectiveness is also required. The proposed performance measurement framework was applied to three mature telemedicine networks. Despite their differences in terms of activity, size and objectives, their performance in certain respects is very similar. For example, the time to first reply from an expert is about 24 hours for each network. Although all three networks had systems in place to collect data from the user perspective, none of them collected information about the coordinator's time required or about ease of system usage. They had only limited information about quality and cost. Conclusion Measuring the performance of a telemedicine network is essential in understanding whether the network is working as intended and what effect it is having. Based on long-term field experience, the suggested framework is a practical tool that will permit organisations to assess the performance of their own networks and to improve them by comparison with others. All telemedicine systems should provide information about setup and running costs because cost-effectiveness is crucial for sustainability. PMID:22162965

An operational structured decision making framework for ...

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

Pressure to develop an operational framework for decision makers to employ the concepts of ecosystem goods and services for assessing changes to human well-being has been increasing since these concepts gained widespread notoriety after the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report. Many conceptual frameworks have been proposed, but most do not propose methodologies and tools to make this approach to decision making implementable. Building on common components of existing conceptual frameworks for ecosystem services and human well-being assessment we apply a structured decision making approach to develop a standardized operational framework and suggest tools and methods for completing each step. The structured decision making approach consists of six steps: 1) Clarify the Decision Context 2) Define Objectives and Evaluation Criteria 3) Develop Alternatives 4) Estimate Consequences 5) Evaluate Trade-Offs and Select and 6) Implement and Monitor. These six steps include the following activities, and suggested tools, when applied to ecosystem goods and services and human well-being conceptual frameworks: 1) Characterization of decision specific human beneficiaries using the Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) approach and Classification System (FEGS-CS) 2) Determine beneficiaries’ relative priorities for human well-being domains in the Human Well-Being Index (HWBI) through stakeholder engagement and identify beneficiary-relevant metrics of FEGS using the Nat

Development and implications of technology in reform-based physics laboratories

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Sufen; Lo, Hao-Chang; Lin, Jing-Wen; Liang, Jyh-Chong; Chang, Hsin-Yi; Hwang, Fu-Kwun; Chiou, Guo-Li; Wu, Ying-Tien; Lee, Silvia Wen-Yu; Wu, Hsin-Kai; Wang, Chia-Yu; Tsai, Chin-Chung

2012-12-01

Technology has been widely involved in science research. Researchers are now applying it to science education in an attempt to bring students’ science activities closer to authentic science activities. The present study synthesizes the research to discuss the development of technology-enhanced laboratories and how technology may contribute to fulfilling the instructional objectives of laboratories in physics. To be more specific, this paper discusses the engagement of technology to innovate physics laboratories and the potential of technology to promote inquiry, instructor and peer interaction, and learning outcomes. We then construct a framework for teachers, scientists, and programmers to guide and evaluate technology-integrated laboratories. The framework includes inquiry learning and openness supported by technology, ways of conducting laboratories, and the diverse learning objectives on which a technology-integrated laboratory may be focused.

Impact of reconstruction strategies on system performance measures : maximizing safety and mobility while minimizing life-cycle costs : final report, December 8, 2008.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-12-08

The objective of this research is to develop a general methodological framework for planning and : evaluating the effectiveness of highway reconstruction strategies on the systems performance : measures, in particular safety, mobility, and the tot...

GESTALT: A Framework for Redesign of Educational Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puustinen, M.; Baker, M.; Lund, K.

2006-01-01

Design of educational multimedia rarely starts from scratch, but rather by attempting to reuse existing software. Although redesign has been an issue in research on evaluation and on learning objects, how it should be carried out in a principled way has remained relatively unexplored. Furthermore, understanding how empirical research on…

A framework to build scientific confidence in read across results. (SOT CE course presentation)

EPA Science Inventory

Read-across acceptance is remains a major hurdle primarily due to the lack of objectivity and clarity on how to practically address uncertainties. One avenue that can be exploited to build scientific confidence in the development and evaluation of read-across is by taking advant...

Providing Demonstrable Return-on-Investment for Organisational Learning and Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elliott, Michael; Dawson, Ray; Edwards, Janet

2009-01-01

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to present a holistic approach to training, that clearly demonstrates cost savings with improved effectiveness and efficiencies that are aligned to business objectives. Design/methodology/approach: Extending Kirkpatrick's evaluation framework with Phillips's return-on-investment (ROI) concepts, the paper conveys a…

Engagement Theory in Action: An Investigation of Athletic Training Program Directors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peer, Kimberly S.

2007-01-01

Objective: To examine the use of good practice indicators by athletic training program directors and to provide a theoretical framework using engagement theory, a learner-centered process focusing on program improvement through continuous planning and evaluation, as a foundation for implementing good practices in athletic training education…

ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK FOR MID-ATLANTIC COASTAL PLAIN STREAMS USING BENTHIC MACRO INVERTEBRATES

EPA Science Inventory

A collaborative study among 6 states along the mid-Atlantic seaboard of the USA developed a consistent approach for collecting and interpreting macroinvertebrate data for low-gradient streams of the coastal plain. The study had 3 objectives: 1) to evaluate the validity of aggrega...

AN INDICATOR OF FOREST DYNAMICS USING A SHIFTING LANDSCAPE MOSAIC

EPA Science Inventory

The composition of a landscape is a fundamental indicator in land-cover pattern assessments. The objective of this paper was to evaluate a landscape composition indicator called ‘landscape mosaic’ as a framework for interpreting land-cover dynamics over a 9-year period in a 360,...

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

Wallace Tyner

The project had three main objectives: to build and incorporate an explicit biomass energy sector within the GTAP analytical framework and data base; to provide an analysis of the impact of renewable fuel standards and other policies in the U.S. and E.U, as well as alternative biofuel policies in other parts of the world, on changes in production, prices, consumption, trade and poverty; and to evaluate environmental impacts of alternative policies for bioenergy development. Progress and outputs related to each objective are reported.

Deep learning for media analysis in defense scenariosan evaluation of an open source framework for object detection in intelligence related image sets

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-06-01

Training time statistics from Jones’ thesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Table 2.2 Evaluation runtime statistics from Camp’s thesis for a single image. 17...Table 2.3 Training and evaluation runtime statistics from Sharpe’s thesis. . . 19 Table 2.4 Sharpe’s screenshot detector results for combinations of...training resources available and time required for each algorithm Jones [15] tested. Table 2.1. Training time statistics from Jones’ [15] thesis. Algorithm

Proposal of a Framework for Internet Based Licensing of Learning Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Santos, Osvaldo A.; Ramos, Fernando M. S.

2004-01-01

This paper presents a proposal of a framework whose main objective is to manage the delivery and rendering of learning objects in a digital rights controlled environment. The framework is based on a digital licensing scheme that requires each learning object to have the proper license in order to be rendered by a trusted player. A conceptual model…

Global dynamic optimization approach to predict activation in metabolic pathways.

PubMed

de Hijas-Liste, Gundián M; Klipp, Edda; Balsa-Canto, Eva; Banga, Julio R

2014-01-06

During the last decade, a number of authors have shown that the genetic regulation of metabolic networks may follow optimality principles. Optimal control theory has been successfully used to compute optimal enzyme profiles considering simple metabolic pathways. However, applying this optimal control framework to more general networks (e.g. branched networks, or networks incorporating enzyme production dynamics) yields problems that are analytically intractable and/or numerically very challenging. Further, these previous studies have only considered a single-objective framework. In this work we consider a more general multi-objective formulation and we present solutions based on recent developments in global dynamic optimization techniques. We illustrate the performance and capabilities of these techniques considering two sets of problems. First, we consider a set of single-objective examples of increasing complexity taken from the recent literature. We analyze the multimodal character of the associated non linear optimization problems, and we also evaluate different global optimization approaches in terms of numerical robustness, efficiency and scalability. Second, we consider generalized multi-objective formulations for several examples, and we show how this framework results in more biologically meaningful results. The proposed strategy was used to solve a set of single-objective case studies related to unbranched and branched metabolic networks of different levels of complexity. All problems were successfully solved in reasonable computation times with our global dynamic optimization approach, reaching solutions which were comparable or better than those reported in previous literature. Further, we considered, for the first time, multi-objective formulations, illustrating how activation in metabolic pathways can be explained in terms of the best trade-offs between conflicting objectives. This new methodology can be applied to metabolic networks with arbitrary topologies, non-linear dynamics and constraints.

Using a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to determine product usability: A proposed theoretical framework

PubMed Central

Zhou, Ronggang; Chan, Alan H. S.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: In order to compare existing usability data to ideal goals or to that for other products, usability practitioners have tried to develop a framework for deriving an integrated metric. However, most current usability methods with this aim rely heavily on human judgment about the various attributes of a product, but often fail to take into account of the inherent uncertainties in these judgments in the evaluation process. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a universal method of usability evaluation by combining the analytic hierarchical process (AHP) and the fuzzy evaluation method. By integrating multiple sources of uncertain information during product usability evaluation, the method proposed here aims to derive an index that is structured hierarchically in terms of the three usability components of effectiveness, efficiency, and user satisfaction of a product. METHODS: With consideration of the theoretical basis of fuzzy evaluation, a two-layer comprehensive evaluation index was first constructed. After the membership functions were determined by an expert panel, the evaluation appraisals were computed by using the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation technique model to characterize fuzzy human judgments. Then with the use of AHP, the weights of usability components were elicited from these experts. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Compared to traditional usability evaluation methods, the major strength of the fuzzy method is that it captures the fuzziness and uncertainties in human judgments and provides an integrated framework that combines the vague judgments from multiple stages of a product evaluation process. PMID:28035943

A systematic review of leadership training for medical students.

PubMed

Lyons, Oscar; Su'a, Bruce; Locke, Michelle; Hill, Andrew

2018-01-19

Leadership is increasingly being recognised as an essential requirement for doctors. Many medical schools are in the process of developing formal leadership training programmes, but it remains to be elucidated what characteristics make such programmes effective, and to what extent current programmes are effective, beyond merely positive learner reactions. This review's objective was to investigate the effectiveness of undergraduate medical leadership curricula and to explore common features of effective curricula. A systematic literature search was conducted. Articles describing and evaluating undergraduate medical leadership curricula were included. Outcomes were stratified and analysed according to a modified Kirkpatrick's model for evaluating educational outcomes. Eleven studies met inclusion criteria. Leadership curricula evaluated were markedly heterogeneous in their duration and composition. The majority of studies utilised pre- and post- intervention questionnaires for evaluation. Two studies described randomised controlled trials with objective measures. Outcomes were broadly positive. Only one study reported neutral outcomes. A wide range of leadership curricula have shown subjective effectiveness, including short interventions. There is limited objective evidence however, and few studies have measured effectiveness at the system and patient levels. Further research is needed investigating objective and downstream outcomes, and use of standard frameworks for evaluation will facilitate effective comparison of initiatives.

An evaluation of a new instrument to measure organisational safety culture values and practices.

PubMed

Díaz-Cabrera, D; Hernández-Fernaud, E; Isla-Díaz, R

2007-11-01

The main aim of this research is to evaluate a safety culture measuring instrument centred upon relevant organisational values and practices related to the safety management system. Seven dimensions that reflect underlying safety meanings are proposed. A second objective is to explore the four cultural orientations in the field of safety arising from the competing values framework. The study sample consisted of 299 participants from five companies in different sectors. The results show six dimensions of organisational values and practices and different company profiles in the organisations studied. The four cultural orientations proposed by the competing values framework are not confirmed. Nevertheless, a coexistence of diverse cultural orientations or paradoxes in the companies is observed.

Tracking-Learning-Detection.

PubMed

Kalal, Zdenek; Mikolajczyk, Krystian; Matas, Jiri

2012-07-01

This paper investigates long-term tracking of unknown objects in a video stream. The object is defined by its location and extent in a single frame. In every frame that follows, the task is to determine the object's location and extent or indicate that the object is not present. We propose a novel tracking framework (TLD) that explicitly decomposes the long-term tracking task into tracking, learning, and detection. The tracker follows the object from frame to frame. The detector localizes all appearances that have been observed so far and corrects the tracker if necessary. The learning estimates the detector's errors and updates it to avoid these errors in the future. We study how to identify the detector's errors and learn from them. We develop a novel learning method (P-N learning) which estimates the errors by a pair of "experts": (1) P-expert estimates missed detections, and (2) N-expert estimates false alarms. The learning process is modeled as a discrete dynamical system and the conditions under which the learning guarantees improvement are found. We describe our real-time implementation of the TLD framework and the P-N learning. We carry out an extensive quantitative evaluation which shows a significant improvement over state-of-the-art approaches.

Virtual Workshop Environment (VWE): A Taxonomy and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Framework for Modularized Virtual Learning Environments (VLE)--Applying the Learning Object Concept to the VLE

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paulsson, Fredrik; Naeve, Ambjorn

2006-01-01

Based on existing Learning Object taxonomies, this article suggests an alternative Learning Object taxonomy, combined with a general Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework, aiming to transfer the modularized concept of Learning Objects to modularized Virtual Learning Environments. The taxonomy and SOA-framework exposes a need for a clearer…

Using a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method to determine product usability: A test case

PubMed Central

Zhou, Ronggang; Chan, Alan H. S.

2016-01-01

BACKGROUND: In order to take into account the inherent uncertainties during product usability evaluation, Zhou and Chan [1] proposed a comprehensive method of usability evaluation for products by combining the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy evaluation methods for synthesizing performance data and subjective response data. This method was designed to provide an integrated framework combining the inevitable vague judgments from the multiple stages of the product evaluation process. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the model, this study used a summative usability test case to assess the application and strength of the general fuzzy usability framework. To test the proposed fuzzy usability evaluation framework [1], a standard summative usability test was conducted to benchmark the overall usability of a specific network management software. Based on the test data, the fuzzy method was applied to incorporate both the usability scores and uncertainties involved in the multiple components of the evaluation. Then, with Monte Carlo simulation procedures, confidence intervals were used to compare the reliabilities among the fuzzy approach and two typical conventional methods combining metrics based on percentages. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: This case study showed that the fuzzy evaluation technique can be applied successfully for combining summative usability testing data to achieve an overall usability quality for the network software evaluated. Greater differences of confidence interval widths between the method of averaging equally percentage and weighted evaluation method, including the method of weighted percentage averages, verified the strength of the fuzzy method. PMID:28035942

A model to evaluate quality and effectiveness of disease management.

PubMed

Lemmens, K M M; Nieboer, A P; van Schayck, C P; Asin, J D; Huijsman, R

2008-12-01

Disease management has emerged as a new strategy to enhance quality of care for patients suffering from chronic conditions, and to control healthcare costs. So far, however, the effects of this strategy remain unclear. Although current models define the concept of disease management, they do not provide a systematic development or an explanatory theory of how disease management affects the outcomes of care. The objective of this paper is to present a framework for valid evaluation of disease-management initiatives. The evaluation model is built on two pillars of disease management: patient-related and professional-directed interventions. The effectiveness of these interventions is thought to be affected by the organisational design of the healthcare system. Disease management requires a multifaceted approach; hence disease-management programme evaluations should focus on the effects of multiple interventions, namely patient-related, professional-directed and organisational interventions. The framework has been built upon the conceptualisation of these disease-management interventions. Analysis of the underlying mechanisms of these interventions revealed that learning and behavioural theories support the core assumptions of disease management. The evaluation model can be used to identify the components of disease-management programmes and the mechanisms behind them, making valid comparison feasible. In addition, this model links the programme interventions to indicators that can be used to evaluate the disease-management programme. Consistent use of this framework will enable comparisons among disease-management programmes and outcomes in evaluation research.

Data analysis environment (DASH2000) for the Subaru telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mizumoto, Yoshihiko; Yagi, Masafumi; Chikada, Yoshihiro; Ogasawara, Ryusuke; Kosugi, George; Takata, Tadafumi; Yoshida, Michitoshi; Ishihara, Yasuhide; Yanaka, Hiroshi; Yamamoto, Tadahiro; Morita, Yasuhiro; Nakamoto, Hiroyuki

2000-06-01

New framework of data analysis system (DASH) has been developed for the SUBARU Telescope. It is designed using object-oriented methodology and adopted a restaurant model. DASH shares the load of CPU and I/O among distributed heterogeneous computers. The distributed object environment of the system is implemented with JAVA and CORBA. DASH has been evaluated by several prototypings. DASH2000 is the latest version, which will be released as the beta version of data analysis system for the SUBARU Telescope.

Developing a Conceptual Framework for Evaluation of E-Content of Virtual Courses: E-Learning Center of an Iranian University Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akhavan, Peyman; Arefi, Majid Feyz

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to obtain suitable quality criteria for evaluation of electronic content for virtual courses. We attempt to find the aspects which are important in developing e-content for virtual courses and to determine the criteria we need to judge for the quality and efficiency of learning objects and e-content. So we can classify…

Probabilistic Evaluation of Ecological and Economic Objectives of River Basin Management Reveals a Potential Flaw in the Goal Setting of the EU Water Framework Directive

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hjerppe, Turo; Taskinen, Antti; Kotamäki, Niina; Malve, Olli; Kettunen, Juhani

2017-04-01

The biological status of European lakes has not improved as expected despite up-to-date legislation and ecological standards. As a result, the realism of objectives and the attainment of related ecological standards are under doubt. This paper gets to the bottom of a river basin management plan of a eutrophic lake in Finland and presents the ecological and economic impacts of environmental and societal drivers and planned management measures. For these purposes, we performed a Monte Carlo simulation of a diffuse nutrient load, lake water quality and cost-benefit models. Simulations were integrated into a Bayesian influence diagram that revealed the basic uncertainties. It turned out that the attainment of good ecological status as qualified in the Water Framework Directive of the European Union is unlikely within given socio-economic constraints. Therefore, management objectives and ecological and economic standards need to be reassessed and reset to provide a realistic goal setting for management. More effort should be put into the evaluation of the total monetary benefits and on the monitoring of lake phosphorus balances to reduce the uncertainties, and the resulting margin of safety and costs and risks of planned management measures.

Probabilistic Evaluation of Ecological and Economic Objectives of River Basin Management Reveals a Potential Flaw in the Goal Setting of the EU Water Framework Directive.

PubMed

Hjerppe, Turo; Taskinen, Antti; Kotamäki, Niina; Malve, Olli; Kettunen, Juhani

2017-04-01

The biological status of European lakes has not improved as expected despite up-to-date legislation and ecological standards. As a result, the realism of objectives and the attainment of related ecological standards are under doubt. This paper gets to the bottom of a river basin management plan of a eutrophic lake in Finland and presents the ecological and economic impacts of environmental and societal drivers and planned management measures. For these purposes, we performed a Monte Carlo simulation of a diffuse nutrient load, lake water quality and cost-benefit models. Simulations were integrated into a Bayesian influence diagram that revealed the basic uncertainties. It turned out that the attainment of good ecological status as qualified in the Water Framework Directive of the European Union is unlikely within given socio-economic constraints. Therefore, management objectives and ecological and economic standards need to be reassessed and reset to provide a realistic goal setting for management. More effort should be put into the evaluation of the total monetary benefits and on the monitoring of lake phosphorus balances to reduce the uncertainties, and the resulting margin of safety and costs and risks of planned management measures.

Participatory modeling and structured decision making

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robinson, Kelly F.; Fuller, Angela K.

2016-01-01

Structured decision making (SDM) provides a framework for making sound decisions even when faced with uncertainty, and is a transparent, defensible, and replicable method used to understand complex problems. A hallmark of SDM is the explicit incorporation of values and science, which often includes participation from multiple stakeholders, helping to garner trust and ultimately result in a decision that is more likely to be implemented. The core steps in the SDM process are used to structure thinking about natural resources management choices, and include: (1) properly defining the problem and the decision context, (2) determining the objectives that help describe the aspirations of the decision maker, (3) devising management actions or alternatives that can achieve those objectives, (4) evaluating the outcomes or consequences of each alternative on each of the objectives, (5) evaluating trade-offs, and (6) implementing the decision. Participatory modeling for SDM includes engaging stakeholders in some or all of the steps of the SDM process listed above. In addition, participatory modeling often is crucial for creating qualitative and quantitative models of how the system works, providing data for these models, and eliciting expert opinion when data are unavailable. In these ways, SDM provides a framework for decision making in natural resources management that includes participation from stakeholder groups throughout the process, including the modeling phase.

Comprehensive, Process-based Identification of Hydrologic Models using Satellite and In-situ Water Storage Data: A Multi-objective calibration Approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abdo Yassin, Fuad; Wheater, Howard; Razavi, Saman; Sapriza, Gonzalo; Davison, Bruce; Pietroniro, Alain

2015-04-01

The credible identification of vertical and horizontal hydrological components and their associated parameters is very challenging (if not impossible) by only constraining the model to streamflow data, especially in regions where the vertical processes significantly dominate the horizontal processes. The prairie areas of the Saskatchewan River basin, a major water system in Canada, demonstrate such behavior, where the hydrologic connectivity and vertical fluxes are mainly controlled by the amount of surface and sub-surface water storages. In this study, we develop a framework for distributed hydrologic model identification and calibration that jointly constrains the model response (i.e., streamflows) as well as a set of model state variables (i.e., water storages) to observations. This framework is set up in the form of multi-objective optimization, where multiple performance criteria are defined and used to simultaneously evaluate the fidelity of the model to streamflow observations and observed (estimated) changes of water storage in the gridded landscape over daily and monthly time scales. The time series of estimated changes in total water storage (including soil, canopy, snow and pond storages) used in this study were derived from an experimental study enhanced by the information obtained from the GRACE satellite. We test this framework on the calibration of a Land Surface Scheme-Hydrology model, called MESH (Modélisation Environmentale Communautaire - Surface and Hydrology), for the Saskatchewan River basin. Pareto Archived Dynamically Dimensioned Search (PA-DDS) is used as the multi-objective optimization engine. The significance of using the developed framework is demonstrated in comparison with the results obtained through a conventional calibration approach to streamflow observations. The approach of incorporating water storage data into the model identification process can more potentially constrain the posterior parameter space, more comprehensively evaluate the model fidelity, and yield more credible predictions.

La Educacion Continua de Profesionales de la Salud--Un Modelo para su Desarrollo

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stensland, Per G.

1974-01-01

The author suggests a framework for planning and evaluating continuing education, giving attention to the learner, his objectives, and the learning process; these components are discussed in determining the special characteristics of the continuing education of professional health workers, and a model program is presented. The article is in…

A Digital Program Informs Low-Income Caregivers of Preschool-Age Children about Family Meals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lohse, Barbara; Rifkin, Robin; Arnold, Kristen; Least, Christine

2012-01-01

Objective: To evaluate the digital program, "Mealtime is Family Time", as a means of educating caregivers of preschoolers on the importance of family meals within the division of feeding responsibility framework. Methods: Descriptive design using 2 approaches: focus group program review and discussion or self-report survey after independent…

Integrating Comparative Research on Global Instructional Practices in Pre-Service Early Childhood Education Science Course Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Medlin, Dorene

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of internationalizing a curricular component of the class on preservice teachers. By realigning course objectives and including a content specific Albany State University internationalization initiative framework, the project evaluated the impact on preservice teacher knowledge of culturally…

A Conceptual Framework for Consumers' Education: Teacher Education Module 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Florida State Dept. of Education, Tallahassee.

The document is the second in a series of four competency-based inservice teacher education modules in consumer education. The main objective of the program is to assist curriculum developers and elementary and secondary classroom teachers as they plan, develop, implement, and evaluate a multidisciplinary consumer education program. The present…

Command and Control Rapid Prototyping Continuum (C2RPC): The Framework for Achieving a New C2 Strategy

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-01

Sync Matrix Assessing J/ADOCS (Fires) TBMCS (ATO) Executing Monitoring (SA) C2 Strategy Objectives • Provide Expanded Mission Management...Computers, and Intelligence T&E Test and Evaluation PMW150 Program Warfare Office Command and Control TBMCS Theater Battle Management Core System POR

An Ethnographic Approach to Syllabus Design: A Case Study of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramani, Esther; And Others

1988-01-01

Argues for an ethnographic reorientation to needs analysis and syllabus design in English for specific purposes in advanced postgraduate centers of science and technology. The seven-stage framework (specify learners, analyze needs, specify enabling objectives, select materials, identify teaching/learning activities, evaluate, and revise) used to…

Multi-class geospatial object detection and geographic image classification based on collection of part detectors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Gong; Han, Junwei; Zhou, Peicheng; Guo, Lei

2014-12-01

The rapid development of remote sensing technology has facilitated us the acquisition of remote sensing images with higher and higher spatial resolution, but how to automatically understand the image contents is still a big challenge. In this paper, we develop a practical and rotation-invariant framework for multi-class geospatial object detection and geographic image classification based on collection of part detectors (COPD). The COPD is composed of a set of representative and discriminative part detectors, where each part detector is a linear support vector machine (SVM) classifier used for the detection of objects or recurring spatial patterns within a certain range of orientation. Specifically, when performing multi-class geospatial object detection, we learn a set of seed-based part detectors where each part detector corresponds to a particular viewpoint of an object class, so the collection of them provides a solution for rotation-invariant detection of multi-class objects. When performing geographic image classification, we utilize a large number of pre-trained part detectors to discovery distinctive visual parts from images and use them as attributes to represent the images. Comprehensive evaluations on two remote sensing image databases and comparisons with some state-of-the-art approaches demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the developed framework.

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

Szoka de Valladares, M.R.; Mack, S.

The DOE Hydrogen Program needs to develop criteria as part of a systematic evaluation process for proposal identification, evaluation and selection. The H Scan component of this process provides a framework in which a project proposer can fully describe their candidate technology system and its components. The H Scan complements traditional methods of capturing cost and technical information. It consists of a special set of survey forms designed to elicit information so expert reviewers can assess the proposal relative to DOE specified selection criteria. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) component of the decision process assembles the management defined evaluation andmore » selection criteria into a coherent multi-level decision construct by which projects can be evaluated in pair-wise comparisons. The AHP model will reflect management`s objectives and it will assist in the ranking of individual projects based on the extent to which each contributes to management`s objectives. This paper contains a detailed description of the products and activities associated with the planning and evaluation process: The objectives or criteria; the H Scan; and The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).« less

A Conceptual Framework for Evaluation of Public Health and Primary Care System Performance in Iran

PubMed Central

Jahanmehr, Nader; Rashidian, Arash; Khosravi, Ardeshir; Farzadfar, Farshad; Shariati, Mohammad; Majdzadeh, Reza; Sari, Ali Akbari; Mesdaghinia, Alireza

2015-01-01

Introduction: The main objective of this study was to design a conceptual framework, according to the policies and priorities of the ministry of health to evaluate provincial public health and primary care performance and to assess their share in the overall health impacts of the community. Methods: We used several tools and techniques, including system thinking, literature review to identify relevant attributes of health system performance framework and interview with the key stakeholders. The PubMed, Scopus, web of science, Google Scholar and two specialized databases of Persian language literature (IranMedex and SID) were searched using main terms and keywords. Following decision-making and collective agreement among the different stakeholders, 51 core indicators were chosen from among 602 obtained indicators in a four stage process, for monitoring and evaluation of Health Deputies. Results: We proposed a conceptual framework by identifying the performance area for Health Deputies between other determinants of health, as well as introducing a chain of results, for performance, consisting of Input, Process, Output and Outcome indicators. We also proposed 5 dimensions for measuring the performance of Health Deputies, consisting of efficiency, effectiveness, equity, access and improvement of health status. Conclusion: The proposed Conceptual Framework illustrates clearly the Health Deputies success in achieving best results and consequences of health in the country. Having the relative commitment of the ministry of health and Health Deputies at the University of Medical Sciences is essential for full implementation of this framework and providing the annual performance report. PMID:25946937

Objective Fidelity Evaluation in Multisensory Virtual Environments: Auditory Cue Fidelity in Flight Simulation

PubMed Central

Meyer, Georg F.; Wong, Li Ting; Timson, Emma; Perfect, Philip; White, Mark D.

2012-01-01

We argue that objective fidelity evaluation of virtual environments, such as flight simulation, should be human-performance-centred and task-specific rather than measure the match between simulation and physical reality. We show how principled experimental paradigms and behavioural models to quantify human performance in simulated environments that have emerged from research in multisensory perception provide a framework for the objective evaluation of the contribution of individual cues to human performance measures of fidelity. We present three examples in a flight simulation environment as a case study: Experiment 1: Detection and categorisation of auditory and kinematic motion cues; Experiment 2: Performance evaluation in a target-tracking task; Experiment 3: Transferrable learning of auditory motion cues. We show how the contribution of individual cues to human performance can be robustly evaluated for each task and that the contribution is highly task dependent. The same auditory cues that can be discriminated and are optimally integrated in experiment 1, do not contribute to target-tracking performance in an in-flight refuelling simulation without training, experiment 2. In experiment 3, however, we demonstrate that the auditory cue leads to significant, transferrable, performance improvements with training. We conclude that objective fidelity evaluation requires a task-specific analysis of the contribution of individual cues. PMID:22957068

Energy Technology Allocation for Distributed Energy Resources: A Technology-Policy Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mallikarjun, Sreekanth

Distributed energy resources (DER) are emerging rapidly. New engineering technologies, materials, and designs improve the performance and extend the range of locations for DER. In contrast, constructing new or modernizing existing high voltage transmission lines for centralized generation are expensive and challenging. In addition, customer demand for reliability has increased and concerns about climate change have created a pull for swift renewable energy penetration. In this context, DER policy makers, developers, and users are interested in determining which energy technologies to use to accommodate different end-use energy demands. We present a two-stage multi-objective strategic technology-policy framework for determining the optimal energy technology allocation for DER. The framework simultaneously considers economic, technical, and environmental objectives. The first stage utilizes a Data Envelopment Analysis model for each end-use to evaluate the performance of each energy technology based on the three objectives. The second stage incorporates factor efficiencies determined in the first stage, capacity limitations, dispatchability, and renewable penetration for each technology, and demand for each end-use into a bottleneck multi-criteria decision model which provides the Pareto-optimal energy resource allocation. We conduct several case studies to understand the roles of various distributed energy technologies in different scenarios. We construct some policy implications based on the model results of set of case studies.

Use of program logic models in the Southern Rural Access Program evaluation.

PubMed

Pathman, Donald; Thaker, Samruddhi; Ricketts, Thomas C; Albright, Jennifer B

2003-01-01

The Southern Rural Access Program (SRAP) evaluation team used program logic models to clarify grantees' activities, objectives, and timelines. This information was used to benchmark data from grantees' progress reports to assess the program's successes. This article presents a brief background on the use of program logic models--essentially charts or diagrams specifying a program's planned activities, objectives, and goals--for evaluating and managing a program. It discusses the structure of the logic models chosen for the SRAP and how the model concept was introduced to the grantees to promote acceptance and use of the models. The article describes how the models helped clarify the program's objectives and helped lead agencies plan and manage the many program initiatives and subcontractors in their states. Models also provided a framework for grantees to report their progress to the National Program Office and evaluators and promoted the evaluators' visibility and acceptance by the grantees. Program logics, however, increased grantees' reporting requirements and demanded substantial time of the evaluators. Program logic models, on balance, proved their merit in the SRAP through their contributions to its management and evaluation and by providing a better understanding of the program's initiatives, successes, and potential impact.

A general framework for characterizing studies of brain interface technology.

PubMed

Mason, S G; Jackson, M M Moore; Birch, G E

2005-11-01

The development of brain interface (BI) technology continues to attract researchers with a wide range of backgrounds and expertise. Though the BI community is committed to accurate and objective evaluation of methods, systems, and technology, the very diversity of the methods and terminology used in the field hinders understanding and impairs technology cross-fertilization and cross-group validation of findings. Underlying this dilemma is a lack of common perspective and language. As seen in our previous works in this area, our approach to remedy this problem is to propose language in the form of taxonomy and functional models. Our intent is to document and validate our best thinking in this area and publish a perspective that will stimulate discussion. We encourage others to do the same with the belief that focused discussion on language issues will accelerate the inherently slow natural evolution of language selection and thus alleviate related problems. In this work, we propose a theoretical framework for describing BI-technology-related studies. The proposed framework is based on the theoretical concepts and terminology from classical science, assistive technology development, human-computer interaction, and previous BI-related works. Using a representative set of studies from the literature, the proposed BI study framework was shown to be complete and appropriate perspective for thoroughly characterizing a BI study. We have also demonstrated that this BI study framework is useful for (1) objectively reviewing existing BI study designs and results, (2) comparing designs and results of multiple BI studies, (3) designing new studies or objectively reporting BI study results, and (4) facilitating intra- and inter-group communication and the education of new researchers. As such, it forms a sound and appropriate basis for community discussion.

[Design of warm-acupuncture technique training evaluation device].

PubMed

Gao, Ming; Xu, Gang; Yang, Huayuan; Liu, Tangyi; Tang, Wenchao

2017-01-12

To design a warm-acupuncture teaching instrument to train and evaluate its manipulation. We refer to the principle and technical operation characteristics of traditional warm-acupuncture, as well as the mechanical design and single-chip microcomputer technology. The device is consisted of device noumenon, universal acupoints simulator, vibration reset system and circuit control system, including frame, platform framework, the swing framework, universal acupoints simulator, vibration reset outfit, operation time circuit, acupuncture sensation display, and vibration control circuit, etc. It can be used to train needle inserting with different angles and moxa rubbing and loading. It displays whether a needle point meets the location required. We determine whether the moxa group on a needle handle is easy to fall off through vibration test, and operation time is showed. The device can objectively help warm-acupuncture training and evaluation so as to promote its clinical standardization manipulation.

Filtering Based Adaptive Visual Odometry Sensor Framework Robust to Blurred Images

PubMed Central

Zhao, Haiying; Liu, Yong; Xie, Xiaojia; Liao, Yiyi; Liu, Xixi

2016-01-01

Visual odometry (VO) estimation from blurred image is a challenging problem in practical robot applications, and the blurred images will severely reduce the estimation accuracy of the VO. In this paper, we address the problem of visual odometry estimation from blurred images, and present an adaptive visual odometry estimation framework robust to blurred images. Our approach employs an objective measure of images, named small image gradient distribution (SIGD), to evaluate the blurring degree of the image, then an adaptive blurred image classification algorithm is proposed to recognize the blurred images, finally we propose an anti-blurred key-frame selection algorithm to enable the VO robust to blurred images. We also carried out varied comparable experiments to evaluate the performance of the VO algorithms with our anti-blur framework under varied blurred images, and the experimental results show that our approach can achieve superior performance comparing to the state-of-the-art methods under the condition with blurred images while not increasing too much computation cost to the original VO algorithms. PMID:27399704

The impact of contracting-out on health system performance: a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Liu, Xingzhu; Hotchkiss, David R; Bose, Sujata

2007-07-01

Despite the increased popularity of contracting-out of health services in developing countries, its effectiveness on overall health system performance is not yet conclusive. Except for substantial evidence of contracting-out's positive effect on access to health services and some evidence on improved equity in access, there is little evidence of contracting-out's impact on quality and efficiency. Most studies on the subject evaluate specific contracting-out projects against narrowly specified project objectives, not against more broadly defined health system goals. For this reason, conclusions of positive effects pertaining to project level may not hold at system level. This paper presents a conceptual framework that is expected to facilitate comprehensive, rigorous, and standardized evaluation of contracting-out at health system level. Specifically, this framework supports: full and standardized description of contracting-out interventions, study of the determinants of effectiveness, examination of provider and purchaser responses, assessment of the impact of contracting-out on all dimensions of health system performance, and cross-project analyses.

Nanoparticle risk management and cost evaluation: a general framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleury, Dominique; Bomfim, João A. S.; Metz, Sébastien; Bouillard, Jacques X.; Brignon, Jean-Marc

2011-07-01

Industrial production of nano-objects has been growing fast during the last decade and a wide range of products containing nanoparticles (NPs) is proposed to the public in various markets (automotive, electronics, textiles...). The issues encountered in monitoring the presence of nano-objects in any media cause a major difficulty for controlling the risk associated to the production stage. It is therefore very difficult to assess the efficiency of prevention and mitigation solutions, which potentially leads to overestimate the level of the protection barriers that are recommended. The extra costs in adding nano-objects to the process, especially that of nanosafety, must be estimated and optimized to ensure the competitiveness of the future production lines and associated products. The risk management and cost evaluation methods presented herein have been designed for application in a pilot production line of injection-moulded nanocomposites.

Psychoanalytic principles as a heuristic framework to bridge the gap between psychology and the law in SVP evaluations: Assessing emotional and volitional impairment.

PubMed

Simon, Eric P

2015-01-01

The legal concepts of emotional and volitional impairment in SVP evaluations are vague and ill-defined. This article reviews the legal terms of emotional and volitional impairment as they have been contemplated in extant SVP statutes, SVP case law, logical constructions, and limited empirical studies. To bridge the gap between psychiatry and the law, a broad, theory-based heuristic framework is furnished for understanding emotional and volitional impairment at a deep psychological (and intra-psychic) level. Specifically discussed are the concepts of transference, repetition compulsion, fixation, cathexis, regression, identification with the aggressor, and the object-relations and self-psychology concepts related to a loss of possession of the self. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation Criteria of Noninvasive Telemonitoring for Patients With Heart Failure: Systematic Review.

PubMed

Farnia, Troskah; Jaulent, Marie-Christine; Steichen, Olivier

2018-01-16

Telemonitoring can improve heart failure (HF) management, but there is no standardized evaluation framework to comprehensively evaluate its impact. Our objectives were to list the criteria used in published evaluations of noninvasive HF telemonitoring projects, describe how they are used in the evaluation studies, and organize them into a consistent scheme. Articles published from January 1990 to August 2015 were obtained through MEDLINE, Web of Science, and EMBASE. Articles were eligible if they were original reports of a noninvasive HF telemonitoring evaluation study in the English language. Studies of implantable telemonitoring devices were excluded. Each selected article was screened to extract the description of the telemonitoring project and the evaluation process and criteria. A qualitative synthesis was performed. We identified and reviewed 128 articles leading to 52 evaluation criteria classified into 6 dimensions: clinical, economic, user perspective, educational, organizational, and technical. The clinical and economic impacts were evaluated in more than 70% of studies, whereas the educational, organizational, and technical impacts were studied in fewer than 15%. User perspective was the most frequently covered dimension in the development phase of telemonitoring projects, whereas clinical and economic impacts were the focus of later phases. Telemonitoring evaluation frameworks should cover all 6 dimensions appropriately distributed along the telemonitoring project lifecycle. Our next goal is to build such a comprehensive evaluation framework for telemonitoring and test it on an ongoing noninvasive HF telemonitoring project. ©Troskah Farnia, Marie-Christine Jaulent, Olivier Steichen. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 16.01.2018.

A fuzzy stochastic framework for managing hydro-environmental and socio-economic interactions under uncertainty

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Subagadis, Yohannes Hagos; Schütze, Niels; Grundmann, Jens

2014-05-01

An amplified interconnectedness between a hydro-environmental and socio-economic system brings about profound challenges of water management decision making. In this contribution, we present a fuzzy stochastic approach to solve a set of decision making problems, which involve hydrologically, environmentally, and socio-economically motivated criteria subjected to uncertainty and ambiguity. The proposed methodological framework combines objective and subjective criteria in a decision making procedure for obtaining an acceptable ranking in water resources management alternatives under different type of uncertainty (subjective/objective) and heterogeneous information (quantitative/qualitative) simultaneously. The first step of the proposed approach involves evaluating the performance of alternatives with respect to different types of criteria. The ratings of alternatives with respect to objective and subjective criteria are evaluated by simulation-based optimization and fuzzy linguistic quantifiers, respectively. Subjective and objective uncertainties related to the input information are handled through linking fuzziness and randomness together. Fuzzy decision making helps entail the linguistic uncertainty and a Monte Carlo simulation process is used to map stochastic uncertainty. With this framework, the overall performance of each alternative is calculated using an Order Weighted Averaging (OWA) aggregation operator accounting for decision makers' experience and opinions. Finally, ranking is achieved by conducting pair-wise comparison of management alternatives. This has been done on the basis of the risk defined by the probability of obtaining an acceptable ranking and mean difference in total performance for the pair of management alternatives. The proposed methodology is tested in a real-world hydrosystem, to find effective and robust intervention strategies for the management of a coastal aquifer system affected by saltwater intrusion due to excessive groundwater extraction for irrigated agriculture and municipal use. The results show that the approach gives useful support for robust decision-making and is sensitive to the decision makers' degree of optimism.

Framework for objective evaluation of privacy filters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Korshunov, Pavel; Melle, Andrea; Dugelay, Jean-Luc; Ebrahimi, Touradj

2013-09-01

Extensive adoption of video surveillance, affecting many aspects of our daily lives, alarms the public about the increasing invasion into personal privacy. To address these concerns, many tools have been proposed for protection of personal privacy in image and video. However, little is understood regarding the effectiveness of such tools and especially their impact on the underlying surveillance tasks, leading to a tradeoff between the preservation of privacy offered by these tools and the intelligibility of activities under video surveillance. In this paper, we investigate this privacy-intelligibility tradeoff objectively by proposing an objective framework for evaluation of privacy filters. We apply the proposed framework on a use case where privacy of people is protected by obscuring faces, assuming an automated video surveillance system. We used several popular privacy protection filters, such as blurring, pixelization, and masking and applied them with varying strengths to people's faces from different public datasets of video surveillance footage. Accuracy of face detection algorithm was used as a measure of intelligibility (a face should be detected to perform a surveillance task), and accuracy of face recognition algorithm as a measure of privacy (a specific person should not be identified). Under these conditions, after application of an ideal privacy protection tool, an obfuscated face would be visible as a face but would not be correctly identified by the recognition algorithm. The experiments demonstrate that, in general, an increase in strength of privacy filters under consideration leads to an increase in privacy (i.e., reduction in recognition accuracy) and to a decrease in intelligibility (i.e., reduction in detection accuracy). Masking also shows to be the most favorable filter across all tested datasets.

Cryptographic framework for document-objects resulting from multiparty collaborative transactions.

PubMed

Goh, A

2000-01-01

Multiparty transactional frameworks--i.e. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Health Level (HL) 7--often result in composite documents which can be accurately modelled using hyperlinked document-objects. The structural complexity arising from multiauthor involvement and transaction-specific sequencing would be poorly handled by conventional digital signature schemes based on a single evaluation of a one-way hash function and asymmetric cryptography. In this paper we outline the generation of structure-specific authentication hash-trees for the the authentication of transactional document-objects, followed by asymmetric signature generation on the hash-tree value. Server-side multi-client signature verification would probably constitute the single most compute-intensive task, hence the motivation for our usage of the Rabin signature protocol which results in significantly reduced verification workloads compared to the more commonly applied Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) protocol. Data privacy is handled via symmetric encryption of message traffic using session-specific keys obtained through key-negotiation mechanisms based on discrete-logarithm cryptography. Individual client-to-server channels can be secured using a double key-pair variation of Diffie-Hellman (DH) key negotiation, usage of which also enables bidirectional node authentication. The reciprocal server-to-client multicast channel is secured through Burmester-Desmedt (BD) key-negotiation which enjoys significant advantages over the usual multiparty extensions to the DH protocol. The implementation of hash-tree signatures and bi/multidirectional key negotiation results in a comprehensive cryptographic framework for multiparty document-objects satisfying both authentication and data privacy requirements.

Fuzzy logic based sensor performance evaluation of vehicle mounted metal detector systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abeynayake, Canicious; Tran, Minh D.

2015-05-01

Vehicle Mounted Metal Detector (VMMD) systems are widely used for detection of threat objects in humanitarian demining and military route clearance scenarios. Due to the diverse nature of such operational conditions, operational use of VMMD without a proper understanding of its capability boundaries may lead to heavy causalities. Multi-criteria fitness evaluations are crucial for determining capability boundaries of any sensor-based demining equipment. Evaluation of sensor based military equipment is a multi-disciplinary topic combining the efforts of researchers, operators, managers and commanders having different professional backgrounds and knowledge profiles. Information acquired through field tests usually involves uncertainty, vagueness and imprecision due to variations in test and evaluation conditions during a single test or series of tests. This report presents a fuzzy logic based methodology for experimental data analysis and performance evaluation of VMMD. This data evaluation methodology has been developed to evaluate sensor performance by consolidating expert knowledge with experimental data. A case study is presented by implementing the proposed data analysis framework in a VMMD evaluation scenario. The results of this analysis confirm accuracy, practicability and reliability of the fuzzy logic based sensor performance evaluation framework.

Applying image quality in cell phone cameras: lens distortion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baxter, Donald; Goma, Sergio R.; Aleksic, Milivoje

2009-01-01

This paper describes the framework used in one of the pilot studies run under the I3A CPIQ initiative to quantify overall image quality in cell-phone cameras. The framework is based on a multivariate formalism which tries to predict overall image quality from individual image quality attributes and was validated in a CPIQ pilot program. The pilot study focuses on image quality distortions introduced in the optical path of a cell-phone camera, which may or may not be corrected in the image processing path. The assumption is that the captured image used is JPEG compressed and the cellphone camera is set to 'auto' mode. As the used framework requires that the individual attributes to be relatively perceptually orthogonal, in the pilot study, the attributes used are lens geometric distortion (LGD) and lateral chromatic aberrations (LCA). The goal of this paper is to present the framework of this pilot project starting with the definition of the individual attributes, up to their quantification in JNDs of quality, a requirement of the multivariate formalism, therefore both objective and subjective evaluations were used. A major distinction in the objective part from the 'DSC imaging world' is that the LCA/LGD distortions found in cell-phone cameras, rarely exhibit radial behavior, therefore a radial mapping/modeling cannot be used in this case.

Task-based image quality assessment in radiation therapy: initial characterization and demonstration with CT simulation images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolly, Steven R.; Anastasio, Mark A.; Yu, Lifeng; Li, Hua

2017-03-01

In current radiation therapy practice, image quality is still assessed subjectively or by utilizing physically-based metrics. Recently, a methodology for objective task-based image quality (IQ) assessment in radiation therapy was proposed by Barrett et al.1 In this work, we present a comprehensive implementation and evaluation of this new IQ assessment methodology. A modular simulation framework was designed to perform an automated, computer-simulated end-to-end radiation therapy treatment. A fully simulated framework was created that utilizes new learning-based stochastic object models (SOM) to obtain known organ boundaries, generates a set of images directly from the numerical phantoms created with the SOM, and automates the image segmentation and treatment planning steps of a radiation therapy work ow. By use of this computational framework, therapeutic operating characteristic (TOC) curves can be computed and the area under the TOC curve (AUTOC) can be employed as a figure-of-merit to guide optimization of different components of the treatment planning process. The developed computational framework is employed to optimize X-ray CT pre-treatment imaging. We demonstrate that use of the radiation therapy-based-based IQ measures lead to different imaging parameters than obtained by use of physical-based measures.

Goal Orientation, Academic Achievement, and Depression: Evidence in Favor of a Revised Goal Theory Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sideridis, Georgios D.

2005-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to evaluate and expand the goal-orientation model of depression vulnerability proposed by B. M. Dykman (1998), which posits that a performance orientation creates a vulnerability to depression through repeated failure. This hypothesis was tested in 5 studies with students in Grades 5 and 6. A…

Practicing Learner-Centered Teaching: Pedagogical Design and Assessment of a Second Life Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiller, Shu Z.

2009-01-01

Guided by the principles of learner-centered teaching methodology, a Second Life project is designed to engage students in active learning of virtual commerce through hands-on experiences and teamwork in a virtual environment. More importantly, an assessment framework is proposed to evaluate the learning objectives and learning process of the…

Definition and Analysis of a System for the Automated Comparison of Curriculum Sequencing Algorithms in Adaptive Distance Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Limongelli, Carla; Sciarrone, Filippo; Temperini, Marco; Vaste, Giulia

2011-01-01

LS-Lab provides automatic support to comparison/evaluation of the Learning Object Sequences produced by different Curriculum Sequencing Algorithms. Through this framework a teacher can verify the correspondence between the behaviour of different sequencing algorithms and her pedagogical preferences. In fact the teacher can compare algorithms…

Networks and landscapes: a framework for setting goals and evaluating performance at the large landscape scale

Treesearch

R Patrick Bixler; Shawn Johnson; Kirk Emerson; Tina Nabatchi; Melly Reuling; Charles Curtin; Michele Romolini; Morgan Grove

2016-01-01

The objective of large landscape conser vation is to mitigate complex ecological problems through interventions at multiple and overlapping scales. Implementation requires coordination among a diverse network of individuals and organizations to integrate local-scale conservation activities with broad-scale goals. This requires an understanding of the governance options...

Management Development of Scientists and Engineers in the Federal Government; An Analysis of Basic Behavioral and Systems Considerations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berniklau, Vladimir V.

Focusing on management development of scientists and engineers within the Federal government, this study was done to form a framework of factors (mainly attitudes, motives or needs, and leadership styles) to be evaluated before choosing suitable techniques and alternatives. Such variables as differing program objectives, characteristics of…

24 CFR Appendix A to Part 570 - Guidelines and Objectives for Evaluating Project Costs and Financial Requirements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... recipient with a framework for financially underwriting and selecting CDBG-assisted economic development... out the economic development project. This is to ensure that time and effort is not wasted on... review the economic development project to ensure that, to the extent practicable, CDBG funds will not be...

24 CFR Appendix A to Part 570 - Guidelines and Objectives for Evaluating Project Costs and Financial Requirements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... recipient with a framework for financially underwriting and selecting CDBG-assisted economic development... out the economic development project. This is to ensure that time and effort is not wasted on... review the economic development project to ensure that, to the extent practicable, CDBG funds will not be...

24 CFR Appendix A to Part 570 - Guidelines and Objectives for Evaluating Project Costs and Financial Requirements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... recipient with a framework for financially underwriting and selecting CDBG-assisted economic development... out the economic development project. This is to ensure that time and effort is not wasted on... review the economic development project to ensure that, to the extent practicable, CDBG funds will not be...

24 CFR Appendix A to Part 570 - Guidelines and Objectives for Evaluating Project Costs and Financial Requirements

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... recipient with a framework for financially underwriting and selecting CDBG-assisted economic development... out the economic development project. This is to ensure that time and effort is not wasted on... review the economic development project to ensure that, to the extent practicable, CDBG funds will not be...

Can a Self-Efficacy-Based Intervention Decrease Burnout, Increase Engagement, and Enhance Performance? A Quasi-Experimental Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breso, Edgar; Schaufeli, Wilmar; Salanova, Marisa

2011-01-01

Using the Social Cognitive Theory as a theoretical framework, this study evaluated a 4-month, individual cognitive-behavioral intervention program to decrease burnout and increase self-efficacy, engagement, and performance among university students. The main objective of the intervention was to decrease the anxiety the students coped with before…

The Use of Facebook in an Introductory MIS Course: Social Constructivist Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ractham, Peter; Kaewkitipong, Laddawan; Firpo, Daniel

2012-01-01

The major objective of this article is to evaluate via a Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) the implementation of a Social Constructivist learning framework for an introductory Management Information System (MIS) course. Facebook was used as a learning artifact to build and foster a learning environment, and a series of features and…

Evaluating a Federated Medical Search Engine

PubMed Central

Belden, J.; Williams, J.; Richardson, B.; Schuster, K.

2014-01-01

Summary Background Federated medical search engines are health information systems that provide a single access point to different types of information. Their efficiency as clinical decision support tools has been demonstrated through numerous evaluations. Despite their rigor, very few of these studies report holistic evaluations of medical search engines and even fewer base their evaluations on existing evaluation frameworks. Objectives To evaluate a federated medical search engine, MedSocket, for its potential net benefits in an established clinical setting. Methods This study applied the Human, Organization, and Technology (HOT-fit) evaluation framework in order to evaluate MedSocket. The hierarchical structure of the HOT-factors allowed for identification of a combination of efficiency metrics. Human fit was evaluated through user satisfaction and patterns of system use; technology fit was evaluated through the measurements of time-on-task and the accuracy of the found answers; and organization fit was evaluated from the perspective of system fit to the existing organizational structure. Results Evaluations produced mixed results and suggested several opportunities for system improvement. On average, participants were satisfied with MedSocket searches and confident in the accuracy of retrieved answers. However, MedSocket did not meet participants’ expectations in terms of download speed, access to information, and relevance of the search results. These mixed results made it necessary to conclude that in the case of MedSocket, technology fit had a significant influence on the human and organization fit. Hence, improving technological capabilities of the system is critical before its net benefits can become noticeable. Conclusions The HOT-fit evaluation framework was instrumental in tailoring the methodology for conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the search engine. Such multidimensional evaluation of the search engine resulted in recommendations for system improvement. PMID:25298813

Framework for evaluating disease severity measures in older adults with comorbidity.

PubMed

Boyd, Cynthia M; Weiss, Carlos O; Halter, Jeff; Han, K Carol; Ershler, William B; Fried, Linda P

2007-03-01

Accounting for the influence of concurrent conditions on health and functional status for both research and clinical decision-making purposes is especially important in older adults. Although approaches to classifying severity of individual diseases and conditions have been developed, the utility of these classification systems has not been evaluated in the presence of multiple conditions. We present a framework for evaluating severity classification systems for common chronic diseases. The framework evaluates the: (a) goal or purpose of the classification system; (b) physiological and/or functional criteria for severity graduation; and (c) potential reliability and validity of the system balanced against burden and costs associated with classification. Approaches to severity classification of individual diseases were not originally conceived for the study of comorbidity. Therefore, they vary greatly in terms of objectives, physiological systems covered, level of severity characterization, reliability and validity, and costs and burdens. Using different severity classification systems to account for differing levels of disease severity in a patient with multiple diseases, or, assessing global disease burden may be challenging. Most approaches to severity classification are not adequate to address comorbidity. Nevertheless, thoughtful use of some existing approaches and refinement of others may advance the study of comorbidity and diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to patients with multimorbidity.

Multi-class geospatial object detection based on a position-sensitive balancing framework for high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhong, Yanfei; Han, Xiaobing; Zhang, Liangpei

2018-04-01

Multi-class geospatial object detection from high spatial resolution (HSR) remote sensing imagery is attracting increasing attention in a wide range of object-related civil and engineering applications. However, the distribution of objects in HSR remote sensing imagery is location-variable and complicated, and how to accurately detect the objects in HSR remote sensing imagery is a critical problem. Due to the powerful feature extraction and representation capability of deep learning, the deep learning based region proposal generation and object detection integrated framework has greatly promoted the performance of multi-class geospatial object detection for HSR remote sensing imagery. However, due to the translation caused by the convolution operation in the convolutional neural network (CNN), although the performance of the classification stage is seldom influenced, the localization accuracies of the predicted bounding boxes in the detection stage are easily influenced. The dilemma between translation-invariance in the classification stage and translation-variance in the object detection stage has not been addressed for HSR remote sensing imagery, and causes position accuracy problems for multi-class geospatial object detection with region proposal generation and object detection. In order to further improve the performance of the region proposal generation and object detection integrated framework for HSR remote sensing imagery object detection, a position-sensitive balancing (PSB) framework is proposed in this paper for multi-class geospatial object detection from HSR remote sensing imagery. The proposed PSB framework takes full advantage of the fully convolutional network (FCN), on the basis of a residual network, and adopts the PSB framework to solve the dilemma between translation-invariance in the classification stage and translation-variance in the object detection stage. In addition, a pre-training mechanism is utilized to accelerate the training procedure and increase the robustness of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm is validated with a publicly available 10-class object detection dataset.

Popular Mobile Phone Apps for Diet and Weight Loss: A Content Analysis

PubMed Central

Roehrer, Erin

2016-01-01

Background A review of the literature has revealed that the rates of overweight and obesity have been increasing in Australia over the last two decades and that wellness mobile phone apps play a significant role in monitoring and managing individuals’ weight. Although mobile phone app markets (iTunes and Google Play) list thousands of mobile phone health apps, it is not always clear whether those apps are supported by credible sources. Likewise, despite the prevailing use of mobile phone apps to aid with weight management, the usability features of these apps are not well characterized. Objective The research explored how usability taxonomy could inform the popularity of downloaded, socially focused wellness mobile phone apps, in particular weight loss and diet apps. The aim of the study was to investigate the Australian mobile phone app stores (iTunes and Google Play) in order to examine the usability features of the most popular (ie, most downloaded) wellness apps. Methods The design of this study comprises 3 main stages: stage 1, identifying apps; stage 2, development of weight loss and diet evaluation framework; and stage 3, application of the evaluation framework. Each stage includes specific data collection, analysis tools, and techniques. Results The study has resulted in the development of a justified evaluation framework for weight loss and diet mobile phone apps. Applying the evaluation framework to the identified apps has shown that the most downloaded iTunes and Google Play apps are not necessarily the most usable or effective. In addition, the research found that search algorithms for iTunes and Google Play are biased toward apps’ titles and keywords that do not accurately define the real functionality of the app. Moreover, the study has also analyzed the apps’ user reviews, which served as justification for the developed evaluation framework. Conclusions The analysis has shown that ease of use, reminder, bar code scanning, motivation, usable for all, and synchronization are significant attributes that should be included in weight loss and diet mobile phone apps and ultimately in potential weight loss and diet evaluation frameworks. PMID:27400806

Value Driven Outcomes (VDO): a pragmatic, modular, and extensible software framework for understanding and improving health care costs and outcomes.

PubMed

Kawamoto, Kensaku; Martin, Cary J; Williams, Kip; Tu, Ming-Chieh; Park, Charlton G; Hunter, Cheri; Staes, Catherine J; Bray, Bruce E; Deshmukh, Vikrant G; Holbrook, Reid A; Morris, Scott J; Fedderson, Matthew B; Sletta, Amy; Turnbull, James; Mulvihill, Sean J; Crabtree, Gordon L; Entwistle, David E; McKenna, Quinn L; Strong, Michael B; Pendleton, Robert C; Lee, Vivian S

2015-01-01

To develop expeditiously a pragmatic, modular, and extensible software framework for understanding and improving healthcare value (costs relative to outcomes). In 2012, a multidisciplinary team was assembled by the leadership of the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and charged with rapidly developing a pragmatic and actionable analytics framework for understanding and enhancing healthcare value. Based on an analysis of relevant prior work, a value analytics framework known as Value Driven Outcomes (VDO) was developed using an agile methodology. Evaluation consisted of measurement against project objectives, including implementation timeliness, system performance, completeness, accuracy, extensibility, adoption, satisfaction, and the ability to support value improvement. A modular, extensible framework was developed to allocate clinical care costs to individual patient encounters. For example, labor costs in a hospital unit are allocated to patients based on the hours they spent in the unit; actual medication acquisition costs are allocated to patients based on utilization; and radiology costs are allocated based on the minutes required for study performance. Relevant process and outcome measures are also available. A visualization layer facilitates the identification of value improvement opportunities, such as high-volume, high-cost case types with high variability in costs across providers. Initial implementation was completed within 6 months, and all project objectives were fulfilled. The framework has been improved iteratively and is now a foundational tool for delivering high-value care. The framework described can be expeditiously implemented to provide a pragmatic, modular, and extensible approach to understanding and improving healthcare value. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Framework and criteria for program evaluation in the Office of Conservation and Renewable Energy

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

Not Available

This study addresses the development of a framework and generic criteria for conducting program evaluation in the Office of Conservation and Renewable Energy. The evaluation process is intended to provide the Assistant Secretary with comprehensive and consistent evaluation data for management decisions regarding policy and strategy, crosscutting energy impacts and resource allocation and justification. The study defines evaluation objectives, identifies basic information requirements (criteria), and identifies a process for collecting evaluation results at the basic program level, integrating the results, and summarizing information upward through the CE organization to the Assistant Secretary. Methods are described by which initial criteria weremore » tested, analyzed, and refined for CE program applicability. General guidelines pertaining to evaluation and the Sunset Review requirements are examined and various types, designs, and models for evaluation are identified. Existing CE evaluation reports are reviewed and comments on their adequacy for meeting current needs are provided. An inventory and status survey of CE program evaluation activities is presented, as are issues, findings, and recommendations pertaining to CE evaluation and Sunset Review requirements. Also, sources of data for use in evaluation and the Sunset Review response are identified. An inventory of CE evaluation-related documents and reports is provided.« less

Parameter Estimation of Computationally Expensive Watershed Models Through Efficient Multi-objective Optimization and Interactive Decision Analytics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Akhtar, Taimoor; Shoemaker, Christine

2016-04-01

Watershed model calibration is inherently a multi-criteria problem. Conflicting trade-offs exist between different quantifiable calibration criterions indicating the non-existence of a single optimal parameterization. Hence, many experts prefer a manual approach to calibration where the inherent multi-objective nature of the calibration problem is addressed through an interactive, subjective, time-intensive and complex decision making process. Multi-objective optimization can be used to efficiently identify multiple plausible calibration alternatives and assist calibration experts during the parameter estimation process. However, there are key challenges to the use of multi objective optimization in the parameter estimation process which include: 1) multi-objective optimization usually requires many model simulations, which is difficult for complex simulation models that are computationally expensive; and 2) selection of one from numerous calibration alternatives provided by multi-objective optimization is non-trivial. This study proposes a "Hybrid Automatic Manual Strategy" (HAMS) for watershed model calibration to specifically address the above-mentioned challenges. HAMS employs a 3-stage framework for parameter estimation. Stage 1 incorporates the use of an efficient surrogate multi-objective algorithm, GOMORS, for identification of numerous calibration alternatives within a limited simulation evaluation budget. The novelty of HAMS is embedded in Stages 2 and 3 where an interactive visual and metric based analytics framework is available as a decision support tool to choose a single calibration from the numerous alternatives identified in Stage 1. Stage 2 of HAMS provides a goodness-of-fit measure / metric based interactive framework for identification of a small subset (typically less than 10) of meaningful and diverse set of calibration alternatives from the numerous alternatives obtained in Stage 1. Stage 3 incorporates the use of an interactive visual analytics framework for decision support in selection of one parameter combination from the alternatives identified in Stage 2. HAMS is applied for calibration of flow parameters of a SWAT model, (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) designed to simulate flow in the Cannonsville watershed in upstate New York. Results from the application of HAMS to Cannonsville indicate that efficient multi-objective optimization and interactive visual and metric based analytics can bridge the gap between the effective use of both automatic and manual strategies for parameter estimation of computationally expensive watershed models.

Case study of evaluations that go beyond clinical outcomes to assess quality improvement diabetes programmes using the Diabetes Evaluation Framework for Innovative National Evaluations (DEFINE)

PubMed Central

Harris, Stewart B.; Naqshbandi Hayward, Mariam; Tompkins, Jordan W.

2016-01-01

Abstract Rationale, aims and objectives Investments in efforts to reduce the burden of diabetes on patients and health care are critical; however, more evaluation is needed to provide evidence that informs and supports future policies and programmes. The newly developed Diabetes Evaluation Framework for Innovative National Evaluations (DEFINE) incorporates the theoretical concepts needed to facilitate the capture of critical information to guide investments, policy and programmatic decision making. The aim of the study is to assess the applicability and value of DEFINE in comprehensive real‐world evaluation. Method Using a critical and positivist approach, this intrinsic and collective case study retrospectively examines two naturalistic evaluations to demonstrate how DEFINE could be used when conducting real‐world comprehensive evaluations in health care settings. Results The variability between the cases and the evaluation designs are described and aligned to the DEFINE goals, steps and sub‐steps. The majority of the theoretical steps of DEFINE were exemplified in both cases, although limited for knowledge translation efforts. Application of DEFINE to evaluate diverse programmes that target various chronic diseases is needed to further test the inclusivity and built‐in flexibility of DEFINE and its role in encouraging more comprehensive knowledge translation. Conclusions This case study shows how DEFINE could be used to structure or guide comprehensive evaluations of programmes and initiatives implemented in health care settings and support scale‐up of successful innovations. Future use of the framework will continue to strengthen its value in guiding programme evaluation and informing health policy to reduce the burden of diabetes and other chronic diseases. PMID:26804339

Rethinking modeling framework design: object modeling system 3.0

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The Object Modeling System (OMS) is a framework for environmental model development, data provisioning, testing, validation, and deployment. It provides a bridge for transferring technology from the research organization to the program delivery agency. The framework provides a consistent and efficie...

A user-centred evaluation framework for the Sealife semantic web browsers

PubMed Central

Oliver, Helen; Diallo, Gayo; de Quincey, Ed; Alexopoulou, Dimitra; Habermann, Bianca; Kostkova, Patty; Schroeder, Michael; Jupp, Simon; Khelif, Khaled; Stevens, Robert; Jawaheer, Gawesh; Madle, Gemma

2009-01-01

Background Semantically-enriched browsing has enhanced the browsing experience by providing contextualised dynamically generated Web content, and quicker access to searched-for information. However, adoption of Semantic Web technologies is limited and user perception from the non-IT domain sceptical. Furthermore, little attention has been given to evaluating semantic browsers with real users to demonstrate the enhancements and obtain valuable feedback. The Sealife project investigates semantic browsing and its application to the life science domain. Sealife's main objective is to develop the notion of context-based information integration by extending three existing Semantic Web browsers (SWBs) to link the existing Web to the eScience infrastructure. Methods This paper describes a user-centred evaluation framework that was developed to evaluate the Sealife SWBs that elicited feedback on users' perceptions on ease of use and information findability. Three sources of data: i) web server logs; ii) user questionnaires; and iii) semi-structured interviews were analysed and comparisons made between each browser and a control system. Results It was found that the evaluation framework used successfully elicited users' perceptions of the three distinct SWBs. The results indicate that the browser with the most mature and polished interface was rated higher for usability, and semantic links were used by the users of all three browsers. Conclusion Confirmation or contradiction of our original hypotheses with relation to SWBs is detailed along with observations of implementation issues. PMID:19796398

A user-centred evaluation framework for the Sealife semantic web browsers.

PubMed

Oliver, Helen; Diallo, Gayo; de Quincey, Ed; Alexopoulou, Dimitra; Habermann, Bianca; Kostkova, Patty; Schroeder, Michael; Jupp, Simon; Khelif, Khaled; Stevens, Robert; Jawaheer, Gawesh; Madle, Gemma

2009-10-01

Semantically-enriched browsing has enhanced the browsing experience by providing contextualized dynamically generated Web content, and quicker access to searched-for information. However, adoption of Semantic Web technologies is limited and user perception from the non-IT domain sceptical. Furthermore, little attention has been given to evaluating semantic browsers with real users to demonstrate the enhancements and obtain valuable feedback. The Sealife project investigates semantic browsing and its application to the life science domain. Sealife's main objective is to develop the notion of context-based information integration by extending three existing Semantic Web browsers (SWBs) to link the existing Web to the eScience infrastructure. This paper describes a user-centred evaluation framework that was developed to evaluate the Sealife SWBs that elicited feedback on users' perceptions on ease of use and information findability. Three sources of data: i) web server logs; ii) user questionnaires; and iii) semi-structured interviews were analysed and comparisons made between each browser and a control system. It was found that the evaluation framework used successfully elicited users' perceptions of the three distinct SWBs. The results indicate that the browser with the most mature and polished interface was rated higher for usability, and semantic links were used by the users of all three browsers. Confirmation or contradiction of our original hypotheses with relation to SWBs is detailed along with observations of implementation issues.

A logical foundation for representation of clinical data.

PubMed Central

Campbell, K E; Das, A K; Musen, M A

1994-01-01

OBJECTIVE: A general framework for representation of clinical data that provides a declarative semantics of terms and that allows developers to define explicitly the relationships among both terms and combinations of terms. DESIGN: Use of conceptual graphs as a standard representation of logic and of an existing standardized vocabulary, the Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine (SNOMED International), for lexical elements. Concepts such as time, anatomy, and uncertainty must be modeled explicitly in a way that allows relation of these foundational concepts to surface-level clinical descriptions in a uniform manner. RESULTS: The proposed framework was used to model a simple radiology report, which included temporal references. CONCLUSION: Formal logic provides a framework for formalizing the representation of medical concepts. Actual implementations will be required to evaluate the practicality of this approach. PMID:7719805

Coupling between a multi-physics workflow engine and an optimization framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Gallo, L.; Reux, C.; Imbeaux, F.; Artaud, J.-F.; Owsiak, M.; Saoutic, B.; Aiello, G.; Bernardi, P.; Ciraolo, G.; Bucalossi, J.; Duchateau, J.-L.; Fausser, C.; Galassi, D.; Hertout, P.; Jaboulay, J.-C.; Li-Puma, A.; Zani, L.

2016-03-01

A generic coupling method between a multi-physics workflow engine and an optimization framework is presented in this paper. The coupling architecture has been developed in order to preserve the integrity of the two frameworks. The objective is to provide the possibility to replace a framework, a workflow or an optimizer by another one without changing the whole coupling procedure or modifying the main content in each framework. The coupling is achieved by using a socket-based communication library for exchanging data between the two frameworks. Among a number of algorithms provided by optimization frameworks, Genetic Algorithms (GAs) have demonstrated their efficiency on single and multiple criteria optimization. Additionally to their robustness, GAs can handle non-valid data which may appear during the optimization. Consequently GAs work on most general cases. A parallelized framework has been developed to reduce the time spent for optimizations and evaluation of large samples. A test has shown a good scaling efficiency of this parallelized framework. This coupling method has been applied to the case of SYCOMORE (SYstem COde for MOdeling tokamak REactor) which is a system code developed in form of a modular workflow for designing magnetic fusion reactors. The coupling of SYCOMORE with the optimization platform URANIE enables design optimization along various figures of merit and constraints.

Community College Management by Objectives: Process, Progress, Problems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deegan, William L.; And Others

The objectives of this book are: (1) to present a theoretical framework for management by objectives in community colleges, (2) to present information about alternative methods for conducting needs assessment and implementing management by objectives, (3) to present a framework for integrating academic and fiscal planning through management by…

Learning Experience as Transaction: A Framework for Instructional Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parrish, Patrick E.; Wilson, Brent G.; Dunlap, Joanna C.

2011-01-01

This article presents a framework for understanding learning experience as an object for instructional design--as an object for design as well as research and understanding. Compared to traditional behavioral objectives or discrete cognitive skills, the object of experience is more holistic, requiring simultaneous attention to cognition, behavior,…

TAxonomy of Self-reported Sedentary behaviour Tools (TASST) framework for development, comparison and evaluation of self-report tools: content analysis and systematic review

PubMed Central

Dall, PM; Coulter, EH; Fitzsimons, CF; Skelton, DA; Chastin, SFM

2017-01-01

Objective Sedentary behaviour (SB) has distinct deleterious health outcomes, yet there is no consensus on best practice for measurement. This study aimed to identify the optimal self-report tool for population surveillance of SB, using a systematic framework. Design A framework, TAxonomy of Self-reported Sedentary behaviour Tools (TASST), consisting of four domains (type of assessment, recall period, temporal unit and assessment period), was developed based on a systematic inventory of existing tools. The inventory was achieved through a systematic review of studies reporting SB and tracing back to the original description. A systematic review of the accuracy and sensitivity to change of these tools was then mapped against TASST domains. Data sources Systematic searches were conducted via EBSCO, reference lists and expert opinion. Eligibility criteria for selecting studies The inventory included tools measuring SB in adults that could be self-completed at one sitting, and excluded tools measuring SB in specific populations or contexts. The systematic review included studies reporting on the accuracy against an objective measure of SB and/or sensitivity to change of a tool in the inventory. Results The systematic review initially identified 32 distinct tools (141 questions), which were used to develop the TASST framework. Twenty-two studies evaluated accuracy and/or sensitivity to change representing only eight taxa. Assessing SB as a sum of behaviours and using a previous day recall were the most promising features of existing tools. Accuracy was poor for all existing tools, with underestimation and overestimation of SB. There was a lack of evidence about sensitivity to change. Conclusions Despite the limited evidence, mapping existing SB tools onto the TASST framework has enabled informed recommendations to be made about the most promising features for a surveillance tool, identified aspects on which future research and development of SB surveillance tools should focus. Trial registration number International prospective register of systematic reviews (PROPSPERO)/CRD42014009851. PMID:28391233

A framework for analyzing interdisciplinary tasks: implications for student learning and curricular design.

PubMed

Gouvea, Julia Svoboda; Sawtelle, Vashti; Geller, Benjamin D; Turpen, Chandra

2013-06-01

The national conversation around undergraduate science instruction is calling for increased interdisciplinarity. As these calls increase, there is a need to consider the learning objectives of interdisciplinary science courses and how to design curricula to support those objectives. We present a framework that can help support interdisciplinary design research. We developed this framework in an introductory physics for life sciences majors (IPLS) course for which we designed a series of interdisciplinary tasks that bridge physics and biology. We illustrate how this framework can be used to describe the variation in the nature and degree of interdisciplinary interaction in tasks, to aid in redesigning tasks to better align with interdisciplinary learning objectives, and finally, to articulate design conjectures that posit how different characteristics of these tasks might support or impede interdisciplinary learning objectives. This framework will be useful for both curriculum designers and education researchers seeking to understand, in more concrete terms, what interdisciplinary learning means and how integrated science curricula can be designed to support interdisciplinary learning objectives.

A Framework for Analyzing Interdisciplinary Tasks: Implications for Student Learning and Curricular Design

PubMed Central

Gouvea, Julia Svoboda; Sawtelle, Vashti; Geller, Benjamin D.; Turpen, Chandra

2013-01-01

The national conversation around undergraduate science instruction is calling for increased interdisciplinarity. As these calls increase, there is a need to consider the learning objectives of interdisciplinary science courses and how to design curricula to support those objectives. We present a framework that can help support interdisciplinary design research. We developed this framework in an introductory physics for life sciences majors (IPLS) course for which we designed a series of interdisciplinary tasks that bridge physics and biology. We illustrate how this framework can be used to describe the variation in the nature and degree of interdisciplinary interaction in tasks, to aid in redesigning tasks to better align with interdisciplinary learning objectives, and finally, to articulate design conjectures that posit how different characteristics of these tasks might support or impede interdisciplinary learning objectives. This framework will be useful for both curriculum designers and education researchers seeking to understand, in more concrete terms, what interdisciplinary learning means and how integrated science curricula can be designed to support interdisciplinary learning objectives. PMID:23737627

A framework for automatic information quality ranking of diabetes websites.

PubMed

Belen Sağlam, Rahime; Taskaya Temizel, Tugba

2015-01-01

Objective: When searching for particular medical information on the internet the challenge lies in distinguishing the websites that are relevant to the topic, and contain accurate information. In this article, we propose a framework that automatically identifies and ranks diabetes websites according to their relevance and information quality based on the website content. Design: The proposed framework ranks diabetes websites according to their content quality, relevance and evidence based medicine. The framework combines information retrieval techniques with a lexical resource based on Sentiwordnet making it possible to work with biased and untrusted websites while, at the same time, ensuring the content relevance. Measurement: The evaluation measurements used were Pearson-correlation, true positives, false positives and accuracy. We tested the framework with a benchmark data set consisting of 55 websites with varying degrees of information quality problems. Results: The proposed framework gives good results that are comparable with the non-automated information quality measuring approaches in the literature. The correlation between the results of the proposed automated framework and ground-truth is 0.68 on an average with p < 0.001 which is greater than the other proposed automated methods in the literature (r score in average is 0.33).

Embedding Knowledge in 3D Data Frameworks in Cultural Heritage

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Coughenour, C. M.; Vincent, M. L.; de Kramer, M.; Senecal, S.; Fritsch, D.; Flores Gutirrez, M.; Lopez-Menchero Bendicho, V. M.; Ioannides, M.

2015-08-01

At present, where 3D modeling and visualisation in cultural heritage are concerned, an object's documentation lacks its interconnected memory provided by multidisciplinary examination and linked data. As the layers of paint, wood, and brick recount a structure's physical properties, the intangible, such as the forms of worship through song, dance, burning incense, and oral traditions, contributes to the greater story of its cultural heritage import. Furthermore, as an object or structure evolves through time, external political, religious, or environmental forces can affect it as well. As tangible and intangible entities associated with the structure transform, its narrative becomes dynamic and difficult to easily record. The Initial Training Network for Digital Cultural Heritage (ITN-DCH), a Marie Curie Actions project under the EU 7th Framework Programme, seeks to challenge this complexity by developing a novel methodology capable of offering such a holistic framework. With the integration of digitisation, conservation, linked data, and retrieval systems for DCH, the nature of investigation and dissemination will be augmented significantly. Examples of utilisating and evaluating this framework will range from a UNESCOWorld Heritage site, the Byzantine church of Panagia Forviotissa Asinou in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, to various religious icons and a monument located at the Monastery of Saint Neophytos. The application of this effort to the Asinou church, representing the first case study of the ITN-DCH project, is used as a template example in order to assess the technical challenges involved in the creation of such a framework.

A Concise and Practical Framework for the Development and Usability Evaluation of Patient Information Websites

PubMed Central

Knijnenburg, S.L.; Kremer, L.C.; Jaspers, M.W.M.

2015-01-01

Summary Background The Website Developmental Model for the Healthcare Consumer (WDMHC) is an extensive and successfully evaluated framework that incorporates user-centered design principles. However, due to its extensiveness its application is limited. In the current study we apply a subset of the WDMHC framework in a case study concerning the development and evaluation of a website aimed at childhood cancer survivors (CCS). Objective To assess whether the implementation of a limited subset of the WDMHC-framework is sufficient to deliver a high-quality website with few usability problems, aimed at a specific patient population. Methods The website was developed using a six-step approach divided into three phases derived from the WDMHC: 1) information needs analysis, mock-up creation and focus group discussion; 2) website prototype development; and 3) heuristic evaluation (HE) and think aloud analysis (TA). The HE was performed by three double experts (knowledgeable both in usability engineering and childhood cancer survivorship), who assessed the site using the Nielsen heuristics. Eight end-users were invited to complete three scenarios covering all functionality of the website by TA. Results The HE and TA were performed concurrently on the website prototype. The HE resulted in 29 unique usability issues; the end-users performing the TA encountered eleven unique problems. Four issues specifically revealed by HE concerned cosmetic design flaws, whereas two problems revealed by TA were related to website content. Conclusion Based on the subset of the WDMHC framework we were able to deliver a website that closely matched the expectancy of the end-users and resulted in relatively few usability problems during end-user testing. With the successful application of this subset of the WDMHC, we provide developers with a clear and easily applicable framework for the development of healthcare websites with high usability aimed at specific medical populations. PMID:26171083

Evaluating Health Information Systems Using Ontologies

PubMed Central

Anderberg, Peter; Larsson, Tobias C; Fricker, Samuel A; Berglund, Johan

2016-01-01

Background There are several frameworks that attempt to address the challenges of evaluation of health information systems by offering models, methods, and guidelines about what to evaluate, how to evaluate, and how to report the evaluation results. Model-based evaluation frameworks usually suggest universally applicable evaluation aspects but do not consider case-specific aspects. On the other hand, evaluation frameworks that are case specific, by eliciting user requirements, limit their output to the evaluation aspects suggested by the users in the early phases of system development. In addition, these case-specific approaches extract different sets of evaluation aspects from each case, making it challenging to collectively compare, unify, or aggregate the evaluation of a set of heterogeneous health information systems. Objectives The aim of this paper is to find a method capable of suggesting evaluation aspects for a set of one or more health information systems—whether similar or heterogeneous—by organizing, unifying, and aggregating the quality attributes extracted from those systems and from an external evaluation framework. Methods On the basis of the available literature in semantic networks and ontologies, a method (called Unified eValuation using Ontology; UVON) was developed that can organize, unify, and aggregate the quality attributes of several health information systems into a tree-style ontology structure. The method was extended to integrate its generated ontology with the evaluation aspects suggested by model-based evaluation frameworks. An approach was developed to extract evaluation aspects from the ontology that also considers evaluation case practicalities such as the maximum number of evaluation aspects to be measured or their required degree of specificity. The method was applied and tested in Future Internet Social and Technological Alignment Research (FI-STAR), a project of 7 cloud-based eHealth applications that were developed and deployed across European Union countries. Results The relevance of the evaluation aspects created by the UVON method for the FI-STAR project was validated by the corresponding stakeholders of each case. These evaluation aspects were extracted from a UVON-generated ontology structure that reflects both the internally declared required quality attributes in the 7 eHealth applications of the FI-STAR project and the evaluation aspects recommended by the Model for ASsessment of Telemedicine applications (MAST) evaluation framework. The extracted evaluation aspects were used to create questionnaires (for the corresponding patients and health professionals) to evaluate each individual case and the whole of the FI-STAR project. Conclusions The UVON method can provide a relevant set of evaluation aspects for a heterogeneous set of health information systems by organizing, unifying, and aggregating the quality attributes through ontological structures. Those quality attributes can be either suggested by evaluation models or elicited from the stakeholders of those systems in the form of system requirements. The method continues to be systematic, context sensitive, and relevant across a heterogeneous set of health information systems. PMID:27311735

Why so many "rigorous" evaluations fail to identify unintended consequences of development programs: How mixed methods can contribute.

PubMed

Bamberger, Michael; Tarsilla, Michele; Hesse-Biber, Sharlene

2016-04-01

Many widely-used impact evaluation designs, including randomized control trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental designs (QEDs), frequently fail to detect what are often quite serious unintended consequences of development programs. This seems surprising as experienced planners and evaluators are well aware that unintended consequences frequently occur. Most evaluation designs are intended to determine whether there is credible evidence (statistical, theory-based or narrative) that programs have achieved their intended objectives and the logic of many evaluation designs, even those that are considered the most "rigorous," does not permit the identification of outcomes that were not specified in the program design. We take the example of RCTs as they are considered by many to be the most rigorous evaluation designs. We present a numbers of cases to illustrate how infusing RCTs with a mixed-methods approach (sometimes called an "RCT+" design) can strengthen the credibility of these designs and can also capture important unintended consequences. We provide a Mixed Methods Evaluation Framework that identifies 9 ways in which UCs can occur, and we apply this framework to two of the case studies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Phenotyping Framework Using Expert Knowledge and Machine Learning Approach.

PubMed

Kagawa, Rina; Kawazoe, Yoshimasa; Ida, Yusuke; Shinohara, Emiko; Tanaka, Katsuya; Imai, Takeshi; Ohe, Kazuhiko

2017-07-01

Phenotyping is an automated technique that can be used to distinguish patients based on electronic health records. To improve the quality of medical care and advance type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) research, the demand for T2DM phenotyping has been increasing. Some existing phenotyping algorithms are not sufficiently accurate for screening or identifying clinical research subjects. We propose a practical phenotyping framework using both expert knowledge and a machine learning approach to develop 2 phenotyping algorithms: one is for screening; the other is for identifying research subjects. We employ expert knowledge as rules to exclude obvious control patients and machine learning to increase accuracy for complicated patients. We developed phenotyping algorithms on the basis of our framework and performed binary classification to determine whether a patient has T2DM. To facilitate development of practical phenotyping algorithms, this study introduces new evaluation metrics: area under the precision-sensitivity curve (AUPS) with a high sensitivity and AUPS with a high positive predictive value. The proposed phenotyping algorithms based on our framework show higher performance than baseline algorithms. Our proposed framework can be used to develop 2 types of phenotyping algorithms depending on the tuning approach: one for screening, the other for identifying research subjects. We develop a novel phenotyping framework that can be easily implemented on the basis of proper evaluation metrics, which are in accordance with users' objectives. The phenotyping algorithms based on our framework are useful for extraction of T2DM patients in retrospective studies.

A hydromorphological framework for the evaluation of e-flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bussettini, Martina; Rinaldi, Massimo; Grant, Gordon

2017-04-01

Anthropogenic alteration of hydromorphological processes in rivers is a major factor that diminishes river health and undermines environmental objectives envisaged by river protection policies. Specifying environmental flows to address those impacts can be a key strategy for the maintenance of functional river processes and the achievement of those objectives. Environmental flows are determined by various methods and approaches, based primarily on hydrological and/or hydraulic evaluations, although holistic methodologies, considering the many interacting factors that structure aquatic ecosystems, including sediments, are increasingly used. Hydrological and geomorphological processes are highly coupled and any change in one typically affects the other. The coupling varies over different spatial and temporal scales, and changing either hydrological or geomorphological processes can result in alteration of river habitats, ultimately impacting ecological processes. In spite of these linkages, current restoration approaches typically focus only on changes on hydrological regime as a means promoting ecological enhancements. Neglecting sediment transport and its interaction with flow in shaping riverine habitats is likely to results not only in minor or no enhancements in the ecology, but may also increase the costs of water use. A more integrated view of how human activities jointly affect sediment regime, river morphology and river flows is therefore needed in order to determine the most effective actions to rehabilitate river processes to desired states. These states involve considerations of the combination of intrinsic ("natural") conditions (e.g. river sensitivity and morphological potential, off-site conditions) and socio-economic constraints. The evaluation of such factors, the analysis of different scenarios, and the selection of appropriate actions require the contextualization of river reaches within a wider spatial-temporal hydromorphological framework. Here we present such a general multiscale, process-based hydromorphological framework, and discuss its application to the problem of how best to analyse and estimate e-flows.

Design of Mobile Augmented Reality in Health Care Education: A Theory-Driven Framework

PubMed Central

Lilienthal, Anneliese; Shluzas, Lauren Aquino; Masiello, Italo; Zary, Nabil

2015-01-01

Background Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used across a range of subject areas in health care education as health care settings partner to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice. As the first contact with patients, general practitioners (GPs) are important in the battle against a global health threat, the spread of antibiotic resistance. AR has potential as a practical tool for GPs to combine learning and practice in the rational use of antibiotics. Objective This paper was driven by learning theory to develop a mobile augmented reality education (MARE) design framework. The primary goal of the framework is to guide the development of AR educational apps. This study focuses on (1) identifying suitable learning theories for guiding the design of AR education apps, (2) integrating learning outcomes and learning theories to support health care education through AR, and (3) applying the design framework in the context of improving GPs’ rational use of antibiotics. Methods The design framework was first constructed with the conceptual framework analysis method. Data were collected from multidisciplinary publications and reference materials and were analyzed with directed content analysis to identify key concepts and their relationships. Then the design framework was applied to a health care educational challenge. Results The proposed MARE framework consists of three hierarchical layers: the foundation, function, and outcome layers. Three learning theories—situated, experiential, and transformative learning—provide foundational support based on differing views of the relationships among learning, practice, and the environment. The function layer depends upon the learners’ personal paradigms and indicates how health care learning could be achieved with MARE. The outcome layer analyzes different learning abilities, from knowledge to the practice level, to clarify learning objectives and expectations and to avoid teaching pitched at the wrong level. Suggestions for learning activities and the requirements of the learning environment form the foundation for AR to fill the gap between learning outcomes and medical learners’ personal paradigms. With the design framework, the expected rational use of antibiotics by GPs is described and is easy to execute and evaluate. The comparison of specific expected abilities with the GP personal paradigm helps solidify the GP practical learning objectives and helps design the learning environment and activities. The learning environment and activities were supported by learning theories. Conclusions This paper describes a framework for guiding the design, development, and application of mobile AR for medical education in the health care setting. The framework is theory driven with an understanding of the characteristics of AR and specific medical disciplines toward helping medical education improve professional development from knowledge to practice. Future research will use the framework as a guide for developing AR apps in practice to validate and improve the design framework. PMID:27731839

Developing a framework for qualitative engineering: Research in design and analysis of complex structural systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Franck, Bruno M.

1990-01-01

The research is focused on automating the evaluation of complex structural systems, whether for the design of a new system or the analysis of an existing one, by developing new structural analysis techniques based on qualitative reasoning. The problem is to identify and better understand: (1) the requirements for the automation of design, and (2) the qualitative reasoning associated with the conceptual development of a complex system. The long-term objective is to develop an integrated design-risk assessment environment for the evaluation of complex structural systems. The scope of this short presentation is to describe the design and cognition components of the research. Design has received special attention in cognitive science because it is now identified as a problem solving activity that is different from other information processing tasks (1). Before an attempt can be made to automate design, a thorough understanding of the underlying design theory and methodology is needed, since the design process is, in many cases, multi-disciplinary, complex in size and motivation, and uses various reasoning processes involving different kinds of knowledge in ways which vary from one context to another. The objective is to unify all the various types of knowledge under one framework of cognition. This presentation focuses on the cognitive science framework that we are using to represent the knowledge aspects associated with the human mind's abstraction abilities and how we apply it to the engineering knowledge and engineering reasoning in design.

Incorporating prognostic imaging biomarkers into clinical practice

PubMed Central

Miles, Kenneth A.

2013-01-01

Abstract A prognostic imaging biomarker can be defined as an imaging characteristic that is objectively measurable and provides information on the likely outcome of the cancer disease in an untreated individual and should be distinguished from predictive imaging biomarkers and imaging markers of response. A range of tumour characteristics of potential prognostic value can be measured using a variety imaging modalities. However, none has currently been adopted into routine clinical practice. This article considers key examples of emerging prognostic imaging biomarkers and proposes an evaluation framework that aims to demonstrate clinical efficacy and so support their introduction into the clinical arena. With appropriate validation within an established evaluation framework, prognostic imaging biomarkers have the potential to contribute to individualized cancer care, in some cases reducing the financial burden of expensive cancer treatments by facilitating their more rational use. PMID:24060808

A Cognitive Framework for Understanding Barriers to the Productive Use of a Diabetes Home Telemedicine System

PubMed Central

Kaufman, David R.; Starren, Justin; Patel, Vimla L.; Morin, Philip C.; Hilliman, Charlyn; Pevzner, Jenia; Weinstock, Ruth S.; Goland, Robin; Shea, Steven

2003-01-01

Telemedicine has the potential to transcend geographic and socio-cultural barriers to the delivery of high quality health care to the medically underserved populations. However, there are significant cognitive and usability barriers. This paper presents a multifaceted cognitive evaluation of the IDEATel diabetes education and telemedicine program. The evaluation included a cognitive walkthrough analysis to characterize task complexity and identify potential problems as well as field usability testing in patients’ homes. The study revealed dimensions of the interface that impeded optimal access to system resources. In addition, we found significant obstacles corresponding to perceptual-motoric skills, mental models of the system, and health literacy. The objective of this work is to contribute to a design framework so that participants with a wide range of skills can better manage their chronic illnesses. PMID:14728194

Towards a hierarchical optimization framework for spatially targeting incentive policies to promote green infrastructure amidst multiple objectives and uncertainty

EPA Science Inventory

We introduce a hierarchical optimization framework for spatially targeting green infrastructure (GI) incentive policies in order to meet objectives related to cost and environmental effectiveness. The framework explicitly simulates the interaction between multiple levels of polic...

Evaluating the Feasibility of a Gardening and Nutrition Intervention with a Matched Contact-Control Physical Activity Intervention Targeting Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alexander, Ramine; Hill, Jennie; Grier, Karissa; MacAuley, Lorien; McKenzie, Alisa; Totten, Tadashi; Porter, Kathleen; Zoellner, Jamie

2016-01-01

The study reported here involved Cooperative Extension as a key research partner and was guided by a community-based participatory research approach and a feasibility study framework. The research objective was to assess four indicators of feasibility (i.e., acceptability, demand, implementation, and limited-effectiveness) of a gardening and…

Tryout and Evaluation of Prototype LMS (Learning Mastery System) Training System Under Exclusive Use Agreement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonald, Cheryl; Hylton, John A.

In 1970-1971 Learning Mastery System (LMS) materials were made available to schools within the state of California under an Exclusive Use Agreement. The LMS is a set of materials and procedures prepared by the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) as an objectives-based framework to assist in managing the learning activities of existing reading…

Toxics in My Home? You Bet! Curriculum on Household Toxics for Grades 4-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purin, Gina; And Others

This curriculum consists of a one-week course of study designed to introduce students in grades 4-6 to (or increase their awareness of) toxic substances commonly found in the home. It includes an introduction/conceptual framework, four lessons, a unit evaluation, and appendices. Each lesson consists of a statement of purpose, objectives,…

Latent Model Analysis of Substance Use and HIV Risk Behaviors among High-Risk Minority Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Min Qi; Matthew, Resa F.; Chiu, Yu-Wen; Yan, Fang; Bellamy, Nikki D.

2007-01-01

Objectives: This study evaluated substance use and HIV risk profile using a latent model analysis based on ecological theory, inclusive of a risk and protective factor framework, in sexually active minority adults (N=1,056) who participated in a federally funded substance abuse and HIV prevention health initiative from 2002 to 2006. Methods: Data…

Towards a hierarchical optimization modeling framework for the evaluation and construction of spatially targeted incentive policies to promote green infrastructure (GI) amidst budgetary, compliance and GI-effectiveness uncertainties

EPA Science Inventory

Background:Bilevel optimization has been recognized as a 2-player Stackelberg game where players are represented as leaders and followers and each pursue their own set of objectives. Hierarchical optimization problems, which are a generalization of bilevel, are especially difficu...

Oral Health Promotion and Homelessness: A Theory-Based Approach to Understanding Processes of Implementation and Adoption

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beaton, Laura; Freeman, Ruth

2016-01-01

Objective: To use the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations as a framework to explore the qualitative data gleaned from a process evaluation of the Smile4life intervention across Scottish National Health Service (NHS) Boards and to inform future oral health promotion and homelessness. Design: A qualitative exploration. Setting: In 2012, the…

Planning and Evaluation Framework: A Five Year Program for the Department of Libraries, Commonwealth of Kentucky.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kentucky State Dept. of Libraries, Frankfort.

This document is the beginning of a process. The objects of the process are to improve decisions between alternate choices in the development of statewide library services. Secondary functions are to develop the tools for providing information relevant to decisions, to measure and monitor services, and to aid in the communication process. The…

Real-time video analysis for retail stores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hassan, Ehtesham; Maurya, Avinash K.

2015-03-01

With the advancement in video processing technologies, we can capture subtle human responses in a retail store environment which play decisive role in the store management. In this paper, we present a novel surveillance video based analytic system for retail stores targeting localized and global traffic estimate. Development of an intelligent system for human traffic estimation in real-life poses a challenging problem because of the variation and noise involved. In this direction, we begin with a novel human tracking system by an intelligent combination of motion based and image level object detection. We demonstrate the initial evaluation of this approach on available standard dataset yielding promising result. Exact traffic estimate in a retail store require correct separation of customers from service providers. We present a role based human classification framework using Gaussian mixture model for this task. A novel feature descriptor named graded colour histogram is defined for object representation. Using, our role based human classification and tracking system, we have defined a novel computationally efficient framework for two types of analytics generation i.e., region specific people count and dwell-time estimation. This system has been extensively evaluated and tested on four hours of real-life video captured from a retail store.

Conceptual Privacy Framework for Health Information on Wearable Device

PubMed Central

Safavi, Seyedmostafa; Shukur, Zarina

2014-01-01

Wearable health tech provides doctors with the ability to remotely supervise their patients' wellness. It also makes it much easier to authorize someone else to take appropriate actions to ensure the person's wellness than ever before. Information Technology may soon change the way medicine is practiced, improving the performance, while reducing the price of healthcare. We analyzed the secrecy demands of wearable devices, including Smartphone, smart watch and their computing techniques, that can soon change the way healthcare is provided. However, before this is adopted in practice, all devices must be equipped with sufficient privacy capabilities related to healthcare service. In this paper, we formulated a new improved conceptual framework for wearable healthcare systems. This framework consists of ten principles and nine checklists, capable of providing complete privacy protection package to wearable device owners. We constructed this framework based on the analysis of existing mobile technology, the results of which are combined with the existing security standards. The approach also incorporates the market share percentage level of every app and its respective OS. This framework is evaluated based on the stringent CIA and HIPAA principles for information security. This evaluation is followed by testing the capability to revoke rights of subjects to access objects and ability to determine the set of available permissions for a particular subject for all models Finally, as the last step, we examine the complexity of the required initial setup. PMID:25478915

Conceptual privacy framework for health information on wearable device.

PubMed

Safavi, Seyedmostafa; Shukur, Zarina

2014-01-01

Wearable health tech provides doctors with the ability to remotely supervise their patients' wellness. It also makes it much easier to authorize someone else to take appropriate actions to ensure the person's wellness than ever before. Information Technology may soon change the way medicine is practiced, improving the performance, while reducing the price of healthcare. We analyzed the secrecy demands of wearable devices, including Smartphone, smart watch and their computing techniques, that can soon change the way healthcare is provided. However, before this is adopted in practice, all devices must be equipped with sufficient privacy capabilities related to healthcare service. In this paper, we formulated a new improved conceptual framework for wearable healthcare systems. This framework consists of ten principles and nine checklists, capable of providing complete privacy protection package to wearable device owners. We constructed this framework based on the analysis of existing mobile technology, the results of which are combined with the existing security standards. The approach also incorporates the market share percentage level of every app and its respective OS. This framework is evaluated based on the stringent CIA and HIPAA principles for information security. This evaluation is followed by testing the capability to revoke rights of subjects to access objects and ability to determine the set of available permissions for a particular subject for all models Finally, as the last step, we examine the complexity of the required initial setup.

A Framework for the Study of Complex mHealth Interventions in Diverse Cultural Settings

PubMed Central

Yeates, Karen; Perkins, Nancy; Boesch, Lisa; Hua-Stewart, Diane; Liu, Peter; Sleeth, Jessica; Tobe, Sheldon W

2017-01-01

Background To facilitate decision-making capacity between options of care under real-life service conditions, clinical trials must be pragmatic to evaluate mobile health (mHealth) interventions under the variable conditions of health care settings with a wide range of participants. The mHealth interventions require changes in the behavior of patients and providers, creating considerable complexity and ambiguity related to causal chains. Process evaluations of the implementation are necessary to shed light on the range of unanticipated effects an intervention may have, what the active ingredients in everyday practice are, how they exert their effect, and how these may vary among recipients or between sites. Objective Building on the CONSORT-EHEALTH (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials of Electronic and Mobile HEalth Applications and onLine TeleHealth) statement and participatory evaluation theory, we present a framework for the process evaluations for mHealth interventions in multiple cultural settings. We also describe the application of this evaluation framework to the implementation of DREAM-GLOBAL (Diagnosing hypertension—Engaging Action and Management in Getting Lower BP in Indigenous and LMIC [low- and middle-income countries]), a pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT), and mHealth intervention designed to improve hypertension management in low-resource environments. We describe the evaluation questions and the data collection processes developed by us. Methods Our literature review revealed that there is a significant knowledge gap related to the development of a process evaluation framework for mHealth interventions. We used community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods and formative research data to develop a process evaluation framework nested within a pragmatic RCT. Results Four human organizational levels of participants impacted by the mHealth intervention were identified that included patients, providers, community and organizations actors, and health systems and settings. These four levels represent evaluation domains and became the core focus of the evaluation. In addition, primary implementation themes to explore in each of the domains were identified as follows: (1) the major active components of the intervention, (2) technology of the intervention, (3) cultural congruence, (4) task shifting, and (5) unintended consequences. Using the four organizational domains and their interaction with primary implementation themes, we developed detailed evaluation research questions and identified the data or information sources to best answer our questions. Conclusions Using DREAM-GLOBAL to illustrate our approach, we succeeded in developing an uncomplicated process evaluation framework for mHealth interventions that provide key information to stakeholders, which can optimize implementation of a pragmatic trial as well as inform scale up. The human organizational level domains used to focus the primary implementation themes in the DREAM-GLOBAL process evaluation framework are sufficiently supported in our research, and the literature and can serve as a valuable tool for other mHealth process evaluations. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02111226; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02111226 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6oxfHXege) PMID:28428165

Using the Evaluative Linguistic Framework for Questionnaires to Assess Comprehensibility of Self-Report Health Questionnaires.

PubMed

Clerehan, Rosemary; Guillemin, Francis; Epstein, Jonathan; Buchbinder, Rachelle

2016-06-01

The Evaluative Linguistic Framework (ELF) was developed to judge the quality of health care texts for patients, based on systemic functional linguistic theory. This approach considers key variables such as context and structure, known to be important for communication. Our objective was to adapt the ELF to evaluate the quality of self-report questionnaires. We reviewed the Health Literacy Questionnaire using the ELF. On the basis of these data, we drafted the preliminary version of the Evaluative Linguistic Framework for Questionnaires (ELF-Q) and applied it to English- and French-language versions of two arthritis self-report questionnaires and to Spanish, Dutch, and Turkish versions of an arthritis questionnaire. The developed ELF-Q was found to be effective for evaluating questionnaires in English and in four other languages. It contains nine items with new descriptions and assessment probes. These include overall organizational or generic structure of the questionnaire, metadiscourse (or text about the text), headings, rhetorical elements (function of each "move" or stage of the text in relation to the reader), the writer-reader relationship, technicality of vocabulary, lexical density (proportion of content words in the text), format, and overall judgment. We added assessment responses on a two- or three-point Likert scale to complement the assessment probes and make the intent and meaning of the probes fully explicit for the questionnaire developer or assessor. The ELF-Q is a framework practical to use for the development or assessment of any type of self-report questionnaire. Its application can identify features of a self-report questionnaire that could be improved to optimize its comprehensibility. Copyright © 2016 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An Information Technology Framework for Strengthening Telehealthcare Service Delivery

PubMed Central

Chen, Chi-Wen; Weng, Yung-Ching; Shang, Rung-Ji; Yu, Hui-Chu; Chung, Yufang; Lai, Feipei

2012-01-01

Abstract Objective: Telehealthcare has been used to provide healthcare service, and information technology infrastructure appears to be essential while providing telehealthcare service. Insufficiencies have been identified, such as lack of integration, need of accommodation of diverse biometric sensors, and accessing diverse networks as different houses have varying facilities, which challenge the promotion of telehealthcare. This study designs an information technology framework to strengthen telehealthcare delivery. Materials and Methods: The proposed framework consists of a system architecture design and a network transmission design. The aim of the framework is to integrate data from existing information systems, to adopt medical informatics standards, to integrate diverse biometric sensors, and to provide different data transmission networks to support a patient's house network despite the facilities. The proposed framework has been evaluated with a case study of two telehealthcare programs, with and without the adoption of the framework. Results: The proposed framework facilitates the functionality of the program and enables steady patient enrollments. The overall patient participations are increased, and the patient outcomes appear positive. The attitudes toward the service and self-improvement also are positive. Conclusions: The findings of this study add up to the construction of a telehealthcare system. Implementing the proposed framework further assists the functionality of the service and enhances the availability of the service and patient acceptances. PMID:23061641

Evaluating the Relevance, Reliability, and Applicability of CMIP5 Climate Projections for Water Resources and Environmental Planning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brekke, L. D.; Scott, J.; Ferguson, I. M.; Arnold, J.; Raff, D. A.; Webb, R. S.

2012-12-01

Water managers need to understand the applicability of climate projection information available for decision-support at the scale of their applications. Applicability depends on information reliability and relevance. This need to understand applicability stems from expectations that entities rationalize adaptation investments or decisions to delay investment. It is also occurring at a time when new global climate projections are being released through the World Climate Research Programme Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), which introduces new information opportunities and interpretation challenges. This project involves an interagency collaboration to evaluate the applicability of CMIP5 projections for use in water and environmental resources planning. The overarching goal is to develop and demonstrate a framework that involves dual evaluations of relevance and reliability informing an ultimate discussion and judgment of applicability, which is expected to vary with decision-making context. The framework is being developed and demonstrated within the context of reservoir systems management in California's Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins. The relevance evaluation focuses on identifying the climate variables and statistical measures relevant to long-term management questions, which may depend on satisfying multiple objectives. Past studies' results are being considered in this evaluation, along with new results from system sensitivity analyses conducted through this effort. The reliability evaluation focuses on the CMIP5 climate models' ability to simulate past conditions relative to observed references. The evaluation is being conducted across the global domain using a large menu of climate variables and statistical measures, leveraging lessons learned from similar evaluations of CMIP3 climate models. The global focus addresses a broader project goal of producing a web resource that can serve reliability information to applicability discussions around the world, with evaluation results being served through a web-portal similar to that developed by NOAA/CIRES to serve CMIP3 information on future climate extremes (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/ipcc/extremes/). The framework concludes with an applicability discussion informed by relevance and reliability results. The goal is to observe the discussion process and identify features, choice points, and challenges that might be summarized and shared with other resource management groups facing applicability questions. This presentation will discuss the project framework and preliminary results. In addition to considering CMIP5 21st century projection information, the framework is being developed to support evaluation of CMIP5 decadal predictability experiment simulations and reconcile those simulations with 21st century projections. The presentation will also discuss implications of considering the applicability of bias-corrected and downscaled information within this framework.

Developing Brain Vital Signs: Initial Framework for Monitoring Brain Function Changes Over Time

PubMed Central

Ghosh Hajra, Sujoy; Liu, Careesa C.; Song, Xiaowei; Fickling, Shaun; Liu, Luke E.; Pawlowski, Gabriela; Jorgensen, Janelle K.; Smith, Aynsley M.; Schnaider-Beeri, Michal; Van Den Broek, Rudi; Rizzotti, Rowena; Fisher, Kirk; D'Arcy, Ryan C. N.

2016-01-01

Clinical assessment of brain function relies heavily on indirect behavior-based tests. Unfortunately, behavior-based assessments are subjective and therefore susceptible to several confounding factors. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs), derived from electroencephalography (EEG), are often used to provide objective, physiological measures of brain function. Historically, ERPs have been characterized extensively within research settings, with limited but growing clinical applications. Over the past 20 years, we have developed clinical ERP applications for the evaluation of functional status following serious injury and/or disease. This work has identified an important gap: the need for a clinically accessible framework to evaluate ERP measures. Crucially, this enables baseline measures before brain dysfunction occurs, and might enable the routine collection of brain function metrics in the future much like blood pressure measures today. Here, we propose such a framework for extracting specific ERPs as potential “brain vital signs.” This framework enabled the translation/transformation of complex ERP data into accessible metrics of brain function for wider clinical utilization. To formalize the framework, three essential ERPs were selected as initial indicators: (1) the auditory N100 (Auditory sensation); (2) the auditory oddball P300 (Basic attention); and (3) the auditory speech processing N400 (Cognitive processing). First step validation was conducted on healthy younger and older adults (age range: 22–82 years). Results confirmed specific ERPs at the individual level (86.81–98.96%), verified predictable age-related differences (P300 latency delays in older adults, p < 0.05), and demonstrated successful linear transformation into the proposed brain vital sign (BVS) framework (basic attention latency sub-component of BVS framework reflects delays in older adults, p < 0.05). The findings represent an initial critical step in developing, extracting, and characterizing ERPs as vital signs, critical for subsequent evaluation of dysfunction in conditions like concussion and/or dementia. PMID:27242415

Many-Objective Reservoir Policy Identification and Refinement to Reduce Institutional Myopia in Water Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giuliani, M.; Herman, J. D.; Castelletti, A.; Reed, P. M.

2013-12-01

Institutional inertia strongly limits our ability to adapt water reservoir operations to better manage growing water demands as well as their associated uncertainties in a changing climate. Although it has long been recognized that these systems are generally framed in heterogeneous socio-economic contexts involving a myriad of conflicting, non-commensurable operating objectives, our broader understanding of the multiobjective consequences of current operating rules as well as their vulnerability to hydroclimatic uncertainties is severely limited. This study proposes a decision analytic framework to overcome policy inertia and myopia in complex river basin management contexts. The framework combines reservoir policy identification and many-objective optimization under uncertainty to characterize current operations and discover key tradeoffs between alternative policies for balancing evolving demands and system uncertainties. The approach is demonstrated on the Conowingo Dam, located within the Lower Susquehanna River, USA. The Lower Susquehanna River is an interstate water body that has been subject to intensive water management efforts due to the system's competing demands from urban water supply, atomic power plant cooling, hydropower production, and federally regulated environmental flows. Initially our proposed framework uses available streamflow observations to implicitly identify the Conowingo Dam's current but unknown operating policy. This baseline policy is identified by fitting radial basis functions to existing system dynamics. Our assumption in the baseline policy is that the dam operator is represented as a rational agent seeking to maximize primary operational objectives (i.e., guaranteeing the public water supply and maximizing the hydropower revenue). The quality of the identified baseline policy is evaluated by its ability to replicate historical release dynamics. Once identified, the historical baseline policy then provides a means of representing the decision preferences guiding current operations. Our results show that the estimated policy closely captures the dynamics of current releases and flows for the Lower Susquehanna. After identifying the historical baseline policy, our proposed decision analytic framework then combines evolutionary many-objective optimization with visual analytics to discover improved operating policies. Our Lower Susquehanna results confirm that the system's current history-based operations are negatively biased to overestimate the reliability of the reservoir's multi-sector services. Moreover, our proposed framework has successfully identified alternative reservoir policies that are more robust to hydroclimatic uncertainties while being capable of better addressing the tradeoffs across the Conowingo Dam's multi-sector services.

Valuing hydrological alteration in Multi-Objective reservoir management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bizzi, S.; Pianosi, F.; Soncini-Sessa, R.

2012-04-01

Water management through dams and reservoirs is worldwide necessary to support key human-related activities ranging from hydropower production to water allocation for agricultural production, and flood risk mitigation. Advances in multi-objectives (MO) optimization techniques and ever growing computing power make it possible to design reservoir operating policies that represent Pareto-optimal tradeoffs between the multiple interests analysed. These progresses if on one hand are likely to enhance performances of commonly targeted objectives (such as hydropower production or water supply), on the other risk to strongly penalize all the interests not directly (i.e. mathematically) optimized within the MO algorithm. Alteration of hydrological regime, although is a well established cause of ecological degradation and its evaluation and rehabilitation are commonly required by recent legislation (as the Water Framework Directive in Europe), is rarely embedded as an objective in MO planning of optimal releases from reservoirs. Moreover, even when it is explicitly considered, the criteria adopted for its evaluation are doubted and not commonly trusted, undermining the possibility of real implementation of environmentally friendly policies. The main challenges in defining and assessing hydrological alterations are: how to define a reference state (referencing); how to define criteria upon which to build mathematical indicators of alteration (measuring); and finally how to aggregate the indicators in a single evaluation index that can be embedded in a MO optimization problem (valuing). This paper aims to address these issues by: i) discussing benefits and constrains of different approaches to referencing, measuring and valuing hydrological alteration; ii) testing two alternative indices of hydrological alteration in the context of MO problems, one based on the established framework of Indices of Hydrological Alteration (IHA, Richter et al., 1996), and a novel satisfying the mathematical properties required by widely used optimization methods based on dynamic programming; iii) discussing the ranking provided by the proposed indices for a case study in Italy where different operating policies were designed using a MO algorithm, taking into account hydropower production, irrigation supply and flood mitigation and imposing different type of minimum environmental flow; iv) providing a framework to effectively include hydrological alteration within MO problem of reservoir management. Richter, B.D., Baumgartner, J.V., Powell, J., Braun, D.P., 1996, A Method for Assessing Hydrologic Alteration within Ecosystems, Conservation Biology, 10(4), 1163-1174.

An integrated framework for detecting suspicious behaviors in video surveillance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zin, Thi Thi; Tin, Pyke; Hama, Hiromitsu; Toriu, Takashi

2014-03-01

In this paper, we propose an integrated framework for detecting suspicious behaviors in video surveillance systems which are established in public places such as railway stations, airports, shopping malls and etc. Especially, people loitering in suspicion, unattended objects left behind and exchanging suspicious objects between persons are common security concerns in airports and other transit scenarios. These involve understanding scene/event, analyzing human movements, recognizing controllable objects, and observing the effect of the human movement on those objects. In the proposed framework, multiple background modeling technique, high level motion feature extraction method and embedded Markov chain models are integrated for detecting suspicious behaviors in real time video surveillance systems. Specifically, the proposed framework employs probability based multiple backgrounds modeling technique to detect moving objects. Then the velocity and distance measures are computed as the high level motion features of the interests. By using an integration of the computed features and the first passage time probabilities of the embedded Markov chain, the suspicious behaviors in video surveillance are analyzed for detecting loitering persons, objects left behind and human interactions such as fighting. The proposed framework has been tested by using standard public datasets and our own video surveillance scenarios.

[Digital learning object for diagnostic reasoning in nursing applied to the integumentary system].

PubMed

da Costa, Cecília Passos Vaz; Luz, Maria Helena Barros Araújo

2015-12-01

To describe the creation of a digital learning object for diagnostic reasoning in nursing applied to the integumentary system at a public university of Piaui. A methodological study applied to technological production based on the pedagogical framework of problem-based learning. The methodology for creating the learning object observed the stages of analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation recommended for contextualized instructional design. The revised taxonomy of Bloom was used to list the educational goals. The four modules of the developed learning object were inserted into the educational platform Moodle. The theoretical assumptions allowed the design of an important online resource that promotes effective learning in the scope of nursing education. This study should add value to nursing teaching practices through the use of digital learning objects for teaching diagnostic reasoning applied to skin and skin appendages.

The Early Detection of the Emerald Ash Borer (eab) Using Multi-Source Remotely Sensed Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, B.; Naveed, F.; Tasneem, F.; Xing, C.

2018-04-01

The objectives of this study were to exploit the synergy of hyperspectral imagery, Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) and high spatial resolution data and their synergy in the early detection of the EAB (Emerald Ash Borer) presence in trees within urban areas and to develop a framework to combine information extracted from multiple data sources. To achieve these, an object-oriented framework was developed to combine information derived from available data sets to characterize ash trees. Within this framework, an advanced individual tree delineation method was developed to delineate individual trees using the combined high-spatial resolution worldview-3 imagery was used together with LiDAR data. Individual trees were then classified to ash and non-ash trees using spectral and spatial information. In order to characterize the health state of individual ash trees, leaves from ash trees with various health states were sampled and measured using a field spectrometer. Based on the field measurements, the best indices that sensitive to leaf chlorophyll content were selected. The developed framework and methods were tested using worldview-3, airborne LiDAR data over the Keele campus of York University Toronto Canada. Satisfactory results in terms of individual tree crown delineation, ash tree identification and characterization of the health state of individual ash trees. Quantitative evaluations is being carried out.

An object-oriented framework for medical image registration, fusion, and visualization.

PubMed

Zhu, Yang-Ming; Cochoff, Steven M

2006-06-01

An object-oriented framework for image registration, fusion, and visualization was developed based on the classic model-view-controller paradigm. The framework employs many design patterns to facilitate legacy code reuse, manage software complexity, and enhance the maintainability and portability of the framework. Three sample applications built a-top of this framework are illustrated to show the effectiveness of this framework: the first one is for volume image grouping and re-sampling, the second one is for 2D registration and fusion, and the last one is for visualization of single images as well as registered volume images.

Consensus Statement on Electronic Health Predictive Analytics: A Guiding Framework to Address Challenges.

PubMed

Amarasingham, Ruben; Audet, Anne-Marie J; Bates, David W; Glenn Cohen, I; Entwistle, Martin; Escobar, G J; Liu, Vincent; Etheredge, Lynn; Lo, Bernard; Ohno-Machado, Lucila; Ram, Sudha; Saria, Suchi; Schilling, Lisa M; Shahi, Anand; Stewart, Walter F; Steyerberg, Ewout W; Xie, Bin

2016-01-01

The recent explosion in available electronic health record (EHR) data is motivating a rapid expansion of electronic health care predictive analytic (e-HPA) applications, defined as the use of electronic algorithms that forecast clinical events in real time with the intent to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs. There is an urgent need for a systematic framework to guide the development and application of e-HPA to ensure that the field develops in a scientifically sound, ethical, and efficient manner. Building upon earlier frameworks of model development and utilization, we identify the emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA, propose a framework that enables us to realize these opportunities, address these challenges, and motivate e-HPA stakeholders to both adopt and continuously refine the framework as the applications of e-HPA emerge. To achieve these objectives, 17 experts with diverse expertise including methodology, ethics, legal, regulation, and health care delivery systems were assembled to identify emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA and to propose a framework to guide the development and application of e-HPA. The framework proposed by the panel includes three key domains where e-HPA differs qualitatively from earlier generations of models and algorithms (Data Barriers, Transparency, and ETHICS) and areas where current frameworks are insufficient to address the emerging opportunities and challenges of e-HPA (Regulation and Certification; and Education and Training). The following list of recommendations summarizes the key points of the framework: Data Barriers: Establish mechanisms within the scientific community to support data sharing for predictive model development and testing.Transparency: Set standards around e-HPA validation based on principles of scientific transparency and reproducibility. Develop both individual-centered and society-centered risk-benefit approaches to evaluate e-HPA.Regulation and Certification: Construct a self-regulation and certification framework within e-HPA.Education and Training: Make significant changes to medical, nursing, and paraprofessional curricula by including training for understanding, evaluating, and utilizing predictive models.

The Effect of Framework Design on Stress Distribution in Implant-Supported FPDs: A 3-D FEM Study

PubMed Central

Eraslan, Oguz; Inan, Ozgur; Secilmis, Asli

2010-01-01

Objectives: The biomechanical behavior of the superstructure plays an important role in the functional longevity of dental implants. However, information about the influence of framework design on stresses transmitted to the implants and supporting tissues is limited. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of framework designs on stress distribution at the supporting bone and supporting implants. Methods: In this study, the three-dimensional (3D) finite element stress analysis method was used. Three types of 3D mathematical models simulating three different framework designs for implant-supported 3-unit posterior fixed partial dentures were prepared with supporting structures. Convex (1), concave (2), and conventional (3) pontic framework designs were simulated. A 300-N static vertical occlusal load was applied on the node at the center of occlusal surface of the pontic to calculate the stress distributions. As a second condition, frameworks were directly loaded to evaluate the effect of the framework design clearly. The Solidworks/Cosmosworks structural analysis programs were used for finite element modeling/analysis. Results: The analysis of the von Mises stress values revealed that maximum stress concentrations were located at the loading areas for all models. The pontic side marginal edges of restorations and the necks of implants were other stress concentration regions. There was no clear difference among models when the restorations were loaded at occlusal surfaces. When the veneering porcelain was removed, and load was applied directly to the framework, there was a clear increase in stress concentration with a concave design on supporting implants and bone structure. Conclusions: The present study showed that the use of a concave design in the pontic frameworks of fixed partial dentures increases the von Mises stress levels on implant abutments and supporting bone structure. However, the veneering porcelain element reduces the effect of the framework and compensates for design weaknesses. PMID:20922156

Design of a Model Execution Framework: Repetitive Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (ROSE)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gray, Justin S.; Briggs, Jeffery L.

2008-01-01

The ROSE framework was designed to facilitate complex system analyses. It completely divorces the model execution process from the model itself. By doing so ROSE frees the modeler to develop a library of standard modeling processes such as Design of Experiments, optimizers, parameter studies, and sensitivity studies which can then be applied to any of their available models. The ROSE framework accomplishes this by means of a well defined API and object structure. Both the API and object structure are presented here with enough detail to implement ROSE in any object-oriented language or modeling tool.

Evaluation of the quality of care of a multi-disciplinary Risk Factor Assessment and Management Programme for Hypertension (RAMP-HT).

PubMed

Yu, Esther Yee Tak; Wan, Eric Yuk Fai; Chan, Karina Hiu Yen; Wong, Carlos King Ho; Kwok, Ruby Lai Ping; Fong, Daniel Yee Tak; Lam, Cindy Lo Kuen

2015-06-19

There is some evidence to support a risk-stratified, multi-disciplinary approach to manage patients with hypertension in primary care. The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality of care (QOC) of a multi-disciplinary Risk Assessment and Management Programme for Hypertension (RAMP-HT) for hypertensive patients in busy government-funded primary care clinics in Hong Kong. The objectives are to develop an evidence-based, structured and comprehensive evaluation framework on quality of care, to enhance the QOC of the RAMP-HT through an audit spiral of two evaluation cycles and to determine the effectiveness of the programme in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. A longitudinal study is conducted using the Action Learning and Audit Spiral methodologies to measure whether pre-set target standards of care intended by the RAMP-HT are achieved. A structured evaluation framework on the quality of structure, process and outcomes of care has been developed based on the programme objectives and literature review in collaboration with the programme workgroup and health service providers. Each participating clinic is invited to complete a structure of care evaluation questionnaire in each evaluation cycle. The data of all patients who have enrolled into the RAMP-HT in the pre-defined evaluation periods are used for the evaluation of the process and outcomes of care in each evaluation cycle. For evaluation of the effectiveness of RAMP-HT, the primary outcomes including blood pressure (both systolic and diastolic), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and estimated 10-year CVD risk of RAMP-HT participants are compared to those of hypertensive patients in usual care without RAMP-HT. The QOC and effectiveness of the RAMP-HT in improving clinical and patient-reported outcomes for patients with hypertension in normal primary care will be determined. Possible areas for quality enhancement and standards of good practice will be established to inform service planning and policy decision making.

An Ensemble-Based Forecasting Framework to Optimize Reservoir Releases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramaswamy, V.; Saleh, F.

2017-12-01

Increasing frequency of extreme precipitation events are stressing the need to manage water resources on shorter timescales. Short-term management of water resources becomes proactive when inflow forecasts are available and this information can be effectively used in the control strategy. This work investigates the utility of short term hydrological ensemble forecasts for operational decision making during extreme weather events. An advanced automated hydrologic prediction framework integrating a regional scale hydrologic model, GIS datasets and the meteorological ensemble predictions from the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) was coupled to an implicit multi-objective dynamic programming model to optimize releases from a water supply reservoir. The proposed methodology was evaluated by retrospectively forecasting the inflows to the Oradell reservoir in the Hackensack River basin in New Jersey during the extreme hydrologic event, Hurricane Irene. Additionally, the flexibility of the forecasting framework was investigated by forecasting the inflows from a moderate rainfall event to provide important perspectives on using the framework to assist reservoir operations during moderate events. The proposed forecasting framework seeks to provide a flexible, assistive tool to alleviate the complexity of operational decision-making.

Setting conservation priorities.

PubMed

Wilson, Kerrie A; Carwardine, Josie; Possingham, Hugh P

2009-04-01

A generic framework for setting conservation priorities based on the principles of classic decision theory is provided. This framework encapsulates the key elements of any problem, including the objective, the constraints, and knowledge of the system. Within the context of this framework the broad array of approaches for setting conservation priorities are reviewed. While some approaches prioritize assets or locations for conservation investment, it is concluded here that prioritization is incomplete without consideration of the conservation actions required to conserve the assets at particular locations. The challenges associated with prioritizing investments through time in the face of threats (and also spatially and temporally heterogeneous costs) can be aided by proper problem definition. Using the authors' general framework for setting conservation priorities, multiple criteria can be rationally integrated and where, how, and when to invest conservation resources can be scheduled. Trade-offs are unavoidable in priority setting when there are multiple considerations, and budgets are almost always finite. The authors discuss how trade-offs, risks, uncertainty, feedbacks, and learning can be explicitly evaluated within their generic framework for setting conservation priorities. Finally, they suggest ways that current priority-setting approaches may be improved.

Evacuation performance evaluation tool.

PubMed

Farra, Sharon; Miller, Elaine T; Gneuhs, Matthew; Timm, Nathan; Li, Gengxin; Simon, Ashley; Brady, Whittney

2016-01-01

Hospitals conduct evacuation exercises to improve performance during emergency events. An essential aspect in this process is the creation of reliable and valid evaluation tools. The objective of this article is to describe the development and implications of a disaster evacuation performance tool that measures one portion of the very complex process of evacuation. Through the application of the Delphi technique and DeVellis's framework, disaster and neonatal experts provided input in developing this performance evaluation tool. Following development, content validity and reliability of this tool were assessed. Large pediatric hospital and medical center in the Midwest. The tool was pilot tested with an administrative, medical, and nursing leadership group and then implemented with a group of 68 healthcare workers during a disaster exercise of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The tool has demonstrated high content validity with a scale validity index of 0.979 and inter-rater reliability G coefficient (0.984, 95% CI: 0.948-0.9952). The Delphi process based on the conceptual framework of DeVellis yielded a psychometrically sound evacuation performance evaluation tool for a NICU.

Evaluating Mobile Survey Tools (MSTs) for Field-Level Monitoring and Data Collection: Development of a Novel Evaluation Framework, and Application to MSTs for Rural Water and Sanitation Monitoring

PubMed Central

Fisher, Michael B.; Mann, Benjamin H.; Cronk, Ryan D.; Shields, Katherine F.; Klug, Tori L.; Ramaswamy, Rohit

2016-01-01

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) such as mobile survey tools (MSTs) can facilitate field-level data collection to drive improvements in national and international development programs. MSTs allow users to gather and transmit field data in real time, standardize data storage and management, automate routine analyses, and visualize data. Dozens of diverse MST options are available, and users may struggle to select suitable options. We developed a systematic MST Evaluation Framework (EF), based on International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) software quality modeling standards, to objectively assess MSTs and assist program implementers in identifying suitable MST options. The EF is applicable to MSTs for a broad variety of applications. We also conducted an MST user survey to elucidate needs and priorities of current MST users. Finally, the EF was used to assess seven MSTs currently used for water and sanitation monitoring, as a validation exercise. The results suggest that the EF is a promising method for evaluating MSTs. PMID:27563916

Evaluating Mobile Survey Tools (MSTs) for Field-Level Monitoring and Data Collection: Development of a Novel Evaluation Framework, and Application to MSTs for Rural Water and Sanitation Monitoring.

PubMed

Fisher, Michael B; Mann, Benjamin H; Cronk, Ryan D; Shields, Katherine F; Klug, Tori L; Ramaswamy, Rohit

2016-08-23

Information and communications technologies (ICTs) such as mobile survey tools (MSTs) can facilitate field-level data collection to drive improvements in national and international development programs. MSTs allow users to gather and transmit field data in real time, standardize data storage and management, automate routine analyses, and visualize data. Dozens of diverse MST options are available, and users may struggle to select suitable options. We developed a systematic MST Evaluation Framework (EF), based on International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) software quality modeling standards, to objectively assess MSTs and assist program implementers in identifying suitable MST options. The EF is applicable to MSTs for a broad variety of applications. We also conducted an MST user survey to elucidate needs and priorities of current MST users. Finally, the EF was used to assess seven MSTs currently used for water and sanitation monitoring, as a validation exercise. The results suggest that the EF is a promising method for evaluating MSTs.

Knowledge Management Framework for Emerging Infectious Diseases Preparedness and Response: Design and Development of Public Health Document Ontology

PubMed Central

Zhang, Zhizun; Gonzalez, Mila C; Morse, Stephen S

2017-01-01

Background There are increasing concerns about our preparedness and timely coordinated response across the globe to cope with emerging infectious diseases (EIDs). This poses practical challenges that require exploiting novel knowledge management approaches effectively. Objective This work aims to develop an ontology-driven knowledge management framework that addresses the existing challenges in sharing and reusing public health knowledge. Methods We propose a systems engineering-inspired ontology-driven knowledge management approach. It decomposes public health knowledge into concepts and relations and organizes the elements of knowledge based on the teleological functions. Both knowledge and semantic rules are stored in an ontology and retrieved to answer queries regarding EID preparedness and response. Results A hybrid concept extraction was implemented in this work. The quality of the ontology was evaluated using the formal evaluation method Ontology Quality Evaluation Framework. Conclusions Our approach is a potentially effective methodology for managing public health knowledge. Accuracy and comprehensiveness of the ontology can be improved as more knowledge is stored. In the future, a survey will be conducted to collect queries from public health practitioners. The reasoning capacity of the ontology will be evaluated using the queries and hypothetical outbreaks. We suggest the importance of developing a knowledge sharing standard like the Gene Ontology for the public health domain. PMID:29021130

Object-oriented models of cognitive processing.

PubMed

Mather, G

2001-05-01

Information-processing models of vision and cognition are inspired by procedural programming languages. Models that emphasize object-based representations are closely related to object-oriented programming languages. The concepts underlying object-oriented languages provide a theoretical framework for cognitive processing that differs markedly from that offered by procedural languages. This framework is well-suited to a system designed to deal flexibly with discrete objects and unpredictable events in the world.

A Multi-modal, Discriminative and Spatially Invariant CNN for RGB-D Object Labeling.

PubMed

Asif, Umar; Bennamoun, Mohammed; Sohel, Ferdous

2017-08-30

While deep convolutional neural networks have shown a remarkable success in image classification, the problems of inter-class similarities, intra-class variances, the effective combination of multimodal data, and the spatial variability in images of objects remain to be major challenges. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel framework to learn a discriminative and spatially invariant classification model for object and indoor scene recognition using multimodal RGB-D imagery. This is achieved through three postulates: 1) spatial invariance - this is achieved by combining a spatial transformer network with a deep convolutional neural network to learn features which are invariant to spatial translations, rotations, and scale changes, 2) high discriminative capability - this is achieved by introducing Fisher encoding within the CNN architecture to learn features which have small inter-class similarities and large intra-class compactness, and 3) multimodal hierarchical fusion - this is achieved through the regularization of semantic segmentation to a multi-modal CNN architecture, where class probabilities are estimated at different hierarchical levels (i.e., imageand pixel-levels), and fused into a Conditional Random Field (CRF)- based inference hypothesis, the optimization of which produces consistent class labels in RGB-D images. Extensive experimental evaluations on RGB-D object and scene datasets, and live video streams (acquired from Kinect) show that our framework produces superior object and scene classification results compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

C++ Programming Language

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shaykhian, Gholam Ali

2007-01-01

C++ Programming Language: The C++ seminar covers the fundamentals of C++ programming language. The C++ fundamentals are grouped into three parts where each part includes both concept and programming examples aimed at for hands-on practice. The first part covers the functional aspect of C++ programming language with emphasis on function parameters and efficient memory utilization. The second part covers the essential framework of C++ programming language, the object-oriented aspects. Information necessary to evaluate various features of object-oriented programming; including encapsulation, polymorphism and inheritance will be discussed. The last part of the seminar covers template and generic programming. Examples include both user defined and standard templates.

Optimization Techniques for Clustering,Connectivity, and Flow Problems in Complex Networks

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-10-01

discrete optimization and for analysis of performance of algorithm portfolios; introducing a metaheuristic framework of variable objective search that...The results of empirical evaluation of the proposed algorithm are also included. 1.3 Theoretical analysis of heuristics and designing new metaheuristic ...analysis of heuristics for inapproximable problems and designing new metaheuristic approaches for the problems of interest; (IV) Developing new models

An indicator of forest dynamics using a shifting landscape mosaic

Treesearch

Kurt H. Riitters; James D. Wickham; Timothy G. Wade

2009-01-01

The composition of a landscape is a fundamental indicator in land-cover pattern assessments. The objective of this paper was to evaluate a landscape composition indicator called ‘landscape mosaic’ as a framework for interpreting land-cover dynamics over a 9-year period in a 360,000 km2 study area in the southern United States. The indicator...

Counter-terrorism threat prediction architecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehman, Lynn A.; Krause, Lee S.

2004-09-01

This paper will evaluate the feasibility of constructing a system to support intelligence analysts engaged in counter-terrorism. It will discuss the use of emerging techniques to evaluate a large-scale threat data repository (or Infosphere) and comparing analyst developed models to identify and discover potential threat-related activity with a uncertainty metric used to evaluate the threat. This system will also employ the use of psychological (or intent) modeling to incorporate combatant (i.e. terrorist) beliefs and intent. The paper will explore the feasibility of constructing a hetero-hierarchical (a hierarchy of more than one kind or type characterized by loose connection/feedback among elements of the hierarchy) agent based framework or "family of agents" to support "evidence retrieval" defined as combing, or searching the threat data repository and returning information with an uncertainty metric. The counter-terrorism threat prediction architecture will be guided by a series of models, constructed to represent threat operational objectives, potential targets, or terrorist objectives. The approach would compare model representations against information retrieved by the agent family to isolate or identify patterns that match within reasonable measures of proximity. The central areas of discussion will be the construction of an agent framework to search the available threat related information repository, evaluation of results against models that will represent the cultural foundations, mindset, sociology and emotional drive of typical threat combatants (i.e. the mind and objectives of a terrorist), and the development of evaluation techniques to compare result sets with the models representing threat behavior and threat targets. The applicability of concepts surrounding Modeling Field Theory (MFT) will be discussed as the basis of this research into development of proximity measures between the models and result sets and to provide feedback in support of model adaptation (learning). The increasingly complex demands facing analysts evaluating activity threatening to the security of the United States make the family of agent-based data collection (fusion) a promising area. This paper will discuss a system to support the collection and evaluation of potential threat activity as well as an approach fro presentation of the information.

PCTFPeval: a web tool for benchmarking newly developed algorithms for predicting cooperative transcription factor pairs in yeast.

PubMed

Lai, Fu-Jou; Chang, Hong-Tsun; Wu, Wei-Sheng

2015-01-01

Computational identification of cooperative transcription factor (TF) pairs helps understand the combinatorial regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Many advanced algorithms have been proposed to predict cooperative TF pairs in yeast. However, it is still difficult to conduct a comprehensive and objective performance comparison of different algorithms because of lacking sufficient performance indices and adequate overall performance scores. To solve this problem, in our previous study (published in BMC Systems Biology 2014), we adopted/proposed eight performance indices and designed two overall performance scores to compare the performance of 14 existing algorithms for predicting cooperative TF pairs in yeast. Most importantly, our performance comparison framework can be applied to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the performance of a newly developed algorithm. However, to use our framework, researchers have to put a lot of effort to construct it first. To save researchers time and effort, here we develop a web tool to implement our performance comparison framework, featuring fast data processing, a comprehensive performance comparison and an easy-to-use web interface. The developed tool is called PCTFPeval (Predicted Cooperative TF Pair evaluator), written in PHP and Python programming languages. The friendly web interface allows users to input a list of predicted cooperative TF pairs from their algorithm and select (i) the compared algorithms among the 15 existing algorithms, (ii) the performance indices among the eight existing indices, and (iii) the overall performance scores from two possible choices. The comprehensive performance comparison results are then generated in tens of seconds and shown as both bar charts and tables. The original comparison results of each compared algorithm and each selected performance index can be downloaded as text files for further analyses. Allowing users to select eight existing performance indices and 15 existing algorithms for comparison, our web tool benefits researchers who are eager to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the performance of their newly developed algorithm. Thus, our tool greatly expedites the progress in the research of computational identification of cooperative TF pairs.

PCTFPeval: a web tool for benchmarking newly developed algorithms for predicting cooperative transcription factor pairs in yeast

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Computational identification of cooperative transcription factor (TF) pairs helps understand the combinatorial regulation of gene expression in eukaryotic cells. Many advanced algorithms have been proposed to predict cooperative TF pairs in yeast. However, it is still difficult to conduct a comprehensive and objective performance comparison of different algorithms because of lacking sufficient performance indices and adequate overall performance scores. To solve this problem, in our previous study (published in BMC Systems Biology 2014), we adopted/proposed eight performance indices and designed two overall performance scores to compare the performance of 14 existing algorithms for predicting cooperative TF pairs in yeast. Most importantly, our performance comparison framework can be applied to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the performance of a newly developed algorithm. However, to use our framework, researchers have to put a lot of effort to construct it first. To save researchers time and effort, here we develop a web tool to implement our performance comparison framework, featuring fast data processing, a comprehensive performance comparison and an easy-to-use web interface. Results The developed tool is called PCTFPeval (Predicted Cooperative TF Pair evaluator), written in PHP and Python programming languages. The friendly web interface allows users to input a list of predicted cooperative TF pairs from their algorithm and select (i) the compared algorithms among the 15 existing algorithms, (ii) the performance indices among the eight existing indices, and (iii) the overall performance scores from two possible choices. The comprehensive performance comparison results are then generated in tens of seconds and shown as both bar charts and tables. The original comparison results of each compared algorithm and each selected performance index can be downloaded as text files for further analyses. Conclusions Allowing users to select eight existing performance indices and 15 existing algorithms for comparison, our web tool benefits researchers who are eager to comprehensively and objectively evaluate the performance of their newly developed algorithm. Thus, our tool greatly expedites the progress in the research of computational identification of cooperative TF pairs. PMID:26677932

Algorithmic Mechanism Design of Evolutionary Computation.

PubMed

Pei, Yan

2015-01-01

We consider algorithmic design, enhancement, and improvement of evolutionary computation as a mechanism design problem. All individuals or several groups of individuals can be considered as self-interested agents. The individuals in evolutionary computation can manipulate parameter settings and operations by satisfying their own preferences, which are defined by an evolutionary computation algorithm designer, rather than by following a fixed algorithm rule. Evolutionary computation algorithm designers or self-adaptive methods should construct proper rules and mechanisms for all agents (individuals) to conduct their evolution behaviour correctly in order to definitely achieve the desired and preset objective(s). As a case study, we propose a formal framework on parameter setting, strategy selection, and algorithmic design of evolutionary computation by considering the Nash strategy equilibrium of a mechanism design in the search process. The evaluation results present the efficiency of the framework. This primary principle can be implemented in any evolutionary computation algorithm that needs to consider strategy selection issues in its optimization process. The final objective of our work is to solve evolutionary computation design as an algorithmic mechanism design problem and establish its fundamental aspect by taking this perspective. This paper is the first step towards achieving this objective by implementing a strategy equilibrium solution (such as Nash equilibrium) in evolutionary computation algorithm.

Algorithmic Mechanism Design of Evolutionary Computation

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

We consider algorithmic design, enhancement, and improvement of evolutionary computation as a mechanism design problem. All individuals or several groups of individuals can be considered as self-interested agents. The individuals in evolutionary computation can manipulate parameter settings and operations by satisfying their own preferences, which are defined by an evolutionary computation algorithm designer, rather than by following a fixed algorithm rule. Evolutionary computation algorithm designers or self-adaptive methods should construct proper rules and mechanisms for all agents (individuals) to conduct their evolution behaviour correctly in order to definitely achieve the desired and preset objective(s). As a case study, we propose a formal framework on parameter setting, strategy selection, and algorithmic design of evolutionary computation by considering the Nash strategy equilibrium of a mechanism design in the search process. The evaluation results present the efficiency of the framework. This primary principle can be implemented in any evolutionary computation algorithm that needs to consider strategy selection issues in its optimization process. The final objective of our work is to solve evolutionary computation design as an algorithmic mechanism design problem and establish its fundamental aspect by taking this perspective. This paper is the first step towards achieving this objective by implementing a strategy equilibrium solution (such as Nash equilibrium) in evolutionary computation algorithm. PMID:26257777

Applying graph partitioning methods in measurement-based dynamic load balancing

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

Bhatele, Abhinav; Fourestier, Sebastien; Menon, Harshitha

Load imbalance leads to an increasing waste of resources as an application is scaled to more and more processors. Achieving the best parallel efficiency for a program requires optimal load balancing which is a NP-hard problem. However, finding near-optimal solutions to this problem for complex computational science and engineering applications is becoming increasingly important. Charm++, a migratable objects based programming model, provides a measurement-based dynamic load balancing framework. This framework instruments and then migrates over-decomposed objects to balance computational load and communication at runtime. This paper explores the use of graph partitioning algorithms, traditionally used for partitioning physical domains/meshes, formore » measurement-based dynamic load balancing of parallel applications. In particular, we present repartitioning methods developed in a graph partitioning toolbox called SCOTCH that consider the previous mapping to minimize migration costs. We also discuss a new imbalance reduction algorithm for graphs with irregular load distributions. We compare several load balancing algorithms using microbenchmarks on Intrepid and Ranger and evaluate the effect of communication, number of cores and number of objects on the benefit achieved from load balancing. New algorithms developed in SCOTCH lead to better performance compared to the METIS partitioners for several cases, both in terms of the application execution time and fewer number of objects migrated.« less

Long-term object tracking combined offline with online learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Mengjie; Wei, Zhenzhong; Zhang, Guangjun

2016-04-01

We propose a simple yet effective method for long-term object tracking. Different from the traditional visual tracking method, which mainly depends on frame-to-frame correspondence, we combine high-level semantic information with low-level correspondences. Our framework is formulated in a confidence selection framework, which allows our system to recover from drift and partly deal with occlusion. To summarize, our algorithm can be roughly decomposed into an initialization stage and a tracking stage. In the initialization stage, an offline detector is trained to get the object appearance information at the category level, which is used for detecting the potential target and initializing the tracking stage. The tracking stage consists of three modules: the online tracking module, detection module, and decision module. A pretrained detector is used for maintaining drift of the online tracker, while the online tracker is used for filtering out false positive detections. A confidence selection mechanism is proposed to optimize the object location based on the online tracker and detection. If the target is lost, the pretrained detector is utilized to reinitialize the whole algorithm when the target is relocated. During experiments, we evaluate our method on several challenging video sequences, and it demonstrates huge improvement compared with detection and online tracking only.

Self-evaluation of decision-making: A general Bayesian framework for metacognitive computation.

PubMed

Fleming, Stephen M; Daw, Nathaniel D

2017-01-01

People are often aware of their mistakes, and report levels of confidence in their choices that correlate with objective performance. These metacognitive assessments of decision quality are important for the guidance of behavior, particularly when external feedback is absent or sporadic. However, a computational framework that accounts for both confidence and error detection is lacking. In addition, accounts of dissociations between performance and metacognition have often relied on ad hoc assumptions, precluding a unified account of intact and impaired self-evaluation. Here we present a general Bayesian framework in which self-evaluation is cast as a "second-order" inference on a coupled but distinct decision system, computationally equivalent to inferring the performance of another actor. Second-order computation may ensue whenever there is a separation between internal states supporting decisions and confidence estimates over space and/or time. We contrast second-order computation against simpler first-order models in which the same internal state supports both decisions and confidence estimates. Through simulations we show that second-order computation provides a unified account of different types of self-evaluation often considered in separate literatures, such as confidence and error detection, and generates novel predictions about the contribution of one's own actions to metacognitive judgments. In addition, the model provides insight into why subjects' metacognition may sometimes be better or worse than task performance. We suggest that second-order computation may underpin self-evaluative judgments across a range of domains. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-Evaluation of Decision-Making: A General Bayesian Framework for Metacognitive Computation

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

People are often aware of their mistakes, and report levels of confidence in their choices that correlate with objective performance. These metacognitive assessments of decision quality are important for the guidance of behavior, particularly when external feedback is absent or sporadic. However, a computational framework that accounts for both confidence and error detection is lacking. In addition, accounts of dissociations between performance and metacognition have often relied on ad hoc assumptions, precluding a unified account of intact and impaired self-evaluation. Here we present a general Bayesian framework in which self-evaluation is cast as a “second-order” inference on a coupled but distinct decision system, computationally equivalent to inferring the performance of another actor. Second-order computation may ensue whenever there is a separation between internal states supporting decisions and confidence estimates over space and/or time. We contrast second-order computation against simpler first-order models in which the same internal state supports both decisions and confidence estimates. Through simulations we show that second-order computation provides a unified account of different types of self-evaluation often considered in separate literatures, such as confidence and error detection, and generates novel predictions about the contribution of one’s own actions to metacognitive judgments. In addition, the model provides insight into why subjects’ metacognition may sometimes be better or worse than task performance. We suggest that second-order computation may underpin self-evaluative judgments across a range of domains. PMID:28004960

An analytical framework to assist decision makers in the use of forest ecosystem model predictions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Larocque, Guy R.; Bhatti, Jagtar S.; Ascough, J.C.; Liu, J.; Luckai, N.; Mailly, D.; Archambault, L.; Gordon, Andrew M.

2011-01-01

The predictions from most forest ecosystem models originate from deterministic simulations. However, few evaluation exercises for model outputs are performed by either model developers or users. This issue has important consequences for decision makers using these models to develop natural resource management policies, as they cannot evaluate the extent to which predictions stemming from the simulation of alternative management scenarios may result in significant environmental or economic differences. Various numerical methods, such as sensitivity/uncertainty analyses, or bootstrap methods, may be used to evaluate models and the errors associated with their outputs. However, the application of each of these methods carries unique challenges which decision makers do not necessarily understand; guidance is required when interpreting the output generated from each model. This paper proposes a decision flow chart in the form of an analytical framework to help decision makers apply, in an orderly fashion, different steps involved in examining the model outputs. The analytical framework is discussed with regard to the definition of problems and objectives and includes the following topics: model selection, identification of alternatives, modelling tasks and selecting alternatives for developing policy or implementing management scenarios. Its application is illustrated using an on-going exercise in developing silvicultural guidelines for a forest management enterprise in Ontario, Canada.

A methodological approach and framework for sustainability assessment in NGO-implemented primary health care programs.

PubMed

Sarriot, Eric G; Winch, Peter J; Ryan, Leo J; Bowie, Janice; Kouletio, Michelle; Swedberg, Eric; LeBan, Karen; Edison, Jay; Welch, Rikki; Pacqué, Michel C

2004-01-01

An estimated 10.8 million children under 5 continue to die each year in developing countries from causes easily treatable or preventable. Non governmental organizations (NGOs) are frontline implementers of low-cost and effective child health interventions, but their progress toward sustainable child health gains is a challenge to evaluate. This paper presents the Child Survival Sustainability Assessment (CSSA) methodology--a framework and process--to map progress towards sustainable child health from the community level and upward. The CSSA was developed with NGOs through a participatory process of research and dialogue. Commitment to sustainability requires a systematic and systemic consideration of human, social and organizational processes beyond a purely biomedical perspective. The CSSA is organized around three interrelated dimensions of evaluation: (1) health and health services; (2) capacity and viability of local organizations; (3) capacity of the community in its social ecological context. The CSSA uses a participatory, action-planning process, engaging a 'local system' of stakeholders in the contextual definition of objectives and indicators. Improved conditions measured in the three dimensions correspond to progress toward a sustainable health situation for the population. This framework opens new opportunities for evaluation and research design and places sustainability at the center of primary health care programming.

HIV-Associated Orphanhood and Children’s Psychosocial Distress: Theoretical Framework Tested With Data From Zimbabwe

PubMed Central

Nyamukapa, Constance A.; Gregson, Simon; Lopman, Ben; Saito, Suzue; Watts, Helen J.; Monasch, Roeland; Jukes, Matthew C.H.

2008-01-01

Objectives. We measured the psychosocial effect of orphanhood in a sub-Saharan African population and evaluated a new framework for understanding the causes and consequences of psychosocial distress among orphans and other vulnerable children. Methods. The framework was evaluated using data from 5321 children aged 12 to 17 years who were interviewed in a 2004 national survey in Zimbabwe. We constructed a measure of psychosocial distress using principle components analysis. We used regression analyses to obtain standardized parameter estimates of psychosocial distress and odds ratios of early sexual activity. Results. Orphans had more psychosocial distress than did nonorphans. For both genders, paternal, maternal, and double orphans exhibited more-severe distress than did nonorphaned, nonvulnerable children. Orphanhood remained associated with psychosocial distress after we controlled for differences in more-proximate determinants. Maternal and paternal orphans were significantly more likely than were nonorphaned, nonvulnerable children to have engaged in sexual activity. These differences were reduced after we controlled for psychosocial distress. Conclusions. Orphaned adolescents in Zimbabwe suffer greater psychosocial distress than do nonorphaned, nonvulnerable children, which may lead to increased likelihood of early onset of sexual intercourse and HIV infection. The effect of strategies to provide psychosocial support should be evaluated scientifically. PMID:18048777

Implementation of team training in medical education in Denmark

PubMed Central

Ostergaard, H; Ostergaard, D; Lippert, A

2004-01-01

In the field of medicine, team training aiming at improving team skills such as leadership, communication, co-operation, and followership at the individual and the team level seems to reduce risk of serious events and therefore increase patient safety. The preferred educational method for this type of training is simulation. Team training is not, however, used routinely in the hospital. In this paper, we describe a framework for the development of a team training course based on need assessment, learning objectives, educational methods including full-scale simulation and evaluations strategies. The use of this framework is illustrated by the present multiprofessional team training in advanced cardiac life support, trauma team training and neonatal resuscitation in Denmark. The challenges of addressing all aspects of team skills, the education of the facilitators, and establishment of evaluation strategies to document the effect of the different types of training on patient safety are discussed. PMID:15465962

Implementation of team training in medical education in Denmark.

PubMed

Østergaard, H T; Østergaard, D; Lippert, A

2004-10-01

In the field of medicine, team training aiming at improving team skills such as leadership, communication, co-operation, and followership at the individual and the team level seems to reduce risk of serious events and therefore increase patient safety. The preferred educational method for this type of training is simulation. Team training is not, however, used routinely in the hospital. In this paper, we describe a framework for the development of a team training course based on need assessment, learning objectives, educational methods including full-scale simulation and evaluations strategies. The use of this framework is illustrated by the present multiprofessional team training in advanced cardiac life support, trauma team training and neonatal resuscitation in Denmark. The challenges of addressing all aspects of team skills, the education of the facilitators, and establishment of evaluation strategies to document the effect of the different types of training on patient safety are discussed.

Implementation of team training in medical education in Denmark.

PubMed

Østergaard, H T; Østergaard, D; Lippert, A

2008-10-01

In the field of medicine, team training aiming at improving team skills such as leadership, communication, co-operation, and followership at the individual and the team level seems to reduce risk of serious events and therefore increase patient safety. The preferred educational method for this type of training is simulation. Team training is not, however, used routinely in the hospital. In this paper, we describe a framework for the development of a team training course based on need assessment, learning objectives, educational methods including full-scale simulation and evaluations strategies. The use of this framework is illustrated by the present multiprofessional team training in advanced cardiac life support, trauma team training and neonatal resuscitation in Denmark. The challenges of addressing all aspects of team skills, the education of the facilitators, and establishment of evaluation strategies to document the effect of the different types of training on patient safety are discussed.

Implications of climate change mitigation for sustainable development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jakob, Michael; Steckel, Jan Christoph

2016-10-01

Evaluating the trade-offs between the risks related to climate change, climate change mitigation as well as co-benefits requires an integrated scenarios approach to sustainable development. We outline a conceptual multi-objective framework to assess climate policies that takes into account climate impacts, mitigation costs, water and food availability, technological risks of nuclear energy and carbon capture and sequestration as well as co-benefits of reducing local air pollution and increasing energy security. This framework is then employed as an example to different climate change mitigation scenarios generated with integrated assessment models. Even though some scenarios encompass considerable challenges for sustainability, no scenario performs better or worse than others in all dimensions, pointing to trade-offs between different dimensions of sustainable development. For this reason, we argue that these trade-offs need to be evaluated in a process of public deliberation that includes all relevant social actors.

Characterizing the reliability of a bioMEMS-based cantilever sensor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhalerao, Kaustubh D.

2004-12-01

The cantilever-based BioMEMS sensor represents one instance from many competing ideas of biosensor technology based on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. The advancement of BioMEMS from laboratory-scale experiments to applications in the field will require standardization of their components and manufacturing procedures as well as frameworks to evaluate their performance. Reliability, the likelihood with which a system performs its intended task, is a compact mathematical description of its performance. The mathematical and statistical foundation of systems-reliability has been applied to the cantilever-based BioMEMS sensor. The sensor is designed to detect one aspect of human ovarian cancer, namely the over-expression of the folate receptor surface protein (FR-alpha). Even as the application chosen is clinically motivated, the objective of this study was to demonstrate the underlying systems-based methodology used to design, develop and evaluate the sensor. The framework development can be readily extended to other BioMEMS-based devices for disease detection and will have an impact in the rapidly growing $30 bn industry. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a systems-based framework for design and development of object-oriented information systems which has potential application for use in systems designed to interact with biological environments. The UML has been used to abstract and describe the application of the biosensor, to identify key components of the biosensor, and the technology needed to link them together in a coherent manner. The use of the framework is also demonstrated in computation of system reliability from first principles as a function of the structure and materials of the biosensor. The outcomes of applying the systems-based framework to the study are the following: (1) Characterizing the cantilever-based MEMS device for disease (cell) detection. (2) Development of a novel chemical interface between the analyte and the sensor that provides a degree of selectivity towards the disease. (3) Demonstrating the performance and measuring the reliability of the biosensor prototype, and (4) Identification of opportunities in technological development in order to further refine the proposed biosensor. Application of the methodology to design develop and evaluate the reliability of BioMEMS devices will be beneficial in the streamlining the growth of the BioMEMS industry, while providing a decision-support tool in comparing and adopting suitable technologies from available competing options.

A novel framework for intelligent surveillance system based on abnormal human activity detection in academic environments.

PubMed

Al-Nawashi, Malek; Al-Hazaimeh, Obaida M; Saraee, Mohamad

2017-01-01

Abnormal activity detection plays a crucial role in surveillance applications, and a surveillance system that can perform robustly in an academic environment has become an urgent need. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for an automatic real-time video-based surveillance system which can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment. To develop our system, we have divided the work into three phases: preprocessing phase, abnormal human activity detection phase, and content-based image retrieval phase. For motion object detection, we used the temporal-differencing algorithm and then located the motions region using the Gaussian function. Furthermore, the shape model based on OMEGA equation was used as a filter for the detected objects (i.e., human and non-human). For object activities analysis, we evaluated and analyzed the human activities of the detected objects. We classified the human activities into two groups: normal activities and abnormal activities based on the support vector machine. The machine then provides an automatic warning in case of abnormal human activities. It also embeds a method to retrieve the detected object from the database for object recognition and identification using content-based image retrieval. Finally, a software-based simulation using MATLAB was performed and the results of the conducted experiments showed an excellent surveillance system that can simultaneously perform the tracking, semantic scene learning, and abnormality detection in an academic environment with no human intervention.

Alternatives Assessment Frameworks: Research Needs for the Informed Substitution of Hazardous Chemicals

PubMed Central

Jacobs, Molly M.; Malloy, Timothy F.; Tickner, Joel A.; Edwards, Sally

2015-01-01

Background Given increasing pressures for hazardous chemical replacement, there is growing interest in alternatives assessment to avoid substituting a toxic chemical with another of equal or greater concern. Alternatives assessment is a process for identifying, comparing, and selecting safer alternatives to chemicals of concern (including those used in materials, processes, or technologies) on the basis of their hazards, performance, and economic viability. Objectives The purposes of this substantive review of alternatives assessment frameworks are to identify consistencies and differences in methods and to outline needs for research and collaboration to advance science policy practice. Methods This review compares methods used in six core components of these frameworks: hazard assessment, exposure characterization, life-cycle impacts, technical feasibility evaluation, economic feasibility assessment, and decision making. Alternatives assessment frameworks published from 1990 to 2014 were included. Results Twenty frameworks were reviewed. The frameworks were consistent in terms of general process steps, but some differences were identified in the end points addressed. Methodological gaps were identified in the exposure characterization, life-cycle assessment, and decision–analysis components. Methods for addressing data gaps remain an issue. Discussion Greater consistency in methods and evaluation metrics is needed but with sufficient flexibility to allow the process to be adapted to different decision contexts. Conclusion Although alternatives assessment is becoming an important science policy field, there is a need for increased cross-disciplinary collaboration to refine methodologies in support of the informed substitution and design of safer chemicals, materials, and products. Case studies can provide concrete lessons to improve alternatives assessment. Citation Jacobs MM, Malloy TF, Tickner JA, Edwards S. 2016. Alternatives assessment frameworks: research needs for the informed substitution of hazardous chemicals. Environ Health Perspect 124:265–280; http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.1409581 PMID:26339778

Automated Assessment of Disease Progression in Acute Myeloid Leukemia by Probabilistic Analysis of Flow Cytometry Data

PubMed Central

Rajwa, Bartek; Wallace, Paul K.; Griffiths, Elizabeth A.; Dundar, Murat

2017-01-01

Objective Flow cytometry (FC) is a widely acknowledged technology in diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and has been indispensable in determining progression of the disease. Although FC plays a key role as a post-therapy prognosticator and evaluator of therapeutic efficacy, the manual analysis of cytometry data is a barrier to optimization of reproducibility and objectivity. This study investigates the utility of our recently introduced non-parametric Bayesian framework in accurately predicting the direction of change in disease progression in AML patients using FC data. Methods The highly flexible non-parametric Bayesian model based on the infinite mixture of infinite Gaussian mixtures is used for jointly modeling data from multiple FC samples to automatically identify functionally distinct cell populations and their local realizations. Phenotype vectors are obtained by characterizing each sample by the proportions of recovered cell populations, which are in turn used to predict the direction of change in disease progression for each patient. Results We used 200 diseased and non-diseased immunophenotypic panels for training and tested the system with 36 additional AML cases collected at multiple time points. The proposed framework identified the change in direction of disease progression with accuracies of 90% (9 out of 10) for relapsing cases and 100% (26 out of 26) for the remaining cases. Conclusions We believe that these promising results are an important first step towards the development of automated predictive systems for disease monitoring and continuous response evaluation. Significance Automated measurement and monitoring of therapeutic response is critical not only for objective evaluation of disease status prognosis but also for timely assessment of treatment strategies. PMID:27416585

A Conceptual Framework for Error Remediation with Multiple External Representations Applied to Learning Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leite, Maici Duarte; Marczal, Diego; Pimentel, Andrey Ricardo; Direne, Alexandre Ibrahim

2014-01-01

This paper presents the application of some concepts of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to elaborate a conceptual framework that uses the remediation of errors with Multiple External Representations (MERs) in Learning Objects (LO). To this is demonstrated a development of LO for teaching the Pythagorean Theorem through this framework. This…

Comparing the Performance of Indoor Localization Systems through the EvAAL Framework.

PubMed

Potortì, Francesco; Park, Sangjoon; Jiménez Ruiz, Antonio Ramón; Barsocchi, Paolo; Girolami, Michele; Crivello, Antonino; Lee, So Yeon; Lim, Jae Hyun; Torres-Sospedra, Joaquín; Seco, Fernando; Montoliu, Raul; Mendoza-Silva, Germán Martin; Pérez Rubio, Maria Del Carmen; Losada-Gutiérrez, Cristina; Espinosa, Felipe; Macias-Guarasa, Javier

2017-10-13

In recent years, indoor localization systems have been the object of significant research activity and of growing interest for their great expected social impact and their impressive business potential. Application areas include tracking and navigation, activity monitoring, personalized advertising, Active and Assisted Living (AAL), traceability, Internet of Things (IoT) networks, and Home-land Security. In spite of the numerous research advances and the great industrial interest, no canned solutions have yet been defined. The diversity and heterogeneity of applications, scenarios, sensor and user requirements, make it difficult to create uniform solutions. From that diverse reality, a main problem is derived that consists in the lack of a consensus both in terms of the metrics and the procedures used to measure the performance of the different indoor localization and navigation proposals. This paper introduces the general lines of the EvAAL benchmarking framework, which is aimed at a fair comparison of indoor positioning systems through a challenging competition under complex, realistic conditions. To evaluate the framework capabilities, we show how it was used in the 2016 Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) Competition. The 2016 IPIN competition considered three different scenario dimensions, with a variety of use cases: (1) pedestrian versus robotic navigation, (2) smartphones versus custom hardware usage and (3) real-time positioning versus off-line post-processing. A total of four competition tracks were evaluated under the same EvAAL benchmark framework in order to validate its potential to become a standard for evaluating indoor localization solutions. The experience gained during the competition and feedback from track organizers and competitors showed that the EvAAL framework is flexible enough to successfully fit the very different tracks and appears adequate to compare indoor positioning systems.

Comparing the Performance of Indoor Localization Systems through the EvAAL Framework

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

In recent years, indoor localization systems have been the object of significant research activity and of growing interest for their great expected social impact and their impressive business potential. Application areas include tracking and navigation, activity monitoring, personalized advertising, Active and Assisted Living (AAL), traceability, Internet of Things (IoT) networks, and Home-land Security. In spite of the numerous research advances and the great industrial interest, no canned solutions have yet been defined. The diversity and heterogeneity of applications, scenarios, sensor and user requirements, make it difficult to create uniform solutions. From that diverse reality, a main problem is derived that consists in the lack of a consensus both in terms of the metrics and the procedures used to measure the performance of the different indoor localization and navigation proposals. This paper introduces the general lines of the EvAAL benchmarking framework, which is aimed at a fair comparison of indoor positioning systems through a challenging competition under complex, realistic conditions. To evaluate the framework capabilities, we show how it was used in the 2016 Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation (IPIN) Competition. The 2016 IPIN competition considered three different scenario dimensions, with a variety of use cases: (1) pedestrian versus robotic navigation, (2) smartphones versus custom hardware usage and (3) real-time positioning versus off-line post-processing. A total of four competition tracks were evaluated under the same EvAAL benchmark framework in order to validate its potential to become a standard for evaluating indoor localization solutions. The experience gained during the competition and feedback from track organizers and competitors showed that the EvAAL framework is flexible enough to successfully fit the very different tracks and appears adequate to compare indoor positioning systems. PMID:29027948

Application of Adverse Outcome Pathways to U.S. EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program

PubMed Central

Noyes, Pamela D.; Casey, Warren M.; Dix, David J.

2017-01-01

Background: The U.S. EPA’s Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program (EDSP) screens and tests environmental chemicals for potential effects in estrogen, androgen, and thyroid hormone pathways, and it is one of the only regulatory programs designed around chemical mode of action. Objectives: This review describes the EDSP’s use of adverse outcome pathway (AOP) and toxicity pathway frameworks to organize and integrate diverse biological data for evaluating the endocrine activity of chemicals. Using these frameworks helps to establish biologically plausible links between endocrine mechanisms and apical responses when those end points are not measured in the same assay. Results: Pathway frameworks can facilitate a weight of evidence determination of a chemical’s potential endocrine activity, identify data gaps, aid study design, direct assay development, and guide testing strategies. Pathway frameworks also can be used to evaluate the performance of computational approaches as alternatives for low-throughput and animal-based assays and predict downstream key events. In cases where computational methods can be validated based on performance, they may be considered as alternatives to specific assays or end points. Conclusions: A variety of biological systems affect apical end points used in regulatory risk assessments, and without mechanistic data, an endocrine mode of action cannot be determined. Because the EDSP was designed to consider mode of action, toxicity pathway and AOP concepts are a natural fit. Pathway frameworks have diverse applications to endocrine screening and testing. An estrogen pathway example is presented, and similar approaches are being used to evaluate alternative methods and develop predictive models for androgen and thyroid pathways. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1304 PMID:28934726

Developing Your Evaluation Plans: A Critical Component of Public Health Program Infrastructure.

PubMed

Lavinghouze, S Rene; Snyder, Kimberly

A program's infrastructure is often cited as critical to public health success. The Component Model of Infrastructure (CMI) identifies evaluation as essential under the core component of engaged data. An evaluation plan is a written document that describes how to monitor and evaluate a program, as well as how to use evaluation results for program improvement and decision making. The evaluation plan clarifies how to describe what the program did, how it worked, and why outcomes matter. We use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) "Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health" as a guide for developing an evaluation plan. Just as using a roadmap facilitates progress on a long journey, a well-written evaluation plan can clarify the direction your evaluation takes and facilitate achievement of the evaluation's objectives.

Business process architectures: overview, comparison and framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dijkman, Remco; Vanderfeesten, Irene; Reijers, Hajo A.

2016-02-01

With the uptake of business process modelling in practice, the demand grows for guidelines that lead to consistent and integrated collections of process models. The notion of a business process architecture has been explicitly proposed to address this. This paper provides an overview of the prevailing approaches to design a business process architecture. Furthermore, it includes evaluations of the usability and use of the identified approaches. Finally, it presents a framework for business process architecture design that can be used to develop a concrete architecture. The use and usability were evaluated in two ways. First, a survey was conducted among 39 practitioners, in which the opinion of the practitioners on the use and usefulness of the approaches was evaluated. Second, four case studies were conducted, in which process architectures from practice were analysed to determine the approaches or elements of approaches that were used in their design. Both evaluations showed that practitioners have a preference for using approaches that are based on reference models and approaches that are based on the identification of business functions or business objects. At the same time, the evaluations showed that practitioners use these approaches in combination, rather than selecting a single approach.

A unified and efficient framework for court-net sports video analysis using 3D camera modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Han, Jungong; de With, Peter H. N.

2007-01-01

The extensive amount of video data stored on available media (hard and optical disks) necessitates video content analysis, which is a cornerstone for different user-friendly applications, such as, smart video retrieval and intelligent video summarization. This paper aims at finding a unified and efficient framework for court-net sports video analysis. We concentrate on techniques that are generally applicable for more than one sports type to come to a unified approach. To this end, our framework employs the concept of multi-level analysis, where a novel 3-D camera modeling is utilized to bridge the gap between the object-level and the scene-level analysis. The new 3-D camera modeling is based on collecting features points from two planes, which are perpendicular to each other, so that a true 3-D reference is obtained. Another important contribution is a new tracking algorithm for the objects (i.e. players). The algorithm can track up to four players simultaneously. The complete system contributes to summarization by various forms of information, of which the most important are the moving trajectory and real-speed of each player, as well as 3-D height information of objects and the semantic event segments in a game. We illustrate the performance of the proposed system by evaluating it for a variety of court-net sports videos containing badminton, tennis and volleyball, and we show that the feature detection performance is above 92% and events detection about 90%.

A Required Course in the Development, Implementation, and Evaluation of Clinical Pharmacy Services

PubMed Central

Kamal, Khalid M.; Berdine, Hildegarde J.

2008-01-01

Objective To develop, implement, and assess a required pharmacy practice course to prepare pharmacy students to develop, implement, and evaluate clinical pharmacy services using a business plan model. Design Course content centered around the process of business planning and pharmacoeconomic evaluations. Selected business planning topics included literature evaluation, mission statement development, market evaluation, policy and procedure development, and marketing strategy. Selected pharmacoeconomic topics included cost-minimization analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Assessment methods included objective examinations, student participation, performance on a group project, and peer evaluation. Assessment One hundred fifty-three students were enrolled in the course. The mean scores on the objective examinations (100 points per examination) ranged from 82 to 85 points, with 25%-35% of students in the class scoring over 90, and 40%-50% of students scoring from 80 to 89. The mean scores on the group project (200 points) and classroom participation (50 points) were 183.5 and 46.1, respectively. The mean score on the peer evaluation was 30.8, with scores ranging from 27.5 to 31.7. Conclusion The course provided pharmacy students with the framework necessary to develop and implement evidence-based disease management programs and to assure efficient, cost-effective utilization of pertinent resources in the provision of patient care. PMID:19214263

An Integrated Tone Mapping for High Dynamic Range Image Visualization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Lei; Pan, Jeng-Shyang; Zhuang, Yongjun

2018-01-01

There are two type tone mapping operators for high dynamic range (HDR) image visualization. HDR image mapped by perceptual operators have strong sense of reality, but will lose local details. Empirical operators can maximize local detail information of HDR image, but realism is not strong. A common tone mapping operator suitable for all applications is not available. This paper proposes a novel integrated tone mapping framework which can achieve conversion between empirical operators and perceptual operators. In this framework, the empirical operator is rendered based on improved saliency map, which simulates the visual attention mechanism of the human eye to the natural scene. The results of objective evaluation prove the effectiveness of the proposed solution.

On the usefulness of gradient information in multi-objective deformable image registration using a B-spline-based dual-dynamic transformation model: comparison of three optimization algorithms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pirpinia, Kleopatra; Bosman, Peter A. N.; Sonke, Jan-Jakob; van Herk, Marcel; Alderliesten, Tanja

2015-03-01

The use of gradient information is well-known to be highly useful in single-objective optimization-based image registration methods. However, its usefulness has not yet been investigated for deformable image registration from a multi-objective optimization perspective. To this end, within a previously introduced multi-objective optimization framework, we use a smooth B-spline-based dual-dynamic transformation model that allows us to derive gradient information analytically, while still being able to account for large deformations. Within the multi-objective framework, we previously employed a powerful evolutionary algorithm (EA) that computes and advances multiple outcomes at once, resulting in a set of solutions (a so-called Pareto front) that represents efficient trade-offs between the objectives. With the addition of the B-spline-based transformation model, we studied the usefulness of gradient information in multiobjective deformable image registration using three different optimization algorithms: the (gradient-less) EA, a gradientonly algorithm, and a hybridization of these two. We evaluated the algorithms to register highly deformed images: 2D MRI slices of the breast in prone and supine positions. Results demonstrate that gradient-based multi-objective optimization significantly speeds up optimization in the initial stages of optimization. However, allowing sufficient computational resources, better results could still be obtained with the EA. Ultimately, the hybrid EA found the best overall approximation of the optimal Pareto front, further indicating that adding gradient-based optimization for multiobjective optimization-based deformable image registration can indeed be beneficial

Balancing Exploration, Uncertainty Representation and Computational Time in Many-Objective Reservoir Policy Optimization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zatarain-Salazar, J.; Reed, P. M.; Quinn, J.; Giuliani, M.; Castelletti, A.

2016-12-01

As we confront the challenges of managing river basin systems with a large number of reservoirs and increasingly uncertain tradeoffs impacting their operations (due to, e.g. climate change, changing energy markets, population pressures, ecosystem services, etc.), evolutionary many-objective direct policy search (EMODPS) solution strategies will need to address the computational demands associated with simulating more uncertainties and therefore optimizing over increasingly noisy objective evaluations. Diagnostic assessments of state-of-the-art many-objective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) to support EMODPS have highlighted that search time (or number of function evaluations) and auto-adaptive search are key features for successful optimization. Furthermore, auto-adaptive MOEA search operators are themselves sensitive to having a sufficient number of function evaluations to learn successful strategies for exploring complex spaces and for escaping from local optima when stagnation is detected. Fortunately, recent parallel developments allow coordinated runs that enhance auto-adaptive algorithmic learning and can handle scalable and reliable search with limited wall-clock time, but at the expense of the total number of function evaluations. In this study, we analyze this tradeoff between parallel coordination and depth of search using different parallelization schemes of the Multi-Master Borg on a many-objective stochastic control problem. We also consider the tradeoff between better representing uncertainty in the stochastic optimization, and simplifying this representation to shorten the function evaluation time and allow for greater search. Our analysis focuses on the Lower Susquehanna River Basin (LSRB) system where multiple competing objectives for hydropower production, urban water supply, recreation and environmental flows need to be balanced. Our results provide guidance for balancing exploration, uncertainty, and computational demands when using the EMODPS framework to discover key tradeoffs within the LSRB system.

Distributed learning or medical tourism? A Canadian residency program's experience in global health.

PubMed

Kelly, Kate; McCarthy, Anne; McLean, Laurie

2015-01-01

Global health experiences (GHEs) are becoming increasingly prevalent in surgical residency education. Although it may seem intuitive that participation in GHEs develops CanMEDS competencies, this has not been studied in depth in surgery. The purpose of this study is (1) to explore if and how otolaryngology-head and neck surgery (OHNS) resident participation in GHEs facilitates the development of CanMEDS competencies and (2) to develop an OHNS GHE tool to facilitate the integration of CanMEDS into GHE participation and evaluation. An online survey explored the GHEs of current and past OHNS residents in Canada. Based on the data collected and a literature review, a foundational tool was then created to (1) enable OHNS residents to structure their GHEs into CanMEDS-related learning objectives and (2) enable OHNS program directors to more effectively evaluate residents' GHEs with respect to CanMEDS competencies. Participants' GHEs varied widely. These experiences often contributed informally to the development of several CanMEDS competencies. However, few residents had concrete objectives, rarely were CanMEDS roles clearly incorporated, and most residents were not formally evaluated during their experience. Residents felt they achieved greater learning when predeparture objectives and postexperience reflections were integrated into their GHEs. Although GHEs vary widely, they can serve as valuable forums for developing CanMEDS competencies among participating residents. Without clear objectives that adhere to the CanMEDS framework or formal assessment methods however, residents in GHEs risk becoming medical tourists. The use of an objective and evaluation tool may facilitate the creation of predeparture learning objectives, encourage self-reflection on their GHE, and better enable program directors to evaluate residents participating in GHEs. Copyright © 2015 Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Performance Assessment of Communicable Disease Surveillance in Disasters: A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Babaie, Javad; Ardalan, Ali; Vatandoost, Hasan; Goya, Mohammad Mehdi; Akbarisari, Ali

2015-01-01

Background: This study aimed to identify the indices and frameworks that have been used to assess the performance of communicable disease surveillance (CDS) in response to disasters and other emergencies, including infectious disease outbreaks. Method: In this systematic review, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, ScienceDirect, ProQuest databases and grey literature were searched until the end of 2013. All retrieved titles were examined in accordance with inclusion criteria. Abstracts of the relevant titles were reviewed and eligible abstracts were included in a list for data abstraction. Finally, the study variables were extracted. Results: Sixteen articles and one book were found relevant to our study objectives. In these articles, 31 criteria and 35 indicators were used or suggested for the assessment/evaluation of the performance of surveillance systems in disasters. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) updated guidelines for the evaluation of public health surveillance systems were the most widely used. Conclusion: Despite the importance of performance assessment in improving CDS in response to disasters, there is a lack of clear and accepted frameworks. There is also no agreement on the use of existing criteria and indices. The only relevant framework is the CDC guideline, which is a common framework for assessing public health surveillance systems as a whole. There is an urgent need to develop appropriate frameworks, criteria, and indices for specifically assessing the performance of CDS in response to disasters and other emergencies, including infectious diseases outbreaks. Key words: Disasters, Emergencies, Communicable Diseases, Surveillance System, Performance Assessment PMID:25774323

Multiple Object Retrieval in Image Databases Using Hierarchical Segmentation Tree

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Wei-Bang

2012-01-01

The purpose of this research is to develop a new visual information analysis, representation, and retrieval framework for automatic discovery of salient objects of user's interest in large-scale image databases. In particular, this dissertation describes a content-based image retrieval framework which supports multiple-object retrieval. The…

A Framework for the Flexible Content Packaging of Learning Objects and Learning Designs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lukasiak, Jason; Agostinho, Shirley; Burnett, Ian; Drury, Gerrard; Goodes, Jason; Bennett, Sue; Lockyer, Lori; Harper, Barry

2004-01-01

This paper presents a platform-independent method for packaging learning objects and learning designs. The method, entitled a Smart Learning Design Framework, is based on the MPEG-21 standard, and uses IEEE Learning Object Metadata (LOM) to provide bibliographic, technical, and pedagogical descriptors for the retrieval and description of learning…

A Web-Based Course on Public Health Principles in Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response: Survey Among Students and Faculty

PubMed Central

Tam, Greta; Liu, Sida

2018-01-01

Background Web-based public health courses are becoming increasingly popular. “Public Health Principles in Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response” is a unique Web-based course in Hong Kong. This course aimed to fill a public health training gap by reaching out to postgraduates who are unable to access face-to-face learning. Objective The aim of this paper was to use a structured framework to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of a Web-based course according to Greenhalgh et al’s quality framework and the Donabedian model to make recommendations for program improvement. Methods An interim evaluation of the first cohort of students in 2014 was conducted according to the Donabedian model and a quality framework by Greenhalgh et al using objective and self-reported data. Results Students who registered for the first cohort (n=1152) from June 16, 2014 to December 15, 2014 (6 months) were surveyed. Two tutors and the course director were interviewed. The Web-based course was effective in using technology to deliver suitable course materials and assessment and to enhance student communication, support, and learning. Of the total number of students registered, 59.00% (680/1152) were nonlocal, originating from 6 continents, and 72.50% (835/1152) possessed a bachelor’s or postgraduate degree. The completion rate was 20.00% (230/1152). The chi-square test comparing students who completed the course with dropouts showed no significant difference in gender (P=.40), age (P=.98), occupation (P=.43), or qualification (P=.17). The cost (HK $272 per student) was lower than that of conducting a face-to-face course (HK $4000 per student). Conclusions The Web-based course was effective in using technology to deliver a suitable course and reaching an intended audience. It had a higher completion rate than other Web-based courses. However, sustainable sources of funding may be needed to maintain the free Web-based course. PMID:29374007

Dictionary-based fiber orientation estimation with improved spatial consistency.

PubMed

Ye, Chuyang; Prince, Jerry L

2018-02-01

Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) has enabled in vivo investigation of white matter tracts. Fiber orientation (FO) estimation is a key step in tract reconstruction and has been a popular research topic in dMRI analysis. In particular, the sparsity assumption has been used in conjunction with a dictionary-based framework to achieve reliable FO estimation with a reduced number of gradient directions. Because image noise can have a deleterious effect on the accuracy of FO estimation, previous works have incorporated spatial consistency of FOs in the dictionary-based framework to improve the estimation. However, because FOs are only indirectly determined from the mixture fractions of dictionary atoms and not modeled as variables in the objective function, these methods do not incorporate FO smoothness directly, and their ability to produce smooth FOs could be limited. In this work, we propose an improvement to Fiber Orientation Reconstruction using Neighborhood Information (FORNI), which we call FORNI+; this method estimates FOs in a dictionary-based framework where FO smoothness is better enforced than in FORNI alone. We describe an objective function that explicitly models the actual FOs and the mixture fractions of dictionary atoms. Specifically, it consists of data fidelity between the observed signals and the signals represented by the dictionary, pairwise FO dissimilarity that encourages FO smoothness, and weighted ℓ 1 -norm terms that ensure the consistency between the actual FOs and the FO configuration suggested by the dictionary representation. The FOs and mixture fractions are then jointly estimated by minimizing the objective function using an iterative alternating optimization strategy. FORNI+ was evaluated on a simulation phantom, a physical phantom, and real brain dMRI data. In particular, in the real brain dMRI experiment, we have qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated the reproducibility of the proposed method. Results demonstrate that FORNI+ produces FOs with better quality compared with competing methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion: a Delphi study of TB suspects and Tb patients

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Health promotion for prevention and control of Tuberculosis (TB) is implemented worldwide because of its importance, but few reports have evaluated its impact on behavior due to a lack of standard outcome indicators. The objective of this study was to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion among TB suspects and patients. Methods A two-round modified Delphi method involving sixteen TB control experts was used to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion targeted at TB suspects and patients. Results Sixteen of seventeen invited experts in TB control (authority score of 0.91 on a 1.0 scale) participated in round 1 survey. All sixteen experts also participated in a second round survey. After two rounds of surveys and several iterations among the experts, there was consensus on a framework of indicators for measuring outcomes of TB health promotion for TB suspects and patients. For TB suspects, the experts reached consensus on 2 domains (“Healthcare seeking behavior” and “Transmission prevention”), 3 subdomains (“Seeking care after onset of TB symptoms”, “Pathways of seeking care” and “Interpersonal contact etiquette”), and 8 indicators (including among others, “Length of patient delay”). For TB patients, consensus was reached on 3 domains (“Adherence to treatment”, “Healthy lifestyle” and “Transmission prevention”), 8 subdomains (including among others, “Adherence to their medication”), and 14 indicators (including “Percentage of patients who adhered to their medication”). Operational definitions and data sources were provided for each indicator. Conclusions The findings of this study provide the basis for debate among international experts on a framework for achieving global consensus on outcome indicators for TB health promotion interventions targeted at TB patients and suspects. Such consensus will help to increase effectiveness of TB health promotion, while ensuring international comparability of outcome data. PMID:24884569

Framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion: a Delphi study of TB suspects and Tb patients.

PubMed

Li, Ying; Ehiri, John; Hu, Daiyu; Zhang, Yanqi; Wang, Qingya; Zhang, Shun; Cao, Jia

2014-05-16

Health promotion for prevention and control of Tuberculosis (TB) is implemented worldwide because of its importance, but few reports have evaluated its impact on behavior due to a lack of standard outcome indicators. The objective of this study was to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion among TB suspects and patients. A two-round modified Delphi method involving sixteen TB control experts was used to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion targeted at TB suspects and patients. Sixteen of seventeen invited experts in TB control (authority score of 0.91 on a 1.0 scale) participated in round 1 survey. All sixteen experts also participated in a second round survey. After two rounds of surveys and several iterations among the experts, there was consensus on a framework of indicators for measuring outcomes of TB health promotion for TB suspects and patients. For TB suspects, the experts reached consensus on 2 domains ("Healthcare seeking behavior" and "Transmission prevention"), 3 subdomains ("Seeking care after onset of TB symptoms", "Pathways of seeking care" and "Interpersonal contact etiquette"), and 8 indicators (including among others, "Length of patient delay"). For TB patients, consensus was reached on 3 domains ("Adherence to treatment", "Healthy lifestyle" and "Transmission prevention"), 8 subdomains (including among others, "Adherence to their medication"), and 14 indicators (including "Percentage of patients who adhered to their medication"). Operational definitions and data sources were provided for each indicator. The findings of this study provide the basis for debate among international experts on a framework for achieving global consensus on outcome indicators for TB health promotion interventions targeted at TB patients and suspects. Such consensus will help to increase effectiveness of TB health promotion, while ensuring international comparability of outcome data.

Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review of economic evaluations.

PubMed

Handels, Ron L H; Wolfs, Claire A G; Aalten, Pauline; Joore, Manuela A; Verhey, Frans R J; Severens, Johan L

2014-03-01

The objective of this study is to systematically review the literature on economic evaluations of interventions for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related disorders and to describe their general and methodological characteristics. We focused on the diagnostic aspects of the decision models to assess the applicability of existing decision models for the evaluation of the recently revised diagnostic research criteria for AD. PubMed and the National Institute for Health Research Economic Evaluation database were searched for English-language publications related to economic evaluations on diagnostic technologies. Trial-based economic evaluations were assessed using the Consensus on Health Economic Criteria list. Modeling studies were assessed using the framework for quality assessment of decision-analytic models. The search retrieved 2109 items, from which eight decision-analytic modeling studies and one trial-based economic evaluation met all eligibility criteria. Diversity among the study objective and characteristics was considerable and, despite considerable methodological quality, several flaws were indicated. Recommendations were focused on diagnostic aspects and the applicability of existing models for the evaluation of recently revised diagnostic research criteria for AD. Copyright © 2014 The Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A framework for assessing the adequacy and effectiveness of software development methodologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Arthur, James D.; Nance, Richard E.

1990-01-01

Tools, techniques, environments, and methodologies dominate the software engineering literature, but relatively little research in the evaluation of methodologies is evident. This work reports an initial attempt to develop a procedural approach to evaluating software development methodologies. Prominent in this approach are: (1) an explication of the role of a methodology in the software development process; (2) the development of a procedure based on linkages among objectives, principles, and attributes; and (3) the establishment of a basis for reduction of the subjective nature of the evaluation through the introduction of properties. An application of the evaluation procedure to two Navy methodologies has provided consistent results that demonstrate the utility and versatility of the evaluation procedure. Current research efforts focus on the continued refinement of the evaluation procedure through the identification and integration of product quality indicators reflective of attribute presence, and the validation of metrics supporting the measure of those indicators. The consequent refinement of the evaluation procedure offers promise of a flexible approach that admits to change as the field of knowledge matures. In conclusion, the procedural approach presented in this paper represents a promising path toward the end goal of objectively evaluating software engineering methodologies.

Evaluating health inequity interventions: applying a contextual (external) validity framework to programs funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.

PubMed

Phillips, Kaye; Müller-Clemm, Werner; Ysselstein, Margaretha; Sachs, Jonathan

2013-02-01

Including context in the measurement and evaluation of health in equity interventions is critical to understanding how events that occur in an intervention's environment might contribute to or impede its success. This study adapted and piloted a contextual validity assessment framework on a selection of health inequity-related programs funded by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) between 1998 and 2006. The two overarching objectives of this study were (1) to determine the relative amount and quality of attention given to conceptualizing, measuring and validating context within CHSRF funded research final reports related to health-inequity; and (2) to contribute evaluative evidence towards the incorporation of context into the assessment and measurement of health inequity interventions. The study found that of the 42/146 CHSRF programs and projects, judged to be related to health inequity 20 adequately reported on the conceptualization, measurement and validation of context. Amongst these health-inequity related project reports, greatest emphasis was placed on describing the socio-political and economical context over actually measuring and validating contextual evidence. Applying a contextual validity assessment framework was useful for distinguishing between the descriptive (conceptual) versus empirical (measurement and validation) inclusion of documented contextual evidence. Although contextual validity measurement frameworks needs further development, this study contributes insight into identifying funded research related to health inequities and preliminary criteria for assessing interventions targeted at specific populations and jurisdictions. This study also feeds a larger critical dialogue (albeit beyond the scope of this study) regarding the relevance and utility of using evaluative techniques for understanding how specific external conditions support or impede the successful implementation of health inequity interventions. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Pragmatic Application of the RE-AIM Framework for Evaluating the Implementation of Physical Activity as a Standard of Care in Health Systems

PubMed Central

Galaviz, Karla I.; Lobelo, Felipe; Joy, Elizabeth; Heath, Gregory W.; Hutber, Adrian; Estabrooks, Paul

2018-01-01

Introduction Exercise is Medicine (EIM) is an initiative that seeks to integrate physical activity assessment, prescription, and patient referral as a standard in patient care. Methods to assess this integration have lagged behind its implementation. Purpose and Objectives The purpose of this work is to provide a pragmatic framework to guide health care systems in assessing the implementation and impact of EIM. Evaluation Methods A working group of experts from health care, public health, and implementation science convened to develop an evaluation model based on the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework. The working group aimed to provide pragmatic guidance on operationalizing EIM across the different RE-AIM dimensions based on data typically available in health care settings. Results The Reach of EIM can be determined by the number and proportion of patients that were screened for physical inactivity, received brief counseling and/or a physical activity prescription, and were referred to physical activity resources. Effectiveness can be assessed through self-reported changes in physical activity, cardiometabolic biometric factors, incidence/burden of chronic disease, as well as health care utilization and costs. Adoption includes assessing the number and representativeness of health care settings that adopt any component of EIM, and Implementation involves assessing the extent to which health care teams implement EIM in their clinic. Finally, Maintenance involves assessing the long-term effectiveness (patient level) and sustained implementation (clinic level) of EIM in a given health care setting. Implications for Public Health The availability of a standardized, pragmatic, evaluation framework is critical in determining the impact of implementing EIM as a standard of care across health care systems. PMID:29752803

An evaluation of automatic coronary artery calcium scoring methods with cardiac CT using the orCaScore framework.

PubMed

Wolterink, Jelmer M; Leiner, Tim; de Vos, Bob D; Coatrieux, Jean-Louis; Kelm, B Michael; Kondo, Satoshi; Salgado, Rodrigo A; Shahzad, Rahil; Shu, Huazhong; Snoeren, Miranda; Takx, Richard A P; van Vliet, Lucas J; van Walsum, Theo; Willems, Tineke P; Yang, Guanyu; Zheng, Yefeng; Viergever, Max A; Išgum, Ivana

2016-05-01

The amount of coronary artery calcification (CAC) is a strong and independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. In clinical practice, CAC is manually identified and automatically quantified in cardiac CT using commercially available software. This is a tedious and time-consuming process in large-scale studies. Therefore, a number of automatic methods that require no interaction and semiautomatic methods that require very limited interaction for the identification of CAC in cardiac CT have been proposed. Thus far, a comparison of their performance has been lacking. The objective of this study was to perform an independent evaluation of (semi)automatic methods for CAC scoring in cardiac CT using a publicly available standardized framework. Cardiac CT exams of 72 patients distributed over four CVD risk categories were provided for (semi)automatic CAC scoring. Each exam consisted of a noncontrast-enhanced calcium scoring CT (CSCT) and a corresponding coronary CT angiography (CCTA) scan. The exams were acquired in four different hospitals using state-of-the-art equipment from four major CT scanner vendors. The data were divided into 32 training exams and 40 test exams. A reference standard for CAC in CSCT was defined by consensus of two experts following a clinical protocol. The framework organizers evaluated the performance of (semi)automatic methods on test CSCT scans, per lesion, artery, and patient. Five (semi)automatic methods were evaluated. Four methods used both CSCT and CCTA to identify CAC, and one method used only CSCT. The evaluated methods correctly detected between 52% and 94% of CAC lesions with positive predictive values between 65% and 96%. Lesions in distal coronary arteries were most commonly missed and aortic calcifications close to the coronary ostia were the most common false positive errors. The majority (between 88% and 98%) of correctly identified CAC lesions were assigned to the correct artery. Linearly weighted Cohen's kappa for patient CVD risk categorization by the evaluated methods ranged from 0.80 to 1.00. A publicly available standardized framework for the evaluation of (semi)automatic methods for CAC identification in cardiac CT is described. An evaluation of five (semi)automatic methods within this framework shows that automatic per patient CVD risk categorization is feasible. CAC lesions at ambiguous locations such as the coronary ostia remain challenging, but their detection had limited impact on CVD risk determination.

Evaluation Framework for Telemedicine Using the Logical Framework Approach and a Fishbone Diagram.

PubMed

Chang, Hyejung

2015-10-01

Technological advances using telemedicine and telehealth are growing in healthcare fields, but the evaluation framework for them is inconsistent and limited. This paper suggests a comprehensive evaluation framework for telemedicine system implementation and will support related stakeholders' decision-making by promoting general understanding, and resolving arguments and controversies. This study focused on developing a comprehensive evaluation framework by summarizing themes across the range of evaluation techniques and organized foundational evaluation frameworks generally applicable through studies and cases of diverse telemedicine. Evaluation factors related to aspects of information technology; the evaluation of satisfaction of service providers and consumers, cost, quality, and information security are organized using the fishbone diagram. It was not easy to develop a monitoring and evaluation framework for telemedicine since evaluation frameworks for telemedicine are very complex with many potential inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and stakeholders. A conceptual framework was developed that incorporates the key dimensions that need to be considered in the evaluation of telehealth implementation for a formal structured approach to the evaluation of a service. The suggested framework consists of six major dimensions and the subsequent branches for each dimension. To implement telemedicine and telehealth services, stakeholders should make decisions based on sufficient evidence in quality and safety measured by the comprehensive evaluation framework. Further work would be valuable in applying more comprehensive evaluations to verify and improve the comprehensive framework across a variety of contexts with more factors and participant group dimensions.

Assessing the feasibility of native fish reintroductions: a framework and example applied to bull trout in the Clackamas River, Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Dunham, Jason B.; Gallo, Kirsten

2008-01-01

In a species conservation context, translocations can be an important tool, but they frequently fail to successfully establish new populations. We consider the case of reintroductions for bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus), a federally-listed threatened species with a widespread but declining distribution in western North America. Our specific objectives in this work were to: 1) develop a general framework for assessing the feasibility of reintroduction for bull trout, 2) provide a detailed example of implementing this framework to assess the feasibility of reintroducing bull trout in the Clackamas River, Oregon, and 3) discuss the implications of this effort in the more general context of fish reintroductions as a conservation tool. Review of several case histories and our assessment of the Clackamas River suggest that an attempt to reintroduce bull trout could be successful, assuming adequate resources are committed to the subsequent stages of implementation, monitoring, and evaluation.

Market-Based Coordination of Thermostatically Controlled Loads—Part I: A Mechanism Design Formulation

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

Li, Sen; Zhang, Wei; Lian, Jianming

This paper focuses on the coordination of a population of Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) with unknown parameters to achieve group objectives. The problem involves designing the bidding and market clearing strategy to motivate self-interested users to realize efficient energy allocation subject to a peak power constraint. Using the mechanism design approach, we propose a market-based coordination framework, which can effectively incorporate heterogeneous load dynamics, systematically deal with user preferences, account for the unknown load model parameters, and enable the real-world implementation with limited communication resources. This paper is divided into two parts. Part I presents a mathematical formulation of themore » problem and develops a coordination framework using the mechanism design approach. Part II presents a learning scheme to account for the unknown load model parameters, and evaluates the proposed framework through realistic simulations.« less

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

Spogen, L.R.; Cleland, L.L.

An approach to the development of performance based regulations (PBR's) is described. Initially, a framework is constructed that consists of a function hierarchy and associated measures. The function at the top of the hierarchy is described in terms of societal objectives. Decomposition of this function into subordinate functions and their subsequent decompositions yield the function hierarchy. ''Bottom'' functions describe the roles of system components. When measures are identified for the performance of each function and means of aggregating performances to higher levels are established, the framework may be employed for developing PBR's. Consideration of system flexibility and performance uncertainty guidemore » in determining the hierarchical level at which regulations are formulated. Ease of testing compliance is also a factor. To show the viability of the approach, the framework developed by Lawrence Livermore Laboratory for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for evaluation of material control systems at fixed facilities is presented.« less

Development of a Dynamically Configurable, Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Afjeh, Abdollah A.; Reed, John A.

2003-01-01

The following reports are presented on this project:A first year progress report on: Development of a Dynamically Configurable,Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation; A second year progress report on: Development of a Dynamically Configurable, Object-Oriented Framework for Distributed, Multi-modal Computational Aerospace Systems Simulation; An Extensible, Interchangeable and Sharable Database Model for Improving Multidisciplinary Aircraft Design; Interactive, Secure Web-enabled Aircraft Engine Simulation Using XML Databinding Integration; and Improving the Aircraft Design Process Using Web-based Modeling and Simulation.

A Decision Analysis Framework for Evaluation of Helmet Mounted Display Alternatives for Fighter Aircraft

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-12-26

additive value function, which assumes mutual preferential independence (Gregory S. Parnell, 2013). In other words, this method can be used if the... additive value function method to calculate the aggregate value of multiple objectives. Step 9 : Sensitivity Analysis Once the global values are...gravity metric, the additive method will be applied using equal weights for each axis value function. Pilot Satisfaction (Usability) As expressed

Successful behavioral health business development for the millennium.

PubMed

Pyrce, J M

1998-08-01

The business development framework for provider positioning, market share, and competition has significantly shifted in the late 1990s as providers prepare for the millennium. The use of the Marketing Four Ps is a helpful tool for providers to thoroughly evaluate their product/service viability, pricing objectives, promotional mix, and place accessibility, and will allow organizations to reposition in their marketplace, maximize market share, and develop new partnerships with previous competitors.

Financial Reporting: Framework for Analyzing Federal Agency Financial Statements

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-01

the only source that would be used to pay current liabilities. 6;Loyd C. Heath, Financial Reporting and the Evaluation of Solvency (New York: AICPA...when assessing department programs and deter- mining public policy. With improved financial reporting as an objective, we plan to continue working...Golembiewski, Robert T. and Jack Rabin, ed. Public Budgeting and Finance. New York- Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1983. Heath, Loyd C., Financial Reporting and the

Adaptive Acquisition: An Evolving Framework for Tailoring Engineering and Procurement of Defense Systems

DTIC Science & Technology

2017-01-31

mapping critical business workflows and then optimizing them with appropriate evolutionary technology choices is often called “ Product Line Architecture... technologies , products , services, and processes, and the USG evaluates them against its 360o requirements objectives, and refines them as appropriate, clarity...in rapidly evolving technological domains (e.g. by applying best commercial practices for open standard product line architecture.) An MP might be

Development of a Maternal, Newborn and Child mHealth Intervention in Thai Nguyen Province, Vietnam: Protocol for the mMom Project

PubMed Central

McBride, Bronwyn; Nguyen, Liem Thanh; Wiljer, David; Vu, Nguyen C; Nguyen, Cuong K

2018-01-01

Background Ethnic minority women (EMW) living in mountainous areas of northern Vietnam have disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality rates as a result of low maternal health knowledge, poverty, and remoteness from low-capacity health centers. Objective The objective of this study was to describe the protocol for the development and evaluation of the mMom intervention, which is an integrated mobile health (mHealth) system designed to improve maternal and infant health knowledge, and behavior among women in remote areas of Thai Nguyen, Vietnam. Methods This project featured the following four phases: (1) development of an mHealth platform integrated into the existing health management information system in partnership with the provincial health department; (2) ethnographic fieldwork and intervention content development; (3) intervention piloting and implementation; and (4) evaluation of the intervention’s impact on participants’ maternal health knowledge, behavior, and interactions with the health system. Results The mMom project development process resulted in the following: (1) the successful development of the mMom system, including the mHealth platform hardware and integration, the intervention plan and content, and the monitoring and evaluation framework; (2) the piloting and implementation of the intervention as planned; and (3) the implementation of the monitoring and evaluation framework components. Conclusions This protocol outlines the development of the mMom intervention and describes critical next steps in understanding the impact of the intervention on participants and the wider health system in Thai Nguyen province, Vietnam. PMID:29326095

BagMOOV: A novel ensemble for heart disease prediction bootstrap aggregation with multi-objective optimized voting.

PubMed

Bashir, Saba; Qamar, Usman; Khan, Farhan Hassan

2015-06-01

Conventional clinical decision support systems are based on individual classifiers or simple combination of these classifiers which tend to show moderate performance. This research paper presents a novel classifier ensemble framework based on enhanced bagging approach with multi-objective weighted voting scheme for prediction and analysis of heart disease. The proposed model overcomes the limitations of conventional performance by utilizing an ensemble of five heterogeneous classifiers: Naïve Bayes, linear regression, quadratic discriminant analysis, instance based learner and support vector machines. Five different datasets are used for experimentation, evaluation and validation. The datasets are obtained from publicly available data repositories. Effectiveness of the proposed ensemble is investigated by comparison of results with several classifiers. Prediction results of the proposed ensemble model are assessed by ten fold cross validation and ANOVA statistics. The experimental evaluation shows that the proposed framework deals with all type of attributes and achieved high diagnosis accuracy of 84.16 %, 93.29 % sensitivity, 96.70 % specificity, and 82.15 % f-measure. The f-ratio higher than f-critical and p value less than 0.05 for 95 % confidence interval indicate that the results are extremely statistically significant for most of the datasets.

A systematic review on how to conduct evaluations in community-based rehabilitation.

PubMed

Grandisson, Marie; Hébert, Michèle; Thibeault, Rachel

2014-01-01

Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) must prove that it is making a significant difference for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, evaluation is not a common practice and the evidence for its effectiveness is fragmented and largely insufficient. The objective of this article was to review the literature on best practices in program evaluation in CBR in relation to the evaluative process, the frameworks, and the methods of data collection. A systematic search was conducted on five rehabilitation databases and the World Health Organization website with keywords associated with CBR and program evaluation. Two independent researchers selected the articles. Twenty-two documents were included. The results suggest that (1) the evaluative process needs to be conducted in close collaboration with the local community, including people with disabilities, and to be followed by sharing the findings and taking actions, (2) many frameworks have been proposed to evaluate CBR but no agreement has been reached, and (3) qualitative methodologies have dominated the scene in CBR so far, but their combination with quantitative methods has a lot of potential to better capture the effectiveness of this strategy. In order to facilitate and improve evaluations in CBR, there is an urgent need to agree on a common framework, such as the CBR matrix, and to develop best practice guidelines based on the literature available and consensus among a group of experts. These will need to demonstrate a good balance between community development and standards for effective evaluations. Implications for Rehabilitation In the quest for evidence of the effectiveness of community-based rehabilitation (CBR), a shared program evaluation framework would better enable the combination of findings from different studies. The evaluation of CBR programs should always include sharing findings and taking action for the sake of the local community. Although qualitative methodologies have dominated the scene in CBR and remain highly relevant, there is also a call for the inclusion of quantitative indicators in order to capture the progress made by people participating in CBR programs. The production of best practice guidelines for evaluation in CBR could foster accountable and empowering program evaluations that are congruent with the principles at the heart of CBR and the standards for effective evaluations.

A systematic review on how to conduct evaluations in community-based rehabilitation

PubMed Central

Hébert, Michèle; Thibeault, Rachel

2014-01-01

Purpose Community-based rehabilitation (CBR) must prove that it is making a significant difference for people with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. Yet, evaluation is not a common practice and the evidence for its effectiveness is fragmented and largely insufficient. The objective of this article was to review the literature on best practices in program evaluation in CBR in relation to the evaluative process, the frameworks, and the methods of data collection. Method A systematic search was conducted on five rehabilitation databases and the World Health Organization website with keywords associated with CBR and program evaluation. Two independent researchers selected the articles. Results Twenty-two documents were included. The results suggest that (1) the evaluative process needs to be conducted in close collaboration with the local community, including people with disabilities, and to be followed by sharing the findings and taking actions, (2) many frameworks have been proposed to evaluate CBR but no agreement has been reached, and (3) qualitative methodologies have dominated the scene in CBR so far, but their combination with quantitative methods has a lot of potential to better capture the effectiveness of this strategy. Conclusions In order to facilitate and improve evaluations in CBR, there is an urgent need to agree on a common framework, such as the CBR matrix, and to develop best practice guidelines based on the literature available and consensus among a group of experts. These will need to demonstrate a good balance between community development and standards for effective evaluations. Implications for Rehabilitation In the quest for evidence of the effectiveness of community-based rehabilitation (CBR), a shared program evaluation framework would better enable the combination of findings from different studies. The evaluation of CBR programs should always include sharing findings and taking action for the sake of the local community. Although qualitative methodologies have dominated the scene in CBR and remain highly relevant, there is also a call for the inclusion of quantitative indicators in order to capture the progress made by people participating in CBR programs. The production of best practice guidelines for evaluation in CBR could foster accountable and empowering program evaluations that are congruent with the principles at the heart of CBR and the standards for effective evaluations. PMID:23614357

Implicit kernel sparse shape representation: a sparse-neighbors-based objection segmentation framework.

PubMed

Yao, Jincao; Yu, Huimin; Hu, Roland

2017-01-01

This paper introduces a new implicit-kernel-sparse-shape-representation-based object segmentation framework. Given an input object whose shape is similar to some of the elements in the training set, the proposed model can automatically find a cluster of implicit kernel sparse neighbors to approximately represent the input shape and guide the segmentation. A distance-constrained probabilistic definition together with a dualization energy term is developed to connect high-level shape representation and low-level image information. We theoretically prove that our model not only derives from two projected convex sets but is also equivalent to a sparse-reconstruction-error-based representation in the Hilbert space. Finally, a "wake-sleep"-based segmentation framework is applied to drive the evolutionary curve to recover the original shape of the object. We test our model on two public datasets. Numerical experiments on both synthetic images and real applications show the superior capabilities of the proposed framework.

Engineering Change Management Method Framework in Mechanical Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stekolschik, Alexander

2016-11-01

Engineering changes make an impact on different process chains in and outside the company, and lead to most error costs and time shifts. In fact, 30 to 50 per cent of development costs result from technical changes. Controlling engineering change processes can help us to avoid errors and risks, and contribute to cost optimization and a shorter time to market. This paper presents a method framework for controlling engineering changes at mechanical engineering companies. The developed classification of engineering changes and accordingly process requirements build the basis for the method framework. The developed method framework comprises two main areas: special data objects managed in different engineering IT tools and process framework. Objects from both areas are building blocks that can be selected to the overall business process based on the engineering process type and change classification. The process framework contains steps for the creation of change objects (both for overall change and for parts), change implementation, and release. Companies can select singleprocess building blocks from the framework, depending on the product development process and change impact. The developed change framework has been implemented at a division (10,000 employees) of a big German mechanical engineering company.

Optimization of storage tank locations in an urban stormwater drainage system using a two-stage approach.

PubMed

Wang, Mingming; Sun, Yuanxiang; Sweetapple, Chris

2017-12-15

Storage is important for flood mitigation and non-point source pollution control. However, to seek a cost-effective design scheme for storage tanks is very complex. This paper presents a two-stage optimization framework to find an optimal scheme for storage tanks using storm water management model (SWMM). The objectives are to minimize flooding, total suspended solids (TSS) load and storage cost. The framework includes two modules: (i) the analytical module, which evaluates and ranks the flooding nodes with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) using two indicators (flood depth and flood duration), and then obtains the preliminary scheme by calculating two efficiency indicators (flood reduction efficiency and TSS reduction efficiency); (ii) the iteration module, which obtains an optimal scheme using a generalized pattern search (GPS) method based on the preliminary scheme generated by the analytical module. The proposed approach was applied to a catchment in CZ city, China, to test its capability in choosing design alternatives. Different rainfall scenarios are considered to test its robustness. The results demonstrate that the optimal framework is feasible, and the optimization is fast based on the preliminary scheme. The optimized scheme is better than the preliminary scheme for reducing runoff and pollutant loads under a given storage cost. The multi-objective optimization framework presented in this paper may be useful in finding the best scheme of storage tanks or low impact development (LID) controls. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Step-by-Step Framework on Discrete Events Simulation in Emergency Department; A Systematic Review

PubMed Central

Dehghani, Mahsa; Moftian, Nazila; Rezaei-Hachesu, Peyman; Samad-Soltani, Taha

2017-01-01

Objective: To systematically review the current literature of simulation in healthcare including the structured steps in the emergency healthcare sector by proposing a framework for simulation in the emergency department. Methods: For the purpose of collecting the data, PubMed and ACM databases were used between the years 2003 and 2013. The inclusion criteria were to select English-written articles available in full text with the closest objectives from among a total of 54 articles retrieved from the databases. Subsequently, 11 articles were selected for further analysis. Results: The studies focused on the reduction of waiting time and patient stay, optimization of resources allocation, creation of crisis and maximum demand scenarios, identification of overcrowding bottlenecks, investigation of the impact of other systems on the existing system, and improvement of the system operations and functions. Subsequently, 10 simulation steps were derived from the relevant studies after an expert’s evaluation. Conclusion: The 10-steps approach proposed on the basis of the selected studies provides simulation and planning specialists with a structured method for both analyzing problems and choosing best-case scenarios. Moreover, following this framework systematically enables the development of design processes as well as software implementation of simulation problems. PMID:28507994

8. The operational processes.

PubMed

2014-05-01

There are two principal directions that disaster studies pursue: (1) interventional; and (2) noninterventional. Interventional studies are used to evaluate specific responses as to their effectiveness in meeting their respective objectives, their contribution to the overarching goal, the efficiency with which they are able to achieve their objectives, other effects created, and their respective costs. On the other hand, noninterventional studies examine the epidemiology of disasters and for the most part are observational. Both interventional and noninterventional studies require data/information obtained from assessments. This section of these Guidelines examines the operational framework used to study interventions/responses and includes the following processes: (1) assessments, (2) identification of needs; (3) strategic planning; (4) selection of intervention(s); (5) operational planning; (6) execution of interventions; and (7) monitoring and evaluation of effects and changes in levels of functions resulting from the intervention(s) being studied.

Structured decision making as a framework for large-scale wildlife harvest management decisions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Robinson, Kelly F.; Fuller, Angela K.; Hurst, Jeremy E.; Swift, Bryan L.; Kirsch, Arthur; Farquhar, James F.; Decker, Daniel J.; Siemer, William F.

2016-01-01

Fish and wildlife harvest management at large spatial scales often involves making complex decisions with multiple objectives and difficult tradeoffs, population demographics that vary spatially, competing stakeholder values, and uncertainties that might affect management decisions. Structured decision making (SDM) provides a formal decision analytic framework for evaluating difficult decisions by breaking decisions into component parts and separating the values of stakeholders from the scientific evaluation of management actions and uncertainty. The result is a rigorous, transparent, and values-driven process. This decision-aiding process provides the decision maker with a more complete understanding of the problem and the effects of potential management actions on stakeholder values, as well as how key uncertainties can affect the decision. We use a case study to illustrate how SDM can be used as a decision-aiding tool for management decision making at large scales. We evaluated alternative white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) buck-harvest regulations in New York designed to reduce harvest of yearling bucks, taking into consideration the values of the state wildlife agency responsible for managing deer, as well as deer hunters. We incorporated tradeoffs about social, ecological, and economic management concerns throughout the state. Based on the outcomes of predictive models, expert elicitation, and hunter surveys, the SDM process identified management alternatives that optimized competing objectives. The SDM process provided biologists and managers insight about aspects of the buck-harvest decision that helped them adopt a management strategy most compatible with diverse hunter values and management concerns.

Hydrological effect of vegetation against rainfall-induced landslides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez-Ollauri, Alejandro; Mickovski, Slobodan B.

2017-06-01

The hydrological effect of vegetation on rainfall-induced landslides has rarely been quantified and its integration into slope stability analysis methods remains a challenge. Our goal was to establish a reproducible, novel framework to evaluate the hydrological effect of vegetation on shallow landslides. This was achieved by accomplishing three objectives: (i) quantification in situ of the hydrological mechanisms by which woody vegetation (i.e. Salix sp.) might impact slope stability under wetting and drying conditions; (ii) to propose a new approach to predict plant-derived matric suctions under drying conditions; and (iii) to evaluate the suitability of the unified effective stress principle and framework (UES) to quantify the hydrological effect of vegetation against landslides. The results revealed that plant water uptake was the main hydrological mechanism contributing to slope stability, as the vegetated slope was, on average, 12.84% drier and had matric suctions three times higher than the fallow slope. The plant-related mechanisms under wetting conditions had a minimal effect on slope stability. The plant aerial parts intercepted up to 26.73% of the rainfall and concentrated a further 10.78% of it around the stem. Our approach successfully predicted the plant-derived matric suctions and UES proved to be adequate for evaluating the hydrological effect of vegetation on landslides. Although the UES framework presented here sets the basis for effectively evaluating the hydrological effect of vegetation on slope stability, it requires knowledge of the specific hydro-mechanical properties of plant-soil composites and this in itself needs further investigation.

A comprehensive health service evaluation and monitoring framework.

PubMed

Reeve, Carole; Humphreys, John; Wakerman, John

2015-12-01

To develop a framework for evaluating and monitoring a primary health care service, integrating hospital and community services. A targeted literature review of primary health service evaluation frameworks was performed to inform the development of the framework specifically for remote communities. Key principles underlying primary health care evaluation were determined and sentinel indicators developed to operationalise the evaluation framework. This framework was then validated with key stakeholders. The framework includes Donabedian's three seminal domains of structure, process and outcomes to determine health service performance. These in turn are dependent on sustainability, quality of patient care and the determinants of health to provide a comprehensive health service evaluation framework. The principles underpinning primary health service evaluation were pertinent to health services in remote contexts. Sentinel indicators were developed to fit the demographic characteristics and health needs of the population. Consultation with key stakeholders confirmed that the evaluation framework was applicable. Data collected routinely by health services can be used to operationalise the proposed health service evaluation framework. Use of an evaluation framework which links policy and health service performance to health outcomes will assist health services to improve performance as part of a continuous quality improvement cycle. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Hospital financing reform and case-mix measurement: An international review

PubMed Central

Wiley, Miriam M.

1992-01-01

A review of reforms in the financing of hospital services in eight European countries and Australia reveals a commitment to a common objective of relating resource use to hospital workload by means of a standardized case-mix framework in the pursuit of greater efficiency. While this objective is also shared with the U.S. prospective payment system (PPS), it is noteworthy that the majority of countries reviewed favor a global budgeting approach to financing hospital services. Ongoing evaluation of these reforms should facilitate an assessment of the merits of case-mix adjusted global budgeting relative to the patient-based alternative. PMID:10122001

Framework of behavioral indicators evaluating TB health promotion outcomes: a modified Delphi study of TB policymakers and health workers.

PubMed

Li, Ying; Ehiri, John; Hu, Daiyu; Oren, Eyal; Cao, Jia

2015-12-15

Although TB health promotion directed at policy makers and healthcare workers (HCWs) is considered important to tuberculosis (TB) control, no indicators currently assess the impact of such promotional activities. This article is the second in a series of papers that seek to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion, using the Delphi method. In the first article, we sought to establish a framework of behavioral indicators for outcome evaluation of TB health promotion among TB suspects and patients. The objective of this second article is to present an indicator framework that can be used to assess behavioral outcomes of TB health promotion directed at policy makers and HCWs. A two-round, modified Delphi method was used to establish the indicators. Sixteen experts who were knowledgeable and experienced in the field of TB control were consulted in Delphi surveys. A questionnaire was developed following 4 steps, and involved ranking indicators on a five-point Likert scale. The consensus level was 70 %. Median, mode, and Coefficient of variation (CV) were used to describe expert responses. An authority coefficient (Cr) was used to assess the degree of each expert's authority. Consensus was achieved following the two survey rounds and several iterations among the experts. For TB health-promotion activities directed at policymakers, the experts reached consensus on 2 domains ("Resource inputs" and "Policymaking and monitoring behaviors"), 4 subdomains ("Human resources" among others), and 13 indicators ("Human resources per 100,000 person" among others). For TB health-promotion activities directed at HCWs, the experts reached consensus on 5 domains ("Self-protective behaviors" among others), 6 sub-domains ("Preventing infection" among others), and 15 indicators ("Average hours of daily workplace disinfection by ultraviolet radiation" among others). This study identified a conceptual framework of core behavioral indicators to evaluate TB health-promotion activities directed at policymakers and HCWs involved in TB control. Validation in other parts of the world could lead to global consensus on behavioral indicators to evaluate TB health promotion targeted at policymakers and HCWs.

Python package for model STructure ANalysis (pySTAN)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van Hoey, Stijn; van der Kwast, Johannes; Nopens, Ingmar; Seuntjens, Piet

2013-04-01

The selection and identification of a suitable hydrological model structure is more than fitting parameters of a model structure to reproduce a measured hydrograph. The procedure is highly dependent on various criteria, i.e. the modelling objective, the characteristics and the scale of the system under investigation as well as the available data. Rigorous analysis of the candidate model structures is needed to support and objectify the selection of the most appropriate structure for a specific case (or eventually justify the use of a proposed ensemble of structures). This holds both in the situation of choosing between a limited set of different structures as well as in the framework of flexible model structures with interchangeable components. Many different methods to evaluate and analyse model structures exist. This leads to a sprawl of available methods, all characterized by different assumptions, changing conditions of application and various code implementations. Methods typically focus on optimization, sensitivity analysis or uncertainty analysis, with backgrounds from optimization, machine-learning or statistics amongst others. These methods also need an evaluation metric (objective function) to compare the model outcome with some observed data. However, for current methods described in literature, implementations are not always transparent and reproducible (if available at all). No standard procedures exist to share code and the popularity (and amount of applications) of the methods is sometimes more dependent on the availability than the merits of the method. Moreover, new implementations of existing methods are difficult to verify and the different theoretical backgrounds make it difficult for environmental scientists to decide about the usefulness of a specific method. A common and open framework with a large set of methods can support users in deciding about the most appropriate method. Hence, it enables to simultaneously apply and compare different methods on a fair basis. We developed and present pySTAN (python framework for STructure Analysis), a python package containing a set of functions for model structure evaluation to provide the analysis of (hydrological) model structures. A selected set of algorithms for optimization, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis is currently available, together with a set of evaluation (objective) functions and input distributions to sample from. The methods are implemented model-independent and the python language provides the wrapper functions to apply administer external model codes. Different objective functions can be considered simultaneously with both statistical metrics and more hydrology specific metrics. By using so-called reStructuredText (sphinx documentation generator) and Python documentation strings (docstrings), the generation of manual pages is semi-automated and a specific environment is available to enhance both the readability and transparency of the code. It thereby enables a larger group of users to apply and compare these methods and to extend the functionalities.

Statistical characterization of spatial patterns of rainfall cells in extratropical cyclones

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bacchi, Baldassare; Ranzi, Roberto; Borga, Marco

1996-11-01

The assumption of a particular type of distribution of rainfall cells in space is needed for the formulation of several space-time rainfall models. In this study, weather radar-derived rain rate maps are employed to evaluate different types of spatial organization of rainfall cells in storms through the use of distance functions and second-moment measures. In particular the spatial point patterns of the local maxima of rainfall intensity are compared to a completely spatially random (CSR) point process by applying an objective distance measure. For all the analyzed radar maps the CSR assumption is rejected, indicating that at the resolution of the observation considered, rainfall cells are clustered. Therefore a theoretical framework for evaluating and fitting alternative models to the CSR is needed. This paper shows how the "reduced second-moment measure" of the point pattern can be employed to estimate the parameters of a Neyman-Scott model and to evaluate the degree of adequacy to the experimental data. Some limitations of this theoretical framework, and also its effectiveness, in comparison to the use of scaling functions, are discussed.

A Planning Framework for the Deployment of Innovative Information and Communication Technologies in Procurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alard, Robert; Gustafsson, Martin; Nienhaus, Jörg

The management of buyer-supplier relations is a major topic for many enterprises today. Modern Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) offer interesting perspectives on opportunities and implementation approaches. Today, logistics and procurement departments of numerous enterprises are evaluating the possibilities and opportunities of new ICT solutions and especially of internet-based electronic procurement solutions for the optimisation and re-engineering of their buyer-supplier relationships. Due to the highly innovative character of the new ICT solutions and the scarcely available operational examples in the industry, only little guidance exists to support responsible managers during the evaluation, planning and designing of internet-based electronic procurement solutions. This paper describes a framework for the strategic evaluation and planning of the deployment of internet-based procurement solutions for direct materials. The presented approach supports enterprises in the analysis of procurement objects and procurement structuring, in the definition and management of buyer-supplier-relationships, in the requirements analysis of ICT solutions as well as the assessment of the potential to support procurement with innovative ICT and internet-based electronic procurement solutions.

Linkages Between Clinical Practices and Community Organizations for Prevention: A Literature Review and Environmental Scan

PubMed Central

Hinnant, Laurie W.; Kane, Heather; Horne, Joseph; McAleer, Kelly; Roussel, Amy

2012-01-01

Objectives. We conducted a literature review and environmental scan to develop a framework for interventions that utilize linkages between clinical practices and community organizations for the delivery of preventive services, and to identify and characterize these efforts. Methods. We searched 4 major health services and social science electronic databases and conducted an Internet search to identify examples of linkage interventions in the areas of tobacco cessation, obesity, nutrition, and physical activity. Results. We identified 49 interventions, of which 18 examples described their evaluation methods or reported any intervention outcomes. Few conducted evaluations that were rigorous enough to capture changes in intermediate or long-term health outcomes. Outcomes in these evaluations were primarily patient-focused and did not include organizational or linkage characteristics. Conclusions. An attractive option to increase the delivery of preventive services is to link primary care practices to community organizations; evidence is not yet conclusive, however, that such linkage interventions are effective. Findings provide recommendations to researchers and organizations that fund research, and call for a framework and metrics to study linkage interventions. PMID:22690974

Fast object reconstruction in block-based compressive low-light-level imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ke, Jun; Sui, Dong; Wei, Ping

2014-11-01

In this paper we propose a simply yet effective and efficient method for long-term object tracking. Different from traditional visual tracking method which mainly depends on frame-to-frame correspondence, we combine high-level semantic information with low-level correspondences. Our framework is formulated in a confidence selection framework, which allows our system to recover from drift and partly deal with occlusion problem. To summarize, our algorithm can be roughly decomposed in a initialization stage and a tracking stage. In the initialization stage, an offline classifier is trained to get the object appearance information in category level. When the video stream is coming, the pre-trained offline classifier is used for detecting the potential target and initializing the tracking stage. In the tracking stage, it consists of three parts which are online tracking part, offline tracking part and confidence judgment part. Online tracking part captures the specific target appearance information while detection part localizes the object based on the pre-trained offline classifier. Since there is no data dependence between online tracking and offline detection, these two parts are running in parallel to significantly improve the processing speed. A confidence selection mechanism is proposed to optimize the object location. Besides, we also propose a simple mechanism to judge the absence of the object. If the target is lost, the pre-trained offline classifier is utilized to re-initialize the whole algorithm as long as the target is re-located. During experiment, we evaluate our method on several challenging video sequences and demonstrate competitive results.

Organizing and Typing Persistent Objects Within an Object-Oriented Framework

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Madany, Peter W.; Campbell, Roy H.

1991-01-01

Conventional operating systems provide little or no direct support for the services required for an efficient persistent object system implementation. We have built a persistent object scheme using a customization and extension of an object-oriented operating system called Choices. Choices includes a framework for the storage of persistent data that is suited to the construction of both conventional file system and persistent object system. In this paper we describe three areas in which persistent object support differs from file system support: storage organization, storage management, and typing. Persistent object systems must support various sizes of objects efficiently. Customizable containers, which are themselves persistent objects and can be nested, support a wide range of object sizes in Choices. Collections of persistent objects that are accessed as an aggregate and collections of light-weight persistent objects can be clustered in containers that are nested within containers for larger objects. Automated garbage collection schemes are added to storage management and have a major impact on persistent object applications. The Choices persistent object store provides extensible sets of persistent object types. The store contains not only the data for persistent objects but also the names of the classes to which they belong and the code for the operation of the classes. Besides presenting persistent object storage organization, storage management, and typing, this paper discusses how persistent objects are named and used within the Choices persistent data/file system framework.

An Integrated Knowledge Framework to Characterize and Scaffold Size and Scale Cognition (FS2C)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Magana, Alejandra J.; Brophy, Sean P.; Bryan, Lynn A.

2012-09-01

Size and scale cognition is a critical ability associated with reasoning with concepts in different disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As such, researchers and educators have identified the need for young learners and their educators to become scale-literate. Informed by developmental psychology literature and recent findings in nanoscale science and engineering education, we propose an integrated knowledge framework for characterizing and scaffolding size and scale cognition called the FS2C framework. Five ad hoc assessment tasks were designed informed by the FS2C framework with the goal of identifying participants' understandings of size and scale. Findings identified participants' difficulties to discern different sizes of microscale and nanoscale objects and a low level of sophistication on identifying scale worlds among participants. Results also identified that as bigger the difference between the sizes of the objects is, the more difficult was for participants to identify how many times an object is bigger or smaller than another one. Similarly, participants showed difficulties to estimate approximate sizes of sub-macroscopic objects as well as a difficulty for participants to estimate the size of very large objects. Participants' accurate location of objects on a logarithmic scale was also challenging.

Teaching Assistant Professional Development in Biology: Designed for and Driven by Multidimensional Data.

PubMed

Wyse, Sara A; Long, Tammy M; Ebert-May, Diane

2014-01-01

Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) are increasingly responsible for instruction in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Various professional development (PD) programs have been developed and implemented to prepare TAs for this role, but data about effectiveness are lacking and are derived almost exclusively from self-reported surveys. In this study, we describe the design of a reformed PD (RPD) model and apply Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Framework to evaluate multiple outcomes of TA PD before, during, and after implementing RPD. This framework allows evaluation that includes both direct measures and self-reported data. In RPD, TAs created and aligned learning objectives and assessments and incorporated more learner-centered instructional practices in their teaching. However, these data are inconsistent with TAs' self-reported perceptions about RPD and suggest that single measures are insufficient to evaluate TA PD programs. © 2014 Wyse et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2014 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

An Evaluation Tool for CONUS-Scale Estimates of Components of the Water Balance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saxe, S.; Hay, L.; Farmer, W. H.; Markstrom, S. L.; Kiang, J. E.

2016-12-01

Numerous research groups are independently developing data products to represent various components of the water balance (e.g. runoff, evapotranspiration, recharge, snow water equivalent, soil moisture, and climate) at the scale of the conterminous United States. These data products are derived from a range of sources, including direct measurement, remotely-sensed measurement, and statistical and deterministic model simulations. An evaluation tool is needed to compare these data products and the components of the water balance they contain in order to identify the gaps in the understanding and representation of continental-scale hydrologic processes. An ideal tool will be an objective, universally agreed upon, framework to address questions related to closing the water balance. This type of generic, model agnostic evaluation tool would facilitate collaboration amongst different hydrologic research groups and improve modeling capabilities with respect to continental-scale water resources. By adopting a comprehensive framework to consider hydrologic modeling in the context of a complete water balance, it is possible to identify weaknesses in process modeling, data product representation and regional hydrologic variation. As part of its National Water Census initiative, the U.S. Geological survey is facilitating this dialogue to developing prototype evaluation tools.

Distributed Computing Framework for Synthetic Radar Application

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gurrola, Eric M.; Rosen, Paul A.; Aivazis, Michael

2006-01-01

We are developing an extensible software framework, in response to Air Force and NASA needs for distributed computing facilities for a variety of radar applications. The objective of this work is to develop a Python based software framework, that is the framework elements of the middleware that allows developers to control processing flow on a grid in a distributed computing environment. Framework architectures to date allow developers to connect processing functions together as interchangeable objects, thereby allowing a data flow graph to be devised for a specific problem to be solved. The Pyre framework, developed at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and now being used as the basis for next-generation radar processing at JPL, is a Python-based software framework. We have extended the Pyre framework to include new facilities to deploy processing components as services, including components that monitor and assess the state of the distributed network for eventual real-time control of grid resources.

The conceptual framework of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Policy Evaluation Project

PubMed Central

Fong, G T; Cummings, K M; Borland, R; Hastings, G; Hyland, A; Giovino, G A; Hammond, D; Thompson, M E

2006-01-01

This paper describes the conceptual model that underlies the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project (ITC Project), whose mission is to measure the psychosocial and behavioural impact of key policies of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) among adult smokers, and in some countries, among adult non‐smokers and among youth. The evaluation framework utilises multiple country controls, a longitudinal design, and a pre‐specified, theory‐driven conceptual model to test hypotheses about the anticipated effects of specific policies. The ITC Project consists of parallel prospective cohort surveys of representative samples of adult smokers currently in nine countries (inhabited by over 45% of the world's smokers), with other countries being added in the future. Collectively, the ITC Surveys constitute the first‐ever international cohort study of tobacco use. The conceptual model of the ITC Project draws on the psychosocial and health communication literature and assumes that tobacco control policies influence tobacco related behaviours through a causal chain of psychological events, with some variables more closely related to the policy itself (policy‐specific variables) and other variables that are more downstream from the policy, which have been identified by health behaviour and social psychological theories as being important causal precursors of behaviour (psychosocial mediators). We discuss the objectives of the ITC Project and its potential for building the evidence base for the FCTC. PMID:16754944

Interactive Classification of Construction Materials: Feedback Driven Framework for Annotation and Analysis of 3d Point Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hess, M. R.; Petrovic, V.; Kuester, F.

2017-08-01

Digital documentation of cultural heritage structures is increasingly more common through the application of different imaging techniques. Many works have focused on the application of laser scanning and photogrammetry techniques for the acquisition of threedimensional (3D) geometry detailing cultural heritage sites and structures. With an abundance of these 3D data assets, there must be a digital environment where these data can be visualized and analyzed. Presented here is a feedback driven visualization framework that seamlessly enables interactive exploration and manipulation of massive point cloud data. The focus of this work is on the classification of different building materials with the goal of building more accurate as-built information models of historical structures. User defined functions have been tested within the interactive point cloud visualization framework to evaluate automated and semi-automated classification of 3D point data. These functions include decisions based on observed color, laser intensity, normal vector or local surface geometry. Multiple case studies are presented here to demonstrate the flexibility and utility of the presented point cloud visualization framework to achieve classification objectives.

Localizing text in scene images by boundary clustering, stroke segmentation, and string fragment classification.

PubMed

Yi, Chucai; Tian, Yingli

2012-09-01

In this paper, we propose a novel framework to extract text regions from scene images with complex backgrounds and multiple text appearances. This framework consists of three main steps: boundary clustering (BC), stroke segmentation, and string fragment classification. In BC, we propose a new bigram-color-uniformity-based method to model both text and attachment surface, and cluster edge pixels based on color pairs and spatial positions into boundary layers. Then, stroke segmentation is performed at each boundary layer by color assignment to extract character candidates. We propose two algorithms to combine the structural analysis of text stroke with color assignment and filter out background interferences. Further, we design a robust string fragment classification based on Gabor-based text features. The features are obtained from feature maps of gradient, stroke distribution, and stroke width. The proposed framework of text localization is evaluated on scene images, born-digital images, broadcast video images, and images of handheld objects captured by blind persons. Experimental results on respective datasets demonstrate that the framework outperforms state-of-the-art localization algorithms.

Tracking the debate around marine protected areas: key issues and the BEG framework.

PubMed

Thorpe, Andy; Bavinck, Maarten; Coulthard, Sarah

2011-04-01

Marine conservation is often criticized for a mono-disciplinary approach, which delivers fragmented solutions to complex problems with differing interpretations of success. As a means of reflecting on the breadth and range of scientific research on the management of the marine environment, this paper develops an analytical framework to gauge the foci of policy documents and published scientific work on Marine Protected Areas. We evaluate the extent to which MPA research articles delineate objectives around three domains: biological-ecological [B]; economic-social[E]; and governance-management [G]. This permits us to develop an analytic [BEG] framework which we then test on a sample of selected journal article cohorts. While the framework reveals the dominance of biologically focussed research [B], analysis also reveals a growing frequency of the use of governance/management terminology in the literature over the last 15 years, which may be indicative of a shift towards more integrated consideration of governance concerns. However, consideration of the economic/social domain appears to lag behind biological and governance concerns in both frequency and presence in MPA literature.

Action potential influences spatial perception: Evidence for genuine top-down effects on perception.

PubMed

Witt, Jessica K

2017-08-01

The action-specific account of spatial perception asserts that a perceiver's ability to perform an action, such as hitting a softball or walking up a hill, impacts the visual perception of the target object. Although much evidence is consistent with this claim, the evidence has been challenged as to whether perception is truly impacted, as opposed to the responses themselves. These challenges have recently been organized as six pitfalls that provide a framework with which to evaluate the empirical evidence. Four case studies of action-specific effects are offered as evidence that meets the framework's high bar, and thus that demonstrates genuine perceptual effects. That action influences spatial perception is evidence that perceptual and action-related processes are intricately and bidirectionally linked.

SHINE: Strategic Health Informatics Networks for Europe.

PubMed

Kruit, D; Cooper, P A

1994-10-01

The mission of SHINE is to construct an open systems framework for the development of regional community healthcare telematic services that support and add to the strategic business objectives of European healthcare providers and purchasers. This framework will contain a Methodology, that identifies healthcare business processes and develops a supporting IT strategy, and the Open Health Environment. This consists of an architecture and information standards that are 'open' and will be available to any organisation wishing to construct SHINE conform regional healthcare telematic services. Results are: generic models, e.g., regional healthcare business networks, IT strategies; demonstrable, e.g., pilot demonstrators, application and service prototypes; reports, e.g., SHINE Methodology, pilot specifications & evaluations; proposals, e.g., service/interface specifications, standards conformance.

Object relations predicts borderline personality disorder symptoms beyond emotional dysregulation, negative affect, and impulsivity.

PubMed

Huprich, Steven K; Nelson, Sharon M; Paggeot, Amy; Lengu, Ketrin; Albright, Jeremy

2017-01-01

Many studies have determined that the traits of emotional dysregulation, negative affect, and impulsivity are the strongest predictors of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Although psychodynamic, empirically supported BPD treatments (i.e., transference-focused, mentalization based) focus upon changing the internal representations of self and other, no studies have simultaneously evaluated the contribution of object relations in relation to these traits in predicting BPD symptoms. This study sought to determine the combined effects of emotional dysregulation, negative affect, impulsivity, and object relations in the prediction of BPD through the use of mediation modeling in 4 a priori hypothesized relationships among these variables. One hundred sixty-nine psychiatric outpatients and 171 undergraduate students were evaluated with self-reported trait and object relations measures and were administered 2 semistructured diagnostic interviews for BPD. Although all trait and object relations measures were correlated with BPD symptoms, the best fitting model was one in which object relations partially mediated the relationship of negative affect and impulsivity with BPD symptoms. Direct effects of the traits were also observed in mediation. Self-reported object relational quality had more of an effect on the prediction of BPD than previously recognized within a trait-framework, thus further supporting the model explicated in psychodynamic and relationally based treatments for BPD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Global environment facility: Independent evaluation of the pilot phase; Fonds pour l`environnement mondial: evaluation independante de la phase pilote

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

NONE

1994-12-31

This study responds to a request by participants in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for an independent evaluation of the pilot phase. It profiles the GEF, discusses its policy framework, and reviews project development procedures and the strategies and projects in each of the GEF`s four focal areas. The study concludes that fundamental changes must occur and recommends specific reforms, such as articulating more clearly the GEF`s mandate, objectives, and strategies; addressing deficiencies in meeting its global focus; improving capacities and procedures within implementing agencies for managing the portfolio; and increasing non-government organization (NGO), country and community-level participation.

Patterns for Effectively Documenting Frameworks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aguiar, Ademar; David, Gabriel

Good design and implementation are necessary but not sufficient pre-requisites for successfully reusing object-oriented frameworks. Although not always recognized, good documentation is crucial for effective framework reuse, and often hard, costly, and tiresome, coming with many issues, especially when we are not aware of the key problems and respective ways of addressing them. Based on existing literature, case studies and lessons learned, the authors have been mining proven solutions to recurrent problems of documenting object-oriented frameworks, and writing them in pattern form, as patterns are a very effective way of communicating expertise and best practices. This paper presents a small set of patterns addressing problems related to the framework documentation itself, here seen as an autonomous and tangible product independent of the process used to create it. The patterns aim at helping non-experts on cost-effectively documenting object-oriented frameworks. In concrete, these patterns provide guidance on choosing the kinds of documents to produce, how to relate them, and which contents to include. Although the focus is more on the documents themselves, rather than on the process and tools to produce them, some guidelines are also presented in the paper to help on applying the patterns to a specific framework.

A conceptual framework to assess effectiveness in wheelchair provision

PubMed Central

Kankipati, Padmaja

2017-01-01

Background Currently, inadequate wheelchair provision has forced many people with disabilities to be trapped in a cycle of poverty and deprivation, limiting their ability to access education, work and social facilities. This issue is in part because of the lack of collaboration among various stakeholders who need to work together to design, manufacture and deliver such assistive mobility devices. This in turn has led to inadequate evidence about intervention effectiveness, disability prevalence and subsequent costeffectiveness that would help facilitate appropriate provision and support for people with disabilities. Objectives In this paper, we describe a novel conceptual framework that can be tested across the globe to study and evaluate the effectiveness of wheelchair provision. Method The Comparative Effectiveness Research Subcommittee (CER-SC), consisting of the authors of this article, housed within the Evidence-Based Practice Working Group (EBP-WG) of the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP), conducted a scoping review of scientific literature and standard practices used during wheelchair service provision. The literature review was followed by a series of discussion groups. Results The three iterations of the conceptual framework are described in this manuscript. Conclusion We believe that adoption of this conceptual framework could have broad applications in wheelchair provision globally to develop evidence-based practices. Such a perspective will help in the comparison of different strategies employed in wheelchair provision and further improve clinical guidelines. Further work is being conducted to test the efficacy of this conceptual framework to evaluate effectiveness of wheelchair service provision in various settings across the globe. PMID:28936421

Evaluating stakeholder participation in water management: intermediary outcomes as potential indicators for future resource management outcomes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carr, Gemma; Bloeschl, Guenter; Loucks, Daniel Pete

2013-04-01

Evaluation of participation programmes, projects and activities is essential to identify whether stakeholder involvement has been successful in achieving its aims. Aims may include an improvement in water resource management such as enhanced ecological functioning, an improvement in human wellbeing and economic conditions, or overcoming a conflict between interest groups. Evaluating against "interest-based" resource management criteria requires that a desirable outcome can be identified, agreed upon and be measured at the time of evaluation. In many water management situations where collaborative approaches are applied, multiple interests and objectives are present, or stakeholders have not yet identified their own positions and priorities. Even if a resource management objective has been identified and strategy agreed upon, resource management changes tend to emerge over longer timescales and evaluation frequently takes place before they can be recognised. Evaluating against resource management criteria may lead evaluators to conclude that a programme has failed because it has not achieved a resource management objective at the time of evaluation. This presents a critical challenge to researchers assessing the effectiveness of stakeholder participation programmes. One strategy to overcome this is to conduct "goal-free" evaluation to identify what the programme is actually achieving. An evaluation framework that includes intermediary outcomes that are both tangible achievements such as innovation, creation of new organisations, and shared information and knowledge, as well as intangible achievements such as trust and network development can be applied to more broadly assess a programme's success. Analysis of case-studies in the published literature for which a resource management outcome has been achieved shows that intermediary outcomes frequently precede resource management outcomes. They seem to emerge over shorter timescales than resource management outcomes. Furthermore, failure to achieve intermediary outcomes correlates to failure to achieve resource management outcomes. Evaluating intermediary outcomes leads to both a broader assessment of a programme's achievements at the time of evaluation, and can indicate whether a programme will go on to achieve resource management objectives in the future.

Persistent Identifiers: a Prerequisite to Establish the Framework for Scholarly Link Exchange—Scholix

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stocker, M.; Mokrane, M.; Burton, A.; Koers, H.

2016-12-01

The Scholix framework—Scholarly Link Exchange—is a set of aspirational principles and practical guidelines developed under the umbrella of a joint Working Group of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and the World Data System (WDS). It supports a global open information ecosystem unveiling the links between scholarly literature and underpinning research data. The core objectives of the framework are to (1) increase visibility and discoverability of data and articles, (2) place data in context to enable re-use, and (3) support credit attribution mechanisms. Thus, facilitating reproducibility and the transparent evaluation of science. Scholix provides an evolving lightweight set of Guidelines to increase interoperability rather than a normative standard. It consists initially of a conceptual and information models, information standards and encoding guidelines, and options for encoding and exchange protocols. An essential prerequisite to enable the proposed framework is the use of global, unique and persistent identifiers for research objects (such as data and literature). Scholix provides incentives and encourages best practice in the use of such identifiers and standardised referencing. The Data and Literature Interlinking Service (DLI: dliservice.research-infrastructures.eu) is the first exemplar of an aggregation and query service supported by the Scholix framework which will allow the emergence of third party services such as domain-specific aggregations, integrations with other global services, discovery tools, impact assessments, etc. Scholix is already implemented by existing hubs or global aggregators of data-literature link information such as DataCite, CrossRef, OpenAIRE, and EMBL-EBI building on the capacities of existing Persistent Identifier Systems (PIDs) such as Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) and Accession Numbers. These hubs in turn work with their natural communities of data centres or literature publishers to collect the information through existing community-specific workflows and standards. Scholix as a technical solution to wholesale information aggregation will need to be complemented by other policy, practice and cultural change advocacy initiatives. This approach could be extended over time to other types of research objects in and beyond research.

Calculation of the Phenix end-of-life test 'Control Rod Withdrawal' with the ERANOS code

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

Tiberi, V.

2012-07-01

The Inst. of Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) acts as technical support to French public authorities. As such, IRSN is in charge of safety assessment of operating and under construction reactors, as well as future projects. In this framework, one current objective of IRSN is to evaluate the ability and accuracy of numerical tools to foresee consequences of accidents. Neutronic studies step in the safety assessment from different points of view among which the core design and its protection system. They are necessary to evaluate the core behavior in case of accident in order to assess the integrity ofmore » the first barrier and the absence of a prompt criticality risk. To reach this objective one main physical quantity has to be evaluated accurately: the neutronic power distribution in core during whole reactor lifetime. Phenix end of life tests, carried out in 2009, aim at increasing the experience feedback on sodium cooled fast reactors. These experiments have been done in the framework of the development of the 4. generation of nuclear reactors. Ten tests have been carried out: 6 on neutronic and fuel aspects, 2 on thermal hydraulics and 2 for the emergency shutdown. Two of them have been chosen for an international exercise on thermal hydraulics and neutronics in the frame of an IAEA Coordinated Research Project. Concerning neutronics, the Control Rod Withdrawal test is relevant for safety because it allows evaluating the capability of calculation tools to compute the radial power distribution on fast reactors core configurations in which the flux field is very deformed. IRSN participated to this benchmark with the ERANOS code developed by CEA for fast reactors studies. This paper presents the results obtained in the framework of the benchmark activity. A relatively good agreement was found with available measures considering the approximations done in the modeling. The work underlines the importance of burn-up calculations in order to have a fine core concentrations mesh for the calculation of the power distribution. (authors)« less

Framework for Development of Object-Oriented Software

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perez-Poveda, Gus; Ciavarella, Tony; Nieten, Dan

2004-01-01

The Real-Time Control (RTC) Application Framework is a high-level software framework written in C++ that supports the rapid design and implementation of object-oriented application programs. This framework provides built-in functionality that solves common software development problems within distributed client-server, multi-threaded, and embedded programming environments. When using the RTC Framework to develop software for a specific domain, designers and implementers can focus entirely on the details of the domain-specific software rather than on creating custom solutions, utilities, and frameworks for the complexities of the programming environment. The RTC Framework was originally developed as part of a Space Shuttle Launch Processing System (LPS) replacement project called Checkout and Launch Control System (CLCS). As a result of the framework s development, CLCS software development time was reduced by 66 percent. The framework is generic enough for developing applications outside of the launch-processing system domain. Other applicable high-level domains include command and control systems and simulation/ training systems.

Phenotype Instance Verification and Evaluation Tool (PIVET): A Scaled Phenotype Evidence Generation Framework Using Web-Based Medical Literature

PubMed Central

Ke, Junyuan; Ho, Joyce C; Ghosh, Joydeep; Wallace, Byron C

2018-01-01

Background Researchers are developing methods to automatically extract clinically relevant and useful patient characteristics from raw healthcare datasets. These characteristics, often capturing essential properties of patients with common medical conditions, are called computational phenotypes. Being generated by automated or semiautomated, data-driven methods, such potential phenotypes need to be validated as clinically meaningful (or not) before they are acceptable for use in decision making. Objective The objective of this study was to present Phenotype Instance Verification and Evaluation Tool (PIVET), a framework that uses co-occurrence analysis on an online corpus of publically available medical journal articles to build clinical relevance evidence sets for user-supplied phenotypes. PIVET adopts a conceptual framework similar to the pioneering prototype tool PheKnow-Cloud that was developed for the phenotype validation task. PIVET completely refactors each part of the PheKnow-Cloud pipeline to deliver vast improvements in speed without sacrificing the quality of the insights PheKnow-Cloud achieved. Methods PIVET leverages indexing in NoSQL databases to efficiently generate evidence sets. Specifically, PIVET uses a succinct representation of the phenotypes that corresponds to the index on the corpus database and an optimized co-occurrence algorithm inspired by the Aho-Corasick algorithm. We compare PIVET’s phenotype representation with PheKnow-Cloud’s by using PheKnow-Cloud’s experimental setup. In PIVET’s framework, we also introduce a statistical model trained on domain expert–verified phenotypes to automatically classify phenotypes as clinically relevant or not. Additionally, we show how the classification model can be used to examine user-supplied phenotypes in an online, rather than batch, manner. Results PIVET maintains the discriminative power of PheKnow-Cloud in terms of identifying clinically relevant phenotypes for the same corpus with which PheKnow-Cloud was originally developed, but PIVET’s analysis is an order of magnitude faster than that of PheKnow-Cloud. Not only is PIVET much faster, it can be scaled to a larger corpus and still retain speed. We evaluated multiple classification models on top of the PIVET framework and found ridge regression to perform best, realizing an average F1 score of 0.91 when predicting clinically relevant phenotypes. Conclusions Our study shows that PIVET improves on the most notable existing computational tool for phenotype validation in terms of speed and automation and is comparable in terms of accuracy. PMID:29728351

Evaluation of a national quality use of medicines service in Australia: an evolving model.

PubMed

Beilby, Justin; Wutzke, Sonia E; Bowman, Jenny; Mackson, Judith M; Weekes, Lynn M

2006-04-01

To describe the first phase of a global evaluation framework for the National Prescribing Service (NPS), with a focus on services for health professionals, and in particular highlight the lessons learnt from evaluation around the establishment and implementation of this national program. The agreed evaluation framework used mixed methods focused around a series of evaluation questions, aimed at measuring the overall effect of this new organization as well as the individual programs within it. The evaluation questions were determined a priori and were based on the objectives established by the organization in its first year of operation. A detailed analyses has been completed of: the process, scope and reach of program delivery using both quantitative and qualitative measures; changes in attitudes and knowledge measured through key informant interviews and surveys of professional groups and consumers; and changes in prescribing behaviour and savings to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) through analysis of prescription data. The evaluation period for this report was mid-1998 to mid-2004. The NPS has successfully implemented a complex, multi-faceted program across Australia. From 1998 to 2004, in addition to print material provided to all general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists, 90% of all GPs have been actively involved in one or more educational activity; 116 of 120 divisions of general practice have coordinated local NPS programs; and 9% of pharmacists have actively participated in at least one educational activity. Sixty per cent of GPs and pharmacists rated the printed educational materials as good or very good. In the last three years, the NPS activities have generated savings in the range of $121-163 million to the PBS, owing to changes in prescribing practices. The national evaluation framework has informed program delivery and ongoing design and development. Continued refinement of existing evaluation methods and further exploration of new techniques will remain a priority for the organization.

Building capacity for evidence generation, synthesis and implementation to improve the care of mothers and babies in South East Asia: methods and design of the SEA-ORCHID Project using a logical framework approach.

PubMed

McDonald, Steve; Turner, Tari; Chamberlain, Catherine; Lumbiganon, Pisake; Thinkhamrop, Jadsada; Festin, Mario R; Ho, Jacqueline J; Mohammad, Hakimi; Henderson-Smart, David J; Short, Jacki; Crowther, Caroline A; Martis, Ruth; Green, Sally

2010-07-01

Rates of maternal and perinatal mortality remain high in developing countries despite the existence of effective interventions. Efforts to strengthen evidence-based approaches to improve health in these settings are partly hindered by restricted access to the best available evidence, limited training in evidence-based practice and concerns about the relevance of existing evidence. South East Asia--Optimising Reproductive and Child Health in Developing Countries (SEA-ORCHID) was a five-year project that aimed to determine whether a multifaceted intervention designed to strengthen the capacity for research synthesis, evidence-based care and knowledge implementation improved clinical practice and led to better health outcomes for mothers and babies. This paper describes the development and design of the SEA-ORCHID intervention plan using a logical framework approach. SEA-ORCHID used a before-and-after design to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted tailored intervention at nine sites across Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia, supported by three centres in Australia. We used a logical framework approach to systematically prepare and summarise the project plan in a clear and logical way. The development and design of the SEA-ORCHID project was based around the three components of a logical framework (problem analysis, project plan and evaluation strategy). The SEA-ORCHID logical framework defined the project's goal and purpose (To improve the health of mothers and babies in South East Asia and To improve clinical practice in reproductive health in South East Asia), and outlined a series of project objectives and activities designed to achieve these. The logical framework also established outcome and process measures appropriate to each level of the project plan, and guided project work in each of the participating countries and hospitals. Development of a logical framework in the SEA-ORCHID project enabled a reasoned, logical approach to the project design that ensured the project activities would achieve the desired outcomes and that the evaluation plan would assess both the process and outcome of the project. The logical framework was also valuable over the course of the project to facilitate communication, assess progress and build a shared understanding of the project activities, purpose and goal.

Building capacity for evidence generation, synthesis and implementation to improve the care of mothers and babies in South East Asia: methods and design of the SEA-ORCHID Project using a logical framework approach

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background Rates of maternal and perinatal mortality remain high in developing countries despite the existence of effective interventions. Efforts to strengthen evidence-based approaches to improve health in these settings are partly hindered by restricted access to the best available evidence, limited training in evidence-based practice and concerns about the relevance of existing evidence. South East Asia - Optimising Reproductive and Child Health in Developing Countries (SEA-ORCHID) was a five-year project that aimed to determine whether a multifaceted intervention designed to strengthen the capacity for research synthesis, evidence-based care and knowledge implementation improved clinical practice and led to better health outcomes for mothers and babies. This paper describes the development and design of the SEA-ORCHID intervention plan using a logical framework approach. Methods SEA-ORCHID used a before-and-after design to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted tailored intervention at nine sites across Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia, supported by three centres in Australia. We used a logical framework approach to systematically prepare and summarise the project plan in a clear and logical way. The development and design of the SEA-ORCHID project was based around the three components of a logical framework (problem analysis, project plan and evaluation strategy). Results The SEA-ORCHID logical framework defined the project's goal and purpose (To improve the health of mothers and babies in South East Asia and To improve clinical practice in reproductive health in South East Asia), and outlined a series of project objectives and activities designed to achieve these. The logical framework also established outcome and process measures appropriate to each level of the project plan, and guided project work in each of the participating countries and hospitals. Conclusions Development of a logical framework in the SEA-ORCHID project enabled a reasoned, logical approach to the project design that ensured the project activities would achieve the desired outcomes and that the evaluation plan would assess both the process and outcome of the project. The logical framework was also valuable over the course of the project to facilitate communication, assess progress and build a shared understanding of the project activities, purpose and goal. PMID:20594325

Traversing the many paths of workflow research: developing a conceptual framework of workflow terminology through a systematic literature review

PubMed Central

Novak, Laurie L; Johnson, Kevin B; Lorenzi, Nancy M

2010-01-01

The objective of this review was to describe methods used to study and model workflow. The authors included studies set in a variety of industries using qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Of the 6221 matching abstracts, 127 articles were included in the final corpus. The authors collected data from each article on researcher perspective, study type, methods type, specific methods, approaches to evaluating quality of results, definition of workflow and dependent variables. Ethnographic observation and interviews were the most frequently used methods. Long study durations revealed the large time commitment required for descriptive workflow research. The most frequently discussed technique for evaluating quality of study results was triangulation. The definition of the term “workflow” and choice of methods for studying workflow varied widely across research areas and researcher perspectives. The authors developed a conceptual framework of workflow-related terminology for use in future research and present this model for use by other researchers. PMID:20442143

A Sustainable Evaluation Framework and Its Application

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Robert B.; Stern, Marc J.; Ardoin, Nicole

2006-01-01

This article presents a framework for developing internally sustainable evaluation systems for environmental education organizations, although the framework can be applied to other types of organizations. The authors developed a sustainable evaluation framework (SEF) with the intent of creating an evaluation system that could be self-administered…

Understanding user needs for carbon monitoring information

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duren, R. M.; Macauley, M.; Gurney, K. R.; Saatchi, S. S.; Woodall, C. W.; Larsen, K.; Reidmiller, D.; Hockstad, L.; Weitz, M.; Croes, B.; Down, A.; West, T.; Mercury, M.

2015-12-01

The objectives of the Understanding User Needs project for NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) program are to: 1) engage the user community and identify needs for policy-relevant carbon monitoring information, 2) evaluate current and planned CMS data products with regard to their value for decision making, and 3) explore alternative methods for visualizing and communicating carbon monitoring information and associated uncertainties to decision makers and other stakeholders. To meet these objectives and help establish a sustained link between science and decision-making we have established a multi-disciplinary team that combines expertise in carbon-cycle science, engineering, economics, and carbon management and policy. We will present preliminary findings regarding emerging themes and needs for carbon information that may warrant increased attention by the science community. We will also demonstrate a new web-based tool that offers a common framework for facilitating user evaluation of carbon data products from multiple CMS projects.

Prediction of Human Activity by Discovering Temporal Sequence Patterns.

PubMed

Li, Kang; Fu, Yun

2014-08-01

Early prediction of ongoing human activity has become more valuable in a large variety of time-critical applications. To build an effective representation for prediction, human activities can be characterized by a complex temporal composition of constituent simple actions and interacting objects. Different from early detection on short-duration simple actions, we propose a novel framework for long -duration complex activity prediction by discovering three key aspects of activity: Causality, Context-cue, and Predictability. The major contributions of our work include: (1) a general framework is proposed to systematically address the problem of complex activity prediction by mining temporal sequence patterns; (2) probabilistic suffix tree (PST) is introduced to model causal relationships between constituent actions, where both large and small order Markov dependencies between action units are captured; (3) the context-cue, especially interactive objects information, is modeled through sequential pattern mining (SPM), where a series of action and object co-occurrence are encoded as a complex symbolic sequence; (4) we also present a predictive accumulative function (PAF) to depict the predictability of each kind of activity. The effectiveness of our approach is evaluated on two experimental scenarios with two data sets for each: action-only prediction and context-aware prediction. Our method achieves superior performance for predicting global activity classes and local action units.

Combining Interactive Infrastructure Modeling and Evolutionary Algorithm Optimization for Sustainable Water Resources Design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, R.; Kasprzyk, J. R.; Zagona, E. A.

2013-12-01

Population growth and climate change, combined with difficulties in building new infrastructure, motivate portfolio-based solutions to ensuring sufficient water supply. Powerful simulation models with graphical user interfaces (GUI) are often used to evaluate infrastructure portfolios; these GUI based models require manual modification of the system parameters, such as reservoir operation rules, water transfer schemes, or system capacities. Multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) based optimization can be employed to balance multiple objectives and automatically suggest designs for infrastructure systems, but MOEA based decision support typically uses a fixed problem formulation (i.e., a single set of objectives, decisions, and constraints). This presentation suggests a dynamic framework for linking GUI-based infrastructure models with MOEA search. The framework begins with an initial formulation which is solved using a MOEA. Then, stakeholders can interact with candidate solutions, viewing their properties in the GUI model. This is followed by changes in the formulation which represent users' evolving understanding of exigent system properties. Our case study is built using RiverWare, an object-oriented, data-centered model that facilitates the representation of a diverse array of water resources systems. Results suggest that assumptions within the initial MOEA search are violated after investigating tradeoffs and reveal how formulations should be modified to better capture stakeholders' preferences.

Distributed learning and multi-objectivity in traffic light control

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brys, Tim; Pham, Tong T.; Taylor, Matthew E.

2014-01-01

Traffic jams and suboptimal traffic flows are ubiquitous in modern societies, and they create enormous economic losses each year. Delays at traffic lights alone account for roughly 10% of all delays in US traffic. As most traffic light scheduling systems currently in use are static, set up by human experts rather than being adaptive, the interest in machine learning approaches to this problem has increased in recent years. Reinforcement learning (RL) approaches are often used in these studies, as they require little pre-existing knowledge about traffic flows. Distributed constraint optimisation approaches (DCOP) have also been shown to be successful, but are limited to cases where the traffic flows are known. The distributed coordination of exploration and exploitation (DCEE) framework was recently proposed to introduce learning in the DCOP framework. In this paper, we present a study of DCEE and RL techniques in a complex simulator, illustrating the particular advantages of each, comparing them against standard isolated traffic actuated signals. We analyse how learning and coordination behave under different traffic conditions, and discuss the multi-objective nature of the problem. Finally we evaluate several alternative reward signals in the best performing approach, some of these taking advantage of the correlation between the problem-inherent objectives to improve performance.

BEACON: A Summary Framework to Overcome Potential Reimbursement Hurdles.

PubMed

Dunlop, William C N; Mullins, C Daniel; Pirk, Olaf; Goeree, Ron; Postma, Maarten J; Enstone, Ashley; Heron, Louise

2016-10-01

To provide a framework for addressing payers' criteria during the development of pharmaceuticals. A conceptual framework was presented to an international health economic expert panel for discussion. A structured literature search (from 2010 to May 2015), using the following databases in Ovid: Medline(®) and Medline(®) In-Process (PubMed), Embase (Ovid), EconLit (EBSCOhost) and the National Health Service Economic Evaluation Database (NHS EED), and a 'grey literature' search, were conducted to identify existing criteria from the payer perspective. The criteria assessed by existing frameworks and guidelines were collated; the most commonly reported criteria were considered for inclusion in the framework. A mnemonic was conceived as a memory aide to summarise these criteria. Overall, 41 publications were identified as potentially relevant to the objective. Following further screening, 26 were excluded upon full-text review on the basis of no framework presented (n = 13), redundancy (n = 11) or abstract only (n = 2). Frameworks that captured criteria developed for or utilised by the pharmaceutical industry (n = 5) and reimbursement guidance (n = 10) were reviewed. The most commonly identified criteria-unmet need/patient burden, safety, efficacy, quality-of-life outcomes, environment, evidence quality, budget impact and comparator-were incorporated into the summary framework. For ease of communication, the following mnemonic was developed: BEACON (Burden/target population, Environment, Affordability/value, Comparator, Outcomes, Number of studies/quality of evidence). The BEACON framework aims to capture the 'essence' of payer requirements by addressing the most commonly described criteria requested by payers regarding the introduction of a new pharmaceutical.

Elementary Integrated Curriculum Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montgomery County Public Schools, 2010

2010-01-01

The Elementary Integrated Curriculum (EIC) Framework is the guiding curriculum document for the Elementary Integrated Curriculum and represents the elementary portion of the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) Pre-K-12 Curriculum Frameworks. The EIC Framework contains the detailed indicators and objectives that describe what…

A Framework for Integrating Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis

PubMed Central

Nweke, Onyemaechi C.

2011-01-01

With increased interest in integrating environmental justice into the process for developing environmental regulations in the United States, analysts and decision makers are confronted with the question of what methods and data can be used to assess disproportionate environmental health impacts. However, as a first step to identifying data and methods, it is important that analysts understand what information on equity impacts is needed for decision making. Such knowledge originates from clearly stated equity objectives and the reflection of those objectives throughout the analytical activities that characterize Regulatory Impact Analysis (RIA), a process that is traditionally used to inform decision making. The framework proposed in this paper advocates structuring analyses to explicitly provide pre-defined output on equity impacts. Specifically, the proposed framework emphasizes: (a) defining equity objectives for the proposed regulatory action at the onset of the regulatory process, (b) identifying specific and related sub-objectives for key analytical steps in the RIA process, and (c) developing explicit analytical/research questions to assure that stated sub-objectives and objectives are met. In proposing this framework, it is envisioned that information on equity impacts informs decision-making in regulatory development, and that this is achieved through a systematic and consistent approach that assures linkages between stated equity objectives, regulatory analyses, selection of policy options, and the design of compliance and enforcement activities. PMID:21776235

A multiple perspective modeling and simulation approach for renewable energy policy evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alyamani, Talal M.

Environmental issues and reliance on fossil fuel sources, including coal, oil, and natural gas, are the two most common energy issues that are currently faced by the United States (U.S.). Incorporation of renewable energy sources, a non-economical option in electricity generation compared to conventional sources that burn fossil fuels, single handedly promises a viable solution for both of these issues. Several energy policies have concordantly been suggested to reduce the financial burden of adopting renewable energy technologies and make such technologies competitive with conventional sources throughout the U.S. This study presents a modeling and analysis approach for comprehensive evaluation of renewable energy policies with respect to their benefits to various related stakeholders--customers, utilities, governmental and environmental agencies--where the debilitating impacts, advantages, and disadvantages of such policies can be assessed and quantified at the state level. In this work, a novel simulation framework is presented to help policymakers promptly assess and evaluate policies from different perspectives of its stakeholders. The proposed framework is composed of four modules: 1) a database that collates the economic, operational, and environmental data; 2) elucidation of policy, which devises the policy for the simulation model; 3) a preliminary analysis, which makes predictions for consumption, supply, and prices; and 4) a simulation model. After the validity of the proposed framework is demonstrated, a series of planned Florida and Texas renewable energy policies are implemented into the presented framework as case studies. Two solar and one energy efficiency programs are selected as part of the Florida case study. A utility rebate and federal tax credit programs are selected as part of the Texas case study. The results obtained from the simulation and conclusions drawn on the assessment of current energy policies are presented with respect to the conflicting objectives of different stakeholders.

Intelligent Systems Approaches to Product Sound Quality Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pietila, Glenn M.

As a product market becomes more competitive, consumers become more discriminating in the way in which they differentiate between engineered products. The consumer often makes a purchasing decision based on the sound emitted from the product during operation by using the sound to judge quality or annoyance. Therefore, in recent years, many sound quality analysis tools have been developed to evaluate the consumer preference as it relates to a product sound and to quantify this preference based on objective measurements. This understanding can be used to direct a product design process in order to help differentiate the product from competitive products or to establish an impression on consumers regarding a product's quality or robustness. The sound quality process is typically a statistical tool that is used to model subjective preference, or merit score, based on objective measurements, or metrics. In this way, new product developments can be evaluated in an objective manner without the laborious process of gathering a sample population of consumers for subjective studies each time. The most common model used today is the Multiple Linear Regression (MLR), although recently non-linear Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approaches are gaining popularity. This dissertation will review publicly available published literature and present additional intelligent systems approaches that can be used to improve on the current sound quality process. The focus of this work is to address shortcomings in the current paired comparison approach to sound quality analysis. This research will propose a framework for an adaptive jury analysis approach as an alternative to the current Bradley-Terry model. The adaptive jury framework uses statistical hypothesis testing to focus on sound pairings that are most interesting and is expected to address some of the restrictions required by the Bradley-Terry model. It will also provide a more amicable framework for an intelligent systems approach. Next, an unsupervised jury clustering algorithm is used to identify and classify subgroups within a jury who have conflicting preferences. In addition, a nested Artificial Neural Network (ANN) architecture is developed to predict subjective preference based on objective sound quality metrics, in the presence of non-linear preferences. Finally, statistical decomposition and correlation algorithms are reviewed that can help an analyst establish a clear understanding of the variability of the product sounds used as inputs into the jury study and to identify correlations between preference scores and sound quality metrics in the presence of non-linearities.

Statistical Interior Tomography

PubMed Central

Xu, Qiong; Wang, Ge; Sieren, Jered; Hoffman, Eric A.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a statistical interior tomography (SIT) approach making use of compressed sensing (CS) theory. With the projection data modeled by the Poisson distribution, an objective function with a total variation (TV) regularization term is formulated in the maximization of a posteriori (MAP) framework to solve the interior problem. An alternating minimization method is used to optimize the objective function with an initial image from the direct inversion of the truncated Hilbert transform. The proposed SIT approach is extensively evaluated with both numerical and real datasets. The results demonstrate that SIT is robust with respect to data noise and down-sampling, and has better resolution and less bias than its deterministic counterpart in the case of low count data. PMID:21233044

Conceptual framework to ensure water security in Ukraine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gadzalo, Yaroslav; Romashchenko, Mykhailo; Yatsiuk, Mykhailo

2018-02-01

As a result of global climate change against the background of natural water supply deterioration and river water content reductions, nowadays Ukraine is facing the problem of environmental degradation of river basins. In light of this, we suggest that achieving an acceptable level of water security in Ukraine should be defined as the strategic objective of national water policy. The state of national water security should be evaluated by its progress in certain sectors. The basic principles of the new water policy of Ukraine are supposed to be represented in Water Strategy of Ukraine. Integrated water management by the basin principle should serve as the main tool for achieving the objectives of water security.

Decentralized cooperative TOA/AOA target tracking for hierarchical wireless sensor networks.

PubMed

Chen, Ying-Chih; Wen, Chih-Yu

2012-11-08

This paper proposes a distributed method for cooperative target tracking in hierarchical wireless sensor networks. The concept of leader-based information processing is conducted to achieve object positioning, considering a cluster-based network topology. Random timers and local information are applied to adaptively select a sub-cluster for the localization task. The proposed energy-efficient tracking algorithm allows each sub-cluster member to locally estimate the target position with a Bayesian filtering framework and a neural networking model, and further performs estimation fusion in the leader node with the covariance intersection algorithm. This paper evaluates the merits and trade-offs of the protocol design towards developing more efficient and practical algorithms for object position estimation.

On surface analysis and archaeometallurgy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Giumlia-Mair, Alessandra

2005-09-01

The tasks and problems which the study of ancient artefacts involves are manifold and almost as numerous as the different classes of materials and objects studied by modern specialists. This happens especially because the conservation of artefacts depends not only on their material and manufacturing techniques, but also very much on the environment and the type of soil in which they were deposited, sometimes for millennia. A number of archaeological materials and objects, dated to different periods, from the earliest use of metals to historical times, and also coming from very different geographical contexts in the whole Ancient World are discussed in this paper. The most common surface analysis methods will be evaluated and discussed in the framework of different applications.

Measuring Reading Comprehension with the Lexile Framework.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stenner, A. Jackson

This paper shows how the concept of general objectivity can be used to improve behavioral science measurement, particularly as it applies to the Lexile Framework, a tool for objectively measuring reading comprehension. It begins with a dialogue between a physicist and a psychometrician that details some of the differences between physical science…

Evaluation of the Capillary Blood Glucose Self-monitoring Program

PubMed Central

Augusto, Mariana Cristina; Nitsche, Maria José Trevizani; Parada, Cristina Maria Garcia de Lima; Zanetti, Maria Lúcia; Carvalhaes, Maria Antonieta de Barros Leite

2014-01-01

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the structure, process and results of the Capillary Blood Glucose Self-monitoring Program in a Brazilian city. METHOD: epidemiological, cross-sectional study. The methodological framework of Donabedian was used to construct indicators of structure, process and outcome. A random sample (n = 288) of users enrolled and 96 health professionals who worked in the program was studied. Two questionnaires were used that were constructed for this study, one for professionals and one for users, both containing data for the evaluation of structure, process and outcome. Anthropometric measures and laboratory results were collected by consulting the patients' health records. The analysis involved descriptive statistics. RESULTS: most of the professionals were not qualified to work in the program and were not knowledgeable about the set of criteria for patient registration. None of the patients received complete and correct orientations about the program and the percentage with skills to perform conducts autonomously was 10%. As regards the result indicators, 86.4% of the patients and 81.3% of the professionals evaluated the program positively. CONCLUSION: the evaluation indicators designed revealed that one of the main objectives of the program, self-care skills, has not been achieved. PMID:25493676

The Utility of the Memorable Messages Framework as an Intermediary Evaluation Tool for Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in a Nutrition Education Program.

PubMed

Davis, LaShara A; Morgan, Susan E; Mobley, Amy R

2016-06-01

Additional strategies to evaluate the impact of community nutrition education programs on low-income individuals are needed. The objective of this qualitative study was to examine the use of the Memorable Messages Framework as an intermediary nutrition education program evaluation tool to determine what fruit and vegetable messages were reported as memorable and the characteristics of those memorable messages. A convenience sample of low-income, primarily African American adults (N = 58) who previously completed a series of community nutrition education lessons within an urban area of Indiana participated in a focus group (N = 8 focus groups). A lead moderator using a semistructured script conducted the focus groups to determine what information about fruits and vegetables was most memorable from the participants' nutrition lessons and why this information was memorable. All focus group audiotapes were transcribed verbatim and ATLAS.ti software was used to code and identify themes within the data. Participants cited quantity, variety, and the positive nutritional impact of eating fruits and vegetables as most memorable. Information given in the form of recipes was also cited as most memorable. For example, participants referred to the recipe demonstrations as not only fun but also key components of the program that helped with message retention and memorability. Key characteristics of memorable messages included personal relevance and message vividness. These findings indicated that the Memorable Messages Framework may serve as an intermediary program evaluation tool to identify what information and messages are most influential to participants in community nutrition education programs. © 2015 Society for Public Health Education.

Evaluating a multispecies adaptive management framework: Must uncertainty impede effective decision-making?

USGS Publications Warehouse

Smith, David R.; McGowan, Conor P.; Daily, Jonathan P.; Nichols, James D.; Sweka, John A.; Lyons, James E.

2013-01-01

Application of adaptive management to complex natural resource systems requires careful evaluation to ensure that the process leads to improved decision-making. As part of that evaluation, adaptive policies can be compared with alternative nonadaptive management scenarios. Also, the value of reducing structural (ecological) uncertainty to achieving management objectives can be quantified.A multispecies adaptive management framework was recently adopted by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission for sustainable harvest of Delaware Bay horseshoe crabs Limulus polyphemus, while maintaining adequate stopover habitat for migrating red knots Calidris canutus rufa, the focal shorebird species. The predictive model set encompassed the structural uncertainty in the relationships between horseshoe crab spawning, red knot weight gain and red knot vital rates. Stochastic dynamic programming was used to generate a state-dependent strategy for harvest decisions given that uncertainty. In this paper, we employed a management strategy evaluation approach to evaluate the performance of this adaptive management framework. Active adaptive management was used by including model weights as state variables in the optimization and reducing structural uncertainty by model weight updating.We found that the value of information for reducing structural uncertainty is expected to be low, because the uncertainty does not appear to impede effective management. Harvest policy responded to abundance levels of both species regardless of uncertainty in the specific relationship that generated those abundances. Thus, the expected horseshoe crab harvest and red knot abundance were similar when the population generating model was uncertain or known, and harvest policy was robust to structural uncertainty as specified.Synthesis and applications. The combination of management strategy evaluation with state-dependent strategies from stochastic dynamic programming was an informative approach to evaluate adaptive management performance and value of learning. Although natural resource decisions are characterized by uncertainty, not all uncertainty will cause decisions to be altered substantially, as we found in this case. It is important to incorporate uncertainty into the decision framing and evaluate the effect of reducing that uncertainty on achieving the desired outcomes

Introducing Pre-university Students to Primary Scientific Literature Through Argumentation Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koeneman, Marcel; Goedhart, Martin; Ossevoort, Miriam

2013-10-01

Primary scientific literature is one of the most important means of communication in science, written for peers in the scientific community. Primary literature provides an authentic context for showing students how scientists support their claims. Several teaching strategies have been proposed using (adapted) scientific publications, some for secondary education, but none of these strategies focused specifically on scientific argumentation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate a strategy for teaching pre-university students to read unadapted primary scientific literature, translated into students' native language, based on a new argumentation analysis framework. This framework encompasses seven types of argumentative elements: motive, objective, main conclusion, implication, support, counterargument and refutation. During the intervention, students studied two research articles. We monitored students' reading comprehension and their opinion on the articles and activities. After the intervention, we measured students' ability to identify the argumentative elements in a third unadapted and translated research article. The presented framework enabled students to analyse the article by identifying the motive, objective, main conclusion and implication and part of the supports. Students stated that they found these activities useful. Most students understood the text on paragraph level and were able to read the article with some help for its vocabulary. We suggest that primary scientific literature has the potential to show students important aspects of the scientific process and to learn scientific vocabulary in an authentic context.

Validation to Spanish of the Caring Assessment Tool (CAT-V)

PubMed Central

Ayuso, Rosa María Fernández; Velázquez, Juan Manuel Morillo; Ayuso, David Fernández; de la Torre-Montero, Julio César

2017-01-01

Resume Objective: to translate and validate to Spanish the Caring Assessment Scale tool, CAT-V, by Joanne Duffy, within the framework of Jean Watson; as a secondary objective, it is proposed to evaluate its psychometric properties. There are tools designed to measure the patient’s perception of provided cares, including CAT-V, the subject of our interest, in a way that it can be used in Spanish-speaking patients. Methods: to meet the objectives, it was performed sequential translation and retro-translation of the scale to be validated, through a standardized procedure. The final version of that scale was validated in a sample of 349 patients from four public and two private hospitals in Madrid, Spain. Results: The instrument was translated and validated with high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha .953). The subsequent factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure, not coincident with the data from the US population. Conclusion: it is considered that the translation of CAT-V is a suitable instrument to be used in the evaluation of patient care in Ibero-american health centers whose language is Spanish. PMID:29069268

Surrogate Based Uni/Multi-Objective Optimization and Distribution Estimation Methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gong, W.; Duan, Q.; Huo, X.

2017-12-01

Parameter calibration has been demonstrated as an effective way to improve the performance of dynamic models, such as hydrological models, land surface models, weather and climate models etc. Traditional optimization algorithms usually cost a huge number of model evaluations, making dynamic model calibration very difficult, or even computationally prohibitive. With the help of a serious of recently developed adaptive surrogate-modelling based optimization methods: uni-objective optimization method ASMO, multi-objective optimization method MO-ASMO, and probability distribution estimation method ASMO-PODE, the number of model evaluations can be significantly reduced to several hundreds, making it possible to calibrate very expensive dynamic models, such as regional high resolution land surface models, weather forecast models such as WRF, and intermediate complexity earth system models such as LOVECLIM. This presentation provides a brief introduction to the common framework of adaptive surrogate-based optimization algorithms of ASMO, MO-ASMO and ASMO-PODE, a case study of Common Land Model (CoLM) calibration in Heihe river basin in Northwest China, and an outlook of the potential applications of the surrogate-based optimization methods.

Computer-assisted framework for machine-learning-based delineation of GTV regions on datasets of planning CT and PET/CT images.

PubMed

Ikushima, Koujiro; Arimura, Hidetaka; Jin, Ze; Yabu-Uchi, Hidetake; Kuwazuru, Jumpei; Shioyama, Yoshiyuki; Sasaki, Tomonari; Honda, Hiroshi; Sasaki, Masayuki

2017-01-01

We have proposed a computer-assisted framework for machine-learning-based delineation of gross tumor volumes (GTVs) following an optimum contour selection (OCS) method. The key idea of the proposed framework was to feed image features around GTV contours (determined based on the knowledge of radiation oncologists) into a machine-learning classifier during the training step, after which the classifier produces the 'degree of GTV' for each voxel in the testing step. Initial GTV regions were extracted using a support vector machine (SVM) that learned the image features inside and outside each tumor region (determined by radiation oncologists). The leave-one-out-by-patient test was employed for training and testing the steps of the proposed framework. The final GTV regions were determined using the OCS method that can be used to select a global optimum object contour based on multiple active delineations with a LSM around the GTV. The efficacy of the proposed framework was evaluated in 14 lung cancer cases [solid: 6, ground-glass opacity (GGO): 4, mixed GGO: 4] using the 3D Dice similarity coefficient (DSC), which denotes the degree of region similarity between the GTVs contoured by radiation oncologists and those determined using the proposed framework. The proposed framework achieved an average DSC of 0.777 for 14 cases, whereas the OCS-based framework produced an average DSC of 0.507. The average DSCs for GGO and mixed GGO were 0.763 and 0.701, respectively, obtained by the proposed framework. The proposed framework can be employed as a tool to assist radiation oncologists in delineating various GTV regions. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.

Global Spent Fuel Logistics Systems Study (GSFLS). Volume 2. GSFLS visit findings and evaluations. Interim report

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

None

1978-01-31

This report is a part of the interim report documentation for the Global Spent Fuel Logistics System (GSFLS) study. This report describes a global framework that evaluates spent fuel disposition requirements, influencing factors and strategies. A broad sampling of foreign governmental officials, electric utility spokesmen and nuclear power industry officials responsible for GSFLS policies, plans and programs were surveyed as to their views with respect to national and international GSFLS related considerations. The results of these GSFLS visit findings are presented herein. These findings were then evaluated in terms of technical, institutional and legal/regulatory implications. The GSFLS evaluations, in conjunctionmore » with perceived US spent fuel objectives, formed the basis for selecting a set of GSFLS strategies which are reported herein.« less

Conceptual Soundness, Metric Development, Benchmarking, and Targeting for PATH Subprogram Evaluation

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

Mosey. G.; Doris, E.; Coggeshall, C.

The objective of this study is to evaluate the conceptual soundness of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing (PATH) program's revised goals and establish and apply a framework to identify and recommend metrics that are the most useful for measuring PATH's progress. This report provides an evaluative review of PATH's revised goals, outlines a structured method for identifying and selecting metrics, proposes metrics and benchmarks for a sampling of individual PATH programs, and discusses other metrics that potentially could be developed that may add value to the evaluation process. The frameworkmore » and individual program metrics can be used for ongoing management improvement efforts and to inform broader program-level metrics for government reporting requirements.« less

A model of "integrated scientific method" and its application for the analysis of instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rusbult, Craig Francis

A model of 'integrated scientific method' (ISM) was constructed as a framework for describing the process of science in terms of activities (formulating a research problem, and inventing and evaluating actions--such as selecting and inventing theories, evaluating theories, designing experiments, and doing experiments--intended to solve the problem) and evaluation criteria (empirical, conceptual, and cultural-personal). Instead of trying to define the scientific method, ISM is intended to serve as a flexible framework that--by varying the characteristics of its components, their integrated relationships, and their relative importance can be used to describe a variety of scientific methods, and a variety of perspectives about what constitutes an accurate portrayal of scientific methods. This framework is outlined visually and verbally, followed by an elaboration of the framework and my own views about science, and an evaluation of whether ISM can serve as a relatively neutral framework for describing a wide range of science practices and science interpretations. ISM was used to analyze an innovative, guided inquiry classroom (taught by Susan Johnson, using Genetics Construction Kit software) in which students do simulated scientific research by solving classical genetics problems that require effect-to-cause reasoning and theory revision. The immediate goal of analysis was to examine the 'science experiences' of students, to determine how the 'structure of instruction' provides opportunities for these experiences. Another goal was to test and improve the descriptive and analytical utility of ISM. In developing ISM, a major objective was to make ISM educationally useful. A concluding discussion includes controversies about "the nature of science" and how to teach it, how instruction can expand opportunities for student experience, and how goal-oriented intentional learning (using ISM might improve the learning, retention, and transfer of thinking skills. Potential educational applications of ISM could involve its use for instructional analysis or design, or for teaching students in the classroom; or ISM and IDM (a closely related, generalized 'integrated design method') could play valuable roles in a 'wide spiral' curriculum designed for the coordinated teaching of thinking skills, including creativity and critical thinking, across a wide range of subjects.

Conceptual frameworks, geomorphic interpretation and storytelling: Tales from Lockyer Creek , Australia.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Croke, Jacky; Phillips, Jonathan; Van Dyke, Chris

2017-04-01

Earth science knowledge and insight begins with case studies, and theories should be derived from and ultimately evaluated against empirical, case study evidence. However, isolated case studies not linked conceptually to other locations or embedded within a broader framework are often of limited use beyond the study site. Geomorphic evidence and phenomena may be interpreted using a variety of conceptual frameworks (theories, models, laws, methodologies, etc.). The evidence may be, or at least appear to be, consistent with multiple frameworks, even when those constructs are derived from entirely different assumptions or frames of reference. Thus different interpretations and stories can be derived from the same evidence. Our purpose here is to illustrate this phenomenon via a case study from Lockyer Creek, southeast Queensland, Australia. Lockyer Creek is fast becoming one of Australia's most studied catchments with a wealth of data emerging following two extreme flood events in 2011 and 2013. Whilst the initial objective of the Big Flood project was to provide information on the frequency and magnitude of these extreme events, in essence the project revealed a rich 'story' of river evolution and adjustment which at first glance did not appear to 'fit' many established conceptual frameworks and theories. This presentation tells the tale of Lockyer Creek as it relates to selected key conceptual frameworks and importantly how this information can then be used for more effective catchment and flood management.

Evaluation of the Performance of Routine Information System Management (PRISM) framework: evidence from Uganda.

PubMed

Hotchkiss, David R; Aqil, Anwer; Lippeveld, Theo; Mukooyo, Edward

2010-07-03

Sound policy, resource allocation and day-to-day management decisions in the health sector require timely information from routine health information systems (RHIS). In most low- and middle-income countries, the RHIS is viewed as being inadequate in providing quality data and continuous information that can be used to help improve health system performance. In addition, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of RHIS strengthening interventions in improving data quality and use. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of the newly developed Performance of Routine Information System Management (PRISM) framework, which consists of a conceptual framework and associated data collection and analysis tools to assess, design, strengthen and evaluate RHIS. The specific objectives of the study are: a) to assess the reliability and validity of the PRISM instruments and b) to assess the validity of the PRISM conceptual framework. Facility- and worker-level data were collected from 110 health care facilities in twelve districts in Uganda in 2004 and 2007 using records reviews, structured interviews and self-administered questionnaires. The analysis procedures include Cronbach's alpha to assess internal consistency of selected instruments, test-retest analysis to assess the reliability and sensitivity of the instruments, and bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques to assess validity of the PRISM instruments and conceptual framework. Cronbach's alpha analysis suggests high reliability (0.7 or greater) for the indices measuring a promotion of a culture of information, RHIS tasks self-efficacy and motivation. The study results also suggest that a promotion of a culture of information influences RHIS tasks self-efficacy, RHIS tasks competence and motivation, and that self-efficacy and the presence of RHIS staff have a direct influence on the use of RHIS information, a key aspect of RHIS performance. The study results provide some empirical support for the reliability and validity of the PRISM instruments and the validity of the PRISM conceptual framework, suggesting that the PRISM approach can be effectively used by RHIS policy makers and practitioners to assess the RHIS and evaluate RHIS strengthening interventions. However, additional studies with larger sample sizes are needed to further investigate the value of the PRISM instruments in exploring the linkages between RHIS data quality and use, and health systems performance.

A framework for reporting on human factor/usability studies of health information technologies.

PubMed

Peute, Linda W; Driest, Keiko F; Marcilly, Romaric; Bras Da Costa, Sabrina; Beuscart-Zephir, Marie-Catherine; Jaspers, Monique W M

2013-01-01

Increasingly, studies are being published on the potential negative effect of introducing poor designed Health Information Technology (HIT) into clinical settings, relating to technology-induced errors and adverse events. Academic research on HIT design and evaluation is an extremely important source of information in providing new insights into factors contributing to successful system (re)design efforts, system user-friendliness and usability issues and safety critical aspects of HIT design. However, these studies have been inconsistent and incomprehensive in their reporting, complicating the appraisal of outcomes, generalizability of study findings, meta-analysis and harmonization of the available evidence. To improve identification of type of use errors and safety related issues regarding design and implementation of HIT, consensus on issues to be reported on in scientific publications is a necessary step forward. This study presents the first approach to a framework providing a set of principles to follow for comprehensive and unambiguous reporting of HIT design and usability evaluation studies with the objective to reduce variation, improve on the publication reporting quality and proper indexation of these studies. This framework may be helpful in expanding the knowledge base not only concerning the application of Human Factors (HF)/Usability studies of HIT but also improve the knowledge base of how to (re)design and implement effective, efficient and safe HIT.

Practical experiences of adopting assurance as a quantitative framework to support decision making in drug development.

PubMed

Crisp, Adam; Miller, Sam; Thompson, Douglas; Best, Nicky

2018-04-10

All clinical trials are designed for success of their primary objectives. Hence, evaluating the probability of success (PoS) should be a key focus at the design stage both to support funding approval from sponsor governance boards and to inform trial design itself. Use of assurance-that is, expected success probability averaged over a prior probability distribution for the treatment effect-to quantify PoS of a planned study has grown across the industry in recent years, and has now become routine within the authors' company. In this paper, we illustrate some of the benefits of systematically adopting assurance as a quantitative framework to support decision making in drug development through several case-studies where evaluation of assurance has proved impactful in terms of trial design and in supporting governance-board reviews of project proposals. In addition, we describe specific features of how the assurance framework has been implemented within our company, highlighting the critical role that prior elicitation plays in this process, and illustrating how the overall assurance calculation may be decomposed into a sequence of conditional PoS estimates which can provide greater insight into how and when different development options are able to discharge risk. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Human genomic disease variants: a neutral evolutionary explanation.

PubMed

Dudley, Joel T; Kim, Yuseob; Liu, Li; Markov, Glenn J; Gerold, Kristyn; Chen, Rong; Butte, Atul J; Kumar, Sudhir

2012-08-01

Many perspectives on the role of evolution in human health include nonempirical assumptions concerning the adaptive evolutionary origins of human diseases. Evolutionary analyses of the increasing wealth of clinical and population genomic data have begun to challenge these presumptions. In order to systematically evaluate such claims, the time has come to build a common framework for an empirical and intellectual unification of evolution and modern medicine. We review the emerging evidence and provide a supporting conceptual framework that establishes the classical neutral theory of molecular evolution (NTME) as the basis for evaluating disease- associated genomic variations in health and medicine. For over a decade, the NTME has already explained the origins and distribution of variants implicated in diseases and has illuminated the power of evolutionary thinking in genomic medicine. We suggest that a majority of disease variants in modern populations will have neutral evolutionary origins (previously neutral), with a relatively smaller fraction exhibiting adaptive evolutionary origins (previously adaptive). This pattern is expected to hold true for common as well as rare disease variants. Ultimately, a neutral evolutionary perspective will provide medicine with an informative and actionable framework that enables objective clinical assessment beyond convenient tendencies to invoke past adaptive events in human history as a root cause of human disease.

Human genomic disease variants: A neutral evolutionary explanation

PubMed Central

Dudley, Joel T.; Kim, Yuseob; Liu, Li; Markov, Glenn J.; Gerold, Kristyn; Chen, Rong; Butte, Atul J.; Kumar, Sudhir

2012-01-01

Many perspectives on the role of evolution in human health include nonempirical assumptions concerning the adaptive evolutionary origins of human diseases. Evolutionary analyses of the increasing wealth of clinical and population genomic data have begun to challenge these presumptions. In order to systematically evaluate such claims, the time has come to build a common framework for an empirical and intellectual unification of evolution and modern medicine. We review the emerging evidence and provide a supporting conceptual framework that establishes the classical neutral theory of molecular evolution (NTME) as the basis for evaluating disease- associated genomic variations in health and medicine. For over a decade, the NTME has already explained the origins and distribution of variants implicated in diseases and has illuminated the power of evolutionary thinking in genomic medicine. We suggest that a majority of disease variants in modern populations will have neutral evolutionary origins (previously neutral), with a relatively smaller fraction exhibiting adaptive evolutionary origins (previously adaptive). This pattern is expected to hold true for common as well as rare disease variants. Ultimately, a neutral evolutionary perspective will provide medicine with an informative and actionable framework that enables objective clinical assessment beyond convenient tendencies to invoke past adaptive events in human history as a root cause of human disease. PMID:22665443

Using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a Framework for the Evaluation of a Professional Development Workshop

PubMed Central

PATTERSON, ROBIN R.

2001-01-01

This purpose of this study was to use a theoretical framework based on several decades of attitudinal research to assess the intentions of Microbial Discovery Workshop participants to incorporate the inquiry activities presented at the workshop into their curricula, to evaluate the participants actual use of these activities after the workshop, and to uncover the barriers and enablers the participants faced in doing so. As a framework, the theory of planned behavior was ascertained to be an appropriate means of assessment and it was revealed that participants’ intention to use the workshop activities significantly correlated with their actual use. The participants’ attitudes toward using the activities influenced their use more than the participants’ perceptions of the social pressures that would influence their decision to use the activities or their belief as to how easy or difficult it would be to incorporate a given activity. The participants were found to be highly self-efficacious pertaining to their ability to implement the activities, but perceived self-efficacy was not a significant predictor of the participants’ intentions to incorporate the activities into their teaching-learning repertoire. The study also uncovered other behaviors the participants displayed as a result of attending the workshop consistent with the goals and objectives of the workshop organizers. PMID:23653542

Evaluating a Modular Decision Support Application for Colorectal Cancer Screening

PubMed Central

Diiulio, Julie B.; Borders, Morgan R.; Sushereba, Christen E.; Saleem, Jason J.; Haverkamp, Donald; Imperiale, Thomas F.

2017-01-01

Summary Background There is a need for health information technology evaluation that goes beyond randomized controlled trials to include consideration of usability, cognition, feedback from representative users, and impact on efficiency, data quality, and clinical workflow. This article presents an evaluation illustrating one approach to this need using the Decision-Centered Design framework. Objective To evaluate, through a Decision-Centered Design framework, the ability of the Screening and Surveillance App to support primary care clinicians in tracking and managing colorectal cancer testing. Methods We leveraged two evaluation formats, online and in-person, to obtain feedback from a range primary care clinicians and obtain comparative data. Both the online and in-person evaluations used mock patient data to simulate challenging patient scenarios. Primary care clinicians responded to a series of colorectal cancer-related questions about each patient and made recommendations for screening. We collected data on performance, perceived workload, and usability. Key elements of Decision-Centered Design include evaluation in the context of realistic, challenging scenarios and measures designed to explore impact on cognitive performance. Results Comparison of means revealed increases in accuracy, efficiency, and usability and decreases in perceived mental effort and workload when using the Screening and Surveillance App. Conclusion The results speak to the benefits of using the Decision-Centered Design approach in the analysis, design, and evaluation of Health Information Technology. Furthermore, the Screening and Surveillance App shows promise for filling decision support gaps in current electronic health records. PMID:28197619

Implicit Shape Models for Object Detection in 3d Point Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Velizhev, A.; Shapovalov, R.; Schindler, K.

2012-07-01

We present a method for automatic object localization and recognition in 3D point clouds representing outdoor urban scenes. The method is based on the implicit shape models (ISM) framework, which recognizes objects by voting for their center locations. It requires only few training examples per class, which is an important property for practical use. We also introduce and evaluate an improved version of the spin image descriptor, more robust to point density variation and uncertainty in normal direction estimation. Our experiments reveal a significant impact of these modifications on the recognition performance. We compare our results against the state-of-the-art method and get significant improvement in both precision and recall on the Ohio dataset, consisting of combined aerial and terrestrial LiDAR scans of 150,000 m2 of urban area in total.

Experience with low-cost telemedicine in three different settings. Recommendations based on a proposed framework for network performance evaluation.

PubMed

Wootton, Richard; Vladzymyrskyy, Anton; Zolfo, Maria; Bonnardot, Laurent

2011-01-01

Telemedicine has been used for many years to support doctors in the developing world. Several networks provide services in different settings and in different ways. However, to draw conclusions about which telemedicine networks are successful requires a method of evaluating them. No general consensus or validated framework exists for this purpose. To define a basic method of performance measurement that can be used to improve and compare teleconsultation networks; to employ the proposed framework in an evaluation of three existing networks; to make recommendations about the future implementation and follow-up of such networks. Analysis based on the experience of three telemedicine networks (in operation for 7-10 years) that provide services to doctors in low-resource settings and which employ the same basic design. Although there are many possible indicators and metrics that might be relevant, five measures for each of the three user groups appear to be sufficient for the proposed framework. In addition, from the societal perspective, information about clinical- and cost-effectiveness is also required. The proposed performance measurement framework was applied to three mature telemedicine networks. Despite their differences in terms of activity, size and objectives, their performance in certain respects is very similar. For example, the time to first reply from an expert is about 24 hours for each network. Although all three networks had systems in place to collect data from the user perspective, none of them collected information about the coordinator's time required or about ease of system usage. They had only limited information about quality and cost. Measuring the performance of a telemedicine network is essential in understanding whether the network is working as intended and what effect it is having. Based on long-term field experience, the suggested framework is a practical tool that will permit organisations to assess the performance of their own networks and to improve them by comparison with others. All telemedicine systems should provide information about setup and running costs because cost-effectiveness is crucial for sustainability.

A framework for analysis of large database of old art paintings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Da Rugna, Jérome; Chareyron, Ga"l.; Pillay, Ruven; Joly, Morwena

2011-03-01

For many years, a lot of museums and countries organize the high definition digitalization of their own collections. In consequence, they generate massive data for each object. In this paper, we only focus on art painting collections. Nevertheless, we faced a very large database with heterogeneous data. Indeed, image collection includes very old and recent scans of negative photos, digital photos, multi and hyper spectral acquisitions, X-ray acquisition, and also front, back and lateral photos. Moreover, we have noted that art paintings suffer from much degradation: crack, softening, artifact, human damages and, overtime corruption. Considering that, it appears necessary to develop specific approaches and methods dedicated to digital art painting analysis. Consequently, this paper presents a complete framework to evaluate, compare and benchmark devoted to image processing algorithms.

Numerical modeling of the fracture process in a three-unit all-ceramic fixed partial denture.

PubMed

Kou, Wen; Kou, Shaoquan; Liu, Hongyuan; Sjögren, Göran

2007-08-01

The main objectives were to examine the fracture mechanism and process of a ceramic fixed partial denture (FPD) framework under simulated mechanical loading using a recently developed numerical modeling code, the R-T(2D) code, and also to evaluate the suitability of R-T(2D) code as a tool for this purpose. Using the recently developed R-T(2D) code the fracture mechanism and process of a 3U yttria-tetragonal zirconia polycrystal ceramic (Y-TZP) FPD framework was simulated under static loading. In addition, the fracture pattern obtained using the numerical simulation was compared with the fracture pattern obtained in a previous laboratory test. The result revealed that the framework fracture pattern obtained using the numerical simulation agreed with that observed in a previous laboratory test. Quasi-photoelastic stress fringe pattern and acoustic emission showed that the fracture mechanism was tensile failure and that the crack started at the lower boundary of the framework. The fracture process could be followed both in step-by-step and step-in-step. Based on the findings in the current study, the R-T(2D) code seems suitable for use as a complement to other tests and clinical observations in studying stress distribution, fracture mechanism and fracture processes in ceramic FPD frameworks.

Strategic Environmental Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Options in the Canadian Agricultural Sector

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noble, Bram F.; Christmas, Lisa M.

2008-01-01

This article presents a methodological framework for strategic environmental assessment (SEA) application. The overall objective is to demonstrate SEA as a systematic and structured policy, plan, and program (PPP) decision support tool. In order to accomplish this objective, a stakeholder-based SEA application to greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy options in Canadian agriculture is presented. Using a mail-out impact assessment exercise, agricultural producers and nonproducers from across the Canadian prairie region were asked to evaluate five competing GHG mitigation options against 13 valued environmental components (VECs). Data were analyzed using multi-criteria and exploratory analytical techniques. The results suggest considerable variation in perceived impacts and GHG mitigation policy preferences, suggesting that a blanket policy approach to GHG mitigation will create gainers and losers based on soil type and associate cropping and on-farm management practices. It is possible to identify a series of regional greenhouse gas mitigation programs that are robust, socially meaningful, and operationally relevant to both agricultural producers and policy decision makers. The assessment demonstrates the ability of SEA to address, in an operational sense, environmental problems that are characterized by conflicting interests and competing objectives and alternatives. A structured and systematic SEA methodology provides the necessary decision support framework for the consideration of impacts, and allows for PPPs to be assessed based on a much broader set of properties, objectives, criteria, and constraints whereas maintaining rigor and accountability in the assessment process.

Sharing Human-Generated Observations by Integrating HMI and the Semantic Sensor Web

PubMed Central

Sigüenza, Álvaro; Díaz-Pardo, David; Bernat, Jesús; Vancea, Vasile; Blanco, José Luis; Conejero, David; Gómez, Luis Hernández

2012-01-01

Current “Internet of Things” concepts point to a future where connected objects gather meaningful information about their environment and share it with other objects and people. In particular, objects embedding Human Machine Interaction (HMI), such as mobile devices and, increasingly, connected vehicles, home appliances, urban interactive infrastructures, etc., may not only be conceived as sources of sensor information, but, through interaction with their users, they can also produce highly valuable context-aware human-generated observations. We believe that the great promise offered by combining and sharing all of the different sources of information available can be realized through the integration of HMI and Semantic Sensor Web technologies. This paper presents a technological framework that harmonizes two of the most influential HMI and Sensor Web initiatives: the W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) with its semantic extension, respectively. Although the proposed framework is general enough to be applied in a variety of connected objects integrating HMI, a particular development is presented for a connected car scenario where drivers' observations about the traffic or their environment are shared across the Semantic Sensor Web. For implementation and evaluation purposes an on-board OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) architecture was built, integrating several available HMI, Sensor Web and Semantic Web technologies. A technical performance test and a conceptual validation of the scenario with potential users are reported, with results suggesting the approach is sound. PMID:22778643

Rival framings: A framework for discovering how problem formulation uncertainties shape risk management trade-offs in water resources systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quinn, J. D.; Reed, P. M.; Giuliani, M.; Castelletti, A.

2017-08-01

Managing water resources systems requires coordinated operation of system infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of hydrologic extremes while balancing conflicting multisectoral demands. Traditionally, recommended management strategies are derived by optimizing system operations under a single problem framing that is assumed to accurately represent the system objectives, tacitly ignoring the myriad of effects that could arise from simplifications and mathematical assumptions made when formulating the problem. This study illustrates the benefits of a rival framings framework in which analysts instead interrogate multiple competing hypotheses of how complex water management problems should be formulated. Analyzing rival framings helps discover unintended consequences resulting from inherent biases of alternative problem formulations. We illustrate this on the monsoonal Red River basin in Vietnam by optimizing operations of the system's four largest reservoirs under several different multiobjective problem framings. In each rival framing, we specify different quantitative representations of the system's objectives related to hydropower production, agricultural water supply, and flood protection of the capital city of Hanoi. We find that some formulations result in counterintuitive behavior. In particular, policies designed to minimize expected flood damages inadvertently increase the risk of catastrophic flood events in favor of hydropower production, while min-max objectives commonly used in robust optimization provide poor representations of system tradeoffs due to their instability. This study highlights the importance of carefully formulating and evaluating alternative mathematical abstractions of stakeholder objectives describing the multisectoral water demands and risks associated with hydrologic extremes.

Autonomy, liberalism and advance care planning.

PubMed Central

Ikonomidis, S; Singer, P A

1999-01-01

The justification for advance directives is grounded in the notion that they extend patient autonomy into future states of incompetency through patient participation in decision making about end-of-life care. Four objections challenge the necessity and sufficiency of individual autonomy, perceived to be a defining feature of liberal philosophical theory, as a basis of advance care planning. These objections are that the liberal concept of autonomy (i) implies a misconception of the individual self, (ii) entails the denial of values of social justice, (iii) does not account for justifiable acts of paternalism, and (iv) does not account for the importance of personal relationships in the advance care planning process. The last objection is especially pertinent in light of recent empirical research highlighting the importance of personal relationships in advance care planning. This article examines these four objections to autonomy, and the liberal theoretical framework with which it is associated, in order to re-evaluate the philosophical basis of advance care planning. We argue that liberal autonomy (i) is not a misconceived concept as critics assume, (ii) does not entail the denial of values of social justice, (iii) can account for justifiable acts of paternalism, though it (iv) is not the best account of the value of personal relationships that arise in advance care planning. In conclusion, we suggest that liberalism is a necessary component of a theoretical framework for advance care planning but that it needs to be supplemented with theories that focus explicitly on the significance of personal relationships. PMID:10635509

Sharing human-generated observations by integrating HMI and the Semantic Sensor Web.

PubMed

Sigüenza, Alvaro; Díaz-Pardo, David; Bernat, Jesús; Vancea, Vasile; Blanco, José Luis; Conejero, David; Gómez, Luis Hernández

2012-01-01

Current "Internet of Things" concepts point to a future where connected objects gather meaningful information about their environment and share it with other objects and people. In particular, objects embedding Human Machine Interaction (HMI), such as mobile devices and, increasingly, connected vehicles, home appliances, urban interactive infrastructures, etc., may not only be conceived as sources of sensor information, but, through interaction with their users, they can also produce highly valuable context-aware human-generated observations. We believe that the great promise offered by combining and sharing all of the different sources of information available can be realized through the integration of HMI and Semantic Sensor Web technologies. This paper presents a technological framework that harmonizes two of the most influential HMI and Sensor Web initiatives: the W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) with its semantic extension, respectively. Although the proposed framework is general enough to be applied in a variety of connected objects integrating HMI, a particular development is presented for a connected car scenario where drivers' observations about the traffic or their environment are shared across the Semantic Sensor Web. For implementation and evaluation purposes an on-board OSGi (Open Services Gateway Initiative) architecture was built, integrating several available HMI, Sensor Web and Semantic Web technologies. A technical performance test and a conceptual validation of the scenario with potential users are reported, with results suggesting the approach is sound.

BCILAB: a platform for brain-computer interface development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kothe, Christian Andreas; Makeig, Scott

2013-10-01

Objective. The past two decades have seen dramatic progress in our ability to model brain signals recorded by electroencephalography, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, etc., and to derive real-time estimates of user cognitive state, response, or intent for a variety of purposes: to restore communication by the severely disabled, to effect brain-actuated control and, more recently, to augment human-computer interaction. Continuing these advances, largely achieved through increases in computational power and methods, requires software tools to streamline the creation, testing, evaluation and deployment of new data analysis methods. Approach. Here we present BCILAB, an open-source MATLAB-based toolbox built to address the need for the development and testing of brain-computer interface (BCI) methods by providing an organized collection of over 100 pre-implemented methods and method variants, an easily extensible framework for the rapid prototyping of new methods, and a highly automated framework for systematic testing and evaluation of new implementations. Main results. To validate and illustrate the use of the framework, we present two sample analyses of publicly available data sets from recent BCI competitions and from a rapid serial visual presentation task. We demonstrate the straightforward use of BCILAB to obtain results compatible with the current BCI literature. Significance. The aim of the BCILAB toolbox is to provide the BCI community a powerful toolkit for methods research and evaluation, thereby helping to accelerate the pace of innovation in the field, while complementing the existing spectrum of tools for real-time BCI experimentation, deployment and use.

Design of Mobile Augmented Reality in Health Care Education: A Theory-Driven Framework.

PubMed

Zhu, Egui; Lilienthal, Anneliese; Shluzas, Lauren Aquino; Masiello, Italo; Zary, Nabil

2015-09-18

Augmented reality (AR) is increasingly used across a range of subject areas in health care education as health care settings partner to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice. As the first contact with patients, general practitioners (GPs) are important in the battle against a global health threat, the spread of antibiotic resistance. AR has potential as a practical tool for GPs to combine learning and practice in the rational use of antibiotics. This paper was driven by learning theory to develop a mobile augmented reality education (MARE) design framework. The primary goal of the framework is to guide the development of AR educational apps. This study focuses on (1) identifying suitable learning theories for guiding the design of AR education apps, (2) integrating learning outcomes and learning theories to support health care education through AR, and (3) applying the design framework in the context of improving GPs' rational use of antibiotics. The design framework was first constructed with the conceptual framework analysis method. Data were collected from multidisciplinary publications and reference materials and were analyzed with directed content analysis to identify key concepts and their relationships. Then the design framework was applied to a health care educational challenge. The proposed MARE framework consists of three hierarchical layers: the foundation, function, and outcome layers. Three learning theories-situated, experiential, and transformative learning-provide foundational support based on differing views of the relationships among learning, practice, and the environment. The function layer depends upon the learners' personal paradigms and indicates how health care learning could be achieved with MARE. The outcome layer analyzes different learning abilities, from knowledge to the practice level, to clarify learning objectives and expectations and to avoid teaching pitched at the wrong level. Suggestions for learning activities and the requirements of the learning environment form the foundation for AR to fill the gap between learning outcomes and medical learners' personal paradigms. With the design framework, the expected rational use of antibiotics by GPs is described and is easy to execute and evaluate. The comparison of specific expected abilities with the GP personal paradigm helps solidify the GP practical learning objectives and helps design the learning environment and activities. The learning environment and activities were supported by learning theories. This paper describes a framework for guiding the design, development, and application of mobile AR for medical education in the health care setting. The framework is theory driven with an understanding of the characteristics of AR and specific medical disciplines toward helping medical education improve professional development from knowledge to practice. Future research will use the framework as a guide for developing AR apps in practice to validate and improve the design framework.

Ontologies for Effective Use of Context in E-Learning Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jovanovic, Jelena; Gasevic, Dragan; Knight, Colin; Richards, Griff

2007-01-01

This paper presents an ontology-based framework aimed at explicit representation of context-specific metadata derived from the actual usage of learning objects and learning designs. The core part of the proposed framework is a learning object context ontology, that leverages a range of other kinds of learning ontologies (e.g., user modeling…

Digital Rights Management Implemented by RDF Graph Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jin Tan; Horng, Huai-Chien

2006-01-01

This paper proposes a design framework for constructing Digital Rights Management (DRM) that enables learning objects in legal usage. The central theme of this framework is that any design of a DRM must have theories as foundations to make the maintenance, extension or interoperability easy. While a learning objective consists of learning…

A Framework for Different Levels of Integration of Computational Models Into Web-Based Virtual Patients

PubMed Central

Narracott, Andrew J; Manini, Simone; Bayley, Martin J; Lawford, Patricia V; McCormack, Keith; Zary, Nabil

2014-01-01

Background Virtual patients are increasingly common tools used in health care education to foster learning of clinical reasoning skills. One potential way to expand their functionality is to augment virtual patients’ interactivity by enriching them with computational models of physiological and pathological processes. Objective The primary goal of this paper was to propose a conceptual framework for the integration of computational models within virtual patients, with particular focus on (1) characteristics to be addressed while preparing the integration, (2) the extent of the integration, (3) strategies to achieve integration, and (4) methods for evaluating the feasibility of integration. An additional goal was to pilot the first investigation of changing framework variables on altering perceptions of integration. Methods The framework was constructed using an iterative process informed by Soft System Methodology. The Virtual Physiological Human (VPH) initiative has been used as a source of new computational models. The technical challenges associated with development of virtual patients enhanced by computational models are discussed from the perspectives of a number of different stakeholders. Concrete design and evaluation steps are discussed in the context of an exemplar virtual patient employing the results of the VPH ARCH project, as well as improvements for future iterations. Results The proposed framework consists of four main elements. The first element is a list of feasibility features characterizing the integration process from three perspectives: the computational modelling researcher, the health care educationalist, and the virtual patient system developer. The second element included three integration levels: basic, where a single set of simulation outcomes is generated for specific nodes in the activity graph; intermediate, involving pre-generation of simulation datasets over a range of input parameters; advanced, including dynamic solution of the model. The third element is the description of four integration strategies, and the last element consisted of evaluation profiles specifying the relevant feasibility features and acceptance thresholds for specific purposes. The group of experts who evaluated the virtual patient exemplar found higher integration more interesting, but at the same time they were more concerned with the validity of the result. The observed differences were not statistically significant. Conclusions This paper outlines a framework for the integration of computational models into virtual patients. The opportunities and challenges of model exploitation are discussed from a number of user perspectives, considering different levels of model integration. The long-term aim for future research is to isolate the most crucial factors in the framework and to determine their influence on the integration outcome. PMID:24463466

Measures and Metrics for Feasibility of Proof-of-Concept Studies With Human Immunodeficiency Virus Rapid Point-of-Care Technologies

PubMed Central

Pant Pai, Nitika; Chiavegatti, Tiago; Vijh, Rohit; Karatzas, Nicolaos; Daher, Jana; Smallwood, Megan; Wong, Tom; Engel, Nora

2017-01-01

Objective Pilot (feasibility) studies form a vast majority of diagnostic studies with point-of-care technologies but often lack use of clear measures/metrics and a consistent framework for reporting and evaluation. To fill this gap, we systematically reviewed data to (a) catalog feasibility measures/metrics and (b) propose a framework. Methods For the period January 2000 to March 2014, 2 reviewers searched 4 databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Scopus), retrieved 1441 citations, and abstracted data from 81 studies. We observed 2 major categories of measures, that is, implementation centered and patient centered, and 4 subcategories of measures, that is, feasibility, acceptability, preference, and patient experience. We defined and delineated metrics and measures for a feasibility framework. We documented impact measures for a comparison. Findings We observed heterogeneity in reporting of metrics as well as misclassification and misuse of metrics within measures. Although we observed poorly defined measures and metrics for feasibility, preference, and patient experience, in contrast, acceptability measure was the best defined. For example, within feasibility, metrics such as consent, completion, new infection, linkage rates, and turnaround times were misclassified and reported. Similarly, patient experience was variously reported as test convenience, comfort, pain, and/or satisfaction. In contrast, within impact measures, all the metrics were well documented, thus serving as a good baseline comparator. With our framework, we classified, delineated, and defined quantitative measures and metrics for feasibility. Conclusions Our framework, with its defined measures/metrics, could reduce misclassification and improve the overall quality of reporting for monitoring and evaluation of rapid point-of-care technology strategies and their context-driven optimization. PMID:29333105

Planning for ex situ conservation in the face of uncertainty

USGS Publications Warehouse

Canessa, Stefano; Converse, Sarah J.; West, Matt; Clemann, Nick; Gillespie, Graeme; McFadden, Michael; Silla, Aimee J; Parris, Kirsten M; McCarthy, Michael A

2016-01-01

Ex situ conservation strategies for threatened species often require long-term commitment and financial investment to achieve management objectives. We present a framework that considers the decision to adopt ex situ management for a target species as the end point of several linked decisions. We used a decision tree to intuitively represent the logical sequence of decision making. The first decision is to identify the specific management actions most likely to achieve the fundamental objectives of the recovery plan, with or without the use of ex-situ populations. Once this decision has been made, one decides whether to establish an ex situ population, accounting for the probability of success in the initial phase of the recovery plan, for example, the probability of successful breeding in captivity. Approaching these decisions in the reverse order (attempting to establish an ex situ population before its purpose is clearly defined) can lead to a poor allocation of resources, because it may restrict the range of available decisions in the second stage. We applied our decision framework to the recovery program for the threatened spotted tree frog (Litoria spenceri) of southeastern Australia. Across a range of possible management actions, only those including ex situ management were expected to provide >50% probability of the species’ persistence, but these actions cost more than use of in situ alternatives only. The expected benefits of ex situ actions were predicted to be offset by additional uncertainty and stochasticity associated with establishing and maintaining ex situ populations. Naïvely implementing ex situ conservation strategies can lead to inefficient management. Our framework may help managers explicitly evaluate objectives, management options, and the probability of success prior to establishing a captive colony of any given species.

Game On? Smoking Cessation Through the Gamification of mHealth: A Longitudinal Qualitative Study

PubMed Central

Eisingerich, Andreas B

2016-01-01

Background Finding ways to increase and sustain engagement with mHealth interventions has become a challenge during application development. While gamification shows promise and has proven effective in many fields, critical questions remain concerning how to use gamification to modify health behavior. Objective The objective of this study is to investigate how the gamification of mHealth interventions leads to a change in health behavior, specifically with respect to smoking cessation. Methods We conducted a qualitative longitudinal study using a sample of 16 smokers divided into 2 cohorts (one used a gamified intervention and the other used a nongamified intervention). Each participant underwent 4 semistructured interviews over a period of 5 weeks. Semistructured interviews were also conducted with 4 experts in gamification, mHealth, and smoking cessation. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and thematic analysis undertaken. Results Results indicated perceived behavioral control and intrinsic motivation acted as positive drivers to game engagement and consequently positive health behavior. Importantly, external social influences exerted a negative effect. We identified 3 critical factors, whose presence was necessary for game engagement: purpose (explicit purpose known by the user), user alignment (congruency of game and user objectives), and functional utility (a well-designed game). We summarize these findings in a framework to guide the future development of gamified mHealth interventions. Conclusions Gamification holds the potential for a low-cost, highly effective mHealth solution that may replace or supplement the behavioral support component found in current smoking cessation programs. The framework reported here has been built on evidence specific to smoking cessation, however it can be adapted to health interventions in other disease categories. Future research is required to evaluate the generalizability and effectiveness of the framework, directly against current behavioral support therapy interventions in smoking cessation and beyond. PMID:27777216

Using the Intervention Mapping Protocol to develop an online video intervention for parents to prevent childhood obesity: Movie Models.

PubMed

De Lepeleere, Sara; Verloigne, Maïté; Brown, Helen Elizabeth; Cardon, Greet; De Bourdeaudhuij, Ilse

2016-08-08

The increasing prevalence of childhood overweight/obesity caused by an unhealthy diet, insufficient physical activity (PA) and high levels of sedentary behaviour (SB) is a prominent public health concern. Parenting practices may contribute to healthy behaviour change in children, but well-researched examples are limited. The aim of this study is to describe the systematic development of an intervention for parents to prevent childhood overweight/obesity through the improvement of parenting practices. The six steps of the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP), a theory- and evidence-based tool to develop health-related interventions, were used as a framework to develop the 'Movie Models' programme. In Step 1, a needs assessment was performed to better understand the health problem of overweight/obesity in children and its association with diet, PA and SB. In Step 2, the programme goal (increasing the adoption of effective parenting practices) was sub-divided into performance objectives. Change objectives, which specify explicit actions required to accomplish the performance objectives, were also identified. Step 3 included the selection of theoretical methods (e.g. 'modelling' and 'images'), which were then translated into the practical strategy of online parenting videos. Step 4 comprised the development of a final intervention framework, and Step 5 included the planning of programme adoption and implementation. The final phase, Step 6, included the development of an effect- and process-evaluation plan. The IMP was used to structure the development of 'Movie Models', an intervention targeting specific parenting practices related to children's healthy diet, PA, SB, and parental self-efficacy. A clear framework for process analyses is offered, which aims to increase the potential effectiveness of an intervention and can be useful for those developing health promotion programmes. © The Author(s) 2016.

Interventions developed with the Intervention Mapping protocol in the field of cancer: A systematic review.

PubMed

Lamort-Bouché, Marion; Sarnin, Philippe; Kok, Gerjo; Rouat, Sabrina; Péron, Julien; Letrilliart, Laurent; Fassier, Jean-Baptiste

2018-04-01

The Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol provides a structured framework to develop, implement, and evaluate complex interventions. The main objective of this review was to identify and describe the content of the interventions developed in the field of cancer with the IM protocol. Secondary objectives were to assess their fidelity to the IM protocol and to review their theoretical frameworks. Medline, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PASCAL, FRANCIS, and BDSP databases were searched. All titles and abstracts were reviewed. A standardized extraction form was developed. All included studies were reviewed by 2 reviewers blinded to each other. Sixteen studies were identified, and these reported 15 interventions. The objectives were to increase cancer screening participation (n = 7), early consultation (n = 1), and aftercare/quality of life among cancer survivors (n = 7). Six reported a complete participatory planning group, and 7 described a complete logic model of the problem. Ten studies described a complete logic model of change. The main theoretical frameworks used were the theory of planned behaviour (n = 8), the transtheoretical model (n = 6), the health belief model (n = 6), and the social cognitive theory (n = 6). The environment was rarely integrated in the interventions (n = 4). Five interventions were reported as effective. Culturally relevant interventions were developed with the IM protocol that were effective to increase cancer screening and reduce social disparities, particularly when they were developed through a participative approach and integrated the environment. Stakeholders' involvement and the role of the environment were heterogeneously integrated in the interventions. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Health services research evaluation principles. Broadening a general framework for evaluating health information technology.

PubMed

Sockolow, P S; Crawford, P R; Lehmann, H P

2012-01-01

Our forthcoming national experiment in increased health information technology (HIT) adoption funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will require a comprehensive approach to evaluating HIT. The quality of evaluation studies of HIT to date reveals a need for broader evaluation frameworks that limits the generalizability of findings and the depth of lessons learned. Develop an informatics evaluation framework for health information technology (HIT) integrating components of health services research (HSR) evaluation and informatics evaluation to address identified shortcomings in available HIT evaluation frameworks. A systematic literature review updated and expanded the exhaustive review by Ammenwerth and deKeizer (AdK). From retained studies, criteria were elicited and organized into classes within a framework. The resulting Health Information Technology Research-based Evaluation Framework (HITREF) was used to guide clinician satisfaction survey construction, multi-dimensional analysis of data, and interpretation of findings in an evaluation of a vanguard community health care EHR. The updated review identified 128 electronic health record (EHR) evaluation studies and seven evaluation criteria not in AdK: EHR Selection/Development/Training; Patient Privacy Concerns; Unintended Consequences/ Benefits; Functionality; Patient Satisfaction with EHR; Barriers/Facilitators to Adoption; and Patient Satisfaction with Care. HITREF was used productively and was a complete evaluation framework which included all themes that emerged. We can recommend to future EHR evaluators that they consider adding a complete, research-based HIT evaluation framework, such as HITREF, to their evaluation tools suite to monitor HIT challenges as the federal government strives to increase HIT adoption.

Did you have an impact? A theory-based method for planning and evaluating knowledge-transfer and exchange activities in occupational health and safety.

PubMed

Kramer, Desré M; Wells, Richard P; Carlan, Nicolette; Aversa, Theresa; Bigelow, Philip P; Dixon, Shane M; McMillan, Keith

2013-01-01

Few evaluation tools are available to assess knowledge-transfer and exchange interventions. The objective of this paper is to develop and demonstrate a theory-based knowledge-transfer and exchange method of evaluation (KEME) that synthesizes 3 theoretical frameworks: the promoting action on research implementation of health services (PARiHS) model, the transtheoretical model of change, and a model of knowledge use. It proposes a new term, keme, to mean a unit of evidence-based transferable knowledge. The usefulness of the evaluation method is demonstrated with 4 occupational health and safety knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) implementation case studies that are based upon the analysis of over 50 pre-existing interviews. The usefulness of the evaluation model has enabled us to better understand stakeholder feedback, frame our interpretation, and perform a more comprehensive evaluation of the knowledge use outcomes of our KTE efforts.

A protocol for evaluating video trackers under real-world conditions.

PubMed

Nawaz, Tahir; Cavallaro, Andrea

2013-04-01

The absence of a commonly adopted performance evaluation framework is hampering advances in the design of effective video trackers. In this paper, we present a single-score evaluation measure and a protocol to objectively compare trackers. The proposed measure evaluates tracking accuracy and failure, and combines them for both summative and formative performance assessment. The proposed protocol is composed of a set of trials that evaluate the robustness of trackers on a range of test scenarios representing several real-world conditions. The protocol is validated on a set of sequences with a diversity of targets (head, vehicle and person) and challenges (occlusions, background clutter, pose changes and scale changes) using six state-of-the-art trackers, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses on more than 187000 frames. The software implementing the protocol and the evaluation results are made available online and new results can be included, thus facilitating the comparison of trackers.

DeepID-Net: Deformable Deep Convolutional Neural Networks for Object Detection.

PubMed

Ouyang, Wanli; Zeng, Xingyu; Wang, Xiaogang; Qiu, Shi; Luo, Ping; Tian, Yonglong; Li, Hongsheng; Yang, Shuo; Wang, Zhe; Li, Hongyang; Loy, Chen Change; Wang, Kun; Yan, Junjie; Tang, Xiaoou

2016-07-07

In this paper, we propose deformable deep convolutional neural networks for generic object detection. This new deep learning object detection framework has innovations in multiple aspects. In the proposed new deep architecture, a new deformation constrained pooling (def-pooling) layer models the deformation of object parts with geometric constraint and penalty. A new pre-training strategy is proposed to learn feature representations more suitable for the object detection task and with good generalization capability. By changing the net structures, training strategies, adding and removing some key components in the detection pipeline, a set of models with large diversity are obtained, which significantly improves the effectiveness of model averaging. The proposed approach improves the mean averaged precision obtained by RCNN [16], which was the state-of-the-art, from 31% to 50.3% on the ILSVRC2014 detection test set. It also outperforms the winner of ILSVRC2014, GoogLeNet, by 6.1%. Detailed component-wise analysis is also provided through extensive experimental evaluation, which provides a global view for people to understand the deep learning object detection pipeline.

Evaluating a collaborative IT based research and development project.

PubMed

Khan, Zaheer; Ludlow, David; Caceres, Santiago

2013-10-01

In common with all projects, evaluating an Information Technology (IT) based research and development project is necessary in order to discover whether or not the outcomes of the project are successful. However, evaluating large-scale collaborative projects is especially difficult as: (i) stakeholders from different countries are involved who, almost inevitably, have diverse technological and/or application domain backgrounds and objectives; (ii) multiple and sometimes conflicting application specific and user-defined requirements exist; and (iii) multiple and often conflicting technological research and development objectives are apparent. In this paper, we share our experiences based on the large-scale integrated research project - The HUMBOLDT project - with project duration of 54 months, involving contributions from 27 partner organisations, plus 4 sub-contractors from 14 different European countries. In the HUMBOLDT project, a specific evaluation methodology was defined and utilised for the user evaluation of the project outcomes. The user evaluation performed on the HUMBOLDT Framework and its associated nine application scenarios from various application domains, resulted in not only an evaluation of the integrated project, but also revealed the benefits and disadvantages of the evaluation methodology. This paper presents the evaluation methodology, discusses in detail the process of applying it to the HUMBOLDT project and provides an in-depth analysis of the results, which can be usefully applied to other collaborative research projects in a variety of domains. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Implementing successful strategic plans: a simple formula.

PubMed

Blondeau, Whitney; Blondeau, Benoit

2015-01-01

Strategic planning is a process. One way to think of strategic planning is to envision its development and design as a framework that will help your hospital navigate through internal and external changing environments over time. Although the process of strategic planning can feel daunting, following a simple formula involving five steps using the mnemonic B.E.G.I.N. (Begin, Evaluate, Goals & Objectives, Integration, and Next steps) will help the planning process feel more manageable, and lead you to greater success.

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

Holland, Troy Michael; Kress, Joel David; Bhat, Kabekode Ghanasham

Year 1 Objectives (August 2016 – December 2016) – The original Independence model is a sequentially regressed set of parameters from numerous data sets in the Aspen Plus modeling framework. The immediate goal with the basic data model is to collect and evaluate those data sets relevant to the thermodynamic submodels (pure substance heat capacity, solvent mixture heat capacity, loaded solvent heat capacities, and volatility data). These data are informative for the thermodynamic parameters involved in both vapor-liquid equilibrium, and in the chemical equilibrium of the liquid phase.

Objects as closures: Abstract semantics of object oriented languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddy, Uday S.

1989-01-01

We discuss denotational semantics of object-oriented languages, using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin, in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.

Etomica: an object-oriented framework for molecular simulation.

PubMed

Schultz, Andrew J; Kofke, David A

2015-03-30

We describe the design of an object-oriented library of software components that are suitable for constructing simulations of systems of interacting particles. The emphasis of the discussion is on the general design of the components and how they interact, and less on details of the programming interface or its implementation. Example code is provided as an aid to understanding object-oriented programming structures and to demonstrate how the framework is applied. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Non-technical skills evaluation in the critical care air ambulance environment: introduction of an adapted rating instrument--an observational study.

PubMed

Myers, Julia A; Powell, David M C; Psirides, Alex; Hathaway, Karyn; Aldington, Sarah; Haney, Michael F

2016-03-08

In the isolated and dynamic health-care setting of critical care air ambulance transport, the quality of clinical care is strongly influenced by non-technical skills such as anticipating, recognising and understanding, decision making, and teamwork. However there are no published reports identifying or applying a non-technical skills framework specific to an intensive care air ambulance setting. The objective of this study was to adapt and evaluate a non-technical skills rating framework for the air ambulance clinical environment. In the first phase of the project the anaesthetists' non-technical skills (ANTS) framework was adapted to the air ambulance setting, using data collected directly from clinician groups, published literature, and field observation. In the second phase experienced and inexperienced inter-hospital transport clinicians completed a simulated critical care air transport scenario, and their non-technical skills performance was independently rated by two blinded assessors. Observed and self-rated general clinical performance ratings were also collected. Rank-based statistical tests were used to examine differences in the performance of experienced and inexperienced clinicians, and relationships between different assessment approaches and assessors. The framework developed during phase one was referred to as an aeromedical non-technical skills framework, or AeroNOTS. During phase two 16 physicians from speciality training programmes in intensive care, emergency medicine and anaesthesia took part in the clinical simulation study. Clinicians with inter-hospital transport experience performed more highly than those without experience, according to both AeroNOTS non-technical skills ratings (p = 0.001) and general performance ratings (p = 0.003). Self-ratings did not distinguish experienced from inexperienced transport clinicians (p = 0.32) and were not strongly associated with either observed general performance (r(s) = 0.4, p = 0.11) or observed non-technical skills performance (r(s) = 0.4, p = 0.1). This study describes a framework which characterises the non-technical skills required by critical care air ambulance clinicians, and distinguishes higher and lower levels of performance. The AeroNOTS framework could be used to facilitate education and training in non-technical skills for air ambulance clinicians, and further evaluation of this rating system is merited.

Systematizing planning and formative phases of HIV prevention research: Case studies from Brazil, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan

PubMed Central

Pinto, Rogério M.; Spector, Anya Y.; Witte, Susan S.; Gilbert, Louisa

2014-01-01

Objectives International Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is vulnerable to contextual, political, and interpersonal issues that may hamper researchers’ abilities to develop and sustain partnerships with local communities. This paper responds to a call for systematizing CBPR practices and to the urgent need for frameworks with potential to facilitate partnership-building between researchers and communities in both “developed” and “developing” countries. Methods Using three brief case examples, each from a different context, with different partners and varied research questions, we demonstrate how to apply the International Participatory Research Framework (IPRF). Results IPRF consists of triangulated procedures (steps and actions) that can facilitate known participatory outcomes: 1) community-defined research goals, 2) capacity for further research, and 3) policies and programs grounded in research. Conclusions We show how the application of this model is particularly helpful in the planning and formative phases of CBPR. Other partnerships can use this framework in its entirety or aspects thereof, in different contexts. Further evaluation of how this framework can help other international partnerships, studying myriad diseases and conditions, should be a focus of future international CBPR. PMID:25489495

Learning to learn causal models.

PubMed

Kemp, Charles; Goodman, Noah D; Tenenbaum, Joshua B

2010-09-01

Learning to understand a single causal system can be an achievement, but humans must learn about multiple causal systems over the course of a lifetime. We present a hierarchical Bayesian framework that helps to explain how learning about several causal systems can accelerate learning about systems that are subsequently encountered. Given experience with a set of objects, our framework learns a causal model for each object and a causal schema that captures commonalities among these causal models. The schema organizes the objects into categories and specifies the causal powers and characteristic features of these categories and the characteristic causal interactions between categories. A schema of this kind allows causal models for subsequent objects to be rapidly learned, and we explore this accelerated learning in four experiments. Our results confirm that humans learn rapidly about the causal powers of novel objects, and we show that our framework accounts better for our data than alternative models of causal learning. Copyright © 2010 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Driving simulator validation of driver behavior with limited safe vantage points for data collection in work zones.

PubMed

Bham, Ghulam H; Leu, Ming C; Vallati, Manoj; Mathur, Durga R

2014-06-01

This study is aimed at validating a driving simulator (DS) for the study of driver behavior in work zones. A validation study requires field data collection. For studies conducted in highway work zones, the availability of safe vantage points for data collection at critical locations can be a significant challenge. A validation framework is therefore proposed in this paper, demonstrated using a fixed-based DS that addresses the issue by using a global positioning system (GPS). The validation of the DS was conducted using objective and subjective evaluations. The objective validation was divided into qualitative and quantitative evaluations. The DS was validated by comparing the results of simulation with the field data, which were collected using a GPS along the highway and video recordings at specific locations in a work zone. The constructed work zone scenario in the DS was subjectively evaluated with 46 participants. The objective evaluation established the absolute and relative validity of the DS. The mean speeds from the DS data showed excellent agreement with the field data. The subjective evaluation indicated realistic driving experience by the participants. The use of GPS showed that continuous data collected along the highway can overcome the challenges of unavailability of safe vantage points especially at critical locations. Further, a validated DS can be used for examining driver behavior in complex situations by replicating realistic scenarios. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of the international forum on evidence informed health policymaking: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - 27 to 31 August 2012.

PubMed

Neves, Justin; Lavis, John N; Panisset, Ulysses; Klint, Markus Hultstrand

2014-03-19

Meetings and conferences are often used as a tool to disseminate information, network with colleagues, and/or set direction for a field of study, but there is little evidence to support whether such events achieve their objectives. This study evaluates the International Forum on Evidence Informed Health Policymaking (EIHP), a three-day meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2012, to determine the success of the meeting based on pre-determined objectives. The evaluation strategy was developed based on a previously published conference evaluation framework and operationalized as an end-of-conference participant survey that incorporated both process (programme/organization) and outcome measures (potential changes in behaviour). Sixty seven of approximately 121 attendees filled out a questionnaire (a 55% response rate) and, overall, participants rated the programme components and plenary sessions very highly. The top three benefits reported by participants were: i) sharing experiences and lessons learned (75%); ii) new opportunities for future collaboration (69%); and iii) new knowledge (67%). Conversely, only 25% or less of meeting participants reported an intent to utilize any of the potential benefits highlighted in the questionnaire, with the notable exception of pursuing new opportunities for future collaboration. The evaluation findings suggest that the International Forum achieved its objectives of sharing experiences with EIHP and providing opportunities for networking among EIHP initiatives, although there are limited prospects for direct improvements to efforts to support EIHP.

Control of Cattle Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases by Acaricide in Southern Province of Zambia: A Retrospective Evaluation of Animal Health Measures According to Current One Health Concepts.

PubMed

Laing, Gabrielle; Aragrande, Maurizio; Canali, Massimo; Savic, Sara; De Meneghi, Daniele

2018-01-01

One health thinking for health interventions is increasingly being used to capture previously unseen stakeholders and impacts across people, animals, and the environment. The Network for One Health Evaluation (NEOH) proposes a systems-based framework to quantitatively assess integration and highlight the added value (theory of change) that this approach will bring to a project. This case study will retrospectively evaluate the pioneering use of a One Health (OH) approach during an international collaboration (satellite project to tackle production losses due to tick-borne disease in cattle in Southern Zambia in late 1980s). The objective of the evaluation is twofold: retrospective evaluation the OH-ness of the satellite project and identification of costs and benefits. Data for evaluation was recovered from publications, project documents, and witness interviews. A mixed qualitative and quantitative evaluation was undertaken. In this case study, a transdisciplinary approach allowed for the identification of a serious public health risk arising from the unexpected reuse of chemical containers by the local public against advice. Should this pioneering project not have been completed then it is assumed this behavior could have had a large impact on public wellbeing and ultimately reduced regional productivity and compromised welfare. From the economic evaluation, the costs of implementing this OH approach, helping to avoid harm, were small in comparison to overall project costs. The overall OH Index was 0.34. The satellite project demonstrated good OH operations by managing to incorporate the input across multiple dimensions but was slightly weaker on OH infrastructures (OH Ratio = 1.20). These quantitative results can be used in the initial validation and benchmarking of this novel framework. Limitations of the evaluation were mainly a lack of data due to the length of time since project completion and a lack of formal monitoring of program impact. In future health strategy development and execution, routine monitoring and evaluation from an OH perspective (by utilizing the framework proposed by NEOH), could prove valuable or used as a tool for retrospective evaluation of existing policies.

Disaster Metrics: A Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies.

PubMed

Wong, Diana F; Spencer, Caroline; Boyd, Lee; Burkle, Frederick M; Archer, Frank

2017-10-01

Introduction The frequency of disasters is increasing around the world with more people being at risk. There is a moral imperative to improve the way in which disaster evaluations are undertaken and reported with the aim of reducing preventable mortality and morbidity in future events. Disasters are complex events and undertaking disaster evaluations is a specialized area of study at an international level. Hypothesis/Problem While some frameworks have been developed to support consistent disaster research and evaluation, they lack validation, consistent terminology, and standards for reporting across the different phases of a disaster. There is yet to be an agreed, comprehensive framework to structure disaster evaluation typologies. The aim of this paper is to outline an evolving comprehensive framework for disaster evaluation typologies. It is anticipated that this new framework will facilitate an agreement on identifying, structuring, and relating the various evaluations found in the disaster setting with a view to better understand the process, outcomes, and impacts of the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions. Research was undertaken in two phases: (1) a scoping literature review (peer-reviewed and "grey literature") was undertaken to identify current evaluation frameworks and typologies used in the disaster setting; and (2) a structure was developed that included the range of typologies identified in Phase One and suggests possible relationships in the disaster setting. No core, unifying framework to structure disaster evaluation and research was identified in the literature. The authors propose a "Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies" that identifies, structures, and suggests relationships for the various typologies detected. The proposed Comprehensive Framework for Disaster Evaluation Typologies outlines the different typologies of disaster evaluations that were identified in this study and brings them together into a single framework. This unique, unifying framework has relevance at an international level and is expected to benefit the disaster, humanitarian, and development sectors. The next step is to undertake a validation process that will include international leaders with experience in evaluation, in general, and disasters specifically. This work promotes an environment for constructive dialogue on evaluations in the disaster setting to strengthen the evidence base for interventions across the disaster spectrum. It remains a work in progress. Wong DF , Spencer C , Boyd L , Burkle FM Jr. , Archer F . Disaster metrics: a comprehensive framework for disaster evaluation typologies. Prehosp Disaster Med. 2017;32(5):501-514.

National protocol framework for the inventory and monitoring of bees

USGS Publications Warehouse

Droege, Sam; Engler, Joseph D.; Sellers, Elizabeth A.; Lee O'Brien,

2016-01-01

This national protocol framework is a standardized tool for the inventory and monitoring of the approximately 4,200 species of native and non-native bee species that may be found within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). However, this protocol framework may also be used by other organizations and individuals to monitor bees in any given habitat or location. Our goal is to provide USFWS stations within the NWRS (NWRS stations are land units managed by the USFWS such as national wildlife refuges, national fish hatcheries, wetland management districts, conservation areas, leased lands, etc.) with techniques for developing an initial baseline inventory of what bee species are present on their lands and to provide an inexpensive, simple technique for monitoring bees continuously and for monitoring and evaluating long-term population trends and management impacts. The latter long-term monitoring technique requires a minimal time burden for the individual station, yet can provide a good statistical sample of changing populations that can be investigated at the station, regional, and national levels within the USFWS’ jurisdiction, and compared to other sites within the United States and Canada. This protocol framework was developed in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the USFWS, and a worldwide network of bee researchers who have investigated the techniques and methods for capturing bees and tracking population changes. The protocol framework evolved from field and lab-based investigations at the USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Laboratory at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland starting in 2002 and was refined by a large number of USFWS, academic, and state groups. It includes a Protocol Introduction and a set of 8 Standard Operating Procedures or SOPs and adheres to national standards of protocol content and organization. The Protocol Narrative describes the history and need for the protocol framework and summarizes the basic elements of objectives, sampling design, field methods, training, data management, analysis, and reporting. The SOPs provide more detail and specific instructions for implementing the protocol framework. A central database, for managing all the resulting data is under development. We welcome use of this protocol framework by our partners, as appropriate for their bee inventory and monitoring objectives.

A Technology Immune Technology Enabled Problem within an Action on Objects Framework: Stamping Functions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connell, Michael; Abramovich, Sergei

2017-01-01

This paper illustrates how the notion of Technology Immune Technology Enabled (TITE) problems (Abramovich, 2014), in this case an exploration of variations in surface area we refer to as Stamping Functions, might be incorporated into a K-6 mathematics methods class operating within an Action on Objects framework (Connell, 2001). TITE problems have…

A colour image reproduction framework for 3D colour printing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao, Kaida; Sohiab, Ali; Sun, Pei-li; Yates, Julian M.; Li, Changjun; Wuerger, Sophie

2016-10-01

In this paper, the current technologies in full colour 3D printing technology were introduced. A framework of colour image reproduction process for 3D colour printing is proposed. A special focus was put on colour management for 3D printed objects. Two approaches, colorimetric colour reproduction and spectral based colour reproduction are proposed in order to faithfully reproduce colours in 3D objects. Two key studies, colour reproduction for soft tissue prostheses and colour uniformity correction across different orientations are described subsequently. Results are clear shown that applying proposed colour image reproduction framework, performance of colour reproduction can be significantly enhanced. With post colour corrections, a further improvement in colour process are achieved for 3D printed objects.

Reframing Evaluation: Defining an Indigenous Evaluation Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaFrance, Joan; Nichols, Richard

2008-01-01

The American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), comprising 34 American Indian tribally controlled colleges and universities, has undertaken a comprehensive effort to develop an "Indigenous Framework for Evaluation" that synthesizes Indigenous ways of knowing and Western evaluation practice. To ground the framework, AIHEC engaged…

Mean-Lagrangian formalism and covariance of fluid turbulence.

PubMed

Ariki, Taketo

2017-05-01

Mean-field-based Lagrangian framework is developed for the fluid turbulence theory, which enables physically objective discussions, especially, of the history effect. Mean flow serves as a purely geometrical object of Lie group theory, providing useful operations to measure the objective rate and history integration of the general tensor field. The proposed framework is applied, on the one hand, to one-point closure model, yielding an objective expression of the turbulence viscoelastic effect. Application to two-point closure, on the other hand, is also discussed, where natural extension of known Lagrangian correlation is discovered on the basis of an extended covariance group.

Beyond Adoption: A New Framework for Theorizing and Evaluating Nonadoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Health and Care Technologies

PubMed Central

Wherton, Joseph; Papoutsi, Chrysanthi; Lynch, Jennifer; Hughes, Gemma; A'Court, Christine; Hinder, Susan; Fahy, Nick; Procter, Rob; Shaw, Sara

2017-01-01

Background Many promising technological innovations in health and social care are characterized by nonadoption or abandonment by individuals or by failed attempts to scale up locally, spread distantly, or sustain the innovation long term at the organization or system level. Objective Our objective was to produce an evidence-based, theory-informed, and pragmatic framework to help predict and evaluate the success of a technology-supported health or social care program. Methods The study had 2 parallel components: (1) secondary research (hermeneutic systematic review) to identify key domains, and (2) empirical case studies of technology implementation to explore, test, and refine these domains. We studied 6 technology-supported programs—video outpatient consultations, global positioning system tracking for cognitive impairment, pendant alarm services, remote biomarker monitoring for heart failure, care organizing software, and integrated case management via data sharing—using longitudinal ethnography and action research for up to 3 years across more than 20 organizations. Data were collected at micro level (individual technology users), meso level (organizational processes and systems), and macro level (national policy and wider context). Analysis and synthesis was aided by sociotechnically informed theories of individual, organizational, and system change. The draft framework was shared with colleagues who were introducing or evaluating other technology-supported health or care programs and refined in response to feedback. Results The literature review identified 28 previous technology implementation frameworks, of which 14 had taken a dynamic systems approach (including 2 integrative reviews of previous work). Our empirical dataset consisted of over 400 hours of ethnographic observation, 165 semistructured interviews, and 200 documents. The final nonadoption, abandonment, scale-up, spread, and sustainability (NASSS) framework included questions in 7 domains: the condition or illness, the technology, the value proposition, the adopter system (comprising professional staff, patient, and lay caregivers), the organization(s), the wider (institutional and societal) context, and the interaction and mutual adaptation between all these domains over time. Our empirical case studies raised a variety of challenges across all 7 domains, each classified as simple (straightforward, predictable, few components), complicated (multiple interacting components or issues), or complex (dynamic, unpredictable, not easily disaggregated into constituent components). Programs characterized by complicatedness proved difficult but not impossible to implement. Those characterized by complexity in multiple NASSS domains rarely, if ever, became mainstreamed. The framework showed promise when applied (both prospectively and retrospectively) to other programs. Conclusions Subject to further empirical testing, NASSS could be applied across a range of technological innovations in health and social care. It has several potential uses: (1) to inform the design of a new technology; (2) to identify technological solutions that (perhaps despite policy or industry enthusiasm) have a limited chance of achieving large-scale, sustained adoption; (3) to plan the implementation, scale-up, or rollout of a technology program; and (4) to explain and learn from program failures. PMID:29092808

Pathological diagnostic criterion of blood and lymphatic vessel invasion in colorectal cancer: a framework for developing an objective pathological diagnostic system using the Delphi method, from the Pathology Working Group of the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum.

PubMed

Kojima, Motohiro; Shimazaki, Hideyuki; Iwaya, Keiichi; Kage, Masayoshi; Akiba, Jun; Ohkura, Yasuo; Horiguchi, Shinichiro; Shomori, Kohei; Kushima, Ryoji; Ajioka, Yoichi; Nomura, Shogo; Ochiai, Atsushi

2013-07-01

The goal of this study is to create an objective pathological diagnostic system for blood and lymphatic vessel invasion (BLI). 1450 surgically resected colorectal cancer specimens from eight hospitals were reviewed. Our first step was to compare the current practice of pathology assessment among eight hospitals. Then, H&E stained slides with or without histochemical/immunohistochemical staining were assessed by eight pathologists and concordance of BLI diagnosis was checked. In addition, histological findings associated with BLI having good concordance were reviewed. Based on these results, framework for developing diagnostic criterion was developed, using the Delphi method. The new criterion was evaluated using 40 colorectal cancer specimens. Frequency of BLI diagnoses, number of blocks obtained and stained for assessment of BLI varied among eight hospitals. Concordance was low for BLI diagnosis and was not any better when histochemical/immunohistochemical staining was provided. All histological findings associated with BLI from H&E staining were poor in agreement. However, observation of elastica-stained internal elastic membrane covering more than half of the circumference surrounding the tumour cluster as well as the presence of D2-40-stained endothelial cells covering more than half of the circumference surrounding the tumour cluster showed high concordance. Based on this observation, we developed a framework for pathological diagnostic criterion, using the Delphi method. This criterion was found to be useful in improving concordance of BLI diagnosis. A framework for pathological diagnostic criterion was developed by reviewing concordance and using the Delphi method. The criterion developed may serve as the basis for creating a standardised procedure for pathological diagnosis.

Pathological diagnostic criterion of blood and lymphatic vessel invasion in colorectal cancer: a framework for developing an objective pathological diagnostic system using the Delphi method, from the Pathology Working Group of the Japanese Society for Cancer of the Colon and Rectum

PubMed Central

Kojima, Motohiro; Shimazaki, Hideyuki; Iwaya, Keiichi; Kage, Masayoshi; Akiba, Jun; Ohkura, Yasuo; Horiguchi, Shinichiro; Shomori, Kohei; Kushima, Ryoji; Ajioka, Yoichi; Nomura, Shogo; Ochiai, Atsushi

2013-01-01

Aims The goal of this study is to create an objective pathological diagnostic system for blood and lymphatic vessel invasion (BLI). Methods 1450 surgically resected colorectal cancer specimens from eight hospitals were reviewed. Our first step was to compare the current practice of pathology assessment among eight hospitals. Then, H&E stained slides with or without histochemical/immunohistochemical staining were assessed by eight pathologists and concordance of BLI diagnosis was checked. In addition, histological findings associated with BLI having good concordance were reviewed. Based on these results, framework for developing diagnostic criterion was developed, using the Delphi method. The new criterion was evaluated using 40 colorectal cancer specimens. Results Frequency of BLI diagnoses, number of blocks obtained and stained for assessment of BLI varied among eight hospitals. Concordance was low for BLI diagnosis and was not any better when histochemical/immunohistochemical staining was provided. All histological findings associated with BLI from H&E staining were poor in agreement. However, observation of elastica-stained internal elastic membrane covering more than half of the circumference surrounding the tumour cluster as well as the presence of D2-40-stained endothelial cells covering more than half of the circumference surrounding the tumour cluster showed high concordance. Based on this observation, we developed a framework for pathological diagnostic criterion, using the Delphi method. This criterion was found to be useful in improving concordance of BLI diagnosis. Conclusions A framework for pathological diagnostic criterion was developed by reviewing concordance and using the Delphi method. The criterion developed may serve as the basis for creating a standardised procedure for pathological diagnosis. PMID:23592799

Objects as closures - Abstract semantics of object oriented languages

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reddy, Uday S.

1988-01-01

The denotational semantics of object-oriented languages is discussed using the concept of closure widely used in (semi) functional programming to encapsulate side effects. It is shown that this denotational framework is adequate to explain classes, instantiation, and inheritance in the style of Simula as well as SMALLTALK-80. This framework is then compared with that of Kamin (1988), in his recent denotational definition of SMALLTALK-80, and the implications of the differences between the two approaches are discussed.

Detecting Target Objects by Natural Language Instructions Using an RGB-D Camera

PubMed Central

Bao, Jiatong; Jia, Yunyi; Cheng, Yu; Tang, Hongru; Xi, Ning

2016-01-01

Controlling robots by natural language (NL) is increasingly attracting attention for its versatility, convenience and no need of extensive training for users. Grounding is a crucial challenge of this problem to enable robots to understand NL instructions from humans. This paper mainly explores the object grounding problem and concretely studies how to detect target objects by the NL instructions using an RGB-D camera in robotic manipulation applications. In particular, a simple yet robust vision algorithm is applied to segment objects of interest. With the metric information of all segmented objects, the object attributes and relations between objects are further extracted. The NL instructions that incorporate multiple cues for object specifications are parsed into domain-specific annotations. The annotations from NL and extracted information from the RGB-D camera are matched in a computational state estimation framework to search all possible object grounding states. The final grounding is accomplished by selecting the states which have the maximum probabilities. An RGB-D scene dataset associated with different groups of NL instructions based on different cognition levels of the robot are collected. Quantitative evaluations on the dataset illustrate the advantages of the proposed method. The experiments of NL controlled object manipulation and NL-based task programming using a mobile manipulator show its effectiveness and practicability in robotic applications. PMID:27983604

Effectiveness of vaginal breech birth training strategies: An integrative review of the literature.

PubMed

Walker, Shawn; Breslin, Eamonn; Scamell, Mandie; Parker, Pam

2017-06-01

The safety of vaginal breech birth depends on the skill of the attendant. The objective of this review was to identify, synthesize, and report the findings of evaluated breech birth training strategies. A systematic search of the following on-line databases: Medline, CINAHL Plus, PsychINFO, EBM Reviews/Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Maternity and Infant Care, and Pubmed, using a structured search strategy. Studies were included in the review if they evaluated the efficacy of a breech birth training program or particular strategies, including obstetric emergency training evaluations that reported differentiated outcomes for breech. Out of 1040 original citings, 303 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility, and 17 methodologically diverse studies met the inclusion criteria. A data collection form was used to extract relevant information. Data were synthesized, using an evaluation levels framework, including reaction, learning (subjective and objective assessment), and behavioral change. No evaluations included clinical outcome data. Improvements in self-assessed skill and confidence were not associated with improvements in objective assessments or behavioral change. Inclusion of breech birth as part of an obstetric emergencies training package without support in practice was negatively associated with subsequent attendance at vaginal breech births. As a result of the heterogeneity of the studies available, and the lack of evidence concerning neonatal or maternal outcomes, no conclusive practice recommendations can be made. However, the studies reviewed suggest that vaginal breech birth training may be enhanced by reflection, repetition, and experienced clinical support in practice. Further evaluation studies should prioritize clinical outcome data. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Fast Appearance Modeling for Automatic Primary Video Object Segmentation.

PubMed

Yang, Jiong; Price, Brian; Shen, Xiaohui; Lin, Zhe; Yuan, Junsong

2016-02-01

Automatic segmentation of the primary object in a video clip is a challenging problem as there is no prior knowledge of the primary object. Most existing techniques thus adapt an iterative approach for foreground and background appearance modeling, i.e., fix the appearance model while optimizing the segmentation and fix the segmentation while optimizing the appearance model. However, these approaches may rely on good initialization and can be easily trapped in local optimal. In addition, they are usually time consuming for analyzing videos. To address these limitations, we propose a novel and efficient appearance modeling technique for automatic primary video object segmentation in the Markov random field (MRF) framework. It embeds the appearance constraint as auxiliary nodes and edges in the MRF structure, and can optimize both the segmentation and appearance model parameters simultaneously in one graph cut. The extensive experimental evaluations validate the superiority of the proposed approach over the state-of-the-art methods, in both efficiency and effectiveness.

Improvement of the R-SWAT-FME framework to support multiple variables and multi-objective functions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wu, Yiping; Liu, Shu-Guang

2014-01-01

Application of numerical models is a common practice in the environmental field for investigation and prediction of natural and anthropogenic processes. However, process knowledge, parameter identifiability, sensitivity, and uncertainty analyses are still a challenge for large and complex mathematical models such as the hydrological/water quality model, Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). In this study, the previously developed R program language-SWAT-Flexible Modeling Environment (R-SWAT-FME) was improved to support multiple model variables and objectives at multiple time steps (i.e., daily, monthly, and annually). This expansion is significant because there is usually more than one variable (e.g., water, nutrients, and pesticides) of interest for environmental models like SWAT. To further facilitate its easy use, we also simplified its application requirements without compromising its merits, such as the user-friendly interface. To evaluate the performance of the improved framework, we used a case study focusing on both streamflow and nitrate nitrogen in the Upper Iowa River Basin (above Marengo) in the United States. Results indicated that the R-SWAT-FME performs well and is comparable to the built-in auto-calibration tool in multi-objective model calibration. Overall, the enhanced R-SWAT-FME can be useful for the SWAT community, and the methods we used can also be valuable for wrapping potential R packages with other environmental models.

Complex scenes and situations visualization in hierarchical learning algorithm with dynamic 3D NeoAxis engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graham, James; Ternovskiy, Igor V.

2013-06-01

We applied a two stage unsupervised hierarchical learning system to model complex dynamic surveillance and cyber space monitoring systems using a non-commercial version of the NeoAxis visualization software. The hierarchical scene learning and recognition approach is based on hierarchical expectation maximization, and was linked to a 3D graphics engine for validation of learning and classification results and understanding the human - autonomous system relationship. Scene recognition is performed by taking synthetically generated data and feeding it to a dynamic logic algorithm. The algorithm performs hierarchical recognition of the scene by first examining the features of the objects to determine which objects are present, and then determines the scene based on the objects present. This paper presents a framework within which low level data linked to higher-level visualization can provide support to a human operator and be evaluated in a detailed and systematic way.

The development of an adolescent smoking cessation intervention--an Intervention Mapping approach to planning.

PubMed

Dalum, Peter; Schaalma, Herman; Kok, Gerjo

2012-02-01

The objective of this project was to develop a theory- and evidence-based adolescent smoking cessation intervention using both new and existing materials. We used the Intervention Mapping framework for planning health promotion programmes. Based on a needs assessment, we identified important and changeable determinants of cessation behaviour, specified change objectives for the intervention programme, selected theoretical change methods for accomplishing intervention objectives and finally operationalized change methods into practical intervention strategies. We found that guided practice, modelling, self-monitoring, coping planning, consciousness raising, dramatic relief and decisional balance were suitable methods for adolescent smoking cessation. We selected behavioural journalism, guided practice and Motivational Interviewing as strategies in our intervention. Intervention Mapping helped us to develop as systematic adolescent smoking cessation intervention with a clear link between behavioural goals, theoretical methods, practical strategies and materials and with a strong focus on implementation and recruitment. This paper does not present evaluation data.

Combining High Spatial Resolution Optical and LIDAR Data for Object-Based Image Classification

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, R.; Zhang, T.; Geng, R.; Wang, L.

2018-04-01

In order to classify high spatial resolution images more accurately, in this research, a hierarchical rule-based object-based classification framework was developed based on a high-resolution image with airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. The eCognition software is employed to conduct the whole process. In detail, firstly, the FBSP optimizer (Fuzzy-based Segmentation Parameter) is used to obtain the optimal scale parameters for different land cover types. Then, using the segmented regions as basic units, the classification rules for various land cover types are established according to the spectral, morphological and texture features extracted from the optical images, and the height feature from LiDAR respectively. Thirdly, the object classification results are evaluated by using the confusion matrix, overall accuracy and Kappa coefficients. As a result, a method using the combination of an aerial image and the airborne Lidar data shows higher accuracy.

User's Manual for the Object User Interface (OUI): An Environmental Resource Modeling Framework

USGS Publications Warehouse

Markstrom, Steven L.; Koczot, Kathryn M.

2008-01-01

The Object User Interface is a computer application that provides a framework for coupling environmental-resource models and for managing associated temporal and spatial data. The Object User Interface is designed to be easily extensible to incorporate models and data interfaces defined by the user. Additionally, the Object User Interface is highly configurable through the use of a user-modifiable, text-based control file that is written in the eXtensible Markup Language. The Object User Interface user's manual provides (1) installation instructions, (2) an overview of the graphical user interface, (3) a description of the software tools, (4) a project example, and (5) specifications for user configuration and extension.

Supporting the Evaluation and Implementation of Musculoskeletal Models of Care: A Globally Informed Framework for Judging Readiness and Success.

PubMed

Briggs, Andrew M; Jordan, Joanne E; Jennings, Matthew; Speerin, Robyn; Bragge, Peter; Chua, Jason; Woolf, Anthony D; Slater, Helen

2017-04-01

To develop a globally informed framework to evaluate readiness for implementation and success after implementation of musculoskeletal models of care (MOCs). Three phases were undertaken: 1) a qualitative study with 27 Australian subject matter experts (SMEs) to develop a draft framework; 2) an eDelphi study with an international panel of 93 SMEs across 30 nations to evaluate face validity, and refine and establish consensus on the framework components; and 3) translation of the framework into a user-focused resource and evaluation of its acceptability with the eDelphi panel. A comprehensive evaluation framework was developed for judging the readiness and success of musculoskeletal MOCs. The framework consists of 9 domains, with each domain containing a number of themes underpinned by detailed elements. In the first Delphi round, scores of "partly agree" or "completely agree" with the draft framework ranged 96.7%-100%. In the second round, "essential" scores ranged 58.6%-98.9%, resulting in 14 of 34 themes being classified as essential. SMEs strongly agreed or agreed that the final framework was useful (98.8%), usable (95.1%), credible (100%) and appealing (93.9%). Overall, 96.3% strongly supported or supported the final structure of the framework as it was presented, while 100%, 96.3%, and 100% strongly supported or supported the content within the readiness, initiating implementation, and success streams, respectively. An empirically derived framework to evaluate the readiness and success of musculoskeletal MOCs was strongly supported by an international panel of SMEs. The framework provides an important internationally applicable benchmark for the development, implementation, and evaluation of musculoskeletal MOCs. © 2016, American College of Rheumatology.

A novel fusion framework of visible light and infrared images based on singular value decomposition and adaptive DUAL-PCNN in NSST domain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cheng, Boyang; Jin, Longxu; Li, Guoning

2018-06-01

Visible light and infrared images fusion has been a significant subject in imaging science. As a new contribution to this field, a novel fusion framework of visible light and infrared images based on adaptive dual-channel unit-linking pulse coupled neural networks with singular value decomposition (ADS-PCNN) in non-subsampled shearlet transform (NSST) domain is present in this paper. First, the source images are decomposed into multi-direction and multi-scale sub-images by NSST. Furthermore, an improved novel sum modified-Laplacian (INSML) of low-pass sub-image and an improved average gradient (IAVG) of high-pass sub-images are input to stimulate the ADS-PCNN, respectively. To address the large spectral difference between infrared and visible light and the occurrence of black artifacts in fused images, a local structure information operator (LSI), which comes from local area singular value decomposition in each source image, is regarded as the adaptive linking strength that enhances fusion accuracy. Compared with PCNN models in other studies, the proposed method simplifies certain peripheral parameters, and the time matrix is utilized to decide the iteration number adaptively. A series of images from diverse scenes are used for fusion experiments and the fusion results are evaluated subjectively and objectively. The results of the subjective and objective evaluation show that our algorithm exhibits superior fusion performance and is more effective than the existing typical fusion techniques.

Evaluation and Verification of Decadal Predictions using the MiKlip Central Evaluation System - a Case Study using the MiKlip Prototype Model Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Illing, Sebastian; Schuster, Mareike; Kadow, Christopher; Kröner, Igor; Richling, Andy; Grieger, Jens; Kruschke, Tim; Lang, Benjamin; Redl, Robert; Schartner, Thomas; Cubasch, Ulrich

2016-04-01

MiKlip is project for medium-term climate prediction funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF) and aims to create a model system that is able provide reliable decadal climate forecasts. During the first project phase of MiKlip the sub-project INTEGRATION located at Freie Universität Berlin developed a framework for scientific infrastructures (FREVA). More information about FREVA can be found in EGU2016-13060. An instance of this framework is used as Central Evaluation System (CES) during the MiKlip project. Throughout the first project phase various sub-projects developed over 25 analysis tools - so called plugins - for the CES. The main focus of these plugins is on the evaluation and verification of decadal climate prediction data, but most plugins are not limited to this scope. They target a wide range of scientific questions. Starting from preprocessing tools like the "LeadtimeSelector", which creates lead-time dependent time-series from decadal hindcast sets, over tracking tools like the "Zykpak" plugin, which can objectively locate and track mid-latitude cyclones, to plugins like "MurCSS" or "SPECS", which calculate deterministic and probabilistic skill metrics. We also integrated some analyses from Model Evaluation Tools (MET), which was developed at NCAR. We will show the theoretical background, technical implementation strategies, and some interesting results of the evaluation of the MiKlip Prototype decadal prediction system for a selected set of these tools.

Teaching and Learning Numerical Analysis and Optimization: A Didactic Framework and Applications of Inquiry-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lappas, Pantelis Z.; Kritikos, Manolis N.

2018-01-01

The main objective of this paper is to propose a didactic framework for teaching Applied Mathematics in higher education. After describing the structure of the framework, several applications of inquiry-based learning in teaching numerical analysis and optimization are provided to illustrate the potential of the proposed framework. The framework…

Joint Multi-Leaf Segmentation, Alignment, and Tracking for Fluorescence Plant Videos.

PubMed

Yin, Xi; Liu, Xiaoming; Chen, Jin; Kramer, David M

2018-06-01

This paper proposes a novel framework for fluorescence plant video processing. The plant research community is interested in the leaf-level photosynthetic analysis within a plant. A prerequisite for such analysis is to segment all leaves, estimate their structures, and track them over time. We identify this as a joint multi-leaf segmentation, alignment, and tracking problem. First, leaf segmentation and alignment are applied on the last frame of a plant video to find a number of well-aligned leaf candidates. Second, leaf tracking is applied on the remaining frames with leaf candidate transformation from the previous frame. We form two optimization problems with shared terms in their objective functions for leaf alignment and tracking respectively. A quantitative evaluation framework is formulated to evaluate the performance of our algorithm with four metrics. Two models are learned to predict the alignment accuracy and detect tracking failure respectively in order to provide guidance for subsequent plant biology analysis. The limitation of our algorithm is also studied. Experimental results show the effectiveness, efficiency, and robustness of the proposed method.

Estimating farm-level private expenditure on veterinary medical inputs in England.

PubMed

Gilbert, W; Rushton, J

2014-03-15

The current re-evaluation of responsibility and cost sharing between the public and private sectors with reference to animal health and welfare (AHW) would be improved by a greater understanding of the contributions made at farm level. This knowledge would facilitate the design of a cost-sharing system which best balances technical, economic and political objectives. This paper presents a framework by which the farm-level investment in AHW can be assessed. An evaluation of data available for the framework was made and, as a benchmark, an estimate of total expenditure on veterinary medical inputs for commercial agricultural holdings in England calculated. In 2010/2011 it is calculated that farmers on commercial holdings in England spent £230 million on veterinary medicines and fees, with an additional £160 million being spent for horses kept on non-commercial holdings. By contrast, for 2012/2013, Defra budgeted £277 million on AHW. The results presented emphasise the critical importance of generating sufficient evidence to support the development of an efficient, equitable and sustainable AHW strategy.

Implementation of a Systematic Accountability Framework in 2014 to Improve the Performance of the Nigerian Polio Program

PubMed Central

Tegegne, Sisay G.; MKanda, Pascal; Yehualashet, Yared G.; Erbeto, Tesfaye B.; Touray, Kebba; Nsubuga, Peter; Banda, Richard; Vaz, Rui G.

2016-01-01

Background. An accountability framework is a central feature of managing human and financial resources. One of its primary goals is to improve program performance through close monitoring of selected priority activities. The principal objective of this study was to determine the contribution of a systematic accountability framework to improving the performance of the World Health Organization (WHO)–Nigeria polio program staff, as well as the program itself. Methods. The effect of implementation of the accountability framework was evaluated using data on administrative actions and select process indicators associated with acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance, routine immunization, and polio supplemental immunization activities. Data were collected in 2014 during supportive supervision, using Magpi software (a company that provides service to collect data using mobile phones). A total of 2500 staff were studied. Results. Data on administrative actions and process indicators from quarters 2–4 in 2014 were compared. With respect to administrative actions, 1631 personnel (74%) received positive feedback (written or verbal commendation) in quarter 4 through the accountability framework, compared with 1569 (73%) and 1152 (61%) during quarters 3 and 2, respectively. These findings accorded with data on process indicators associated with AFP surveillance and routine immunization, showing statistically significant improvements in staff performance at the end of quarter 4, compared with other quarters. Conclusions. Improvements in staff performance and process indicators were observed for the WHO-Nigeria polio program after implementation of a systematic accountability framework. PMID:26823334

A Wide Area Risk Assessment Framework for Underwater Military Munitions Response

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Holland, K. T.; Calantoni, J.

2017-12-01

Our objective was to develop a prototype statistical framework supporting Wide Area Assessment and Remedial Investigation decisions relating to the risk of unexploded ordnance and other military munitions concentrated in underwater environments. Decision making involving underwater munitions is inherently complex due to the high degree of uncertainty in the environmental conditions that force munitions responses (burial, decay, migration, etc.) and associated risks to the public. The prototype framework provides a consistent approach to accurately delineating contaminated areas at underwater munitions sites through the estimation of most probable concentrations. We adapted existing deterministic models and environmental data services for use within statistical modules that allowed the estimation of munition concentration given historic site information and environmental attributes. Ultimately this risk surface can be used to evaluate costs associated with various remediation approaches (e.g. removal, monitoring, etc.). Unfortunately, evaluation of the assessment framework was limited due to the lack of enduser data services from munition site managers. Of the 450 U.S. sites identified as having potential contamination with underwater munitions, assessment of available munitions information (including historic firing or disposal records, and recent ground-truth munitions samples) indicated very limited information in the databases. Example data types include the most probable munition types, approximate firing / disposal dates and locations, and any supportive munition survey or sampling results. However the overall technical goal to integrate trained statistical belief networks with detailed geophysical knowledge of sites, of sensors and of the underwater environment was demonstrated and should allow probabilistic estimates of the most likely outcomes and tradeoffs while managing uncertainty associated with military munitions response.

DOD/COCOM Water Security Program Strategy Document

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-04-22

in alignment with USG foreign policy objectives? The following discussion and appendices provide a framework to facilitate this process for DOD...USG foreign policy objectives? The following discussion and appendices provide a framework to facilitate this process for DOD. DOD/COCOM Water...technology, etc. Because water resources often cross political boundaries on a regional scale, focusing water scarcity initiatives on this level

Quantile equivalence to evaluate compliance with habitat management objectives

USGS Publications Warehouse

Cade, Brian S.; Johnson, Pamela R.

2011-01-01

Equivalence estimated with linear quantile regression was used to evaluate compliance with habitat management objectives at Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge based on monitoring data collected in upland (5,781 ha; n = 511 transects) and riparian and meadow (2,856 ha, n = 389 transects) habitats from 2005 to 2008. Quantiles were used because the management objectives specified proportions of the habitat area that needed to comply with vegetation criteria. The linear model was used to obtain estimates that were averaged across 4 y. The equivalence testing framework allowed us to interpret confidence intervals for estimated proportions with respect to intervals of vegetative criteria (equivalence regions) in either a liberal, benefit-of-doubt or conservative, fail-safe approach associated with minimizing alternative risks. Simple Boolean conditional arguments were used to combine the quantile equivalence results for individual vegetation components into a joint statement for the multivariable management objectives. For example, management objective 2A required at least 809 ha of upland habitat with a shrub composition ≥0.70 sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), 20–30% canopy cover of sagebrush ≥25 cm in height, ≥20% canopy cover of grasses, and ≥10% canopy cover of forbs on average over 4 y. Shrub composition and canopy cover of grass each were readily met on >3,000 ha under either conservative or liberal interpretations of sampling variability. However, there were only 809–1,214 ha (conservative to liberal) with ≥10% forb canopy cover and 405–1,098 ha with 20–30%canopy cover of sagebrush ≥25 cm in height. Only 91–180 ha of uplands simultaneously met criteria for all four components, primarily because canopy cover of sagebrush and forbs was inversely related when considered at the spatial scale (30 m) of a sample transect. We demonstrate how the quantile equivalence analyses also can help refine the numerical specification of habitat objectives and explore specification of spatial scales for objectives with respect to sampling scales used to evaluate those objectives.

Using developmental evaluation as a system of organizational learning: An example from San Francisco.

PubMed

Shea, Jennifer; Taylor, Tory

2017-12-01

In the last 20 years, developmental evaluation has emerged as a promising approach to support organizational learning in emergent social programs. Through a continuous system of inquiry, reflection, and application of knowledge, developmental evaluation serves as a system of tools, methods, and guiding principles intended to support constructive organizational learning. However, missing from the developmental evaluation literature is a nuanced framework to guide evaluators in how to elevate the organizational practices and concepts most relevant for emergent programs. In this article, we describe and reflect on work we did to develop, pilot, and refine an integrated pilot framework. Drawing on established developmental evaluation inquiry frameworks and incorporating lessons learned from applying the pilot framework, we put forward the Evaluation-led Learning framework to help fill that gap and encourage others to implement and refine it. We posit that without explicitly incorporating the assessments at the foundation of the Evaluation-led Learning framework, developmental evaluation's ability to affect organizational learning in productive ways will likely be haphazard and limited. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global environment facility: Independent evaluation of the pilot phase; Fondo para el medio ambiente mundial: evaluacion independiente de la etapa experimental

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

NONE

1994-06-01

This study responds to a request by participants in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for an independent evaluation of the pilot phase. It profiles the GEF, discusses its policy framework, and reviews project development procedures and the strategies and projects in each of the GEF`s four focal areas. The study concludes that fundamental changes must occur and recommends specific reforms, such as articulating more clearly the GEF`s mandate, objectives, and strategies; addressing deficiencies in meeting its global focus; improving capacities and procedures within implementing agencies for managing the portfolio; and increasing non-government organization (NGO), country and community-level participation.

A required course in the development, implementation, and evaluation of clinical pharmacy services.

PubMed

Skomo, Monica L; Kamal, Khalid M; Berdine, Hildegarde J

2008-10-15

To develop, implement, and assess a required pharmacy practice course to prepare pharmacy students to develop, implement, and evaluate clinical pharmacy services using a business plan model. Course content centered around the process of business planning and pharmacoeconomic evaluations. Selected business planning topics included literature evaluation, mission statement development, market evaluation, policy and procedure development, and marketing strategy. Selected pharmacoeconomic topics included cost-minimization analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, cost-utility analysis, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Assessment methods included objective examinations, student participation, performance on a group project, and peer evaluation. One hundred fifty-three students were enrolled in the course. The mean scores on the objective examinations (100 points per examination) ranged from 82 to 85 points, with 25%-35% of students in the class scoring over 90, and 40%-50% of students scoring from 80 to 89. The mean scores on the group project (200 points) and classroom participation (50 points) were 183.5 and 46.1, respectively. The mean score on the peer evaluation was 30.8, with scores ranging from 27.5 to 31.7. The course provided pharmacy students with the framework necessary to develop and implement evidence-based disease management programs and to assure efficient, cost-effective utilization of pertinent resources in the provision of patient care.

Risk management frameworks: supporting the next generation of Murray-Darling Basin water sharing plans

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Podger, G. M.; Cuddy, S. M.; Peeters, L.; Smith, T.; Bark, R. H.; Black, D. C.; Wallbrink, P.

2014-09-01

Water jurisdictions in Australia are required to prepare and implement water resource plans. In developing these plans the common goal is realising the best possible use of the water resources - maximising outcomes while minimising negative impacts. This requires managing the risks associated with assessing and balancing cultural, industrial, agricultural, social and environmental demands for water within a competitive and resource-limited environment. Recognising this, conformance to international risk management principles (ISO 31000:2009) have been embedded within the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Yet, to date, there has been little strategic investment by water jurisdictions in bridging the gap between principle and practice. The ISO 31000 principles and the risk management framework that embodies them align well with an adaptive management paradigm within which to conduct water resource planning. They also provide an integrative framework for the development of workflows that link risk analysis with risk evaluation and mitigation (adaptation) scenarios, providing a transparent, repeatable and robust platform. This study, through a demonstration use case and a series of workflows, demonstrates to policy makers how these principles can be used to support the development of the next generation of water sharing plans in 2019. The workflows consider the uncertainty associated with climate and flow inputs, and model parameters on irrigation and hydropower production, meeting environmental flow objectives and recreational use of the water resource. The results provide insights to the risks associated with meeting a range of different objectives.

Unstructured medical image query using big data - An epilepsy case study.

PubMed

Istephan, Sarmad; Siadat, Mohammad-Reza

2016-02-01

Big data technologies are critical to the medical field which requires new frameworks to leverage them. Such frameworks would benefit medical experts to test hypotheses by querying huge volumes of unstructured medical data to provide better patient care. The objective of this work is to implement and examine the feasibility of having such a framework to provide efficient querying of unstructured data in unlimited ways. The feasibility study was conducted specifically in the epilepsy field. The proposed framework evaluates a query in two phases. In phase 1, structured data is used to filter the clinical data warehouse. In phase 2, feature extraction modules are executed on the unstructured data in a distributed manner via Hadoop to complete the query. Three modules have been created, volume comparer, surface to volume conversion and average intensity. The framework allows for user-defined modules to be imported to provide unlimited ways to process the unstructured data hence potentially extending the application of this framework beyond epilepsy field. Two types of criteria were used to validate the feasibility of the proposed framework - the ability/accuracy of fulfilling an advanced medical query and the efficiency that Hadoop provides. For the first criterion, the framework executed an advanced medical query that spanned both structured and unstructured data with accurate results. For the second criterion, different architectures were explored to evaluate the performance of various Hadoop configurations and were compared to a traditional Single Server Architecture (SSA). The surface to volume conversion module performed up to 40 times faster than the SSA (using a 20 node Hadoop cluster) and the average intensity module performed up to 85 times faster than the SSA (using a 40 node Hadoop cluster). Furthermore, the 40 node Hadoop cluster executed the average intensity module on 10,000 models in 3h which was not even practical for the SSA. The current study is limited to epilepsy field and further research and more feature extraction modules are required to show its applicability in other medical domains. The proposed framework advances data-driven medicine by unleashing the content of unstructured medical data in an efficient and unlimited way to be harnessed by medical experts. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Process evaluation in a multisite, primary obesity-prevention trial in American Indian schoolchildren.

PubMed

Helitzer, D L; Davis, S M; Gittelsohn, J; Going, S B; Murray, D M; Snyder, P; Steckler, A B

1999-04-01

We describe the development, implementation, and use of the process evaluation component of a multisite, primary obesity prevention trial for American Indian schoolchildren. We describe the development and pilot testing of the instruments, provide some examples of the criteria for instrument selection, and provide examples of how process evaluation results were used to document and refine intervention components. The theoretical and applied framework of the process evaluation was based on diffusion theory, social learning theory, and the desire for triangulation of multiple modes of data collection. The primary objectives of the process evaluation were to systematically document the training process, content, and implementation of 4 components of the intervention. The process evaluation was developed and implemented collaboratively so that it met the needs of both the evaluators and those who would be implementing the intervention components. Process evaluation results revealed that observation and structured interviews provided the most informative data; however, these methods were the most expensive and time consuming and required the highest level of skill to undertake. Although the literature is full of idealism regarding the uses of process evaluation for formative and summative purposes, in reality, many persons are sensitive to having their work evaluated in such an in-depth, context-based manner as is described. For this reason, use of structured, quantitative, highly objective tools may be more effective than qualitative methods, which appear to be more dependent on the skills and biases of the researcher and the context in which they are used.

Equity trade-offs in conservation decision making.

PubMed

Law, Elizabeth A; Bennett, Nathan J; Ives, Christopher D; Friedman, Rachel; Davis, Katrina J; Archibald, Carla; Wilson, Kerrie A

2018-04-01

Conservation decisions increasingly involve multiple environmental and social objectives, which result in complex decision contexts with high potential for trade-offs. Improving social equity is one such objective that is often considered an enabler of successful outcomes and a virtuous ideal in itself. Despite its idealized importance in conservation policy, social equity is often highly simplified or ill-defined and is applied uncritically. What constitutes equitable outcomes and processes is highly normative and subject to ethical deliberation. Different ethical frameworks may lead to different conceptions of equity through alternative perspectives of what is good or right. This can lead to different and potentially conflicting equity objectives in practice. We promote a more transparent, nuanced, and pluralistic conceptualization of equity in conservation decision making that particularly recognizes where multidimensional equity objectives may conflict. To help identify and mitigate ethical conflicts and avoid cases of good intentions producing bad outcomes, we encourage a more analytical incorporation of equity into conservation decision making particularly during mechanistic integration of equity objectives. We recommend that in conservation planning motivations and objectives for equity be made explicit within the problem context, methods used to incorporate equity objectives be applied with respect to stated objectives, and, should objectives dictate, evaluation of equity outcomes and adaptation of strategies be employed during policy implementation. © 2017 Society for Conservation Biology.

HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Program Implementation Using Intervention Mapping.

PubMed

Flash, Charlene A; Frost, Elizabeth L T; Giordano, Thomas P; Amico, K Rivet; Cully, Jeffrey A; Markham, Christine M

2018-04-01

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis has been proven to be an effective tool in HIV prevention. However, numerous barriers still exist in pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation. The framework of Intervention Mapping was used from August 2016 to October 2017 to describe the process of adoption, implementation, and maintenance of an HIV prevention program from 2012 through 2017 in Houston, Texas, that is nested within a county health system HIV clinic. Using the tasks outlined in the Intervention Mapping framework, potential program implementers were identified, outcomes and performance objectives established, matrices of change objectives created, and methods and practical applications formed. Results include the formation of three matrices that document program outcomes, change agents involved in the process, and the determinants needed to facilitate program adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Key features that facilitated successful program adoption and implementation were obtaining leadership buy-in, leveraging existing resources, systematic evaluation of operations, ongoing education for both clinical and nonclinical staff, and attention to emergent issues during launch. The utilization of Intervention Mapping to delineate the program planning steps can provide a model for pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation in other settings. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Fuel Cycle Analysis Framework Base Cases for the IAEA/INPRO GAINS Collaborative Project

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

Brent Dixon

Thirteen countries participated in the Collaborative Project GAINS “Global Architecture of Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems Based on Thermal and Fast Reactors Including a Closed Fuel Cycle”, which was the primary activity within the IAEA/INPRO Program Area B: “Global Vision on Sustainable Nuclear Energy” for the last three years. The overall objective of GAINS was to develop a standard framework for assessing future nuclear energy systems taking into account sustainable development, and to validate results through sample analyses. This paper details the eight scenarios that constitute the GAINS framework base cases for analysis of the transition to future innovative nuclear energymore » systems. The framework base cases provide a reference for users of the framework to start from in developing and assessing their own alternate systems. Each base case is described along with performance results against the GAINS sustainability evaluation metrics. The eight cases include four using a moderate growth projection and four using a high growth projection for global nuclear electricity generation through 2100. The cases are divided into two sets, addressing homogeneous and heterogeneous scenarios developed by GAINS to model global fuel cycle strategies. The heterogeneous world scenario considers three separate nuclear groups based on their fuel cycle strategies, with non-synergistic and synergistic cases. The framework base case analyses results show the impact of these different fuel cycle strategies while providing references for future users of the GAINS framework. A large number of scenario alterations are possible and can be used to assess different strategies, different technologies, and different assumptions about possible futures of nuclear power. Results can be compared to the framework base cases to assess where these alternate cases perform differently versus the sustainability indicators.« less