A Study of Facilities and Infrastructure Planning, Prioritization, and Assessment at Federal Security Laboratories

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

Research , Development, Test , and Evaluation (RDT&E) Appropriations The RDT&E appropriation consists of the mission program budgets for all... research , development, test and evaluation work performed by contractors and government installations and includes an installations and activities budget...than $4,000,000. 9 f. Research , Development, Test , and Evaluation Appropriations The Research , Development, Test , and Evaluation (RDT&E

Experimental Evaluation and Workload Characterization for High-Performance Computer Architectures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

El-Ghazawi, Tarek A.

1995-01-01

This research is conducted in the context of the Joint NSF/NASA Initiative on Evaluation (JNNIE). JNNIE is an inter-agency research program that goes beyond typical.bencbking to provide and in-depth evaluations and understanding of the factors that limit the scalability of high-performance computing systems. Many NSF and NASA centers have participated in the effort. Our research effort was an integral part of implementing JNNIE in the NASA ESS grand challenge applications context. Our research work under this program was composed of three distinct, but related activities. They include the evaluation of NASA ESS high- performance computing testbeds using the wavelet decomposition application; evaluation of NASA ESS testbeds using astrophysical simulation applications; and developing an experimental model for workload characterization for understanding workload requirements. In this report, we provide a summary of findings that covers all three parts, a list of the publications that resulted from this effort, and three appendices with the details of each of the studies using a key publication developed under the respective work.

Performance Monitoring: Evaluating an Organic Carbon-Limestone PRB for Treatment of Heavy Metals and Acidity

EPA Science Inventory

Since 2004, researchers from the U.S. EPA National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) have annually evaluated performance of an organic carbon-limestone permeable reactive barrier (PRB) system installed in 2003 by EPA Region 6 at the Delatte Metals Superfund site in Ponc...

76 FR 6795 - Statement of Organization, Functions, and Delegations of Authority; Office of the National...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-02-08

... Coordinator; (2) applies research methodologies to perform evaluation studies of health information technology grant programs; and, (3) applies advanced mathematical or quantitative modeling to the U.S. health care... remaining items in the paragraph accordingly: ``(1) Applying research methodologies to perform evaluation...

A method to evaluate performance reliability of individual subjects in laboratory research applied to work settings.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1978-10-01

This report presents a method that may be used to evaluate the reliability of performance of individual subjects, particularly in applied laboratory research. The method is based on analysis of variance of a tasks-by-subjects data matrix, with all sc...

Performance Pay and Teacher Motivation: Separating Myth from Reality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hulleman, Chris S.; Barron, Kenneth E.

2010-01-01

This article draws on research from outside of education to evaluate some common myths about performance pay and to consider future directions for designing and evaluating performance pay systems in K-12 education. The five common myths surrounding performance pay include: (1) Performance pay systems improve performance; (2) Performance pay…

To publish or not to publish? On the aggregation and drivers of research performance

PubMed Central

De Witte, Kristof

2010-01-01

This paper presents a methodology to aggregate multidimensional research output. Using a tailored version of the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis model, we account for the large heterogeneity in research output and the individual researcher preferences by endogenously weighting the various output dimensions. The approach offers three important advantages compared to the traditional approaches: (1) flexibility in the aggregation of different research outputs into an overall evaluation score; (2) a reduction of the impact of measurement errors and a-typical observations; and (3) a correction for the influences of a wide variety of factors outside the evaluated researcher’s control. As a result, research evaluations are more effective representations of actual research performance. The methodology is illustrated on a data set of all faculty members at a large polytechnic university in Belgium. The sample includes questionnaire items on the motivation and perception of the researcher. This allows us to explore whether motivation and background characteristics (such as age, gender, retention, etc.,) of the researchers explain variations in measured research performance. PMID:21057573

Critique of "A Big Apple for Educators: New York City's Experiment with Schoolwide Performance Bonuses: Final Evaluation Report"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fallah, Soraya; Moradian, Cklara

2017-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to review and critique a groundbreaking research report. The research article under review in this paper is: "A Big Apple for Educators: New York City's Experiment with Schoolwide Performance Bonuses: Final Evaluation Report" (see ED521920). In 2007-08, a program called the Schoolwide Performance Bonus…

Are university rankings useful to improve research? A systematic review

PubMed Central

Momani, Shaher

2018-01-01

Introduction Concerns about reproducibility and impact of research urge improvement initiatives. Current university ranking systems evaluate and compare universities on measures of academic and research performance. Although often useful for marketing purposes, the value of ranking systems when examining quality and outcomes is unclear. The purpose of this study was to evaluate usefulness of ranking systems and identify opportunities to support research quality and performance improvement. Methods A systematic review of university ranking systems was conducted to investigate research performance and academic quality measures. Eligibility requirements included: inclusion of at least 100 doctoral granting institutions, be currently produced on an ongoing basis and include both global and US universities, publish rank calculation methodology in English and independently calculate ranks. Ranking systems must also include some measures of research outcomes. Indicators were abstracted and contrasted with basic quality improvement requirements. Exploration of aggregation methods, validity of research and academic quality indicators, and suitability for quality improvement within ranking systems were also conducted. Results A total of 24 ranking systems were identified and 13 eligible ranking systems were evaluated. Six of the 13 rankings are 100% focused on research performance. For those reporting weighting, 76% of the total ranks are attributed to research indicators, with 24% attributed to academic or teaching quality. Seven systems rely on reputation surveys and/or faculty and alumni awards. Rankings influence academic choice yet research performance measures are the most weighted indicators. There are no generally accepted academic quality indicators in ranking systems. Discussion No single ranking system provides a comprehensive evaluation of research and academic quality. Utilizing a combined approach of the Leiden, Thomson Reuters Most Innovative Universities, and the SCImago ranking systems may provide institutions with a more effective feedback for research improvement. Rankings which extensively rely on subjective reputation and “luxury” indicators, such as award winning faculty or alumni who are high ranking executives, are not well suited for academic or research performance improvement initiatives. Future efforts should better explore measurement of the university research performance through comprehensive and standardized indicators. This paper could serve as a general literature citation when one or more of university ranking systems are used in efforts to improve academic prominence and research performance. PMID:29513762

Modeling and Evaluating Pilot Performance in NextGen: Review of and Recommendations Regarding Pilot Modeling Efforts, Architectures, and Validation Studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wickens, Christopher; Sebok, Angelia; Keller, John; Peters, Steve; Small, Ronald; Hutchins, Shaun; Algarin, Liana; Gore, Brian Francis; Hooey, Becky Lee; Foyle, David C.

2013-01-01

NextGen operations are associated with a variety of changes to the national airspace system (NAS) including changes to the allocation of roles and responsibilities among operators and automation, the use of new technologies and automation, additional information presented on the flight deck, and the entire concept of operations (ConOps). In the transition to NextGen airspace, aviation and air operations designers need to consider the implications of design or system changes on human performance and the potential for error. To ensure continued safety of the NAS, it will be necessary for researchers to evaluate design concepts and potential NextGen scenarios well before implementation. One approach for such evaluations is through human performance modeling. Human performance models (HPMs) provide effective tools for predicting and evaluating operator performance in systems. HPMs offer significant advantages over empirical, human-in-the-loop testing in that (1) they allow detailed analyses of systems that have not yet been built, (2) they offer great flexibility for extensive data collection, (3) they do not require experimental participants, and thus can offer cost and time savings. HPMs differ in their ability to predict performance and safety with NextGen procedures, equipment and ConOps. Models also vary in terms of how they approach human performance (e.g., some focus on cognitive processing, others focus on discrete tasks performed by a human, while others consider perceptual processes), and in terms of their associated validation efforts. The objectives of this research effort were to support the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in identifying HPMs that are appropriate for predicting pilot performance in NextGen operations, to provide guidance on how to evaluate the quality of different models, and to identify gaps in pilot performance modeling research, that could guide future research opportunities. This research effort is intended to help the FAA evaluate pilot modeling efforts and select the appropriate tools for future modeling efforts to predict pilot performance in NextGen operations.

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Intelligent Systems

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

Madhavan, Raj; Messina, Elena; Tunstel, Edward

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

Cognitive Performance in Operational Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Russo, Michael; McGhee, James; Friedler, Edna; Thomas, Maria

2005-01-01

Optimal cognition during complex and sustained operations is a critical component for success in current and future military operations. "Cognitive Performance, Judgment, and Decision-making" (CPJD) is a newly organized U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command research program focused on sustaining operational effectiveness of Future Force Warriors by developing paradigms through which militarily-relevant, higher-order cognitive performance, judgment, and decision-making can be assessed and sustained in individuals, small teams, and leaders of network-centric fighting units. CPJD evaluates the impact of stressors intrinsic to military operational environments (e.g., sleep deprivation, workload, fatigue, temperature extremes, altitude, environmental/physiological disruption) on military performance, evaluates noninvasive automated methods for monitoring and predicting cognitive performance, and investigates pharmaceutical strategies (e.g., stimulant countermeasures, hypnotics) to mitigate performance decrements. This manuscript describes the CPJD program, discusses the metrics utilized to relate militarily applied research findings to academic research, and discusses how the simulated combat capabilities of a synthetic battle laboratory may facilitate future cognitive performance research.

Management systems research study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bruno, A. V.

1975-01-01

The development of a Monte Carlo simulation of procurement activities at the NASA Ames Research Center is described. Data cover: simulation of the procurement cycle, construction of a performance evaluation model, examination of employee development, procedures and review of evaluation criteria for divisional and individual performance evaluation. Determination of the influences and apparent impact of contract type and structure and development of a management control system for planning and controlling manpower requirements.

Evaluating performance of limestone prone to polishing.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-12-01

This research project evaluated the effect of blending Vanport limestone and other aggregates on the frictional surface characteristic properties of constructed trial road surfaces. The study undertook the evaluation of the performance of different m...

Proceedings of the Conference on the Design of Experiments in Army Research, Development, and Testing (33rd)

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-05-01

Evaluation Directorate (ARMTE) was tasked to conduct a "side- by-side" comparison of EMPS vs . DATMs and to conduct a human factors evaluation of the EMPS...performance ("side-by-side") comparison of EMPS vs . DATMs and to conduct a human factors evaluation. The performance evaluation was based on the speed... independent targets over time. To acquire data for this research, the BRL conducted a statistically designed exper- iment, the Firepower Control Experiment

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.

Research performance measures and program evaluation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2003-10-01

The Iowa Department of Transportation hosted a Peer Exchange on October 8-9, 2003. The : purpose of this exchange was to give research managers from several state departments of : transportation the opportunity to discuss research performance measure...

Citation Ranking versus Peer Evaluation of Senior Faculty Research Performance: A Case Study of Kurdish Scholarship.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meho, Lokman I.; Sonnenwald, Diane H.

2000-01-01

Analyzes the relationship between citation ranking and peer evaluation in assessing senior faculty research performance. Describes a study of faculty specializing in Kurdish studies that investigated to what degree citation ranking correlates with data from citation content analysis, book reviews, and peer ranking. (Contains 72 references.)…

What Are the Major Impact Factors on Research Performance of Young Doctorate Holders in Science in China: A USTC Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Jibao; Lin, Yu; Vogel, Doug; Tian, Wen

2011-01-01

Doctoral graduate research performance (DRP) is recognized as one of the most critical indices for evaluation of the success of doctoral education. Doctoral graduates with high research performance directly reflect a higher ability in academic research and academic achievement. Consequently, identifying which factors influence DRP is potentially…

"Inspired and Assisted", or "Berated and Destroyed"? Research Leadership, Management and Performativity in Troubled Times

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saltmarsh, Sue; Sutherland-Smith, Wendy; Randell-Moon, Holly

2011-01-01

Research leadership in Australian universities takes place against a backdrop of policy reforms concerned with measurement and comparison of institutional research performance. In particular, the Excellence in Research in Australian initiative undertaken by the Australian Research Council sets out to evaluate research quality in Australian…

Performance Evaluation of Kitchen Exhaust Draft Hoods.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-03-01

1-ACI827 JOHNS - MANVILLE SALES CORP DENVER CO RESEARCH AND DEV-ETC F/e 13/1 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF KITCHEN EXHAUST DRAFT HOOOS. (U) MAR 80 P 8...ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS 10. PROGRAM ELEMENT PROJECT. TASK AREA a WOPK UNIT NUMOERS Johns - Manville Sales Corper a, t Research & Development Center /0004...P. B. SHEPHERD, R. H. NEISEL JOHNS - MANVILLE SALES CORPORATION RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTER KEN-CARYL RANCH, DENVER, COLORADO 80217 MARCH 1980 FINAL

An Examination of Performance-Based Teacher Evaluation Systems in Five States. Summary. Issues & Answers. REL 2012-No. 129

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shakman, Karen; Riordan, Julie; Sanchez, Maria Teresa; Cook, Kyle DeMeo; Fournier, Richard; Brett, Jessica

2012-01-01

This study reports on performance-based teacher evaluation systems in five states that have implemented such systems. It investigates two primary research questions: (1) What are the key characteristics of state-level performance-based teacher evaluation systems in the study states?; and (2) How do state teacher evaluation measures, the teaching…

An Aerodynamic Performance Evaluation of the NASA/Ames Research Center Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator. M.S. Thesis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Donohue, Paul F.

1987-01-01

The results of an aerodynamic performance evaluation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Ames Research Center Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator (ACFS), conducted in association with the Navy-NASA Joint Institute of Aeronautics, are presented. The ACFS is a full-mission flight simulator which provides an excellent platform for the critical evaluation of emerging flight systems and aircrew performance. The propulsion and flight dynamics models were evaluated using classical flight test techniques. The aerodynamic performance model of the ACFS was found to realistically represent that of current day, medium range transport aircraft. Recommendations are provided to enhance the capabilities of the ACFS to a level forecast for 1995 transport aircraft. The graphical and tabular results of this study will establish a performance section of the ACFS Operation's Manual.

Algorithms for detecting and predicting influenza outbreaks: metanarrative review of prospective evaluations

PubMed Central

Spreco, A; Timpka, T

2016-01-01

Objectives Reliable monitoring of influenza seasons and pandemic outbreaks is essential for response planning, but compilations of reports on detection and prediction algorithm performance in influenza control practice are largely missing. The aim of this study is to perform a metanarrative review of prospective evaluations of influenza outbreak detection and prediction algorithms restricted settings where authentic surveillance data have been used. Design The study was performed as a metanarrative review. An electronic literature search was performed, papers selected and qualitative and semiquantitative content analyses were conducted. For data extraction and interpretations, researcher triangulation was used for quality assurance. Results Eight prospective evaluations were found that used authentic surveillance data: three studies evaluating detection and five studies evaluating prediction. The methodological perspectives and experiences from the evaluations were found to have been reported in narrative formats representing biodefence informatics and health policy research, respectively. The biodefence informatics narrative having an emphasis on verification of technically and mathematically sound algorithms constituted a large part of the reporting. Four evaluations were reported as health policy research narratives, thus formulated in a manner that allows the results to qualify as policy evidence. Conclusions Awareness of the narrative format in which results are reported is essential when interpreting algorithm evaluations from an infectious disease control practice perspective. PMID:27154479

Evaluating performance of limestone prone to polishing : final report, December 31, 2009.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-12-21

This research project evaluated the effect of blending Vanport limestone and other aggregates on the frictional surface characteristic properties of constructed trial road surfaces. The study undertook the evaluation of the performance of different m...

Performance evaluation of seal coat materials and designs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-01-01

"This project presents an evaluation of seal coat materials and design method. The primary objectives of this research are 1) to evaluate seal coat performance : from various combinations of aggregates and emulsions in terms of aggregate loss; 2) to ...

Performing well in an evaluative situation: the roles of perceived competence and task-irrelevant interfering thoughts.

PubMed

Van Yperen, Nico W

2007-12-01

This research expands on previous research by arguing and demonstrating that high perceived competence buffers the detrimental effects of an evaluative situation. In Study 1 (n=75, 38.7% male), the situation (evaluative vs. non-evaluative) and perceived competence (high vs. low) were manipulated, whereas in Study 2 (n=42, 33.3% male), perceived competence relied on naturally occurring differences in perceived competence. The results of Study 1 indicate that people may underachieve in an evaluative situation. More importantly, in Study 2 it was demonstrated that such an evaluative situation had only a negative effect on test performance among individuals low in perceived competence. The occurrence of task-irrelevant interfering thoughts during task completion accounted for this inimical effect of an evaluative situation on test performance among these individuals.

STORMWATER BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TEST FACILITY - SWALES

EPA Science Inventory

The NRMRL swale evaluation is part of a larger collection of long-term research projects that evaluates many Best Management Practices. EPA has ongoing research examining the performance of constructed wet lands, and detention and retention ponds. Other projects will evaluate ra...

A Peer-Reviewed Research Assignment for Large Classes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henderson, LaRhee; Buising, Charisse

2000-01-01

Introduces a writing exercise students work on in collaborative groups. Aims to enhance students' scientific research paper writing skills and provide experience working in collaborative groups. Presents evaluation criteria for peer-group evaluation of a poster presentation, intra-group evaluation of peer performance, and peer-group evaluation of…

A Developmental Study on Evaluating the Performance of Preschool Education Institution Teachers with 360 Degree Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dagal, Asude Balaban; Zembat, Rengin

2017-01-01

In accordance with the subject of this research, three different scales to measure preschool teachers' performances with respect to school principals', parents' and children's point of view were developed for the research. 51 principals, 893 parents and 256 children participated in the research. "Teacher Performance Evaluation…

Government Research Evaluations and Academic Freedom: A UK and Australian Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin-Sardesai, Ann; Irvine, Helen; Tooley, Stuart; Guthrie, James

2017-01-01

Performance management systems have been an inevitable consequence of the development of government research evaluations (GREs) of university research, and have also inevitably affected the working life of academics. The aim of this paper is to track the development of GREs over the past 25 years, by critically evaluating their adoption in the UK…

EVALUATION REPORT SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION S-CAD CHEMICAL AGENT DETECTION SYSTEM

EPA Science Inventory

The USEPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC)Technology Testing and Evaluation Program (TTEP) is carrying out performance tests on homeland security technologies. Under TTEP, Battelle recently evaluated the performance of the Science Applications International Co...

An Annotated Bibliography of MANPRINT-Related Assessments and Evaluations Conducted by the U.S. Army, 2nd Edition: 1953 to 2009. Volume 2 - MANPRINT Assessment and Evaluations

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-02-01

Research Laboratory Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5425 ARL-SR-189 February 2010 An Annotated Bibliography of MANPRINT-Related...Middlebrooks, Ph.D. Human Research and Engineering Directorate, ARL Approved for public release; distribution...7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) U.S. Army Research Laboratory ATTN: RDRL-HRM-AV Fort Hood, TX 76544-5073 8. PERFORMING

Performance Evaluation of Point-of-Use Water Heaters.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-10-15

AD-AG91 843 , JOHNS - MANVILLE SALES CORP DENVER CO RESEARCH AND OEV--ETC F/6 13/1 PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF POINT-OF-USE WATER HEATERS.(U) OCT AG P B...POINT-OF-USE WATER HEATERS P. B. SHEPHERD JOHNS - MANVILLE SALES CORPORATION RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CENTER KEN-CARYL RANCH, DENVER, COLORADO 80217 15...literature survey was conducted by Ms. Suzanne D.A. Graham who is on the Corporate Information Center staff of the Johns - Manville Research & Development

Objective Situation Awareness Measurement Based on Performance Self-Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeMaio, Joe

1998-01-01

The research was conducted in support of the NASA Safe All-Weather Flight Operations for Rotorcraft (SAFOR) program. The purpose of the work was to investigate the utility of two measurement tools developed by the British Defense Evaluation Research Agency. These tools were a subjective workload assessment scale, the DRA Workload Scale and a situation awareness measurement tool. The situation awareness tool uses a comparison of the crew's self-evaluation of performance against actual performance in order to determine what information the crew attended to during the performance. These two measurement tools were evaluated in the context of a test of innovative approach to alerting the crew by way of a helmet mounted display. The situation assessment data are reported here. The performance self-evaluation metric of situation awareness was found to be highly effective. It was used to evaluate situation awareness on a tank reconnaissance task, a tactical navigation task, and a stylized task used to evaluated handling qualities. Using the self-evaluation metric, it was possible to evaluate situation awareness, without exact knowledge the relevant information in some cases and to identify information to which the crew attended or failed to attend in others.

Students' Perceptions of Peer Evaluation: An Expectancy Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Yining; Lou, Hao

2004-01-01

Because of the difficulty of evaluating uneven performance among group members, many researchers suggest incorporating peer evaluations in a grading system that permits an instructor to evaluate and grade individual performance more equitably within a group. In this study, the authors employ expectancy theory to assess key factors that may…

Performance evaluation and placement analysis of w-beam guardrails behind curbs.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-12-15

This report summarizes the research efforts of using finite element modeling and simulations to evaluate the performance : of NCDOT W-beam guardrails behind curbs under MASH TL-2 impact conditions. A literature review is included on : performance eva...

The importance of assessing for validity of symptom report and performance in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Introduction to the special section on noncredible presentation in ADHD.

PubMed

Suhr, Julie A; Berry, David T R

2017-12-01

Invalid self-report and invalid performance occur with high base rates in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Harrison, 2006; Musso & Gouvier, 2014). Although much research has focused on the development and validation of symptom validity tests (SVTs) and performance validity tests (PVTs) for psychiatric and neurological presentations, less attention has been given to the use of SVTs and PVTs in ADHD evaluation. This introduction to the special section describes a series of studies examining the use of SVTs and PVTs in adult ADHD evaluation. We present the series of studies in the context of prior research on noncredible presentation and call for future research using improved research methods and with a focus on assessment issues specific to ADHD evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

The Researching on Evaluation of Automatic Voltage Control Based on Improved Zoning Methodology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xiao-jun, ZHU; Ang, FU; Guang-de, DONG; Rui-miao, WANG; De-fen, ZHU

2018-03-01

According to the present serious phenomenon of increasing size and structure of power system, hierarchically structured automatic voltage control(AVC) has been the researching spot. In the paper, the reduced control model is built and the adaptive reduced control model is researched to improve the voltage control effect. The theories of HCSD, HCVS, SKC and FCM are introduced and the effect on coordinated voltage regulation caused by different zoning methodologies is also researched. The generic framework for evaluating performance of coordinated voltage regulation is built. Finally, the IEEE-96 stsyem is used to divide the network. The 2383-bus Polish system is built to verify that the selection of a zoning methodology affects not only the coordinated voltage regulation operation, but also its robustness to erroneous data and proposes a comprehensive generic framework for evaluating its performance. The New England 39-bus network is used to verify the adaptive reduced control models’ performance.

Is Performance Feedback for Educators an Evidence-Based Practice? A Systematic Review and Evaluation Based on Single-Case Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fallon, Lindsay M.; Collier-Meek, Melissa A.; Maggin, Daniel M.; Sanetti, Lisa M. H.; Johnson, Austin H.

2015-01-01

Optimal levels of treatment fidelity, a critical moderator of intervention effectiveness, are often difficult to sustain in applied settings. It is unknown whether performance feedback, a widely researched method for increasing educators' treatment fidelity, is an evidence-based practice. The purpose of this review was to evaluate the current…

Reliability and Validity of the Professional Counseling Performance Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shepherd, J. Brad; Britton, Paula J.; Kress, Victoria E.

2008-01-01

The definition and measurement of counsellor trainee competency is an issue that has received increased attention yet lacks quantitative study. This research evaluates item responses, scale reliability and intercorrelations, interrater agreement, and criterion-related validity of the Professional Performance Fitness Evaluation/Professional…

13 CFR 306.7 - Performance evaluations of University Centers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-01-01

... University Centers. 306.7 Section 306.7 Business Credit and Assistance ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TRAINING, RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE INVESTMENTS University Center Economic Development Program § 306.7 Performance evaluations of University Centers. (a) EDA will: (1) Evaluate each...

13 CFR 306.7 - Performance evaluations of University Centers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-01-01

... University Centers. 306.7 Section 306.7 Business Credit and Assistance ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TRAINING, RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE INVESTMENTS University Center Economic Development Program § 306.7 Performance evaluations of University Centers. (a) EDA will: (1) Evaluate each...

13 CFR 306.7 - Performance evaluations of University Centers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-01-01

... University Centers. 306.7 Section 306.7 Business Credit and Assistance ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TRAINING, RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE INVESTMENTS University Center Economic Development Program § 306.7 Performance evaluations of University Centers. (a) EDA will: (1) Evaluate each...

13 CFR 306.7 - Performance evaluations of University Centers.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-01-01

... University Centers. 306.7 Section 306.7 Business Credit and Assistance ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE TRAINING, RESEARCH AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE INVESTMENTS University Center Economic Development Program § 306.7 Performance evaluations of University Centers. (a) EDA will: (1) Evaluate each...

Teacher Evaluation in China: Latest Trends and Future Directions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Shujie; Zhao, Decheng

2013-01-01

With the implementation of teacher performance pay in 2009 in China, teacher performance evaluation has become a heated topic. This research study follows up on two previous studies of teacher evaluation in China and continues the dialog by analyzing the latest trends in the context of teacher performance pay. There were two sources of information…

Cultural values and performance appraisal: assessing the effects of rater self-construal on performance ratings.

PubMed

Mishra, Vipanchi; Roch, Sylvia G

2013-01-01

Much of the prior research investigating the influence of cultural values on performance ratings has focused either on conducting cross-national comparisons among raters or using cultural level individualism/collectivism scales to measure the effects of cultural values on performance ratings. Recent research has shown that there is considerable within country variation in cultural values, i.e. people in one country can be more individualistic or collectivistic in nature. Taking the latter perspective, the present study used Markus and Kitayama's (1991) conceptualization of independent and interdependent self-construals as measures of individual variations in cultural values to investigate within culture variations in performance ratings. Results suggest that rater self-construal has a significant influence on overall performance evaluations; specifically, raters with a highly interdependent self-construal tend to show a preference for interdependent ratees, whereas raters high on independent self-construal do not show a preference for specific type of ratees when making overall performance evaluations. Although rater self-construal significantly influenced overall performance evaluations, no such effects were observed for specific dimension ratings. Implications of these results for performance appraisal research and practice are discussed.

The Use of Social Survey Data in the Development of Formative Evaluations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

York, John D.

Evaluators who perform formative evaluations would be well served to apprise themselves of recent survey research in framing formative evaluations. Illustrative examples are used from research into such diverse areas of activity as: the development of identities attached to different forms of modern rock and roll; the rationales that juvenile…

The pattern of performance management of community service learning empowerment in improving the entrepreneurship on the graduation candidate of Vocational Technology Education Institution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hadromi

2017-03-01

The purpose of this research is to evaluate the pattern of performance management of Community Service Empowerment Learning-Universitas Negeri Semarang in improving the entrepreneurship of the graduate candidate of Vocational Technology Education Institution. This evaluation research uses Context Evaluation, Input evaluation, Process evaluation and Product evaluation method (CIPP) to evaluate the performance management of Community Service of Empowerment Learning-Universitas Negeri Semarang. The location of research was in Kandri Subdistrict-Indonesia. The subject of research is the Kandri Subdistrict community, especially the groups of the youth, students, subdistrict organizers, community organization, and culinery and handicraft industry, as well as the students who join the program of Community Service of Empowerment Learning-Universitas Negeri Semarang. The object of research is the pattern of perfomance management of Community Service Empowerment Learning-Universitas Negeri Semarang in improving the entrepreneurship of the graduation candidate of Vocational Technology Education Institution. The research result shows the pattern of Community Service Empowerment Learning-Universitas Negeri Semarang is able to improve the enterpreneurship of graduate candidate of Vocational Technology Education Institution. The pattern of Community Service Empowerment Community-Universitas Negeri Semarang which is Education for Sustainable Development (ESD)in the field of education, training, and assistance continuously can grasp and develop competency and balance mindset of students including triple bottom line which mutually connectedamong the sectors of social, economic, cultural, and environment so that it can increase the entrerpreneurship on the graduates candidate of Vocational Technology Education Institution

Questionnaire Evaluating Teaching Competencies in the University Environment. Evaluation of Teaching Competencies in the University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moreno-Murcia, Juan Antonio; Silveira Torregrosa, Yolanda; Belando Pedreño, Noelia

2015-01-01

The objective of this study was to design and validate a measuring instrument to evaluate the performance of university professors. The Evaluation of Teaching Performance (CEID [Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Docentes (Center for Teaching Studies and Research)]) questionnaire was administered to 1297 university students. Various factor…

Evaluation and Development of Administrators. AAHE-ERIC/Higher Education Research Report No. 6, 1979.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nordvall, Robert C.

Needs and methods for the evaluation and development of higher education administrators are reviewed in this monograph. Three major reasons for evaluation are cited: external and internal pressure, improvement of performance of individual administrators, and improvement of performance of the institution. Different approaches to evaluation are…

TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION REPORT CEREX ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES UV HOUND POINT SAMPLE AIR MONITOR

EPA Science Inventory

The USEPA's National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) Technology Testing and Evaluation Program (TTEP) is carrying out performance tests on homeland security technologies. Under TTEP, Battelle evaluated the performance of the Cerex UV Hound point sample air monitor in de...

Simulation Performance and National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses Outcomes: Field Research Perspectives.

PubMed

Brackney, Dana E; Lane, Susan Hayes; Dawson, Tyia; Koontz, Angie

2017-11-01

This descriptive field study examines processes used to evaluate simulation for senior-level Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students in a capstone course, discusses challenges related to simulation evaluation, and reports the relationship between faculty evaluation of student performance and National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) first-time passing rates. Researchers applied seven terms used to rank BSN student performance (n = 41, female, ages 22-24 years) in a senior-level capstone simulation. Faculty evaluation was correlated with students' NCLEX-RN outcomes. Students evaluated as "lacking confidence" and "flawed" were less likely to pass the NCLEX-RN on the first attempt. Faculty evaluation of capstone simulation performance provided additional evidence of student preparedness for practice in the RN role, as evidenced by the relationship between the faculty assessment and NCLEX-RN success. Simulation has been broadly accepted as a powerful educational tool that may also contribute to verification of student achievement of program outcomes and readiness for the RN role.

Performance evaluation of Louisiana superpave mixtures : tech summary.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-12-01

The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the fundamental engineering : properties and mixture performance of Superpave hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures : in Louisiana through laboratory mechanistic tests, aggregate gradation analysis, and...

Enhancing and evaluating researcher performance : WisDOT RD&T peer, May 18-20, 2010.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-05-01

The peer exchange covered a range of topics related to measuring and improving researcher : performance. On the first day, state panel participants provided overviews of their programs and the : challenges they face in keeping the quality of research...

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…

Soft Research on a Hard Subject: Student Evaluations Reconsidered

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soper, John C.

1973-01-01

Methods of evaluation of faculty classroom performance are considered. The author cites research studies which attempt to assess the validity of student evaluations of teachers. Data are presented suggesting that the students' perceptions of their teachers' abilities are not connected with what those students learn. (SM)

77 FR 26583 - Notice Pursuant to the National Cooperative Research and Production Act of 1993-Cooperative...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-05-04

... Production Act of 1993--Cooperative Research Group on Evaluation of Distributed Leak Detection Systems... Institute-- Cooperative Research Group on Evaluation of Distributed Leak Detection Systems--Performance... detection systems for offshore pipelines. Laboratory testing of distributed temperature and distributed...

76 FR 50486 - National Human Genome Research Institute; Notice of Closed Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-15

... performance, and the competence of individual investigators, the disclosure of which would constitute a... 7 p.m. Agenda: To review and evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of... evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of individual investigators. Place...

Effects of Performers' External Characteristics on Performance Evaluations.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bermingham, Gudrun A.

2000-01-01

States that fairness has been a major concern in the field of music adjudication. Reviews the research literature to reveal information about three external characteristics (race, gender, and physical attractiveness) that may affect judges' performance evaluations and influence fairness of music adjudication. Includes references. (CMK)

Associations of Physical Fitness and Academic Performance among Schoolchildren

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Dusen, Duncan P.; Kelder, Steven H.; Kohl, Harold W., III; Ranjit, Nalini; Perry, Cheryl L.

2011-01-01

Background: Public schools provide opportunities for physical activity and fitness surveillance, but are evaluated and funded based on students' academic performance, not their physical fitness. Empirical research evaluating the connections between fitness and academic performance is needed to justify curriculum allocations to physical activity…

Diversification strategy and performance: implications for health services research.

PubMed

Rivers, P A; Glover, S H; Munchus, G

1999-01-01

Health care represents a promising area of research due to its uniqueness. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in diversification strategy and performance research but not the study of health services strategy research. This article reviews diversification strategy and performance in health services domains. Adopting Datta, Rajagopalan, and Rasheed's (1991) framework, the authors evaluate the theoretical and empirical contributions of this research. The limitations and theoretical implications of these efforts are also explored.

Evaluation and Ranking of Researchers – Bh Index

PubMed Central

Bharathi, D. Gnana

2013-01-01

Evaluation and ranking of every author is very crucial as it is widely used to evaluate the performance of the researcher. This article proposes a new method, called Bh-Index, to evaluate the researchers based on the publications and citations. The method is built on h-Index and only the h-core articles are taken into consideration. The method assigns value additions to those articles that receive significantly high citations in comparison to the h-Index of the researcher. It provides a wide range of values for a given h-Index and effective evaluation even for a short period. Use of Bh-Index along with the h-Index gives a powerful tool to evaluate the researchers. PMID:24349183

Bonus Awards for Teachers in Texas' Performance Pay Program: Findings from the First Round of TEEG Schools. Research Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Center on Performance Incentives, 2009

2009-01-01

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this evaluation report, researchers examined how first-year TEEG schools…

Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft - A summary of flight research since 1981

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Riddle, Dennis W.; Stevens, Victor C.; Eppel, Joseph C.

1988-01-01

The Quiet Short-Haul Research Aircraft (QSRA), designed for flight investigation into powered-lift terminal area operations, first flew in 1978 and has flown 600 hours since. This report summarizes QSRA research since 1981. Numerous aerodynamic flight experiments have been conducted including research with an advanced concept stability and control augmentation and pilot display system for category III instrument landings. An electromechanical actuator system was flown to assess performance and reliability. A second ground-based test was conducted to further evaluate circulation-control-wing/upper-surface-blowing performance. QSRA technology has been transferred through reports, guest pilot evaluations and airshow participation. QSRA future research thoughts and an extensive report bibliography are also presented.

MASH TL-4 evaluation of the TxDOT type C2P bridge rail.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-02-01

The objective of this research was to evaluate the impact performance of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) Type C2P Bridge Rail according to the safety-performance evaluation guidelines included in the American Association of State Highw...

A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinta, Ravi; Kebritchi, Mansureh; Ellias, Janelle

2016-01-01

Purpose: Performance evaluation is a topic that has been researched and practiced extensively in business organizations but has received scant attention in higher education institutions. A review of literature revealed that context, input, process, product (CIPP) model is an appropriate performance evaluation model for higher education…

Using vignettes to study nurse practitioners' performance in suspected domestic violence situations.

PubMed

Gagan, M J

2000-01-01

Vignettes have often been used to evaluate students or collect data in nursing research. The format is familiar to most nursing students as well as nurses and nurse researchers. This article presents the development and testing of the Nurse Practitioner Performance Tool (NPPT) which used vignettes as an approach to nurse practitioner performance evaluation. In this example, vignettes were used in a quasi-experimental design to collect data from Adult and Family Nurse Practitioners (A/FNP). The focus was on the diagnosis and intervention performance of the A/FNPs when addressing suspected cases of domestic violence.

Evaluating Fluid and Crystallized Abilities in the Performance of an Educational Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blanch, Angel

2015-01-01

The fluid and crystallized ("Gf-Gc") intelligence theory has been used extensively to evaluate the influence of cognitive abilities on educational outcomes within cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. This study evaluated the contribution of fluid and crystallized abilities in the performance of a 1-week instructional…

The Evaluation of Hospital Performance in Iran: A Systematic Review Article

PubMed Central

BAHADORI, Mohammadkarim; IZADI, Ahmad Reza; GHARDASHI, Fatemeh; RAVANGARD, Ramin; HOSSEINI, Seyed Mojtaba

2016-01-01

Background: This research aimed to systematically study and outline the methods of hospital performance evaluation used in Iran. Methods: In this systematic review, all Persian and English-language articles published in the Iranian and non-Iranian scientific journals indexed from Sep 2004 to Sep 2014 were studied. For finding the related articles, the researchers searched the Iranian electronic databases, including SID, IranMedex, IranDoc, Magiran, as well as the non-Iranian electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar. For reviewing the selected articles, a data extraction form, developed by the researchers was used. Results: The entire review process led to the selection of 51 articles. The publication of articles on the hospital performance evaluation in Iran has increased considerably in the recent years. Besides, among these 51 articles, 38 articles (74.51%) had been published in Persian language and 13 articles (25.49%) in English language. Eight models were recognized as evaluation model for Iranian hospitals. Totally, in 15 studies, the data envelopment analysis model had been used to evaluate the hospital performance. Conclusion: Using a combination of model to integrate indicators in the hospital evaluation process is inevitable. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education should use a set of indicators such as the balanced scorecard in the process of hospital evaluation and accreditation and encourage the hospital managers to use them. PMID:27516991

The Evaluation of Hospital Performance in Iran: A Systematic Review Article.

PubMed

Bahadori, Mohammadkarim; Izadi, Ahmad Reza; Ghardashi, Fatemeh; Ravangard, Ramin; Hosseini, Seyed Mojtaba

2016-07-01

This research aimed to systematically study and outline the methods of hospital performance evaluation used in Iran. In this systematic review, all Persian and English-language articles published in the Iranian and non-Iranian scientific journals indexed from Sep 2004 to Sep 2014 were studied. For finding the related articles, the researchers searched the Iranian electronic databases, including SID, IranMedex, IranDoc, Magiran, as well as the non-Iranian electronic databases, including Medline, Embase, Scopus, and Google Scholar. For reviewing the selected articles, a data extraction form, developed by the researchers was used. The entire review process led to the selection of 51 articles. The publication of articles on the hospital performance evaluation in Iran has increased considerably in the recent years. Besides, among these 51 articles, 38 articles (74.51%) had been published in Persian language and 13 articles (25.49%) in English language. Eight models were recognized as evaluation model for Iranian hospitals. Totally, in 15 studies, the data envelopment analysis model had been used to evaluate the hospital performance. Using a combination of model to integrate indicators in the hospital evaluation process is inevitable. Therefore, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education should use a set of indicators such as the balanced scorecard in the process of hospital evaluation and accreditation and encourage the hospital managers to use them.

Development Research of a Teachers' Educational Performance Support System: The Practices of Design, Development, and Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Wei-Chen; Smith, Thomas J.; Harris, Marian S.; Lockard, James

2010-01-01

This study adopted design and development research methodology (Richey & Klein, "Design and development research: Methods, strategies, and issues," 2007) to systematically investigate the process of applying instructional design principles, human-computer interaction, and software engineering to a performance support system (PSS) for behavior…

Highway concrete pavement technology development and testing : volume III, field evaluation of Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) C-205 test sites (high-performance concrete).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-05-01

This research study, sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, summarizes the field performance of eight high-early-strength (HES) : concrete patches between 1994 and 1998. The patches were constructed under the Strategic Highway Research Prog...

Team Research at the Biology-Mathematics Interface: Project Management Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milton, John G.; Radunskaya, Ami E.; Lee, Arthur H.; de Pillis, Lisette G.; Bartlett, Diana F.

2010-01-01

The success of interdisciplinary research teams depends largely upon skills related to team performance. We evaluated student and team performance for undergraduate biology and mathematics students who participated in summer research projects conducted in off-campus laboratories. The student teams were composed of a student with a mathematics…

Chinese Middle School Teachers' Preferences Regarding Performance Evaluation Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Shujie; Xu, Xianxuan; Stronge, James H.

2016-01-01

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performance measures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers'…

Performance Measurement for Public Services in Academic and Research Libraries. Occasional Paper Number #9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cronin, Mary J.

This paper defines performance measurement as the clarification of objectives and standards, identification of key activities, data collection and analysis, and formative evaluation of services. It then examines some of the factors involved in using performance measurement to evaluate public services activities, and analyzes performance…

A versus F: The Effects of Implicit Letter Priming on Cognitive Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ciani, Keith D.; Sheldon, Kennon M.

2010-01-01

Background: It has been proposed that motivational responses outside people's conscious awareness can be primed to affect academic performance. The current research focused on the relationship between primed evaluative letters (A and F), explicit and implicit achievement motivation, and cognitive performance. Aim: Given the evaluative connotation…

Performance-based brake testers : round robin study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-11-01

In the early 1990s, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration initiated research to evaluate various types of performance-based brake testing technologies for application to commercial vehicle inspections. The purpose of the research was to det...

Metrics for Success: Strategies for Enabling Core Facility Performance and Assessing Outcomes

PubMed Central

Hockberger, Philip E.; Meyn, Susan M.; Nicklin, Connie; Tabarini, Diane; Auger, Julie A.

2016-01-01

Core Facilities are key elements in the research portfolio of academic and private research institutions. Administrators overseeing core facilities (core administrators) require assessment tools for evaluating the need and effectiveness of these facilities at their institutions. This article discusses ways to promote best practices in core facilities as well as ways to evaluate their performance across 8 of the following categories: general management, research and technical staff, financial management, customer base and satisfaction, resource management, communications, institutional impact, and strategic planning. For each category, we provide lessons learned that we believe contribute to the effective and efficient overall management of core facilities. If done well, we believe that encouraging best practices and evaluating performance in core facilities will demonstrate and reinforce the importance of core facilities in the research and educational mission of institutions. It will also increase job satisfaction of those working in core facilities and improve the likelihood of sustainability of both facilities and personnel. PMID:26848284

[Research progress on mechanical performance evaluation of artificial intervertebral disc].

PubMed

Li, Rui; Wang, Song; Liao, Zhenhua; Liu, Weiqiang

2018-03-01

The mechanical properties of artificial intervertebral disc (AID) are related to long-term reliability of prosthesis. There are three testing methods involved in the mechanical performance evaluation of AID based on different tools: the testing method using mechanical simulator, in vitro specimen testing method and finite element analysis method. In this study, the testing standard, testing equipment and materials of AID were firstly introduced. Then, the present status of AID static mechanical properties test (static axial compression, static axial compression-shear), dynamic mechanical properties test (dynamic axial compression, dynamic axial compression-shear), creep and stress relaxation test, device pushout test, core pushout test, subsidence test, etc. were focused on. The experimental techniques using in vitro specimen testing method and testing results of available artificial discs were summarized. The experimental methods and research status of finite element analysis were also summarized. Finally, the research trends of AID mechanical performance evaluation were forecasted. The simulator, load, dynamic cycle, motion mode, specimen and test standard would be important research fields in the future.

Metrics for Success: Strategies for Enabling Core Facility Performance and Assessing Outcomes.

PubMed

Turpen, Paula B; Hockberger, Philip E; Meyn, Susan M; Nicklin, Connie; Tabarini, Diane; Auger, Julie A

2016-04-01

Core Facilities are key elements in the research portfolio of academic and private research institutions. Administrators overseeing core facilities (core administrators) require assessment tools for evaluating the need and effectiveness of these facilities at their institutions. This article discusses ways to promote best practices in core facilities as well as ways to evaluate their performance across 8 of the following categories: general management, research and technical staff, financial management, customer base and satisfaction, resource management, communications, institutional impact, and strategic planning. For each category, we provide lessons learned that we believe contribute to the effective and efficient overall management of core facilities. If done well, we believe that encouraging best practices and evaluating performance in core facilities will demonstrate and reinforce the importance of core facilities in the research and educational mission of institutions. It will also increase job satisfaction of those working in core facilities and improve the likelihood of sustainability of both facilities and personnel.

Green noise wall construction and evaluation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-09-01

This report details the research performed under Phase I of a research study titled Green Noise Wall Construction and Evaluation that looks into the feasibility of using green noise barriers as a noise mitigation option in Ohio. This phase incl...

Evaluation of narrow transverse contraction joints in jointed plain concrete pavements.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-03-01

This report presents the results of a research project conducted at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) to evaluate the performance of narrow transverse contraction joints to control cracking in jointed plain concrete pavements. In ad...

R and D Evaluation Workshop report, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, September 7--8, 1995

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

Jordan, G.

1995-10-30

The objective of the workshop was to promote discussions between experts and research managers on developing approaches for assessing the impact of DOE`s basic energy research upon the energy mission, applied research, technology transfer, the economy, and society. The purpose of this impact assessment is to demonstrate results and improve ER research programs in this era when basic research is expected to meet changing national economic and social goals. The questions addressed were: (1) By what criteria and metrics does Energy Research measure performance and evaluate its impact on the DOE mission and society while maintaining an environment that fostersmore » basic research? (2) What combination of evaluation methods best applies to assessing the performance and impact of OBES basic research? The focus will be upon the following methods: Case studies, User surveys, Citation analysis, TRACES approach, Return on DOE investment (ROI)/Econometrics, and Expert panels. (3) What combination of methods and specific rules of thumb can be applied to capture impacts along the spectrum from basic research to products and societal impacts?« less

Evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems Performance on Oak Ridge National Laboratory s Flexible Research Platform: Part 1 Cooling Season Analysis

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

Im, Piljae; Malhotra, Mini; Munk, Jeffrey D.

This report provides second-year cooling season test results for the multi-year project titled “Evaluation of Variable Refrigeration Flow (VRF) System on Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s Flexible Research Platform (FRP).” The purpose of the second-year project was to (1) evaluate the full- and partload performance of VRF systems compared with an existing baseline heating, ventilation, and airconditioning (HVAC) system, which is a conventional rooftop unit (RTU) variable-air-volume (VAV) system with electric resistance heating and (2) use hourly building energy simulation to evaluate the energy savings potential of using VRF systems in major US cities. The second-year project performance period wasmore » from July 2015 through June 2016.« less

Situation Awareness and Workload Measures for SAFOR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

DeMaio, Joe; Hart, Sandra G.; Allen, Ed (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

The present research was conducted in support of the NASA Safe All-Weather Flight Operations for Rotorcraft (SAFOR) program. The purpose of the work was to investigate the utility of two measurement tools developed by the British Defense Evaluation Research Agency. These tools were a subjective workload assessment scale, the DRA Workload Scale (DRAWS), and a situation awareness measurement tool in which the crews self-evaluation of performance is compared against actual performance. These two measurement tools were evaluated in the context of a test of an innovative approach to alerting the crew by way of a helmet mounted display. The DRAWS was found to be usable, but it offered no advantages over extant scales, and it had only limited resolution. The performance self-evaluation metric of situation awareness was found to be highly effective.

Evaluation of the Big-Two-Factor Theory of Motivation Orientations: An Evaluation of Jingle-Jangle Fallacies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marsh, Herbert W.; Craven, Rhonda G.; McInerney, Dennis; Debus, Raymond L.

Motivation orientation research consistently finds two factors, Performance and Learning, that overlap substantially with other factors coming from different theoretical perspectives of motivation. Similar to related work in the Big-Five Theory of Personality, researchers posited a Big-Two-Factor Theory of motivation orientation and evaluated the…

NASA Tech House: An early evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1977-01-01

An architect-engineering firm, as well as university participants, performed system studies, evaluated construction methods, performed cost effectiveness studies, and prepared construction drawings which incorporated the selected technology features into a final design. A Technology Utilization House (Tech House) based on this design was constructed at the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The Tech House is instrumented so that the performance of the design features and energy systems can be evaluated during a planned family live-in period. As such, the house is both a demonstration unit and a research laboratory. The Tech House is to demonstrate the kind of single-family residence that will probably be available within the next five years.

Projected outcomes of a public-industry partnership for enhancing corn nitrogen research and datasets

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Research is needed over a wide geographic range of soil and weather scenarios to evaluate methods and tools for corn N fertilizer applications. The objectives of this research were to conduct standardized corn N rate response field studies to evaluate the performance of multiple public-domain N deci...

DOTD evaluates and integrates pavement management system performance to yield savings : [fact sheet].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-07-01

A research study was initiated by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and : Development (DOTD) in conjunction with the Federal Highway Administration : (FHWA) to evaluate the overall performance and e ectiveness of DOTDs : Pavement Manag...

The use of performance standards by AAALAC International to evaluate ethical review in European institutions.

PubMed

Guillen, Javier

2010-02-01

During the past several decades, society has become increasingly concerned about the welfare of animals used in research. Today, the public asks scientists to justify the use of research animals and to be accountable for their welfare. Research institutions, government bodies and other regulatory authorities have developed mechanisms to ensure that researchers follow the principles of the 3Rs and use and care for research animals in an ethical manner. Additionally, organizations such as the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC International) have developed voluntary programs that can help researchers to ensure that they are caring for research animals appropriately. The author discusses how AAALAC International uses performance standards to evaluate the ethical review processes of European institutions.

Transactive memory in organizational groups: the effects of content, consensus, specialization, and accuracy on group performance.

PubMed

Austin, John R

2003-10-01

Previous research on transactive memory has found a positive relationship between transactive memory system development and group performance in single project laboratory and ad hoc groups. Closely related research on shared mental models and expertise recognition supports these findings. In this study, the author examined the relationship between transactive memory systems and performance in mature, continuing groups. A group's transactive memory system, measured as a combination of knowledge stock, knowledge specialization, transactive memory consensus, and transactive memory accuracy, is positively related to group goal performance, external group evaluations, and internal group evaluations. The positive relationship with group performance was found to hold for both task and external relationship transactive memory systems.

Comparing IndexedHBase and Riak for Serving Truthy: Performance of Data Loading and Query Evaluation

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-08-01

Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2211 15. SUBJECT TERMS performance evaluation, distributed database, noSQL , HBase, indexing Xiaoming Gao, Judy Qiu...common hashtags created during a given time window. With the purpose of finding a solution for these challenges, we evaluate NoSQL databases such as

Evaluation of bonded concrete overlays over asphalt under accelerated loading : research project capsule.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-05-01

The overall objective of this research study is to evaluate the structural performance and loadcarrying : capacity of bonded concrete overlay pavement structures through accelerated pavement : testing and document the experience of mix design and con...

The Performance-Based Research Fund, Gender and a Cultural Cringe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curtis, Bruce

2016-01-01

This article explores ways the Performance-based Research Fund (PBRF) produces gendered results and expresses a cultural cringe. It is argued that the research evaluation is fixated with being "world-class" at the expense of academic practice that focuses on New Zealand. In this context, disadvantage faced by female academics under the…

Performance Evaluation of Indian Technical Institutions Using PROMETHEE-GAIA Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ranjan, Rajeev; Chakraborty, Shankar

2015-01-01

It has now become an important issue to evaluate the performance of technical institutions to develop better research and enrich the existing teaching processes. The results of such performance appraisal would serve as a reference point for decisions to choose a particular institution, hire manpower, and provide financial support for the…

Study of the Performance and Characteristics of U.S. Academic Research Institution Technology Commercialization (ARITC)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Jisun

2012-01-01

This dissertation aims to provide a better understanding of the technology licensing practices of academic research institutions. The study identifies time durations in licensing and incorporates these into a model to evaluate licensing performance. Performance is measured by the efficiency of an institution's technology licensing process and…

Estimation for aerial detection effectiveness with cooperation efficiency factors of early-warning aircraft in early-warning detection SoS under BSC framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Feng; Hu, Xiaofeng; He, Xiaoyuan; Guo, Rui; Li, Kaiming; Yang, Lu

2017-11-01

In the military field, the performance evaluation of early-warning aircraft deployment or construction is always an important problem needing to be explored. As an effective approach of enterprise management and performance evaluation, Balanced Score Card (BSC) attracts more and more attentions and is studied more and more widely all over the world. It can also bring feasible ideas and technical approaches for studying the issue of the performance evaluation of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft which is the important component in early-warning detection system of systems (SoS). Therefore, the deep explored researches are carried out based on the previously research works. On the basis of the characteristics of space exploration and aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS and the cardinal principle of BSC are analyzed simply, and the performance evaluation framework of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft is given, under this framework, aimed at the evaluation issue of aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS with the cooperation efficiency factors of the early-warning aircraft and other land based radars, the evaluation indexes are further designed and the relative evaluation model is further established, especially the evaluation radar chart being also drawn to obtain the evaluation results from a direct sight angle. Finally, some practical computer simulations are launched to prove the validity and feasibility of the research thinking and technologic approaches which are proposed in the paper.

Evaluation of the performance, cost-effectiveness, and timing of various preventive maintenances : interim report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-10-01

This research study evaluated the performance of various pavement preservation treatments over time and under different : environmental conditions to quantify the economics of each treatment type. There are three primary techniques utilized in Colora...

Performance of Power Converters at Cryogenic Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Elbuluk, Malik E.; Gerber, Scott; Hammoud, Ahmad; Patterson, Richard L.

2001-01-01

Power converters capable of operation at cryogenic temperatures are anticipated to play an important role in the power system architecture of future NASA deep space missions. Design of such converters to survive cryogenic temperatures will improve the power system performance and reduce development and launch costs. Aerospace power systems are mainly a DC distribution network. Therefore, DC/DC and DC/AC converters provide the outputs needed to different loads at various power levels. Recently, research efforts have been performed at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) to design and evaluate DC/DC converters that are capable of operating at cryogenic temperatures. This paper presents a summary of the research performed to evaluate the low temperature performance of five DC/DC converters. Various parameters were investigated as a function of temperature in the range of 20 to -196 C. Data pertaining to the output voltage regulation and efficiency of the converters is presented and discussed.

ATR evaluation through the synthesis of multiple performance measures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bassham, Christopher B.; Klimack, William K.; Bauer, Kenneth W., Jr.

2002-07-01

This research demonstrates the application of decision analysis (DA) techniques to decisions made within Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) technology development. This work is accomplished to improve the means by which ATR technologies are evaluated. The first step in this research was to create a flexible decision analysis framework that could be applied to several decisions across different ATR programs evaluated by the Comprehensive ATR Scientific Evaluation (COMPASE) Center of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). For the purposes of this research, a single COMPASE Center representative provided the value, utility, and preference functions for the DA framework. The DA framework employs performance measures collected during ATR classification system (CS) testing to calculate value and utility scores. The authors gathered data from the Moving and Stationary Target Acquisition and Recognition (MSTAR) program to demonstrate how the decision framework could be used to evaluate three different ATR CSs. A decision-maker may use the resultant scores to gain insight into any of the decisions that occur throughout the lifecycle of ATR technologies. Additionally, a means of evaluating ATR CS self-assessment ability is presented. This represents a new criterion that emerged from this study, and no present evaluation metric is known.

Formalizing Evaluation Procedures for Marketing Faculty Research Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDermott, Dennis R.; And Others

1994-01-01

Results of a national survey of marketing department heads (n=142) indicate that few marketing departments have formalized the development and communication of research performance standards to faculty. Guidelines and methods to accomplish those procedures most efficiently were proposed. (Author/JOW)

A Study of Facilities and Infrastructure Planning, Prioritization, and Assessment at Federal Security Laboratories (Revised)

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

or funds authorized under Section 219(a) for projects costing no more than $4M. Research , Development, Test , and Evaluation (RDT&E) Appropriations...The RDT&E appropriation consists of the mission program budgets for all research , development, test and evaluation work performed by contractors...carry out an unspecified minor military construction project costing not more than $4,000,000. 9 f. Research , Development, Test , and Evaluation

Performance Evaluation and Benchmarking of Next Intelligent Systems

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

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

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

Evaluating Educational Programs. ETS R&D Scientific and Policy Contributions Series. ETS SPC-11-01. ETS Research Report No. RR-11-15

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ball, Samuel

2011-01-01

Since its founding in 1947, ETS has conducted a significant and wide-ranging research program that has focused on, among other things, psychometric and statistical methodology; educational evaluation; performance assessment and scoring; large-scale assessment and evaluation; cognitive, developmental, personality, and social psychology; and…

A Survey of Immersive Technology For Maintenance Evaluations

DTIC Science & Technology

1998-04-01

image display system. Based on original work performed at the German National Computer Science and Mathematics Research Institute (GMD), and further...simulations, architectural walk- throughs, medical simulations, general research , entertainment applications and location based entertainment use...simulations. This study was conducted as part of a logistics research and development program Design Evaluation for Personnel, Training, and Human Factors

A Different Approach to the Evaluation of Research Libraries. Research Brief No. 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Council on Library and Information Resources, Washington, DC.

In 1996, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) supported a project at Rutgers University that applied new economic theories to measuring how well research libraries fulfill their service roles. This summary draws on the original proposal and the final report from the project's directors. The evaluation of library performance is…

The Effects of Coping Interventions on Ability to Perform Under Pressure

PubMed Central

Kent, Sofie; Devonport, Tracey J.; Lane, Andrew M.; Nicholls, Wendy; Friesen, Andrew P.

2018-01-01

The ability to perform under pressure is necessary to achieve goals in various domains of life. We conducted a systematic review to synthesise findings from applied studies that focus on interventions developed to enhance an individual’s ability to cope under performance pressure. Following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a comprehensive search of five electronic databases was conducted. This yielded 66,618 records, of which 23 peer review papers met inclusion criteria of containing an intervention that targeted coping skills for performing under pressure. Using the Standard Quality Assessment for evaluation of primary research papers (Kmet et al., 2004) to assess quality, included studies performed well on reporting research objectives, research design, and statistical procedures. Sixteen studies showed poor quality in controlling for potentially confounding factors and small sample sizes. A narrative aggregate synthesis identified intervention studies that provided an educational focus (n = 9), consultancy sessions (n = 6), simulation training (n = 5) and emotion regulation strategies (n = 3). Findings highlight a need to; 1) establish a contextualized pressure task which will generate high levels of ecological validity for participants. Having established a suitable pressure task, 2) research should assess the effects of pressure by evaluating conscious and nonconscious effects and associated coping mechanisms, which should inform the subsequent development of interventions, and 3) assess interventions to enhance understanding of the ways in which they improve coping with pressure, or may fail, and the mechanisms which may explain these outcomes. Key points Simulation studies that exposed individuals to ‘pressure’ settings produced the most consistent improvements to performance, in comparison to a control group. This systematic review highlights limitations with the design, execution, and evaluation of pressure interventions. Future research should attempt to better consider the approach used to generate meaningful performance pressures and assess the consequences of pressure by evaluating conscious and non-conscious effects and coping mechanisms through which coping with pressure might be improved. PMID:29535577

USING BIOASSAYS TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF EDC RISK MANAGEMENT METHODS

EPA Science Inventory

In Superfund risk management research, the performance of risk management techniques is typically evaluated by measuring "the concentrations of the chemicals of concern before and after risk management efforts. However, using bioassays and chemical data provides a more robust und...

Evaluation of a highway bridge constructed using high strength lightweight concrete bridge girders.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-04-01

The purpose of this research was to characterize the performance of High Strength Lightweight Concrete (HSLW) in precast, prestressed bridge girders and to evaluate their performance in a highway bridge. The mechanical properties and long-term time-d...

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: the case of the defence sector.

PubMed

Ramos, Tomás B; Alves, Inês; Subtil, Rui; Joanaz de Melo, João

2007-03-01

The development of environmental performance policy indicators for public services, and in particular for the defence sector, is an emerging issue. Despite a number of recent initiatives there has been little work done in this area, since the other sectors usually focused on are agriculture, transport, industry, tourism and energy. This type of tool can be an important component for environmental performance evaluation at policy level, when integrated in the general performance assessment system of public missions and activities. The main objective of this research was to develop environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector, specifically applied to the defence sector. Previous research included an assessment of the environmental profile, through the evaluation of how environmental management practices have been adopted in this sector and an assessment of environmental aspects and impacts. This paper builds upon that previous research, developing an indicator framework--SEPI--supported by the selection and construction of environmental performance indicators. Another aim is to discuss how the current environmental indicator framework can be integrated into overall performance management. The Portuguese defence sector is presented and the usefulness of this methodology demonstrated. Feasibility and relevancy criteria are applied to evaluate the set of indicators proposed, allowing indicators to be scored and indicators for the policy level to be obtained.

Design and evaluation of a single-span bridge using ultra-high performance concrete.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-09-01

"Research presented herein describes an application of a newly developed material called Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) to a : single-span bridge. The two primary objectives of this research were to develop a shear design procedure for possib...

Design and evaluation of a single-span bridge using ultra-high performance concrete.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-09-01

Research presented herein describes an application of a newly developed material called Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) to a : single-span bridge. The two primary objectives of this research were to develop a shear design procedure for possibl...

Evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems Performance and the Enhanced Control Algorithm on Oak Ridge National Laboratory s Flexible Research Platform

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

Im, Piljae; Munk, Jeffrey D; Gehl, Anthony C

2015-06-01

A research project “Evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) Systems Performance and the Enhanced Control Algorithm on Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Flexible Research Platform” was performed to (1) install and validate the performance of Samsung VRF systems compared with the baseline rooftop unit (RTU) variable-air-volume (VAV) system and (2) evaluate the enhanced control algorithm for the VRF system on the two-story flexible research platform (FRP) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Based on the VRF system designed by Samsung and ORNL, the system was installed from February 18 through April 15, 2014. The final commissioning and system optimization were completed onmore » June 2, 2014, and the initial test for system operation was started the following day, June 3, 2014. In addition, the enhanced control algorithm was implemented and updated on June 18. After a series of additional commissioning actions, the energy performance data from the RTU and the VRF system were monitored from July 7, 2014, through February 28, 2015. Data monitoring and analysis were performed for the cooling season and heating season separately, and the calibrated simulation model was developed and used to estimate the energy performance of the RTU and VRF systems. This final report includes discussion of the design and installation of the VRF system, the data monitoring and analysis plan, the cooling season and heating season data analysis, and the building energy modeling study« less

Administrative Style and Leadership Effectiveness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Vernadine; Ogletree, Earl J.

Trends over the past 25 years in research on evaluation of school administrative leadership are analyzed in this summary report. Administrator evaluation became a concern as the principal's influence on the performance and attitudes of faculty and staff was realized. Research on organizational psychology demonstrated the relationship between…

Comparative Evaluation of Alternative Disinfectants for Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment

EPA Science Inventory

The Water Supply and Water Resources Division (WSWRD) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Risk Management Research Laboratory (NRMRL) initiated a research program to evaluate the performance of various disinfectants that could potentially be used in drink...

Dribble Files: Methodologies to Evaluate Learning and Performance in Complex Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schrader, P. G.; Lawless, Kimberly A.

2007-01-01

Research in the area of technology learning environments is tremendously complex. Tasks performed in these contexts are highly cognitive and mostly invisible to the observer. The nature of performance in these contexts is explained not only by the outcome but also by the process. However, evaluating the learning process with respect to tasks…

Meta-Research: Broadening the Scope of PLOS Biology.

PubMed

Kousta, Stavroula; Ferguson, Christine; Ganley, Emma

2016-01-01

In growing recognition of the importance of how scientific research is designed, performed, communicated, and evaluated, PLOS Biology announces a broadening of its scope to cover meta-research articles.

Judging Surgical Research: How Should We Evaluate Performance and Measure Value?

PubMed Central

Souba, Wiley W.; Wilmore, Douglas W.

2000-01-01

Objective To establish criteria to evaluate performance in surgical research, and to suggest strategies to optimize research in the future. Summary Background Data Research is an integral component of the academic mission, focusing on important clinical problems, accounting for surgical advances, and providing training and mentoring for young surgeons. With constraints on healthcare resources, there is increasing pressure to generate clinical revenues at the expense of the time and effort devoted to surgical research. An approach that would assess the value of research would allow prioritization of projects. Further, alignment of high-priority research projects with clinical goals would optimize research gains and maximize the clinical enterprise. Methods The authors reviewed performance criteria applied to industrial research and modified these criteria to apply to surgical research. They reviewed several programs that align research objectives with clinical goals. Results Performance criteria were categorized along several dimensions: internal measures (quality, productivity, innovation, learning, and development), customer satisfaction, market share, and financial indices (cost and profitability). A “report card” was proposed to allow the assessment of research in an individual department or division. Conclusions The department’s business strategy can no longer be divorced from its research strategy. Alignment between research and clinical goals will maximize the department’s objectives but will create the need to modify existing hierarchical structures and reward systems. Such alignment appears to be the best way to ensure the success of surgical research in the future. PMID:10862192

Evaluating performance feedback: a research study into issues of credibility and utility for nursing clinicians.

PubMed

Fereday, Jennifer; Muir-Cochrane, Eimear

2004-01-01

Performance feedback is information provided to employees about how well they are performing in their work role. The nursing profession has a long history of providing formal, written performance reviews, traditionally from a manager to subordinate, with less formal feedback sources including peers, clients and multidisciplinary team members. This paper is based on one aspect of a PhD research study exploring the dynamics of performance feedback primarily from the nursing clinicians' perspective. The research reported here discusses the impact of the social relationship (between the source and recipient of performance feedback) on the recipient's evaluation of feedback as being 'credible' and 'useful' for self-assessment. Focus group interviews were utilised to ascertain the nursing clinicians' perspectives of performance feedback. Thematic analysis of the data was informed by the Social Phenomenology of Alfred Schutz (1967) specifically his theories of intersubjective understanding. Findings supported the level of familiarity between the feedback source and the nursing clinician as a significant criterion influencing the acceptance or rejection of feedback. Implications for the selection of performance feedback sources and processes within nursing are discussed.

Performance evaluation of NCDOT w-beam guardrails under MASH TL-2 conditions.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-11-01

This report summarizes the research efforts of using finite element modeling and simulations to evaluate the performance : of W-beam guardrails for different heights under MASH Test Level 2 (TL-2) and Test Level 3 (TL-3) impact conditions. A : litera...

New approach to enhance and evaluate the performance of vehicle-infrastructure integration and its communication systems, final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-09-01

Initial research studied the use of wireless local area networks (WLAN) protocols in Inter-Vehicle Communications : (IVC) environments. The protocols performance was evaluated in terms of measuring throughput, jitter time and : delay time. This re...

Evaluating safety performance and developing guidelines for the use of right turn on red (RTOR).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-12-01

This research project investigates the safety performance of Right Turn on Red (RTOR) at intersections. Also, new design alternatives, such as dual right-turn lanes and guidelines incorporating the use of RTOR at intersections are evaluated. To this ...

Research Frontiers in Public Sector Performance Measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhonghua, Cai; Ye, Wang

In "New Public Management" era, performance measurement has been widely used in managerial practices of public sectors. From the content and features of performance measurement, this paper aims to explore inspirations on Chinese public sector performance measurement, which based on a review of prior literatures including influencial factors, methods and indicators of public sector performance evaluation. In the end, arguments are presented in this paper pointed out the direction of future researches in this field.

Evaluation of the performance of the Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) on Powell Boulevard in Portland, OR.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-07-01

The Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS) is used to mitigate traffic congestion along urban arterial corridors. Although there : has been research on SCATS performance, this report combines three different areas of research about SCA...

A novel hybrid MCDM model for performance evaluation of research and technology organizations based on BSC approach.

PubMed

Varmazyar, Mohsen; Dehghanbaghi, Maryam; Afkhami, Mehdi

2016-10-01

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic evaluation tool using both financial and non-financial indicators to determine the business performance of organizations or companies. In this paper, a new integrated approach based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are proposed to evaluate the performance of research centers of research and technology organization (RTO) in Iran. Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) are employed to reflect the interdependencies among BSC perspectives. Then, Analytic Network Process (ANP) is utilized to weight the indices influencing the considered problem. In the next step, we apply four MCDM methods including Additive Ratio Assessment (ARAS), Complex Proportional Assessment (COPRAS), Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis (MOORA), and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for ranking of alternatives. Finally, the utility interval technique is applied to combine the ranking results of MCDM methods. Weighted utility intervals are computed by constructing a correlation matrix between the ranking methods. A real case is presented to show the efficacy of the proposed approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Twenty-fifth water reactor safety information meeting: Proceedings. Volume 2: Human reliability analysis and human performance evaluation; Technical issues related to rulemakings; Risk-informed, performance-based initiatives; High burn-up fuel research

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

Monteleone, S.

1998-03-01

This three-volume report contains papers presented at the conference. The papers are printed in the order of their presentation in each session and describe progress and results of programs in nuclear safety research conducted in this country and abroad. Foreign participation in the meeting included papers presented by researchers from France, Japan, Norway, and Russia. The titles of the papers and the names of the authors have been updated and may differ from those that appeared in the final program of the meeting. This volume contains the following: (1) human reliability analysis and human performance evaluation; (2) technical issues relatedmore » to rulemakings; (3) risk-informed, performance-based initiatives; and (4) high burn-up fuel research. Selected papers have been indexed separately for inclusion in the Energy Science and Technology Database.« less

Finding the economics in economic entomology.

PubMed

Onstad, David W; Knolhoff, Lisa M

2009-02-01

To recommend new pest management tactics and strategies to farmers and policy makers, economic entomologists must evaluate the economics of biologically reasonable approaches. We collected data to determine how frequently these economic evaluations occur. We discovered from our survey of entomological journals representing the discipline of economic entomology that < 1% of research papers published since 1972 include economic evaluations of pest management tactics. At least 85% of these analyses were performed by entomologists and not economists. Much of the research on economic evaluations is performed without special funds granted by agencies separate from the authors' institutions. In the United States, USDA competitive grants supported 20% of the economic evaluations published since 2000. However, only approximately 12% of the projects funded since 2000 by three sections of the USDA (Crops at Risk, Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program, and Pest Management Alternatives Program) resulted in publications concerning economic evaluations. If the purpose of economic entomology is to ultimately determine the value of different kinds of tactics, the discipline may need to take steps to enhance the research that supports these evaluations.

Evaluation of Variable Refrigerant Flow Systems Performance on Oak Ridge National Laboratory s Flexible Research Platform: Part 3 Simulation Analysis

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

Im, Piljae; Cho, Heejin; Kim, Dongsu

2016-08-01

This report provides second-year project simulation results for the multi-year project titled “Evaluation of Variable Refrigeration Flow (VRF) system on Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)’s Flexible Research Platform (FRP).”

An Illustrative Case Study of the Heuristic Practices of a High-Performing Research Department: Toward Building a Model Applicable in the Context of Large Urban Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munoz, Marco A.; Rodosky, Robert J.

2011-01-01

This case study provides an illustration of the heuristic practices of a high-performing research department, which in turn, will help build much needed models applicable in the context of large urban districts. This case study examines the accountability, planning, evaluation, testing, and research functions of a research department in a large…

A method to evaluate process performance by integrating time and resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yu; Wei, Qingjie; Jin, Shuang

2017-06-01

The purpose of process mining is to improve the existing process of the enterprise, so how to measure the performance of the process is particularly important. However, the current research on the performance evaluation method is still insufficient. The main methods of evaluation are mainly using time or resource. These basic statistics cannot evaluate process performance very well. In this paper, a method of evaluating the performance of the process based on time dimension and resource dimension is proposed. This method can be used to measure the utilization and redundancy of resources in the process. This paper will introduce the design principle and formula of the evaluation algorithm. Then, the design and the implementation of the evaluation method will be introduced. Finally, we will use the evaluating method to analyse the event log from a telephone maintenance process and propose an optimization plan.

Functional assessment and performance evaluation for assistive robotic manipulators: Literature review.

PubMed

Chung, Cheng-Shiu; Wang, Hongwu; Cooper, Rory A

2013-07-01

The user interface development of assistive robotic manipulators can be traced back to the 1960s. Studies include kinematic designs, cost-efficiency, user experience involvements, and performance evaluation. This paper is to review studies conducted with clinical trials using activities of daily living (ADLs) tasks to evaluate performance categorized using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) frameworks, in order to give the scope of current research and provide suggestions for future studies. We conducted a literature search of assistive robotic manipulators from 1970 to 2012 in PubMed, Google Scholar, and University of Pittsburgh Library System - PITTCat. Twenty relevant studies were identified. Studies were separated into two broad categories: user task preferences and user-interface performance measurements of commercialized and developing assistive robotic manipulators. The outcome measures and ICF codes associated with the performance evaluations are reported. Suggestions for the future studies include (1) standardized ADL tasks for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of task efficiency and performance to build comparable measures between research groups, (2) studies relevant to the tasks from user priority lists and ICF codes, and (3) appropriate clinical functional assessment tests with consideration of constraints in assistive robotic manipulator user interfaces. In addition, these outcome measures will help physicians and therapists build standardized tools while prescribing and assessing assistive robotic manipulators.

The Effects of Target Orientation on the Dynamic Contrast Sensitivity Function

DTIC Science & Technology

1994-01-01

tests: A comparative evaluation. Journal of Amlied ychology, 50, 460-466. Burg, A. (1971). Vision and driving: A report on research. Human Factors...evaluation. Journal of Applied Ps ogy, 50, 460-466. Burg, A. (1971). Vision and driving: A report on research. Human Factors, 13, 79-87. Campbell, F. W...FUNDING NUMBERS 6. AUTHOR(S)G~ioD A- 0ecoKT, ) 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER AFIT Student

Vibration-based monitoring for performance evaluation of flexible civil structures in Japan.

PubMed

Fujino, Yozo

2018-01-01

The vibration-based monitoring of flexible civil structures and performance evaluation from this monitoring are reviewed, with an emphasis on research and practice in Japan and the author's experiences. Some new findings and unexpected vibrations from the monitoring of real bridges and buildings are reported to emphasize the importance of monitoring. Future developments and applications of vibration-based monitoring to civil infrastructure management are also described. Many examples are taken from the author's past 30 years' experience of research on bridge dynamics.

Performance of Northeastern United States wood species treated with copper based preservatives: 10 year above-ground decking evaluation

Treesearch

S. T. Lebow; S. A. Halverson

2015-01-01

Research was conducted to evaluate the decking performance of northeastern United States wood species treated with copper based preservatives. Decking specimens were treated with one of four wood preservatives and exposed near Madison, Wisconsin. Specimens were evaluated for biological attack and dimensional stability. After 10 years, none of the preservative treated...

An Exploratory Investigation of the Periodic Performance Evaluation Processes for Marketing Faculty: A Comparison of Doctoral-Granting and Non-Doctoral-Granting Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shepherd, C. David; Carley, Susan S.; Stuart, Randy S.

2009-01-01

Whether a first entrant into the academic job market or a seasoned professional, career outcomes for marketing educators depend heavily on the evaluation process used at their institutions. This research explores the periodic performance evaluation process for marketing faculty members using data collected from a national sample of marketing…

Wave Rotor Research and Technology Development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Welch, Gerard E.

1998-01-01

Wave rotor technology offers the potential to increase the performance of gas turbine engines significantly, within the constraints imposed by current material temperature limits. The wave rotor research at the NASA Lewis Research Center is a three-element effort: 1) Development of design and analysis tools to accurately predict the performance of wave rotor components; 2) Experiments to characterize component performance; 3) System integration studies to evaluate the effect of wave rotor topping on the gas turbine engine system.

OWL2 benchmarking for the evaluation of knowledge based systems.

PubMed

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

2017-01-01

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

Evaluation of Prismo imprint.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-05-01

The purpose of this research project is to evaluate the constructability and performance of Prismo Imprint synthetic overlays (manufacturer later changed to Ennis Paint, Inc.). Imprint is being evaluated as an alternative to brick pavers. This produc...

NHTSA's heavy duty vehicle brake research program report number 11 : evaluation of stopping performance of trailer antilock brake systems

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-04-01

In order to better understand the functioning of antilock brake systems on pneumatically braked trailers, a series of tests were conducted to evaluate different ABS control strategies, performance variations among systems supplied by different manufa...

Performance characterization of image and video analysis systems at Siemens Corporate Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramesh, Visvanathan; Jolly, Marie-Pierre; Greiffenhagen, Michael

2000-06-01

There has been a significant increase in commercial products using imaging analysis techniques to solve real-world problems in diverse fields such as manufacturing, medical imaging, document analysis, transportation and public security, etc. This has been accelerated by various factors: more advanced algorithms, the availability of cheaper sensors, and faster processors. While algorithms continue to improve in performance, a major stumbling block in translating improvements in algorithms to faster deployment of image analysis systems is the lack of characterization of limits of algorithms and how they affect total system performance. The research community has realized the need for performance analysis and there have been significant efforts in the last few years to remedy the situation. Our efforts at SCR have been on statistical modeling and characterization of modules and systems. The emphasis is on both white-box and black box methodologies to evaluate and optimize vision systems. In the first part of this paper we review the literature on performance characterization and then provide an overview of the status of research in performance characterization of image and video understanding systems. The second part of the paper is on performance evaluation of medical image segmentation algorithms. Finally, we highlight some research issues in performance analysis in medical imaging systems.

Summer Institute for Educational Research on Asian Americans. Final Performance Report (February 1, 1980-October 31, 1980).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkeley Unified School District, CA. Asian American Bilingual Center.

This performance report of the Summer Institute for Educational Research on Asian Americans summarizes and evaluates the activities and tasks completed from February 1 through October 31, 1980. The goal of the project was to increase the participation of Asian Americans in the field of educational research and development. Specifically, the…

Strategic planning for MyRA performance: A causal loop diagram approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abidin, Norhaslinda Zainal; Zaibidi, Nerda Zura; Karim, Khairah Nazurah

2017-10-01

The nexus of research and innovation in higher education are continually receiving worldwide priority attention. Hence, Malaysia has taken its move to enhance public universities as a center of excellence by introducing the status of Research University (RU). To inspire all universities towards becoming a research university, The Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) had revised an assessment called Malaysian Research Assessment Instrument (MyRA) to evaluate the performance of existence RUs, and other potential higher education institutions. The available spreadsheet tool to access MyRA performance is inadequate to support strategic planning. Since, higher education management is a complex system, in which components and their interactions are ever changing over time, there is a need to for an efficient approach to investigate system behavior and devise research management policies for the benefit of the institution itself and the higher education system. In this paper, we proposed a system dynamics simulation model to evaluate the impact of policies for obtaining the highest performance in MyRA assessment. Causal loop diagram is developed to investigate the relationship of various elements in research management, their inter-relationship that link together and their evolution of behavior over time.

Evaluating the Environmental Performance of Wood-Based Biofuels

Treesearch

Bruce Lippke; Richard Bergman; Adam Taylor; Maureen E. Puettmann

2012-01-01

The nonprofit Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) has been developing comprehensive environmental performance information on wood building materials consistent with life-cycle standards (http://www.corrim.org/). The articles published in this Special Issue of the Forest Products Journal extend the research by the...

Performances

PubMed

Mousavi Jarahi, Alireza; Keihani, Porya; Vaziri, Esmaiel; Feizabadi, Mansoureh

2018-05-26

Today, research is seen as an investment to promote innovation and maintain sustainable social-economic development in all societies. The growth of scientific products and the expansion of knowledge in different scientific fields have entailed more attention to assessments and the impact evaluation of both outcome and process of researchers in all fields. In light of this need, policymakers in the medical field have paid more attention to evaluating the outcomes of research in terms of its impact on the society using many different indicators. In this short communication, the performance of scholarly published scientific products are discussed and the indicators that measure such impacts are evaluated and recommendation is given to APJCP’ editorial board on how to align its activities toward achieving better impact and scientometric measures for the journal. Creative Commons Attribution License

UAS in the NAS Flight Test Series 4 Overview

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murphy, Jim

2016-01-01

Flight Test Series 4 (FT4) provides the researchers with an opportunity to expand on the data collected during the first flight tests. Following Flight Test Series 3, additional scripted encounters with different aircraft performance and sensors will be conducted. FT4 is presently planned for Spring of 2016 to ensure collection of data to support the validation of the final RTCA Phase 1 DAA (Detect and Avoid) Minimum Operational Performance Standards (MOPS). There are three research objectives associated with this goal: Evaluate the performance of the DAA system against cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft encounters Evaluate UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems) pilot performance in response to DAA maneuver guidance and alerting with live intruder encounters Evaluate TCAS/DAA (Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System/Detect and Avoid) interoperability. This flight test series will focus on only the Scripted Encounters configuration, supporting the collection of data to validate the interoperability of DAA and collision avoidance algorithms.

Assessment of masticatory performance by means of a color-changeable chewing gum.

PubMed

Tarkowska, Agnieszka; Katzer, Lukasz; Ahlers, Marcus Oliver

2017-01-01

Previous research determined the relevance of masticatory performance with regard to nutritional status, cognitive functions, or stress management. In addition, the measurement of masticatory efficiency contributes to the evaluation of therapeutic successes within the stomatognathic system. However, the question remains unanswered as to what extent modern techniques are able to reproduce the subtle differences in masticatory efficiency within various patient groups. The purpose of this review is to provide an extensive summary of the evaluation of masticatory performance by means of a color-changeable chewing gum with regard to its clinical relevance and applicability. A general overview describing the various methods available for this task has already been published. This review focuses in depth on the research findings available on the technique of measuring masticatory performance by means of color-changeable chewing gum. Described are the mechanism and the differentiability of the color change and methods to evaluate the color changes. Subsequently, research on masticatory performance is conducted with regard to patient age groups, the impact of general diseases and the effect of prosthetic and surgical treatment. The studies indicate that color-changeable chewing gum is a valid and reliable method for the evaluation of masticatory function. Apart from other methods, in clinical practice this technique can enhance dental diagnostics as well as the assessment of therapy outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Japan Prosthodontic Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In-Flight Validation of a Pilot Rating Scale for Evaluating Failure Transients in Electronic Flight Control Systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kalinowski, Kevin F.; Tucker, George E.; Moralez, Ernesto, III

2006-01-01

Engineering development and qualification of a Research Flight Control System (RFCS) for the Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concepts Airborne Laboratory (RASCAL) JUH-60A has motivated the development of a pilot rating scale for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems. The RASCAL RFCS includes a highly-reliable, dual-channel Servo Control Unit (SCU) to command and monitor the performance of the fly-by-wire actuators and protect against the effects of erroneous commands from the flexible, but single-thread Flight Control Computer. During the design phase of the RFCS, two piloted simulations were conducted on the Ames Research Center Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) to help define the required performance characteristics of the safety monitoring algorithms in the SCU. Simulated failures, including hard-over and slow-over commands, were injected into the command path, and the aircraft response and safety monitor performance were evaluated. A subjective Failure/Recovery Rating (F/RR) scale was developed as a means of quantifying the effects of the injected failures on the aircraft state and the degree of pilot effort required to safely recover the aircraft. A brief evaluation of the rating scale was also conducted on the Army/NASA CH-47B variable stability helicopter to confirm that the rating scale was likely to be equally applicable to in-flight evaluations. Following the initial research flight qualification of the RFCS in 2002, a flight test effort was begun to validate the performance of the safety monitors and to validate their design for the safe conduct of research flight testing. Simulated failures were injected into the SCU, and the F/RR scale was applied to assess the results. The results validate the performance of the monitors, and indicate that the Failure/Recovery Rating scale is a very useful tool for evaluating failure transients in fly-by-wire flight control systems.

78 FR 37226 - Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-20

... Implementation Study. OMB No.: 0970-0398. Description: The Office of Data Analysis, Research, and Evaluation (HHS... Planning, Research, and Evaluation (HHS/ACF/OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF... designed and implemented in the field, collect performance measure data for PREP programs, and assess the...

An analysis of alumni performance: A study of the quality of nursing education.

PubMed

Altuntaş, Serap; Baykal, Ülkü

2017-02-01

The professional performance level of their alumni is one of the quality indicators of educational institutions. Nursing education institutions can use their alumni's performance analysis results to enhance their curricula, eliminate deficiencies, improve the quality of education and graduate more highly qualified nurses. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and comparative study, which aimed to determine the professional performances of nurses who graduated from the same nursing faculty. The study sample included alumni of Turkey's first nursing faculty, part of the nation's first public university in Istanbul, and their administrative supervisors. The study data were collected using the self-assessment forms of 314 alumni who worked as bedside nurses in 36 Istanbul hospitals, and 314 evaluations by the 195 nurse managers who supervised them. The study's response rate was 82.6%. To collect the study data, the researchers created a performance evaluation form based on the relevant literature. The same form was administered both to the nurse managers and the alumni. The researchers obtained ethical board approval and official permissions from the relevant hospitals to conduct the study. The study data were analyzed by a statistics expert. According to the study results, the alumni's perceptions of themselves as well as the nurse managers' perceptions of the alumni were different from those of the other nurses with undergraduate degrees in terms of professional knowledge, expectations and ideals. The performance evaluation results showed that the alumni evaluated themselves more positively than their managers did. It was determined that there were highly significant differences (p=0.000) between the values provided by the five sub-dimensions of the scale and the total scale. In addition, the performance level was low in the sub-dimension focusing on research, and there was a significant difference in this sub-dimension (p=0.040). The study found that the alumni mainly had better evaluations of their own performances than their nurse managers, and that the research skills of the alumni should be enhanced. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RCTA capstone assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lennon, Craig; Bodt, Barry; Childers, Marshal; Dean, Robert; Oh, Jean; DiBerardino, Chip; Keegan, Terence

2015-05-01

The Army Research Laboratory's Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) is a program intended to change robots from tools that soldiers use into teammates with which soldiers can work. This requires the integration of fundamental and applied research in perception, artificial intelligence, and human-robot interaction. In October of 2014, the RCTA assessed progress towards integrating this research. This assessment was designed to evaluate the robot's performance when it used new capabilities to perform selected aspects of a mission. The assessed capabilities included the ability of the robot to: navigate semantically outdoors with respect to structures and landmarks, identify doors in the facades of buildings, and identify and track persons emerging from those doors. We present details of the mission-based vignettes that constituted the assessment, and evaluations of the robot's performance in these vignettes.

Spectral contents readout of birefringent sensor

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Redner, Alex S.

1989-01-01

The technical objective of this research program was to develop a birefringent sensor, capable of measuring strain/stress up to 2000 F and a readout system based on Spectral Contents analysis. As a result of the research work, a data acquisition system was developed, capable of measuring strain birefringence in a sensor at 2000 F, with multi-point static and dynamic capabilities. The system uses a dedicated spectral analyzer for evaluation of stress-birefringence and a PC-based readout. Several sensor methods were evaluated. Fused silica was found most satisfactory. In the final evaluation, measurements were performed up to 2000 F and the system performance exceeded expectations.

Comparison of Hard Surface and Soft Soil Impact Performance of a Crashworthy Composite Fuselage Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sareen, Ashish K.; Sparks, Chad; Mullins, B. R., Jr.; Fasanella, Edwin; Jackson, Karen

2002-01-01

A comparison of the soft soil and hard surface impact performance of a crashworthy composite fuselage concept has been performed. Specifically, comparisons of the peak acceleration values, pulse duration, and onset rate at specific locations on the fuselage were evaluated. In a prior research program, the composite fuselage section was impacted at 25 feet per second onto concrete at the Impact Dynamics Research Facility (IDRF) at NASA Langley Research Center. A soft soil test was conducted at the same impact velocity as a part of the NRTC/RITA Crashworthy and Energy Absorbing Structures project. In addition to comparisons of soft soil and hard surface test results, an MSC. Dytran dynamic finite element model was developed to evaluate the test analysis correlation. In addition, modeling parameters and techniques affecting test analysis correlation are discussed. Once correlated, the analytical methodology will be used in follow-on work to evaluate the specific energy absorption of various subfloor concepts for improved crash protection during hard surface and soft soil impacts.

Research progress of nano self - cleaning anti-fouling coatings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Y.; Zhao, Y. J.; Teng, J. L.; Wang, J. H.; Wu, L. S.; Zheng, Y. L.

2018-01-01

There are many methods of evaluating the performance of nano self-cleaning anti-fouling coatings, such as carbon blacking method, coating reflection coefficient method, glass microbead method, film method, contact angle and rolling angle method, organic degradation method, and the application of performance evaluation method in self-cleaning antifouling coating. For the more, the types of nano self-cleaning anti-fouling coatings based on aqueous media was described, such as photocatalytic self-cleaning coatings, silicone coatings, organic fluorine coatings, fluorosilicone coatings, fluorocarbon coatings, polysilazane self-cleaning coatings. The research and application of different kinds of nano self-cleaning antifouling coatings are anlysised, and the latest research results are summed.

Maintenance Operations Degradation of Airfield Pavement Markings

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

polyurea . 1.4 Research Questions To answer the problem presented, several questions need to be addressed. The first is whether or not rubber...suitable for use on airfields.  Further research is required. Cyrus and Frierson 2006 Polyurea  The material showed poor performance in...evaluating polyurea and one evaluating polyester. Both studies were undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of polyurea or polyester as a potential

Development of a Rubric for Collegiate Jazz Improvisation Performance Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Kendall Ryan

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a jazz improvisation rubric for the evaluation of collegiate jazz improvisation. To create this measure, research objectives were devised to investigate the aurally-observed performer-controlled components of improvisation, which aurally-observed components should be evaluated in an improvisatory…

Measures of Searcher Performance: A Psychometric Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wildemuth, Barbara M.; And Others

1993-01-01

Describes a study of medical students that was conducted to evaluate measures of performance on factual searches of INQUIRER, a full-text database in microbiology. Measures relating to recall, precision, search term overlap, and efficiency are discussed; reliability and construct validity are considered; and implications for future research are…

75 FR 16747 - Evaluation of State Coastal Management Programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-02

... Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) announces its intent to evaluate the performance of the... CZMA requires continuing review of the performance of states with respect to coastal program... the Secretary of Commerce, and adhered to the terms of financial assistance awards funded under the...

45 CFR 2522.700 - How does evaluation differ from performance measurement?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... progress, evaluation uses scientifically-based research methods to assess the effectiveness of programs by... the reading ability of students in a program over time to a similar group of students not... example, a performance measure for a literacy program may include the percentage of students receiving...

Leadership Styles of Russian Enterprise Managers: The Effect of Transactional and Transformational Behaviors on Employees' Evaluation of Managerial Performance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ardichvili, Alexander

2001-01-01

Identifies leadership styles of Russian enterprise managers and determines how theses styles are related to employees' subjective evaluation of managerial performance. Highlights include laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership; international leadership research; and implications for Russian leadership…

ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH BRIEF: LONG-TERM PERFORMANCE OF PERMEABLE REACTIVE BARRIERS USING ZERO-VALENT IRON: AN EVALUATION AT TWO SITES

EPA Science Inventory

Geochemical and microbiological factors that control long-term performance of subsurface permeable reactive barriers were evaluated at the Elizabeth City, NC and the Denver Federal Center, CO sites. These groundwater treatment systems use zero-valent iron filings to intercept an...

MnROAD cells 16-23 (phase II) : forensic investigation into recycled unbound base and asphalt surface materials.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-06-01

This report presents the findings from an eight-year performance evaluation of eight cells (Cells 16-23) built at the Minnesota Road Research Facility (MnROAD) in 2008. The constructed cells were used for two performance evaluation studies of: 1) unb...

Evaluation of performance and maximum length of continuous decks in bridges : part 1.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-06-01

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance history of continuous bridge decks in the State of Georgia, to determine why the current design detail works, to recommend a new design detail, and to recommend the maximum and/or optimum l...

The Development of Performance Evaluation for Green Schools in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Shun-Mei

2009-01-01

The purpose of this research is to develop a performance evaluation instrument for green schools in Taiwan. The instrument is designed according to three sets of criteria: participation and partnership, reflection and learning, and ecological consideration. It also covers three operational dimensions: learning context, administration, and…

77 FR 54783 - Improving Access to Mental Health Services for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Families

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-05

... addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs shall update its management performance evaluation system to link performance to meeting mental health service demand. Sec. 5. Improved Research and Development. (a... sharing between agencies and academic and industry researchers to accelerate progress and reduce redundant...

Analysis of Publications and Citations from a Geophysics Research Institute.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frohlich, Cliff; Resler, Lynn

2001-01-01

Performs an analysis of all 1128 publications produced by scientists during their employment at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, thus assessing research performance using as bibliometric indicators such statistics as publications per year, citations per paper, and cited half-lives. Evaluates five different methods for determining…

The Impact of Generic Competencies on Workplace Performance. Review of Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moy, Janelle

The impact of generic competencies on workplace performance was examined through a review of literature and evaluation research which focused on conceptualization and piloting of the following key competencies in Australia in 1993-1998: collecting, analyzing, and organizing information; communicating ideas and information; planning and organizing…

Performance evaluation of candidate space suit elements for the next generation orbital EMU

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

West, Philip R.; Trausch, Stephanie V.

1992-01-01

The AX-5 all metallic, multibearing technologies developed at the Ames Research Center and the Mk III fabric and metallic technologies developed at the Johnson Space Center were evaluated using the current Space Shuttle space suit technologies as a baseline. Manned evaluations were performed in the Weightless Environment Training Facility and KC-135 zero-gravity aircraft. Joint torque, range, cycle life, and environmental protection characteristics were analyzed during unmanned tests. Both numerical results and test subject comments on performance are presented.

Preparing students for research: faculty/librarian collaboration in a pre-doctoral physical therapy research course.

PubMed

Brooks, Salome V; Bigelow, Susan

2015-12-01

In this article, guest writers Susan Bigelow and Dr Salome Brooks from Springfield College, Massachusetts, present an overview of their evaluative research study in which a faculty professor and the liaison librarian collaborated to develop an information literacy course entitled Physical Therapy (PT) and Health care Research Skills, in order to teach necessary information literacy skills to upper-level undergraduate PT students. Triangulation of the Physical Therapy and Information Literacy standards in alignment with the course objectives strengthened the collaboration, course development and expectations of student performance. Student performance was assessed through formal and expected evaluative means, and the preliminary evidence suggests some key successes in the course outcomes. © 2015 Health Libraries Group.

Measuring Individual Performance with Comprehensive Bibliometric Reports as an Alternative to h-Index Values

PubMed Central

2018-01-01

The h-index is frequently used to measure the performance of single scientists in Korea (and beyond). No single indicator alone, however, is able to provide a stable and complete assessment of performance. The Stata command bibrep.ado is introduced which automatically produces bibliometric reports for single researchers (senior researchers working in the natural or life sciences). The user of the command receives a comprehensive bibliometric report which can be used in research evaluation instead of the h-index. PMID:29713257

Towards Reliable Evaluation of Anomaly-Based Intrusion Detection Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Viswanathan, Arun

2012-01-01

This report describes the results of research into the effects of environment-induced noise on the evaluation process for anomaly detectors in the cyber security domain. This research was conducted during a 10-week summer internship program from the 19th of August, 2012 to the 23rd of August, 2012 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The research performed lies within the larger context of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) Smart Grid cyber security project, a Department of Energy (DoE) funded effort involving the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California/ Information Sciences Institute. The results of the present effort constitute an important contribution towards building more rigorous evaluation paradigms for anomaly-based intrusion detectors in complex cyber physical systems such as the Smart Grid. Anomaly detection is a key strategy for cyber intrusion detection and operates by identifying deviations from profiles of nominal behavior and are thus conceptually appealing for detecting "novel" attacks. Evaluating the performance of such a detector requires assessing: (a) how well it captures the model of nominal behavior, and (b) how well it detects attacks (deviations from normality). Current evaluation methods produce results that give insufficient insight into the operation of a detector, inevitably resulting in a significantly poor characterization of a detectors performance. In this work, we first describe a preliminary taxonomy of key evaluation constructs that are necessary for establishing rigor in the evaluation regime of an anomaly detector. We then focus on clarifying the impact of the operational environment on the manifestation of attacks in monitored data. We show how dynamic and evolving environments can introduce high variability into the data stream perturbing detector performance. Prior research has focused on understanding the impact of this variability in training data for anomaly detectors, but has ignored variability in the attack signal that will necessarily affect the evaluation results for such detectors. We posit that current evaluation strategies implicitly assume that attacks always manifest in a stable manner; we show that this assumption is wrong. We describe a simple experiment to demonstrate the effects of environmental noise on the manifestation of attacks in data and introduce the notion of attack manifestation stability. Finally, we argue that conclusions about detector performance will be unreliable and incomplete if the stability of attack manifestation is not accounted for in the evaluation strategy.

An Evaluation of Minority and Female Performance in Army Rotary Wing Aviation Training. Volume II: Evaluation Report. Research Report 1319.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, William R.; And Others

An evaluation was conducted of minority (Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian) and female performance in the Army's Initial Entry Rotary Wing flight training program. Each minority group was compared to a matched sample of majority students. The groups were matched on several test scores, education level, age, rank, and source of entry. The…

Facilities | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

detailed chemical characterization, performance property measurements, and stability research. Photo of Technology Evaluation Center This off-network data center provides secure management, storage, and processing

Publication performance and research output of Neurology and Neurosurgery training institutes in India: A 5-year analysis.

PubMed

Madhugiri, Venkatesh S

2015-01-01

Scientific publications are a reflection of the quality of the clinical and academic work being carried out in an institute. Training in the process of research and scientific writing are important components of the residency curriculum. The publication performance and research output of institutes training residents in neurology and neurosurgery were evaluated. Internet-based study. This study was based on the data available on the websites of the Medical Council of India and the National Board of Examinations. The PubMed search interface was used to determine the publication output of institutes over the past 5 years (2010-2014). Google Scholar was used to determine the citation performance of each paper. The publication parameters were normalized to the number of faculty members in each institute as listed on the institutional web page. The normalized publication performance for an institute was computed by comparing the figures for that institute with the national average. Institutes could be ranked on several criteria. There was a high degree of clustering of output from the top 5% of the institutes. About 13% of the neurology intake and 30.9% of neurosurgery intake over the past 5 years has been into the institutes that have not published a single paper during this period. This evaluation of the publication performance and research output of neurology and neurosurgery training institutes would serve as a baseline data for future evaluations and comparisons. The absence of any publication and research output from several training institutes is a matter of concern.

Performance measures for multi-vehicle allowance shuttle transit (MAST) system.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-09-01

This study investigates the performance measures for multi-vehicle mobility allowance shuttle : transit (MAST) system. Particularly, researchers were primarily concerned with two measures, : waiting time and ride time, to evaluate the performance and...

Teaching Effectiveness, Impression Management, and Dysfunctional Behavior: Student Evaluation of Teaching Control Data

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crumbley, D. Larry; Reichelt, Kenneth J.

2009-01-01

Purpose: Student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires are used in many countries, although much current research questions the validity of these surveys. US research indicates that more than 90 percent of academic accounting departments use this performance measurement. This paper aims to focus on the validity of SET data.…

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

Neuhauser, K.

Through discussion of five case studies (test homes), this project evaluates strategies to elevate the performance of existing homes to a level commensurate with best-in-class implementation of high-performance new construction homes. The test homes featured in this research activity participated in Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) Pilot Program sponsored by the electric and gas utility National Grid in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Building enclosure retrofit strategies are evaluated for impact on durability and indoor air quality in addition to energy performance. Evaluation of strategies is structured around the critical control functions of water, airflow, vapor flow, and thermal control. The aimmore » of the research project is to develop guidance that could serve as a foundation for wider adoption of high performance, 'deep' retrofit work. The project will identify risk factors endemic to advanced retrofit in the context of the general building type, configuration and vintage encountered in the National Grid DER Pilot. Results for the test homes are based on observation and performance testing of recently completed projects. Additional observation would be needed to fully gauge long-term energy performance, durability, and occupant comfort.« less

A 5-year scientometric analysis of research centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

PubMed

Yazdani, Kamran; Rahimi-Movaghar, Afarin; Nedjat, Saharnaz; Ghalichi, Leila; Khalili, Malahat

2015-01-01

Since Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) has the oldest and highest number of research centers among all Iranian medical universities, this study was conducted to evaluate scientific output of research centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) using scientometric indices and the affecting factors. Moreover, a number of scientometric indicators were introduced. This cross-sectional study was performed to evaluate a 5-year scientific performance of research centers of TUMS. Data were collected through questionnaires, annual evaluation reports of the Ministry of Health, and also from Scopus database. We used appropriate measures of central tendency and variation for descriptive analyses. Moreover, uni-and multi-variable linear regression were used to evaluate the effect of independent factors on the scientific output of the centers. The medians of the numbers of papers and books during a 5-year period were 150.5 and 2.5 respectively. The median of the "articles per researcher" was 19.1. Based on multiple linear regression, younger age centers (p=0.001), having a separate budget line (p=0.016), and number of research personnel (p<0.001) had a direct significant correlation with the number of articles while real properties had a reverse significant correlation with it (p=0.004). The results can help policy makers and research managers to allocate sufficient resources to improve current situation of the centers. Newly adopted and effective scientometric indices are is suggested to be used to evaluate scientific outputs and functions of these centers.

Olympic Medals as Fruits of Comparison? Assimilation and Contrast in Sequential Performance Judgments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Damisch, Lysann; Mussweiler, Thomas; Plessner, Henning

2006-01-01

The authors investigated the evaluative consequences of sequential performance judgments. Recent social comparison research has suggested that performance judgments may be influenced by judgments about a preceding performance. Specifically, performance judgments may be assimilated to judgments of the preceding performance if judges focus on…

Mindfulness, burnout, and effects on performance evaluations in internal medicine residents

PubMed Central

Braun, Sarah E; Auerbach, Stephen M; Rybarczyk, Bruce; Lee, Bennett; Call, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Purpose Burnout has been documented at high levels in medical residents with negative effects on performance. Some dispositional qualities, like mindfulness, may protect against burnout. The purpose of the present study was to assess burnout prevalence among internal medicine residents at a single institution, examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout, and provide preliminary findings on the relation between burnout and performance evaluations in internal medicine residents. Methods Residents (n = 38) completed validated measures of burnout at three time points separated by 2 months and a validated measure of dispositional mindfulness at baseline. Program director end-of-year performance evaluations were also obtained on 22 milestones used to evaluate internal medicine resident performance; notably, these milestones have not yet been validated for research purposes; therefore, the investigation here is exploratory. Results Overall, 71.1% (n = 27) of the residents met criteria for burnout during the study. Lower scores on the “acting with awareness” facet of dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted meeting burnout criteria χ2(5) = 11.88, p = 0.04. Lastly, meeting burnout criteria significantly predicted performance on three of the performance milestones, with positive effects on milestones from the “system-based practices” and “professionalism” domains and negative effects on a milestone from the “patient care” domain. Conclusion Burnout rates were high in this sample of internal medicine residents and rates were consistent with other reports of burnout during medical residency. Dispositional mindfulness was supported as a protective factor against burnout. Importantly, results from the exploratory investigation of the relationship between burnout and resident evaluations suggested that burnout may improve performance on some domains of resident evaluations while compromising performance on other domains. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. PMID:28860889

Mindfulness, burnout, and effects on performance evaluations in internal medicine residents.

PubMed

Braun, Sarah E; Auerbach, Stephen M; Rybarczyk, Bruce; Lee, Bennett; Call, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Burnout has been documented at high levels in medical residents with negative effects on performance. Some dispositional qualities, like mindfulness, may protect against burnout. The purpose of the present study was to assess burnout prevalence among internal medicine residents at a single institution, examine the relationship between mindfulness and burnout, and provide preliminary findings on the relation between burnout and performance evaluations in internal medicine residents. Residents (n = 38) completed validated measures of burnout at three time points separated by 2 months and a validated measure of dispositional mindfulness at baseline. Program director end-of-year performance evaluations were also obtained on 22 milestones used to evaluate internal medicine resident performance; notably, these milestones have not yet been validated for research purposes; therefore, the investigation here is exploratory. Overall, 71.1% (n = 27) of the residents met criteria for burnout during the study. Lower scores on the "acting with awareness" facet of dispositional mindfulness significantly predicted meeting burnout criteria χ 2 (5) = 11.88, p = 0.04. Lastly, meeting burnout criteria significantly predicted performance on three of the performance milestones, with positive effects on milestones from the "system-based practices" and "professionalism" domains and negative effects on a milestone from the "patient care" domain. Burnout rates were high in this sample of internal medicine residents and rates were consistent with other reports of burnout during medical residency. Dispositional mindfulness was supported as a protective factor against burnout. Importantly, results from the exploratory investigation of the relationship between burnout and resident evaluations suggested that burnout may improve performance on some domains of resident evaluations while compromising performance on other domains. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

A qualitative evaluation of the 2005-2011 National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention Program.

PubMed

Holland, Kristin M; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M; Dela Cruz, Jason; Massetti, Greta M; Mahendra, Reshma

2015-12-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) funded eight National Academic Centers of Excellence (ACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2005 to 2010 and two Urban Partnership Academic Centers of Excellence (UPACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2006 to 2011. The ACEs and UPACEs constitute DVP's 2005-2011 ACE Program. ACE Program goals include partnering with communities to promote youth violence (YV) prevention and fostering connections between research and community practice. This article describes a qualitative evaluation of the 2005-2011 ACE Program using an innovative approach for collecting and analyzing data from multiple large research centers via a web-based Information System (ACE-IS). The ACE-IS was established as an efficient mechanism to collect and document ACE research and programmatic activities. Performance indicators for the ACE Program were established in an ACE Program logic model. Data on performance indicators were collected through the ACE-IS biannually. Data assessed Centers' ability to develop, implement, and evaluate YV prevention activities. Performance indicator data demonstrate substantial progress on Centers' research in YV risk and protective factors, community partnerships, and other accomplishments. Findings provide important lessons learned, illustrate progress made by the Centers, and point to new directions for YV prevention research and programmatic efforts. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Personality traits affect teaching performance of attending physicians: results of a multi-center observational study.

PubMed

Scheepers, Renée A; Lombarts, Kiki M J M H; van Aken, Marcel A G; Heineman, Maas Jan; Arah, Onyebuchi A

2014-01-01

Worldwide, attending physicians train residents to become competent providers of patient care. To assess adequate training, attending physicians are increasingly evaluated on their teaching performance. Research suggests that personality traits affect teaching performance, consistent with studied effects of personality traits on job performance and academic performance in medicine. However, up till date, research in clinical teaching practice did not use quantitative methods and did not account for specialty differences. We empirically studied the relationship of attending physicians' personality traits with their teaching performance across surgical and non-surgical specialties. We conducted a survey across surgical and non-surgical specialties in eighteen medical centers in the Netherlands. Residents evaluated attending physicians' overall teaching performance, as well as the specific domains learning climate, professional attitude, communication, evaluation, and feedback, using the validated 21-item System for Evaluation of Teaching Qualities (SETQ). Attending physicians self-evaluated their personality traits on a 5-point scale using the validated 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI), yielding the Five Factor model: extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness and openness. Overall, 622 (77%) attending physicians and 549 (68%) residents participated. Extraversion positively related to overall teaching performance (regression coefficient, B: 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.10, P = 0.02). Openness was negatively associated with scores on feedback for surgical specialties only (B: -0.10, 95% CI: -0.15 to -0.05, P<0.001) and conscientiousness was positively related to evaluation of residents for non-surgical specialties only (B: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.22, p = 0.01). Extraverted attending physicians were consistently evaluated as better supervisors. Surgical attending physicians who display high levels of openness were evaluated as less adequate feedback-givers. Non-surgical attending physicians who were conscientious seem to be good at evaluating residents. These insights could contribute to future work on development paths of attending physicians in medical education.

Personality Traits Affect Teaching Performance of Attending Physicians: Results of a Multi-Center Observational Study

PubMed Central

Scheepers, Renée A.; Lombarts, Kiki M. J. M. H.; van Aken, Marcel A. G.; Heineman, Maas Jan; Arah, Onyebuchi A.

2014-01-01

Background Worldwide, attending physicians train residents to become competent providers of patient care. To assess adequate training, attending physicians are increasingly evaluated on their teaching performance. Research suggests that personality traits affect teaching performance, consistent with studied effects of personality traits on job performance and academic performance in medicine. However, up till date, research in clinical teaching practice did not use quantitative methods and did not account for specialty differences. We empirically studied the relationship of attending physicians' personality traits with their teaching performance across surgical and non-surgical specialties. Method We conducted a survey across surgical and non-surgical specialties in eighteen medical centers in the Netherlands. Residents evaluated attending physicians' overall teaching performance, as well as the specific domains learning climate, professional attitude, communication, evaluation, and feedback, using the validated 21-item System for Evaluation of Teaching Qualities (SETQ). Attending physicians self-evaluated their personality traits on a 5-point scale using the validated 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI), yielding the Five Factor model: extraversion, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness and openness. Results Overall, 622 (77%) attending physicians and 549 (68%) residents participated. Extraversion positively related to overall teaching performance (regression coefficient, B: 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01 to 0.10, P = 0.02). Openness was negatively associated with scores on feedback for surgical specialties only (B: −0.10, 95% CI: −0.15 to −0.05, P<0.001) and conscientiousness was positively related to evaluation of residents for non-surgical specialties only (B: 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03 to 0.22, p = 0.01). Conclusions Extraverted attending physicians were consistently evaluated as better supervisors. Surgical attending physicians who display high levels of openness were evaluated as less adequate feedback-givers. Non-surgical attending physicians who were conscientious seem to be good at evaluating residents. These insights could contribute to future work on development paths of attending physicians in medical education. PMID:24844725

The relationship between the managerial skills and results of "performance evaluation "tool among nursing managers in teaching hospitals of Iran University of Medical Science.

PubMed

Isfahani, Haleh Mousavi; Aryankhesal, Aidin; Haghani, Hamid

2014-09-25

Performance of different organizations, such as hospitals is mainly influenced by their managers' performance. Nursing managers have an important role in hospital performance and their managerial skills can improve the quality of the services. Hence, the present study was conducted in order to assess the relationship between the managerial skills and the results of their performance evaluation in Teaching Hospitals of Iran University of Medical Science in 2013. The research used the cross sectional method in 2013. It was done by distributing a managerial skills assessment questionnaire, with close-ended questions in 5 choice Likert scale, among 181 managers and head nurses of hospitals of Iran university of Medical Sciences; among which 131 answered the questions. Another data collection tools was a forms to record evaluation marks from the personnel records. We used Pearson and Spearman correlation tests and SPSS for analysis and description (frequency, mean and standard deviation). Results showed that the managerial skills of the nursing mangers were fair (2.57 out of 5) and the results of the performance evaluation were in a good condition (98.44). The mangers' evaluation results and the managerial skills scores were not in a meaningful correlation (r=0.047 np=0.856). The research showed no correlation between different domains of managerial skills and the performance evaluation marks: decision making skills (r=0.074 and p=0.399), leadership (correlation coefficient 0.028 and p=0.654), motivation (correlation coefficient 0.118 and p=0.163), communication  (correlation coefficient 0.116 and p=0.122), systematic thinking  (correlation coefficient 0.028 and p=0.828), time management (correlation coefficient 0.077 and p=0.401) and strategic thinking  (correlation coefficient 0.041 and p=0.756). Lack of any correlation and relation between managers' managerial skills and their performance evaluation results shows need to a fundamental revision at managers' performance evaluation form.

Collected notes from the Benchmarks and Metrics Workshop

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

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

1991-01-01

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

Functional assessment and performance evaluation for assistive robotic manipulators: Literature review

PubMed Central

Chung, Cheng-Shiu; Wang, Hongwu; Cooper, Rory A.

2013-01-01

Context The user interface development of assistive robotic manipulators can be traced back to the 1960s. Studies include kinematic designs, cost-efficiency, user experience involvements, and performance evaluation. This paper is to review studies conducted with clinical trials using activities of daily living (ADLs) tasks to evaluate performance categorized using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) frameworks, in order to give the scope of current research and provide suggestions for future studies. Methods We conducted a literature search of assistive robotic manipulators from 1970 to 2012 in PubMed, Google Scholar, and University of Pittsburgh Library System – PITTCat. Results Twenty relevant studies were identified. Conclusion Studies were separated into two broad categories: user task preferences and user-interface performance measurements of commercialized and developing assistive robotic manipulators. The outcome measures and ICF codes associated with the performance evaluations are reported. Suggestions for the future studies include (1) standardized ADL tasks for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of task efficiency and performance to build comparable measures between research groups, (2) studies relevant to the tasks from user priority lists and ICF codes, and (3) appropriate clinical functional assessment tests with consideration of constraints in assistive robotic manipulator user interfaces. In addition, these outcome measures will help physicians and therapists build standardized tools while prescribing and assessing assistive robotic manipulators. PMID:23820143

Vibration-based monitoring for performance evaluation of flexible civil structures in Japan

PubMed Central

FUJINO, Yozo

2018-01-01

The vibration-based monitoring of flexible civil structures and performance evaluation from this monitoring are reviewed, with an emphasis on research and practice in Japan and the author’s experiences. Some new findings and unexpected vibrations from the monitoring of real bridges and buildings are reported to emphasize the importance of monitoring. Future developments and applications of vibration-based monitoring to civil infrastructure management are also described. Many examples are taken from the author’s past 30 years’ experience of research on bridge dynamics. PMID:29434082

Robust Adaptive Data Encoding and Restoration

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Park, Stephen K.; Rahman, Zia-ur; Halyo, Nesim

2000-01-01

This is the final report for NASA cooperative agreement and covers the period from 01 October, 1997 to 11 April, 2000. The research during this period was performed in three primary, but related, areas. 1. Evaluation of integrated information adaptive imaging. 2. Improvements in memory utilization and performance of the multiscale retinex with color restoration (MSRCR). 3. Commencement of a theoretical study to evaluate the non-linear retinex image enhancement technique. The research resulted in several publications, and an intellectual property disclosure to the NASA patent council in May, 1999.

Evaluating Behaviorally Oriented Aviation Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) Training and Programs: Methods, Results, and Conclusions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, James C.; Thomas, Robert L., III

2003-01-01

Assessment of the impact of Aviation Resource Management Programs on aviation culture and performance has compelled a considerable body of research (Taylor & Robertson, 1995; Taylor, 1998; Taylor & Patankar, 2001). In recent years new methods have been applied to the problem of maintenance error precipitated by factors such as the need for self-assessment of communication and trust. The present study - 2002 -- is an extension of that past work. This research project was designed as the conclusion of a larger effort to help understand, evaluate and validate the impact of Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) training programs, and other MRM interventions on participant attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and ultimately on enhanced safety performance. It includes research and development of evaluation methodology as well as examination of psychological constructs and correlates of maintainer performance. In particular, during 2002, three issues were addressed. First, the evaluation of two (independent & different) MRM programs for changing behaviors was undertaken. In one case we were able to further apply the approach to measuring written communication developed during 2001 (Taylor, 2002; Taylor & Thomas, 2003). Second, the MRM/TOQ surveys were made available for completion on the internet. The responses from these on-line surveys were automatically linked to a results calculator (like the one developed and described in Taylor, 2002) to aid industry users in analyzing and evaluating their local survey data on the internet. Third, the main trends and themes from our research about MRM programs over the past dozen years were reviewed.

Ground truth and benchmarks for performance evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

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

2003-09-01

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

75 FR 42068 - Evaluation of State Coastal Management Programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-20

...) announces its intent to evaluate the performance of the Elkhorn Slough (California) National Estuarine... Secretary of Commerce, and adhered to the terms of financial assistance awards funded under the CZMA. Each..., Watsonville, California. ADDRESSES: Copies of the State's most recent performance reports, as well as OCRM's...

76 FR 46723 - Evaluation of State Coastal Management Programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-03

... Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) announces its intent to evaluate the performance..., subpart L. The CZMA requires continuing review of the performance of states with respect to coastal... approved by the Secretary of Commerce, and adhered to the terms of financial assistance awards funded under...

Evaluation of lightweight high performance concrete in bulb-T beams and decks in two bridges on Route 33 in Virginia.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-01-01

Lightweight high performance concrete (LWHPC) is expected to provide high strength and high durability along with reduced weight. The purpose of this research was to evaluate and compare the prestressed LWHPC bulb-T beams and decks in two bridge stru...

The Evaluation of Strength Training and Body Plyometric Effects on the Male Basketball Players

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bayram, Metin

2016-01-01

This research evaluated the effects of resistance training with upper body plyometric effects on the performance of male basketball players. Sixteen males in the physical education and sport science faculty of Ataturk University were randomly determined into two groups. The experimental group performed a combined strength and plyometric training…

An Agency Theory Perspective on Student Performance Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Michael E.; Zsidisin, George A.; Adams, Laural L.

2005-01-01

The emphasis in recent research on the responsibility of college and university business instructors to prepare students for future employment underscores a need to refine the evaluation of student performance. In this article, an agency theory framework is used to understand the trade-offs that may be involved in the selection of various…

Development of a model performance-based sign sheeting specification based on the evaluation of nighttime traffic signs using legibility and eye-tracker data.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-09-01

This project focused on the evaluation of traffic sign sheeting performance in terms of meeting the nighttime : driver needs. The goal was to develop a nighttime driver needs specification for traffic signs. The : researchers used nighttime sign legi...

Simulation and Flight Test Capability for Testing Prototype Sense and Avoid System Elements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Howell, Charles T.; Stock, Todd M.; Verstynen, Harry A.; Wehner, Paul J.

2012-01-01

NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) and The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) have developed, and successfully demonstrated, an integrated simulation-to-flight capability for evaluating sense and avoid (SAA) system elements. This integrated capability consists of a MITRE developed fast-time computer simulation for evaluating SAA algorithms, and a NASA LaRC surrogate unmanned aircraft system (UAS) equipped to support hardware and software in-the-loop evaluation of SAA system elements (e.g., algorithms, sensors, architecture, communications, autonomous systems), concepts, and procedures. The fast-time computer simulation subjects algorithms to simulated flight encounters/ conditions and generates a fitness report that records strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance. Reviewed algorithms (and their fitness report) are then transferred to NASA LaRC where additional (joint) airworthiness evaluations are performed on the candidate SAA system-element configurations, concepts, and/or procedures of interest; software and hardware components are integrated into the Surrogate UAS research systems; and flight safety and mission planning activities are completed. Onboard the Surrogate UAS, candidate SAA system element configurations, concepts, and/or procedures are subjected to flight evaluations and in-flight performance is monitored. The Surrogate UAS, which can be controlled remotely via generic Ground Station uplink or automatically via onboard systems, operates with a NASA Safety Pilot/Pilot in Command onboard to permit safe operations in mixed airspace with manned aircraft. An end-to-end demonstration of a typical application of the capability was performed in non-exclusionary airspace in October 2011; additional research, development, flight testing, and evaluation efforts using this integrated capability are planned throughout fiscal year 2012 and 2013.

Development of an Experiment High Performance Nozzle Research Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

As proposed in the above OAI/NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) Co-Operative Agreement the objective of the work was to provide consultation and assistance to the NASA GRC GTX Rocket Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) Program Team in planning and developing requirements, scale model concepts, and plans for an experimental nozzle research program. The GTX was one of the launch vehicle concepts being studied as a possible future replacement for the aging NASA Space Shuttle, and was one RBCC element in the ongoing NASA Access to Space R&D Program (Reference 1). The ultimate program objective was the development of an appropriate experimental research program to evaluate and validate proposed nozzle concepts, and thereby result in the optimization of a high performance nozzle for the GTX launch vehicle. Included in this task were the identification of appropriate existing test facilities, development of requirements for new non-existent test rigs and fixtures, develop scale nozzle model concepts, and propose corresponding test plans. Also included were the evaluation of originally proposed and alternate nozzle designs (in-house and contractor), evaluation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study results, and make recommendations for geometric changes to result in improved nozzle thrust coefficient performance (Cfg).

Development and Performance Verification of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors in High Temperature Engine Environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adamovsky, Grigory; Mackey, Jeffrey R.; Kren, Lawrence A.; Floyd, Bertram M.; Elam, Kristie A.; Martinez, Martel

2014-01-01

A High Temperature Fiber Optic Sensor (HTFOS) has been developed at NASA Glenn Research Center for aircraft engine applications. After fabrication and preliminary in-house performance evaluation, the HTFOS was tested in an engine environment at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. The engine tests enabled the performance of the HTFOS in real engine environments to be evaluated along with the ability of the sensor to respond to changes in the engine's operating condition. Data were collected prior, during, and after each test in order to observe the change in temperature from ambient to each of the various test point levels. An adequate amount of data was collected and analyzed to satisfy the research team that HTFOS operates properly while the engine was running. Temperature measurements made by HTFOS while the engine was running agreed with those anticipated.

Trend of knowledge production of research centers in the field of medical sciences in iran.

PubMed

Falahat, K; Eftekhari, Mb; Habibi, E; Djalalinia, Sh; Peykari, N; Owlia, P; Malekafzali, H; Ghanei, M; Mojarrab, Sh

2013-01-01

Establishment of medical research centers at universities and health-related organizations and annually evaluation of their research activities was one of the strategic policies which followed by governmental organization in last decade in order to strengthening the connections between health research system and health system. The aim of this study is to scrutinize the role of medical research centers in medical science production in Iran. This study is a cross sectional which has been performed based on existing reports on national scientometrics and evaluation results of research performance of medical research centers between years 2001 to 2010. During last decade number of medical research centers increased from 53 in 2001 to 359 in 2010. Simultaneous scientific output of medical research centers has been increased especially articles indexed in ISI (web of science). Proper policy implementation in the field of health research system during last decades led to improving capacity building and growth knowledge production of medical science in recent years in Iran. The process embedding research into the health systems requires planning up until research products improves health outcomes and health equity in country.

Association between social factors and performance during Functional Capacity Evaluations: a systematic review.

PubMed

Ansuategui Echeita, Jone; van Holland, Berry J; Gross, Douglas P; Kool, Jan; Oesch, Peter; Trippolini, Maurizio A; Reneman, Michiel F

2018-03-09

Determine the association of different social factors with Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) performance in adults. A systematic literature search was performed in MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PsycINFO electronic databases. Studies were eligible if they studied social factor's association with the performance of adults undergoing FCE. Studies were assessed on methodological quality and quality of evidence. The review was performed using best-evidence synthesis methods. Thirteen studies were eligible and 11 social factors were studied. Considerable heterogeneity regarding measurements, populations, and methods existed among the studies. High quality of evidence was found for the association of FCE performance with the country of FCE and examiner's fear behavior; moderate quality of evidence with previous job salary; and low or very low quality of evidence with compensation status, litigation status, type of instruction, time of day (workday), primary or mother language, and ethnicity. Other social factors were not studied. Evidence for associations of various social factors with FCE performance was found, but robust conclusions about the strength of the associations cannot be made. Quality of evidence ranged from high to very low. Further research on social factors, also within a biopsychosocial context, is necessary to provide a better understanding of FCE performance. Implications for Rehabilitation Research on Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) performance and its association with biopsychosocial factors have scarcely addressed the impact of social factors, limiting full understanding of FCE results. The social factors, healthcare (examiner's fear behavior and type of instruction), personal or cultural systems (country of FCE, primary or mother language, and ethnicity), workplace system (previous job salary, time of day (workday)), and legislative and insurance system (compensation and litigation status), have a bearing in FCE performance. Better understanding of factors associating with functional capacity provide insights in FCE, allowing clinicians to improve the evaluations and interpretations of the assessment and better design the rehabilitation program. Better understanding of factors that influence FCE performance, and of unstudied factors, will allow researchers guidance to further investigate the construct of functional capacity.

Performance Appraisal in Research Libraries. SPEC Kit 140.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Association of Research Libraries, Washington, DC. Office of Management Studies.

This kit and flyer produced by the Systems and Procedures Exchange Center of the Association of Research Libraries provides documents submitted by 14 universities that are used in the performance evaluation of professional library staff. Commentary based on a thorough review of documents submitted by 60 libraries includes an overview of the…

Post-Graduate Performance, an Academic Comparison Evaluating Situating Learning and Law School Acceptance Scores

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Traverse, Maria A.

2012-01-01

Research on post-graduate performance, pertaining to law school graduates, indicates that success in the legal profession is attributable to more than the theoretical content or cognitive knowledge obtained through educational curricula. Research suggests that the combination of creative and analytic thinking skills contributes to a higher rate of…

Job Performance Aids: Research and Technology State-of-the-Art. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booher, Harold R.

Conducted as part of a major effort to test and evaluate Job Performance Aids (JPA) and their integration with Navy personnel and training systems, this study systematically reviewed and organized existing JPA techniques, related research data, and various applicable principles and concepts. One hundred and one JPA systems and techniques were…

Feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness of patient participation at bedside shift reporting: mixed-method research protocol.

PubMed

Malfait, Simon; Eeckloo, Kristof; Lust, Elisa; Van Biesen, Wim; Van Hecke, Ann

2017-02-01

To evaluate the feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness of bedside shift reporting in a minimum of five interventions and five control wards. Hospitals continually improve their quality of care. Next to improvements in clinical performance, more patient participation is stimulated through different methods. Methods to enhance patient participation such as bedside shift reporting lack rigorously performed research to determine their feasibility, appropriateness, meaningfulness and effectiveness. Small-scale research and a previous pilot study indicate that bedside shift reporting improves patient participation, nurse-nurse communication and nurse-patient communication. The development, implementation and evaluation of bedside shift report are based on the Medical Research Council framework for complex interventions in health care. A matched, controlled, mixed-method, longitudinal study design will be used. The Feasibility-Appropriateness-Meaningfulness-Effectiveness framework will be applied for the quantitative and qualitative evaluation of bedside shift report. A tailored intervention and implementation process for bedside shift report will be developed using diagnostic interviews, co-design and acceptability testing. The intervention will be evaluated before implementation and three times after implementation. Individual and focus group interviews will be performed. Questionnaires, observations and analysis of the medical records and administrative databases will be completed. This study was funded in October 2015. Research Ethics Committee approval was granted in March 2016. There is a pressing need for rigorous research into the effects of interventions for improving patient participation. This study addresses the significance of bedside shift report as an intervention to improve quality of care, communication and patient participation within a large-scale, matched, controlled research design. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Evaluation of special surface treatment aged using UV, phase I.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-08-01

Research was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of Tensars specialty polymer cement slurry : (coating) in reducing aging of asphalt binders and mixtures. The study was also aimed at evaluating the effect of this : material on performance cha...

Evaluation of an alternative deicing chemical vs. conventional sodium chloride.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-07-01

A research project was initiated to evaluate the performance and cost effectiveness of a proprietary, pre-blended, : roadway-deicing chemical on New Hampshire highways. The evaluated material is a patented blend of sodium chloride, liquid : magnesium...

Performance and life evaluation of advanced battery technologies for electric vehicle applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deluca, W. H.; Gillie, K. R.; Kulaga, J. E.; Smaga, J. A.; Tummillo, A. F.; Webster, C. E.

Advanced battery technology evaluations are performed under simulated electric vehicle (EV) operating conditions at the Argonne Analysis and Diagnostic Laboratory (ADL). The ADL provides a common basis for both performance characterization and life evaluation with unbiased application of tests and analyses. This paper summarizes the performance characterizations and life evaluations conducted in 1990 on nine single cells and fifteen 3- to 360-cell modules that encompass six technologies: (Na/S, Zn/Br, Ni/Fe, Ni/Cd, Ni-metal hydride, and lead-acid). These evaluations were performed for the Department of Energy and Electric Power Research Institute. The results provide battery users, developers, and program managers an interim measure of the progress being made in battery R and D programs, a comparison of battery technologies, and a source of basic data for modelling and continuing R and D.

Foundations of Intervention Research in Instrumental Practice

PubMed Central

Hatfield, Johannes L.; Lemyre, Pierre-Nicolas

2016-01-01

The goals of the present study are to evaluate, implement, and adapt psychological skills used in the realm of sports into music performance. This research project also aims to build foundations on how to implement future interventions to guide music students on how to optimize practice toward performance. A 2-month psychological skills intervention was provided to two students from the national music academy's bachelor program in music performance to better understand how to adapt and construct psychological skills training programs for performing music students. The program evaluated multiple intervention tools including the use of questionnaires, performance profiling, iPads, electronic practice logs, recording the perceived value of individual and combined work, as well as the effectiveness of different communication forms. Perceived effects of the intervention were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and logs. PMID:26834660

Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP II)

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

Abernethy, Bob; Chandra, Subrato; Baden, Steven

2010-11-30

This report summarizes the work conducted by the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP - www.baihp.org) during the final budget period (BP5) of our contract, January 1, 2010 to November 30, 2010. Highlights from the four previous budget periods are included for context. BAIHP is led by the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) of the University of Central Florida. With over 50 Industry Partners including factory and site builders, work in BP5 was performed in six tasks areas: Building America System Research Management, Documentation and Technical Support; System Performance Evaluations; Prototype House Evaluations; Initial Community Scale Evaluations; Project Closeout, Finalmore » Review of BA Communities; and Other Research Activities.« less

Multi-modal virtual environment research at Armstrong Laboratory

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eggleston, Robert G.

1995-01-01

One mission of the Paul M. Fitts Human Engineering Division of Armstrong Laboratory is to improve the user interface for complex systems through user-centered exploratory development and research activities. In support of this goal, many current projects attempt to advance and exploit user-interface concepts made possible by virtual reality (VR) technologies. Virtual environments may be used as a general purpose interface medium, an alternative display/control method, a data visualization and analysis tool, or a graphically based performance assessment tool. An overview is given of research projects within the division on prototype interface hardware/software development, integrated interface concept development, interface design and evaluation tool development, and user and mission performance evaluation tool development.

The effects of performance appraisal in the Norwegian municipal health services: a case study

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Introduction Previous research in performance appraisal (PA) indicates that variation exists in learning and job motivation from performance appraisal between occupational groups. This research evaluates the potential effect of job motivation, learning and self-assessment through performance appraisals for health personnel. Case description This article focuses on goal-setting, feedback, participation and training in performance appraisals in municipal health services in Norway; and job motivation, learning and self-assessment of performance are the dependent factors. Questionnaires were distributed to a representative sample of 600 health personnel from the Norwegian municipal health service, with a response rate of 62%. Factor analysis and regression analysis were run in SPSS 12. Discussion and evaluation The study suggests that respondents learn from performance appraisal. Nurses experienced some higher job motivation from performance appraisal than auxiliary nurses. All subordinates perceived higher job motivation after performance appraisal than managers. Conclusion Useful feedback, active participation and higher education are fundamental elements of discussion in performance appraisal, as well as the role of increasing employees' job motivation. In this study, nurses' job motivation seems to be more effected by PA, than for auxiliary nurses. Both nurses and auxiliary nurses indicate that there is a learning effect from PA. This study may be of interest to health researchers and managers in municipal health services. PMID:21974831

Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Electrocardiogram Data compression Techniques.

DTIC Science & Technology

1980-12-01

techniques were investigated for potential real time implementation on an 8 bit Motorola 6800 microprocessor. Research indicated entropy reduction transform...EKG has been an area of active research since the late nineteen sixties. References (1) , (7) , (12) ,(26) ,(28) , (29) .(32) ,(33) , and (35) are...representative of the research efforts performed in the last ten years . The reasons for compressing EKG data are twofold: 1) digita" storage costs are

Evaluating the Development of Chemistry Undergraduate Researchers' Scientific Thinking Skills Using Performance-Data: First Findings from the Performance Assessment of Undergraduate Research (PURE) Instrument

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harsh, Joseph; Esteb, John J.; Maltese, Adam V.

2017-01-01

National calls in science, technology, engineering, and technology education reform efforts have advanced the wide-scale engagement of students in undergraduate research for the preparation of a workforce and citizenry able to attend to the challenges of the 21st century. Awareness of the potential benefits and costs of these experiences has led…

An integrated evaluation for the performance of clinical engineering department.

PubMed

Yousry, Ahmed M; Ouda, Bassem K; Eldeib, Ayman M

2014-01-01

Performance benchmarking have become a very important component in all successful organizations nowadays that must be used by Clinical Engineering Department (CED) in hospitals. Many researchers identified essential mainstream performance indicators needed to improve the CED's performance. These studies revealed mainstream performance indicators that use the database of a CED to evaluate its performance. In this work, we believe that those indicators are insufficient for hospitals. Additional important indicators should be included to improve the evaluation accuracy. Therefore, we added new indicators: technical/maintenance indicators, economic indicators, intrinsic criticality indicators, basic hospital indicators, equipment acquisition, and safety indicators. Data is collected from 10 hospitals that cover different types of healthcare organizations. We developed a software tool that analyses collected data to provide a score for each CED under evaluation. Our results indicate that there is an average gap of 67% between the CEDs' performance and the ideal target. The reasons for the noncompliance are discussed in order to improve performance of CEDs under evaluation.

Further Investigations of Content Analytic Techniques for Extracting the Differentiating Information Contained in the Narrative Sections of Performance Evaluations for Navy Enlisted Personnel. Technical Report No. 75-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramsey-Klee, Diane M.; Richman, Vivian

The purpose of this research is to develop content analytic techniques capable of extracting the differentiating information in narrative performance evaluations for enlisted personnel in order to aid in the process of selecting personnel for advancement, duty assignment, training, or quality retention. Four tasks were performed. The first task…

Performance Evaluation Tests for Environmental Research (PETER): evaluation of 114 measures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bittner, A. C. Jr; Carter, R. C.; Kennedy, R. S.; Harbeson, M. M.; Krause, M.

1986-01-01

The goal of the Performance Evaluation Tests for Environmental Research (PETER) Program was to identify a set of measures of human capabilities for use in the study of environmental and other time-course effects. 114 measures studied in the PETER Program were evaluated and categorized into four groups based upon task stability and task definition. The Recommended category contained 30 measures that clearly obtained total stabilization and had an acceptable level of reliability efficiency. The Acceptable-But-Redundant category contained 15 measures. The 37 measures in the Marginal category, which included an inordinate number of slope and other derived measures, usually had desirable features which were outweighed by faults. The 32 measures in the Unacceptable category had either differential instability or weak reliability efficiency. It is our opinion that the 30 measures in the Recommended category should be given first consideration for environmental research applications. Further, it is recommended that information pertaining to preexperimental practice requirements and stabilized reliabilities should be utilized in repeated-measures environmental studies.

Operational Based Vision Assessment Research: Depth Perception

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-01

13-072 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) USAF School of Aerospace Medicine...Aeromedical Research Department 2510 Fifth St. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7913 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER AFRL-SA-WP-JA-2014...tests are tests of stereopsis, such as the AFVT and AO Vectograph. Others evaluate depth perception with stereo as a contributor to performance , such

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

Research on the Environmental Performance Evaluation of Electronic Waste Reverse Logistics Enterprise

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Yu-Xiang; Chen, Fei-Yang; Tong, Tong

According to the characteristic of e-waste reverse logistics, environmental performance evaluation system of electronic waste reverse logistics enterprise is proposed. We use fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method to evaluate the system. In addition, this paper analyzes the enterprise X, as an example, to discuss the evaluation method. It's important to point out attributes and indexes which should be strengthen during the process of ewaste reverse logistics and provide guidance suggestions to domestic e-waste reverse logistics enterprises.

Highway concrete pavement technology development and testing : volume IV, field evaluation of Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) C-206 test sites (early opening of full-depth pavement repairs).

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-08-01

The objective of this study was to monitor and evaluate the performance of experimental full-depth repairs made with high-early-strength (HES) materials placed under Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) project C-206, Optimization of Highway Con...

Tools and Techniques for Evaluating the Effects of Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) in Air Safety

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Taylor, James C.

2002-01-01

This research project was designed as part of a larger effort to help Human Factors (HF) implementers, and others in the aviation maintenance community, understand, evaluate, and validate the impact of Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) training programs, and other MRM interventions; on participant attitudes, opinions, behaviors, and ultimately on enhanced safety performance. It includes research and development of evaluation methodology as well as examination of psychological constructs and correlates of maintainer performance. In particular, during 2001, three issues were addressed. First a prototype process for measuring performance was developed and used. Second an automated calculator was developed to aid the HF implementer user in analyzing and evaluating local survey data. These results include being automatically compared with the experience from all MRM programs studied since 1991. Third the core survey (the Maintenance Resource Management Technical Operations Questionnaire, or 'MRM/TOQ') was further developed and tested to include topics of added relevance to the industry.

Pavement marking performance analysis

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-06-30

This research evaluated pavement marking performance and developed useful degradation models for thermoplastic : and paint pavement markings which can help North Carolina meet the pending FHWA minimum retroreflectivity : requirements. The impacts of ...

The Third Phase of AQMEII: Evaluation Strategy and Multi-Model Performance Analysis

EPA Science Inventory

AQMEII (Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative) is an extraordinary effort promoting policy-relevant research on regional air quality model evaluation across the European and North American atmospheric modelling communities, providing the ideal platform for advanci...

SITE PROGRAM EVALUATION OF THE SONOTECH PULSE COMBUSTION BURNER TECHNOLOGY - TECHNICAL RESULTS

EPA Science Inventory

A series of demonstration tests was performed at the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Incineration Research Facility (IRF) under the Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation (SITE) program. These tests, twelve in all, evaluated a pulse combustion burner technology dev...

Experiments in autonomous robotics

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

Hamel, W.R.

1987-01-01

The Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research (CESAR) is performing basic research in autonomous robotics for energy-related applications in hazardous environments. The CESAR research agenda includes a strong experimental component to assure practical evaluation of new concepts and theories. An evolutionary sequence of mobile research robots has been planned to support research in robot navigation, world sensing, and object manipulation. A number of experiments have been performed in studying robot navigation and path planning with planar sonar sensing. Future experiments will address more complex tasks involving three-dimensional sensing, dexterous manipulation, and human-scale operations.

Motivational Implications of Faculty Performance Standards

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardre, Patricia L.; Kollmann, Sherry L.

2012-01-01

Expectations and how they are communicated influence employees' motivation, effort, goals, efficacy and performance. This study examined faculty performance evaluation standards and processes of 60 academic departments in research universities for motivationally relevant elements. Characteristics were systematically analysed to understand their…

Tack Coat Performance and Materials Study

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-06-01

A good bond provided by a tack coat can improve performance of asphalt overlays. The objectives of this research were: (1) develop a method for testing the bond between pavement layers; (2) evaluate the bond performance and predict long-term performa...

Performance Evaluation of a High Bandwidth Liquid Fuel Modulation Valve for Active Combustion Control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saus, Joseph R.; DeLaat, John C.; Chang, Clarence T.; Vrnak, Daniel R.

2012-01-01

At the NASA Glenn Research Center, a characterization rig was designed and constructed for the purpose of evaluating high bandwidth liquid fuel modulation devices to determine their suitability for active combustion control research. Incorporated into the rig s design are features that approximate conditions similar to those that would be encountered by a candidate device if it were installed on an actual combustion research rig. The characterized dynamic performance measures obtained through testing in the rig are planned to be accurate indicators of expected performance in an actual combustion testing environment. To evaluate how well the characterization rig predicts fuel modulator dynamic performance, characterization rig data was compared with performance data for a fuel modulator candidate when the candidate was in operation during combustion testing. Specifically, the nominal and off-nominal performance data for a magnetostrictive-actuated proportional fuel modulation valve is described. Valve performance data were collected with the characterization rig configured to emulate two different combustion rig fuel feed systems. Fuel mass flows and pressures, fuel feed line lengths, and fuel injector orifice size was approximated in the characterization rig. Valve performance data were also collected with the valve modulating the fuel into the two combustor rigs. Comparison of the predicted and actual valve performance data show that when the valve is operated near its design condition the characterization rig can appropriately predict the installed performance of the valve. Improvements to the characterization rig and accompanying modeling activities are underway to more accurately predict performance, especially for the devices under development to modulate fuel into the much smaller fuel injectors anticipated in future lean-burning low-emissions aircraft engine combustors.

a Performance Comparison of Feature Detectors for Planetary Rover Mapping and Localization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wan, W.; Peng, M.; Xing, Y.; Wang, Y.; Liu, Z.; Di, K.; Teng, B.; Mao, X.; Zhao, Q.; Xin, X.; Jia, M.

2017-07-01

Feature detection and matching are key techniques in computer vision and robotics, and have been successfully implemented in many fields. So far there is no performance comparison of feature detectors and matching methods for planetary mapping and rover localization using rover stereo images. In this research, we present a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of six feature detectors, including Moravec, Förstner, Harris, FAST, SIFT and SURF, aiming for optimal implementation of feature-based matching in planetary surface environment. To facilitate quantitative analysis, a series of evaluation criteria, including distribution evenness of matched points, coverage of detected points, and feature matching accuracy, are developed in the research. In order to perform exhaustive evaluation, stereo images, simulated under different baseline, pitch angle, and interval of adjacent rover locations, are taken as experimental data source. The comparison results show that SIFT offers the best overall performance, especially it is less sensitive to changes of image taken at adjacent locations.

CRM Assessment: Determining the Generalization of Rater Calibration Training. Summary of Research Report: Gold Standards Training

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, David P.

2002-01-01

The extent to which pilot instructors are trained to assess crew resource management (CRM) skills accurately during Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) and Line Operational Evaluation (LOE) scenarios is critical. Pilot instructors must make accurate performance ratings to ensure that proper feedback is provided to flight crews and appropriate decisions are made regarding certification to fly the line. Furthermore, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) requires that instructors be trained explicitly to evaluate both technical and CRM performance (i.e., rater training) and also requires that proficiency and standardization of instructors be verified periodically. To address the critical need for effective pilot instructor training, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) reviewed the relevant research on rater training and, based on "best practices" from this research, developed a new strategy for training pilot instructors to assess crew performance. In addition, we explored new statistical techniques for assessing the effectiveness of pilot instructor training. The results of our research are briefly summarized below. This summary is followed by abstracts of articles and book chapters published under this grant.

Facilitating cancer research using natural language processing of pathology reports.

PubMed

Xu, Hua; Anderson, Kristin; Grann, Victor R; Friedman, Carol

2004-01-01

Many ongoing clinical research projects, such as projects involving studies associated with cancer, involve manual capture of information in surgical pathology reports so that the information can be used to determine the eligibility of recruited patients for the study and to provide other information, such as cancer prognosis. Natural language processing (NLP) systems offer an alternative to automated coding, but pathology reports have certain features that are difficult for NLP systems. This paper describes how a preprocessor was integrated with an existing NLP system (MedLEE) in order to reduce modification to the NLP system and to improve performance. The work was done in conjunction with an ongoing clinical research project that assesses disparities and risks of developing breast cancer for minority women. An evaluation of the system was performed using manually coded data from the research project's database as a gold standard. The evaluation outcome showed that the extended NLP system had a sensitivity of 90.6% and a precision of 91.6%. Results indicated that this system performed satisfactorily for capturing information for the cancer research project.

Continuation of research into software for space operations support, volume 1

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Collier, Mark D.; Killough, Ronnie; Martin, Nancy L.

1990-01-01

A prototype workstation executive called the Hardware Independent Software Development Environment (HISDE) was developed. Software technologies relevant to workstation executives were researched and evaluated and HISDE was used as a test bed for prototyping efforts. New X Windows software concepts and technology were introduced into workstation executives and related applications. The four research efforts performed included: (1) Research into the usability and efficiency of Motif (an X Windows based graphic user interface) which consisted of converting the existing Athena widget based HISDE user interface to Motif demonstrating the usability of Motif and providing insight into the level of effort required to translate an application from widget to another; (2) Prototype a real time data display widget which consisted of research methods for and prototyping the selected method of displaying textual values in an efficient manner; (3) X Windows performance evaluation which consisted of a series of performance measurements which demonstrated the ability of low level X Windows to display textural information; (4) Convert the Display Manager to X Window/Motif which is the application used by NASA for data display during operational mode.

Airport Performance and Construction Enlargement Activities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hanun, Y.; Setiawan, M. I.; Kurniasih, N.; Hasyim, C.; Ahmar, A. S.

2018-01-01

The evaluation of transportation infrastructure project should consider the contribution towards infrastructure growth. This research aims to analyze the effect of Construction enlargement activities towards airport performance. This research is correlation study. The population includes 148 airports in Indonesia. By using total sampling, there were 148 sample airports. The result shows that the construction enlargement activities variable has relatively strong relationship to Airport Performance variable, while the adjusted R Square score shows the increasing construction enlargement activities that affected by the other factors aside from airport performance.

A Database Evaluation Based on Information Needs of Academic Social Scientists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buterbaugh, Nancy Toth

This study evaluates two databases, "Historical Abstracts" and REESWeb, to determine their effectiveness in supporting academic social science research. While many performance evaluations gather quantitative data from isolated query and response transactions, this study is a qualitative evaluation of the databases in the context of…

Summary of performance data for technologies to control gaseous, odor, and particulate emissions from livestock operations: Air management practices assessment tool (AMPAT)

PubMed Central

Maurer, Devin L.; Koziel, Jacek A.; Harmon, Jay D.; Hoff, Steven J.; Rieck-Hinz, Angela M.; Andersen, Daniel S.

2016-01-01

The livestock and poultry production industry, regulatory agencies, and researchers lack a current, science-based guide and data base for evaluation of air quality mitigation technologies. Data collected from science-based review of mitigation technologies using practical, stakeholders-oriented evaluation criteria to identify knowledge gaps/needs and focuses for future research efforts on technologies and areas with the greatest impact potential is presented in the Literature Database tab on the air management practices tool (AMPAT). The AMPAT is web-based (available at www.agronext.iastate.edu/ampat) and provides an objective overview of mitigation practices best suited to address odor, gaseous, and particulate matter (PM) emissions at livestock operations. The data was compiled into Excel spreadsheets from a literature review of 265 papers was performed to (1) evaluate mitigation technologies performance for emissions of odor, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), ammonia (NH3), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), particulate matter (PM), and greenhouse gases (GHGs) and to (2) inform future research needs. PMID:27158660

Effects of distributed database modeling on evaluation of transaction rollbacks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mukkamala, Ravi

1991-01-01

Data distribution, degree of data replication, and transaction access patterns are key factors in determining the performance of distributed database systems. In order to simplify the evaluation of performance measures, database designers and researchers tend to make simplistic assumptions about the system. Here, researchers investigate the effect of modeling assumptions on the evaluation of one such measure, the number of transaction rollbacks in a partitioned distributed database system. The researchers developed six probabilistic models and expressions for the number of rollbacks under each of these models. Essentially, the models differ in terms of the available system information. The analytical results obtained are compared to results from simulation. It was concluded that most of the probabilistic models yield overly conservative estimates of the number of rollbacks. The effect of transaction commutativity on system throughput is also grossly undermined when such models are employed.

On the Effective Evaluation of TCP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allman, Mark; Falk, Aaron

2000-01-01

Understanding the performance of the Internet's Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is important because it is the dominant protocol used in the Internet today. Various testing methods exist to evaluate TCP performance, however all have pitfalls an that need to be understood prior to obtaining useful results. Simulating TCP is difficult because of the wide range of variables, environments, and implementations available. Testing TCP modifications in the global Internet may not be the answer either: testing new protocols on real networks endangers other people's traffic and, if not done correctly, may also yield inaccurate or misleading results. In order for TCP research to be independently evaluated in the Internet research community there is a set of questions that researchers should try to answer. This paper attempts to list some of those questions and make recommendations as to how TCP testing can be structured to be provide useful answers.

Using Performance on the Job to Inform Teacher Tenure Decisions. Brief 10

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldhaber, Dan; Hansen, Michael

2010-01-01

In recent months a number of states, such as Tennessee, have considered tying teacher evaluations and tenure to student achievement as part of their Race to the Top plans. This research brief evaluates how well early-career performance signals teacher effectiveness after tenure. The brief presents selected findings from a larger study using North…

Alliance Helps States Map New Terrain in Educator Evaluation. REL West Research Digest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory West, 2014

2014-01-01

About five years ago, states across the country took on the huge, complex task of developing and implementing new systems to evaluate teacher and principal performance in public schools. In response to a federal mandate aimed at improving student achievement, especially in the lowest performing schools, state boards of education drafted high-level…

76 FR 14376 - Evaluation of State Coastal Management Programs and National Estuarine Research Reserves

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-16

... Management (OCRM) announces its intent to evaluate the performance of the ACE Basin (South Carolina) National... Reserve final management plan approved by the Secretary of Commerce, and adhered to the terms of financial... CFR part 923, subpart L. The CZMA requires continuing review of the performance of States with respect...

Exploring Methods for Developing Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales for Evaluating Structured Interview Performance. Research Report. ETS RR-17-28

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kell, Harrison J.; Martin-Raugh, Michelle P.; Carney, Lauren M.; Inglese, Patricia A.; Chen, Lei; Feng, Gary

2017-01-01

Behaviorally anchored rating scales (BARS) are an essential component of structured interviews. Use of BARS to evaluate interviewees' performance is associated with greater predictive validity and reliability and less bias. BARS are time-consuming and expensive to construct, however. This report explores the feasibility of gathering participants'…

An Evaluative Study of the Nurse Education Program. Research Report Number 82-1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Capoor, Madan

An evaluation of the nurse education program at Middlesex County College (MCC) was conducted in response to an increasing dropout rate and a decline in the passing rate of program graduates on the Licensing Board Examination (LBE). The study focused on the relationship between student background and performance and between student performance in…

Impacts of Performance Pay under the Teacher Incentive Fund: Study Design Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glazerman, Steven; Chiang, Hanley; Wellington, Alison; Constantine, Jill; Player, Dan

2011-01-01

The body of research on the design, implementation, and effects of performance-based compensation systems has influenced the design and evaluation of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants. In the sections presented here, the authors describe the key components of 2010 TIF grants and the conceptual framework for the evaluation. The remainder…

Advanced Life Support Equivalent System Mass Guidelines Document

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levri, Julie; Fisher, John W.; Jones, Harry W.; Drysdale, Alan E.; Ewert, Michael K.; Hanford, Anthony J.; Hogan, John A.; Joshi, Jitendri, A.; Vaccari, David A.

2003-01-01

This document is a viewgraph presentation which provides guidelines for performing an Equivalent System Mass (ESM) evaluation for trade study purposes. The document: 1) Defines ESM; 2) Explains how to calculate ESM; 3) Discusses interpretation of ESM results. The document is designed to provide detailed instructive material for researchers who are performing ESM evaluations for the first time.

Framework for performance evaluation of face, text, and vehicle detection and tracking in video: data, metrics, and protocol.

PubMed

Kasturi, Rangachar; Goldgof, Dmitry; Soundararajan, Padmanabhan; Manohar, Vasant; Garofolo, John; Bowers, Rachel; Boonstra, Matthew; Korzhova, Valentina; Zhang, Jing

2009-02-01

Common benchmark data sets, standardized performance metrics, and baseline algorithms have demonstrated considerable impact on research and development in a variety of application domains. These resources provide both consumers and developers of technology with a common framework to objectively compare the performance of different algorithms and algorithmic improvements. In this paper, we present such a framework for evaluating object detection and tracking in video: specifically for face, text, and vehicle objects. This framework includes the source video data, ground-truth annotations (along with guidelines for annotation), performance metrics, evaluation protocols, and tools including scoring software and baseline algorithms. For each detection and tracking task and supported domain, we developed a 50-clip training set and a 50-clip test set. Each data clip is approximately 2.5 minutes long and has been completely spatially/temporally annotated at the I-frame level. Each task/domain, therefore, has an associated annotated corpus of approximately 450,000 frames. The scope of such annotation is unprecedented and was designed to begin to support the necessary quantities of data for robust machine learning approaches, as well as a statistically significant comparison of the performance of algorithms. The goal of this work was to systematically address the challenges of object detection and tracking through a common evaluation framework that permits a meaningful objective comparison of techniques, provides the research community with sufficient data for the exploration of automatic modeling techniques, encourages the incorporation of objective evaluation into the development process, and contributes useful lasting resources of a scale and magnitude that will prove to be extremely useful to the computer vision research community for years to come.

The Paper Beam: Hands-On Design for Team Work Experience of Freshman in Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalkani, Efrossini C.; Boussiakou, Iris K.; Boussiakou, Leda G.

2005-01-01

The present research refers to the assigning of a hands-on group project to freshman engineering students, evaluating their performance, and deriving conclusions on student benefits and educational advances. The research procedure included action plans for the instructor and the students, instructions to the students on performing the work,…

Evaluation of ridesharing programs in Michigan

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

Kulp, G.; Tsao, H.J.; Webber, R.E.

1982-10-01

The design, implementation, and results of a carpool and vanpool evaluation are described. Objectives of the evaluation were: to develop credible estimates of the energy savings attributable to the ridesharing program, to provide information for improving the performance of the ridesharing program, and to add to a general understanding of the ridesharing process. Previous evaluation work is critiqued and the research methodology adopted for this study is discussed. The ridesharing program in Michigan is described and the basis for selecting Michigan as the evaluation site is discussed. The evaluation methodology is presented, including research design, sampling procedure, data collection, andmore » data validation. Evaluation results are analyzed. (LEW)« less

Composing, Analyzing and Validating Software Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheldon, Frederick T.

1998-10-01

This research has been conducted at the Computational Sciences Division of the Information Sciences Directorate at Ames Research Center (Automated Software Engineering Grp). The principle work this summer has been to review and refine the agenda that were carried forward from last summer. Formal specifications provide good support for designing a functionally correct system, however they are weak at incorporating non-functional performance requirements (like reliability). Techniques which utilize stochastic Petri nets (SPNs) are good for evaluating the performance and reliability for a system, but they may be too abstract and cumbersome from the stand point of specifying and evaluating functional behavior. Therefore, one major objective of this research is to provide an integrated approach to assist the user in specifying both functionality (qualitative: mutual exclusion and synchronization) and performance requirements (quantitative: reliability and execution deadlines). In this way, the merits of a powerful modeling technique for performability analysis (using SPNs) can be combined with a well-defined formal specification language. In doing so, we can come closer to providing a formal approach to designing a functionally correct system that meets reliability and performance goals.

Composing, Analyzing and Validating Software Models

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sheldon, Frederick T.

1998-01-01

This research has been conducted at the Computational Sciences Division of the Information Sciences Directorate at Ames Research Center (Automated Software Engineering Grp). The principle work this summer has been to review and refine the agenda that were carried forward from last summer. Formal specifications provide good support for designing a functionally correct system, however they are weak at incorporating non-functional performance requirements (like reliability). Techniques which utilize stochastic Petri nets (SPNs) are good for evaluating the performance and reliability for a system, but they may be too abstract and cumbersome from the stand point of specifying and evaluating functional behavior. Therefore, one major objective of this research is to provide an integrated approach to assist the user in specifying both functionality (qualitative: mutual exclusion and synchronization) and performance requirements (quantitative: reliability and execution deadlines). In this way, the merits of a powerful modeling technique for performability analysis (using SPNs) can be combined with a well-defined formal specification language. In doing so, we can come closer to providing a formal approach to designing a functionally correct system that meets reliability and performance goals.

RSV (Research Safety Vehicle) test monitoring and data publication-results of European performance and handling test on the Calspan RSV. Final report, Apr-May 79

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

Johnson, N.; Davis, S.

1979-07-01

Performance and handling tests on the Calspan RSV were performed in Italy by the Istituto Sperimentale Auto E Motori (ISAM) and in West Germany by Volkswagenwerk AG Wolfsburg. The ISAM tests evaluated the Calspan RSV in the areas of fuel economy, vehicle response, braking and handling, and driver environment. The Volkswagen tests evaluated the Calspan RSV in the areas of braking, steering, handling, and overturning immunity. The ISAM tests are unlike any previously used to evaluate American vehicles. Therefore, the Calspan RSV results are compared to those of ten European cars which had undergone identical tests. The Volkswagen test proceduresmore » were identical to those specified in the Research Safety Vehicle program. The Calspan RSV results are compared to the RSV specifications for these tests.« less

48 CFR 307.7001 - Distinction between acquisition and assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... purposes: (1) Evaluation (including research of an evaluative nature) of the performance of Government... Government requires primarily for the conduct of its direct operations. (7) Design or development of items...

48 CFR 307.7001 - Distinction between acquisition and assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... purposes: (1) Evaluation (including research of an evaluative nature) of the performance of Government... Government requires primarily for the conduct of its direct operations. (7) Design or development of items...

48 CFR 307.7001 - Distinction between acquisition and assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... purposes: (1) Evaluation (including research of an evaluative nature) of the performance of Government... Government requires primarily for the conduct of its direct operations. (7) Design or development of items...

48 CFR 307.7001 - Distinction between acquisition and assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... purposes: (1) Evaluation (including research of an evaluative nature) of the performance of Government... Government requires primarily for the conduct of its direct operations. (7) Design or development of items...

48 CFR 307.7001 - Distinction between acquisition and assistance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... purposes: (1) Evaluation (including research of an evaluative nature) of the performance of Government... Government requires primarily for the conduct of its direct operations. (7) Design or development of items...

A 5-year scientometric analysis of research centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences

PubMed Central

Yazdani, Kamran; Rahimi-Movaghar, Afarin; Nedjat, Saharnaz; Ghalichi, Leila; Khalili, Malahat

2015-01-01

Background: Since Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) has the oldest and highest number of research centers among all Iranian medical universities, this study was conducted to evaluate scientific output of research centers affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) using scientometric indices and the affecting factors. Moreover, a number of scientometric indicators were introduced. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed to evaluate a 5-year scientific performance of research centers of TUMS. Data were collected through questionnaires, annual evaluation reports of the Ministry of Health, and also from Scopus database. We used appropriate measures of central tendency and variation for descriptive analyses. Moreover, uni-and multi-variable linear regression were used to evaluate the effect of independent factors on the scientific output of the centers. Results: The medians of the numbers of papers and books during a 5-year period were 150.5 and 2.5 respectively. The median of the "articles per researcher" was 19.1. Based on multiple linear regression, younger age centers (p=0.001), having a separate budget line (p=0.016), and number of research personnel (p<0.001) had a direct significant correlation with the number of articles while real properties had a reverse significant correlation with it (p=0.004). Conclusion: The results can help policy makers and research managers to allocate sufficient resources to improve current situation of the centers. Newly adopted and effective scientometric indices are is suggested to be used to evaluate scientific outputs and functions of these centers. PMID:26157724

Expressions of personhood in Alzheimer's disease: an evaluation of research-based theatre as a pedagogical tool.

PubMed

Kontos, Pia C; Naglie, Gary

2007-07-01

A growing number of scholars are turning to dramatic performance as an innovative approach to disseminating the results of qualitative research. With an interest in this aesthetic practice, the authors transformed ethnographic research on personhood in Alzheimer's disease into a dramatic production, Expressions of Personhood in Alzheimer's , which was performed at the outset of focus group discussions with health practitioners. In this article, the authors report the results of an evaluation of health practitioners' perceptions of this theatrical adaptation as a pedagogical tool. Data from the focus group discussions and a self-administered post-performance survey suggest that there was a perceived relevance of the production to practitioners' practices, an increased understanding gained from attending the production, and a strong endorsement of the use of drama as an educational tool for disseminating information about dementia care.

Conductor gestures influence evaluations of ensemble performance

PubMed Central

Morrison, Steven J.; Price, Harry E.; Smedley, Eric M.; Meals, Cory D.

2014-01-01

Previous research has found that listener evaluations of ensemble performances vary depending on the expressivity of the conductor’s gestures, even when performances are otherwise identical. It was the purpose of the present study to test whether this effect of visual information was evident in the evaluation of specific aspects of ensemble performance: articulation and dynamics. We constructed a set of 32 music performances that combined auditory and visual information and were designed to feature a high degree of contrast along one of two target characteristics: articulation and dynamics. We paired each of four music excerpts recorded by a chamber ensemble in both a high- and low-contrast condition with video of four conductors demonstrating high- and low-contrast gesture specifically appropriate to either articulation or dynamics. Using one of two equivalent test forms, college music majors and non-majors (N = 285) viewed sixteen 30 s performances and evaluated the quality of the ensemble’s articulation, dynamics, technique, and tempo along with overall expressivity. Results showed significantly higher evaluations for performances featuring high rather than low conducting expressivity regardless of the ensemble’s performance quality. Evaluations for both articulation and dynamics were strongly and positively correlated with evaluations of overall ensemble expressivity. PMID:25104944

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

Neuhauser, K.

Through discussion of five case studies (test homes), this project evaluates strategies to elevate the performance of existing homes to a level commensurate with best-in-class implementation of high-performance new construction homes. The test homes featured in this research activity participated in Deep Energy Retrofit (DER) Pilot Program sponsored by the electric and gas utility National Grid in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Building enclosure retrofit strategies are evaluated for impact on durability and indoor air quality in addition to energy performance.

Assessing Research Collaboration through Co-Authorship Network Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fagan, Jesse; Eddens, Katherine S.; Dolly, Jennifer; Vanderford, Nathan L.; Weiss, Heidi; Levens, Justin S.

2018-01-01

Interdisciplinary research collaboration is needed to perform transformative science and accelerate innovation. The Science of Team Science strives to investigate, evaluate, and foster team science, including institutional policies that may promote or hinder collaborative interdisciplinary research and the resources and infrastructure needed to…

Research Grant Mania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldworthy, Jeffrey

2008-01-01

Commonwealth funding formulae have caused Australian universities to become obsessed with maximising external research funding. Considerable pressure is applied to faculties, departments and scholars to apply for funding, and relative success in attracting it is given excessive weight in evaluating research performance. This may be productive in…

Effect of shoe type on descending a curb.

PubMed

George, Juff; Heller, Michelle; Kuzel, Michael

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of shoe type on the performance of women during curb descent. Performance during curb stepping may be explained by biomechanical research that has evaluated the kinematics of overground walking and stair ascent and descent. Studies have reported that women exhibit performance differences when wearing high heels, flip flops and sneakers during overground walking and stair ascent and descent. Thus, in addition to features of the curb, the type of shoe being worn may also affect performance. Although several studies have investigated curb stepping, no known studies have investigated the effects of different types of footwear on curb descent performance. This research was conducted in a real-world environment where participants wore three different types of shoes and performed a series of activities that involved curb stepping. The subjects were videotaped while descending a curb, allowing for observation of changes in gait parameters. Results of this study indicate that wearing high heels leads to performance differences as compared to wearing flip flops or sneakers.

NASA Johnson Space Center Biomedical Research Resources

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Paloski, W. H.

1999-01-01

Johnson Space Center (JSC) medical sciences laboratories constitute a national resource for support of medical operations and life sciences research enabling a human presence in space. They play a critical role in evaluating, defining, and mitigation the untoward effect of human adaption to space flight. Over the years they have developed the unique facilities and expertise required to perform: biomedical sample analysis and physiological performance tests supporting medical evaluations of space flight crew members and scientific investigations of the operationally relevant medical, physiological, cellular, and biochemical issues associated with human space flight. A general overview of these laboratories is presented in viewgraph form.

A computer technique for detailed analysis of mission radius and maneuverability characteristics of fighter aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Foss, W. E., Jr.

1981-01-01

A computer technique to determine the mission radius and maneuverability characteristics of combat aircraft was developed. The technique was used to determine critical operational requirements and the areas in which research programs would be expected to yield the most beneficial results. In turn, the results of research efforts were evaluated in terms of aircraft performance on selected mission segments and for complete mission profiles. Extensive use of the technique in evaluation studies indicates that the calculated performance is essentially the same as that obtained by the proprietary programs in use throughout the aircraft industry.

Motor Rehabilitation Using Kinect: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Da Gama, Alana; Fallavollita, Pascal; Teichrieb, Veronica; Navab, Nassir

2015-04-01

Interactive systems are being developed with the intention to help in the engagement of patients on various therapies. Amid the recent technological advances, Kinect™ from Microsoft (Redmond, WA) has helped pave the way on how user interaction technology facilitates and complements many clinical applications. In order to examine the actual status of Kinect developments for rehabilitation, this article presents a systematic review of articles that involve interactive, evaluative, and technical advances related to motor rehabilitation. Systematic research was performed in the IEEE Xplore and PubMed databases using the key word combination "Kinect AND rehabilitation" with the following inclusion criteria: (1) English language, (2) page number >4, (3) Kinect system for assistive interaction or clinical evaluation, or (4) Kinect system for improvement or evaluation of the sensor tracking or movement recognition. Quality assessment was performed by QualSyst standards. In total, 109 articles were found in the database research, from which 31 were included in the review: 13 were focused on the development of assistive systems for rehabilitation, 3 in evaluation, 3 in the applicability category, 7 on validation of Kinect anatomic and clinical evaluation, and 5 on improvement techniques. Quality analysis of all included articles is also presented with their respective QualSyst checklist scores. Research and development possibilities and future works with the Kinect for rehabilitation application are extensive. Methodological improvements when performing studies on this area need to be further investigated.

Paving fabrics for reducing reflective cracking

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-11-01

This research effort was part of ADOT's New Product Evaluation Program. The objective was to evaluate the construction and field performances of three commercially available paving fabrics; Paveprep, Glassgrid, and Tapecoat. The fabrics were designed...

A qualitative evaluation of the 2005–2011 National Academic Centers of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention Program☆

PubMed Central

Holland, Kristin M.; Vivolo-Kantor, Alana M.; Cruz, Jason Dela; Massetti, Greta M.; Mahendra, Reshma

2018-01-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) funded eight National Academic Centers of Excellence (ACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2005 to 2010 and two Urban Partnership Academic Centers of Excellence (UPACEs) in Youth Violence Prevention from 2006 to 2011. The ACEs and UPACEs constitute DVP’s 2005–2011 ACE Program. ACE Program goals include partnering with communities to promote youth violence (YV) prevention and fostering connections between research and community practice. This article describes a qualitative evaluation of the 2005–2011 ACE Program using an innovative approach for collecting and analyzing data from multiple large research centers via a web-based Information System (ACE-IS). The ACE-IS was established as an efficient mechanism to collect and document ACE research and programmatic activities. Performance indicators for the ACE Program were established in an ACE Program logic model. Data on performance indicators were collected through the ACE-IS biannually. Data assessed Centers’ ability to develop, implement, and evaluate YV prevention activities. Performance indicator data demonstrate substantial progress on Centers’ research in YV risk and protective factors, community partnerships, and other accomplishments. Findings provide important lessons learned, illustrate progress made by the Centers, and point to new directions for YV prevention research and programmatic efforts. PMID:26319174

Remote sensing of multimodal transportation systems : research brief.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-09-01

Remote Sensing of Multimodal Transportation Systems : Rapid condition monitoring and performance evaluations of the vast and vulnerable transportation infrastructure has been elusive. The framework and models developed in this research will enable th...

Evaluating the Advisory Flags and Machine Scoring Difficulty in the "e-rater"® Automated Scoring Engine. Research Report. ETS RR-16-30

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Mo; Chen, Jing; Ruan, Chunyi

2016-01-01

Successful detection of unusual responses is critical for using machine scoring in the assessment context. This study evaluated the utility of approaches to detecting unusual responses in automated essay scoring. Two research questions were pursued. One question concerned the performance of various prescreening advisory flags, and the other…

Assessment of Conative Constructs for Educational Research and Evaluation: A Catalogue. Project 2.3: Enhancing the Utility of Performance Assessments: Domain Independent R&D.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Richard E.; Jackson, Douglas N.

In recent years, many psychological constructs with associated measures have been proposed for educational research and the evaluation of educational programs. Among the most interesting and potentially useful are those reflecting motivational and volitional aspects of human behavior, the conative constructs. Among the conative constructs are…

NASA Human Research Program (HRP). International Space Station Medical Project (ISSMP)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sams, Clarence F.

2009-01-01

This viewgraph presentation describes the various flight investigations performed on the International Space Station as part of the NASA Human Research Program (HRP). The evaluations include: 1) Stability; 2) Periodic Fitness Evaluation with Oxygen Uptake Measurement; 3) Nutrition; 4) CCISS; 5) Sleep; 6) Braslet; 7) Integrated Immune; 8) Epstein Barr; 9) Biophosphonates; 10) Integrated cardiovascular; and 11) VO2 max.

Behind the Scenes: Measuring Student Progress in the Arts and Beyond. Evaluation and Research Report 95E.06.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willoughby, Meg; And Others

This report presents the findings of a collaboration between the Evaluation and Research Departments and the Arts Education Department of the Wake County (North Carolina) Public School System with teachers of the district to pilot performance assessments in art programs. In an effort to accurately assess the arts, various alternative…

Evaluating School-Based Tobacco Control Programs and Policies: An Opportunity Gained and Many Opportunities Lost

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leatherdale, Scott T.

2009-01-01

In the domain of school-based tobacco control, there is a large gap between the research being performed and the type of research needed to inform school-based prevention activities. The tobacco module of the school health action planning and evaluation system is a data collection and feedback system designed to support school-based tobacco…

Guidelines for composite materials research related to general aviation aircraft

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dow, N. F.; Humphreys, E. A.; Rosen, B. W.

1983-01-01

Guidelines for research on composite materials directed toward the improvement of all aspects of their applicability for general aviation aircraft were developed from extensive studies of their performance, manufacturability, and cost effectiveness. Specific areas for research and for manufacturing development were identified and evaluated. Inputs developed from visits to manufacturers were used in part to guide these evaluations, particularly in the area of cost effectiveness. Throughout the emphasis was to direct the research toward the requirements of general aviation aircraft, for which relatively low load intensities are encountered, economy of production is a prime requirement, and yet performance still commands a premium. A number of implications regarding further directions for developments in composites to meet these requirements also emerged from the studies. Chief among these is the need for an integrated (computer program) aerodynamic/structures approach to aircraft design.

Receiver design, performance analysis, and evaluation for space-borne laser altimeters and space-to-space laser ranging systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Davidson, Frederic M.; Sun, Xiaoli; Field, Christopher T.

1994-01-01

Accomplishments in the following areas of research are presented: receiver performance study of spaceborne laser altimeters and cloud and aerosol lidars; receiver performance analysis for space-to-space laser ranging systems; and receiver performance study for the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR).

Uses and Misuses of Student Evaluations of Teaching: The Interpretation of Differences in Teaching Evaluation Means Irrespective of Statistical Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boysen, Guy A.

2015-01-01

Student evaluations of teaching are among the most accepted and important indicators of college teachers' performance. However, faculty and administrators can overinterpret small variations in mean teaching evaluations. The current research examined the effect of including statistical information on the interpretation of teaching evaluations.…

Constructing a publically available distracted driving database and research tool.

PubMed

Atchley, Paul; Tran, Ashleigh V; Salehinejad, Mohammad Ali

2017-02-01

The goal of the current work was to create a publicly available visualization tool of distracted driving research, the purpose of which is to allow the public and other stakeholders to empirically inform questions of their choice that may bear on policy discussions. Fifty years of distracted driving research was used to design a comprehensive database of studies that evaluated the effects of distraction on driving performance. Distraction sources (e.g., texting, talking, visual distraction) and performance measures were defined, and the sample of studies were evaluated and categorized by their measures. The final product yielded 342 studies using various methodologies. Across all measures, 1297 found distractions degraded driving performance, 54 found distraction improved driving performance, and 257 found distraction had no effect on driving performance. An analysis of the most common phone distractions (texting and talking) showed that texting almost always results in degraded performance. Aggregate data reveal no difference in performance decrements for hand-held or hands-free phones even though single studies of those variables vary in their outcomes. This project illustrates how scientific research can be made publically available for use by a diverse audience of stakeholders. An important result of this project is that data aggregated along a simple set of characteristics such as whether or not performance is decreased, improved or not affected, can reveal trends in the data that are less clear from any individual study. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Scramjet integration on hypersonic research airplane concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weidner, J. P.; Small, W. J.; Penland, J. A.

1976-01-01

Several rocket-boosted research airplane concepts were evaluated with a research scramjet engine to determine their potential to provide research on critical aspects of airframe-integrated hypersonic systems. Extensive calculations to determine the force and moment contributions of the scramjet inlet, combustor, nozzle, and airframe were conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the combined engine/airframe system at hypersonic speeds. Results of both wind-tunnel tests and analysis indicate that it is possible to develop a research airplane configuration that will cruise at hypersonic speed on scramjet power alone, and will also have acceptable low-speed aerodynamic characteristics for landing.

Integrated DEA models and grey system theory to evaluate past-to-future performance: a case of Indian electricity industry.

PubMed

Wang, Chia-Nan; Nguyen, Nhu-Ty; Tran, Thanh-Tuyen

2015-01-01

The growth of economy and population together with the higher demand in energy has created many concerns for the Indian electricity industry whose capacity is at 211 gigawatts mostly in coal-fired plants. Due to insufficient fuel supply, India suffers from a shortage of electricity generation, leading to rolling blackouts; thus, performance evaluation and ranking the industry turn into significant issues. By this study, we expect to evaluate the rankings of these companies under control of the Ministry of Power. Also, this research would like to test if there are any significant differences between the two DEA models: Malmquist nonradial and Malmquist radial. Then, one advance model of MPI would be chosen to see these companies' performance in recent years and next few years by using forecasting results of Grey system theory. Totally, the realistic data 14 are considered to be in this evaluation after the strict selection from the whole industry. The results found that all companies have not shown many abrupt changes on their scores, and it is always not consistently good or consistently standing out, which demonstrated the high applicable usability of the integrated methods. This integrated numerical research gives a better "past-present-future" insights into performance evaluation in Indian electricity industry.

Integrated DEA Models and Grey System Theory to Evaluate Past-to-Future Performance: A Case of Indian Electricity Industry

PubMed Central

Wang, Chia-Nan; Tran, Thanh-Tuyen

2015-01-01

The growth of economy and population together with the higher demand in energy has created many concerns for the Indian electricity industry whose capacity is at 211 gigawatts mostly in coal-fired plants. Due to insufficient fuel supply, India suffers from a shortage of electricity generation, leading to rolling blackouts; thus, performance evaluation and ranking the industry turn into significant issues. By this study, we expect to evaluate the rankings of these companies under control of the Ministry of Power. Also, this research would like to test if there are any significant differences between the two DEA models: Malmquist nonradial and Malmquist radial. Then, one advance model of MPI would be chosen to see these companies' performance in recent years and next few years by using forecasting results of Grey system theory. Totally, the realistic data 14 are considered to be in this evaluation after the strict selection from the whole industry. The results found that all companies have not shown many abrupt changes on their scores, and it is always not consistently good or consistently standing out, which demonstrated the high applicable usability of the integrated methods. This integrated numerical research gives a better “past-present-future” insights into performance evaluation in Indian electricity industry. PMID:25821854

Evaluating the Theoretic Adequacy and Applied Potential of Computational Models of the Spacing Effect.

PubMed

Walsh, Matthew M; Gluck, Kevin A; Gunzelmann, Glenn; Jastrzembski, Tiffany; Krusmark, Michael

2018-06-01

The spacing effect is among the most widely replicated empirical phenomena in the learning sciences, and its relevance to education and training is readily apparent. Yet successful applications of spacing effect research to education and training is rare. Computational modeling can provide the crucial link between a century of accumulated experimental data on the spacing effect and the emerging interest in using that research to enable adaptive instruction. In this paper, we review relevant literature and identify 10 criteria for rigorously evaluating computational models of the spacing effect. Five relate to evaluating the theoretic adequacy of a model, and five relate to evaluating its application potential. We use these criteria to evaluate a novel computational model of the spacing effect called the Predictive Performance Equation (PPE). Predictive Performance Equation combines elements of earlier models of learning and memory including the General Performance Equation, Adaptive Control of Thought-Rational, and the New Theory of Disuse, giving rise to a novel computational account of the spacing effect that performs favorably across the complete sets of theoretic and applied criteria. We implemented two other previously published computational models of the spacing effect and compare them to PPE using the theoretic and applied criteria as guides. Copyright © 2018 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

[Research progresses on ergonomics assessment and measurement methods for push-pull behavior].

PubMed

Zhao, Yan; Li, Dongxu; Guo, Shengpeng

2011-10-01

Pushing and pulling (P&P) is a common operating mode of operator's physical works, and plays an important role in evaluation of human behavior health and operation performance. At present, there are many research methods of P&P, and this article is a state-of-art review of the classification of P&P research methods, the various impact factors in P&P program, technical details of internal/external P&P force measurement and evaluation, the limitation of current research methods and the future developments in the ergonomics field.

Reading Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fagan, W. T.

1978-01-01

The Canadian Institute for Research in Behavioral and Social Sciences of Calgary was awarded a contract by the Provincial Government of Alberta to assess student skills and knowledge in reading and written composition. Here evaluation is defined and the use of standardized and criterion referenced tests for evaluating reading performance are…

HISTOLOGICAL AND HISTOPATHOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF THE TESTIS

EPA Science Inventory

This book, the first to describe how the testis is evaluated in research and toxicology testing settings, is a resource for individuals who wish to perform a systematic evaluation of the testis. he book contains 728 illustrations and drawings. The book begins with a description o...

Teachers as researchers: a narrative pedagogical approach to transforming a graduate family and health promotion course.

PubMed

Brykczynski, Karen A

2012-01-01

Scholarship of teaching in nursing is illustrated by describing the development, implementation, evaluation, and revision of a family and health promotion course for graduate family nurse practitioner students. A narrative pedagogical approach that combines conventional pedagogy with action research is used. The work, an example of curriculum as dialogue, illustrates how teachers can incorporate research, evaluation, and reflection into their daily teaching practice. Given adequate support, these evaluation and research activities could constitute part of the scholarship of teaching, and, as such, would warrant allocation of time in faculty workloads and formal acknowledgment in annual performance evaluations and promotion and tenure decisions. The importance of increasing the clinical relevance of the scholarship of teaching in a practice discipline such as nursing is also emphasized.

Evaluation of speech recognizers for use in advanced combat helicopter crew station research and development

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simpson, Carol A.

1990-01-01

The U.S. Army Crew Station Research and Development Facility uses vintage 1984 speech recognizers. An evaluation was performed of newer off-the-shelf speech recognition devices to determine whether newer technology performance and capabilities are substantially better than that of the Army's current speech recognizers. The Phonetic Discrimination (PD-100) Test was used to compare recognizer performance in two ambient noise conditions: quiet office and helicopter noise. Test tokens were spoken by males and females and in isolated-word and connected-work mode. Better overall recognition accuracy was obtained from the newer recognizers. Recognizer capabilities needed to support the development of human factors design requirements for speech command systems in advanced combat helicopters are listed.

A Safety Index and Method for Flightdeck Evaluation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Latorella, Kara A.

2000-01-01

If our goal is to improve safety through machine, interface, and training design, then we must define a metric of flightdeck safety that is usable in the design process. Current measures associated with our notions of "good" pilot performance and ultimate safety of flightdeck performance fail to provide an adequate index of safe flightdeck performance for design evaluation purposes. The goal of this research effort is to devise a safety index and method that allows us to evaluate flightdeck performance holistically and in a naturalistic experiment. This paper uses Reason's model of accident causation (1990) as a basis for measuring safety, and proposes a relational database system and method for 1) defining a safety index of flightdeck performance, and 2) evaluating the "safety" afforded by flightdeck performance for the purpose of design iteration. Methodological considerations, limitations, and benefits are discussed as well as extensions to this work.

POCO-MOEA: Using Evolutionary Algorithms to Solve the Controller Placement Problem

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-03-24

to gather data on POCO-MOEA performance to a series of iv model networks. The algorithm’s behavior is then evaluated and compared to ex- haustive... evaluation of a third heuristic based on a Multi 3 Objective Evolutionary Algorithm (MOEA). This heuristic is modeled after one of the most well known MOEAs...researchers to extend into more realistic evaluations of the performance characteristics of SDN controllers, such as the use of simulators or live

Small Business Innovations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1992-01-01

The purpose of QASE RT is to enable system analysts and software engineers to evaluate performance and reliability implications of design alternatives. The program resulted from two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects. After receiving a description of the system architecture and workload from the user, QASE RT translates the system description into simulation models and executes them. Simulation provides detailed performance evaluation. The results of the evaluations are service and response times, offered load and device utilizations and functional availability.

Rain Garden Research at NRMRL’s Urban Watershed Research Facility: Evaluating Pollutant Removal Performance

EPA Science Inventory

This slide was displayed on a TV screen along with slides from other ORD postdocs at the EPA Science Forum Postdoc Exhibit, May 20-22. The slide illustrated the rain garden research I am working on at UWMB.

Using, Abusing, and Understanding Research: A Guide for Administrators.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Patricia B.

This pamphlet provides suggestions for school administrators concerning how to best use and interpret educational research. Research and evaluation can provide educational administrators with information necessary to make and justify decisions about programs, testing, and teacher performance. Administrators must remember that: abstracts and…

Non-destructive testing of concrete.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1979-11-01

This research project was initiated to evaluate the performance of an ultrasonic testing device device in predicting compressive strengths from tests performed on samples of fresh concrete. : The initial phase of this study involved laboratory perora...

Pre-Service Identification of Talented Teachers through Non-Traditional Measures: A Study of the Role of Affective Variables as Predictors of Success in Student Teaching.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Basom, Margaret; And Others

1994-01-01

Researchers examined relationships between the SRI Gallup Pre-Professional Teacher Interview and performance-based student teaching evaluations and between SRI Interview and California Student Achievement Test (CAT) scores. A relationship between SRI Interview scores and performance-based student teaching evaluations surfaces. CAT scores did not…

Monitoring the Impact of Testing and Evaluation Innovations Project: State Activity and Interest Concerning Performance-Based Assessment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, Los Angeles, CA.

Information was gathered about current state interest, activity, and concerns related to performance assessment for students. The Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing of the University of California (Los Angeles) conducted telephone interviews with directors of testing in each of the 50 states in the spring of 1990.…

A Prototype Public Speaking Skills Assessment: An Evaluation of Human-Scoring Quality. Research Report. ETS RR-15-36

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joe, Jilliam; Kitchen, Christopher; Chen, Lei; Feng, Gary

2015-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the evaluation of human-scoring quality for an assessment of public speaking skills. Videotaped performances given by 17 speakers on 4 tasks were scored by expert and nonexpert raters who had extensive experience scoring performance-based and constructed-response assessments. The Public Speaking Competence…

LABORATORY EVALUATION OF SIX NEW/MODIFIED PORTABLE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETERS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF LEAD IN CHARACTERIZED PAINT FILMS AND RESEARCH MATERIAL BOARDS (TECHNICAL REPORT)

EPA Science Inventory

A laboratory study was performed in 1994-1995 to identify and estimate the influence of key characteristics for evaluating the performance of portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers. Six new/modified spectrometers, including HNU SEFA-Pb, Metorex X-MET, Niton X-L, Radiat...

LABORATORY EVALUATION OF SIX NEW/MODIFIED PORTABLE X-RAY FLUORESCENCE SPECTROMETERS FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF LEAD IN CHARACTERIZED PAINT FILMS AND RESEARCH MATERIAL BOARDS (APPENDICES)

EPA Science Inventory

A laboratory study was performed in 1994-1995 to identify and estimate the influence of key characteristics for evaluating the performance of portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometers. Six new/modified spectrometers, including HNU SEFA-Pb, Metorex X-MET, Niton X-L, Radiat...

Electric School Bus Testing | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Electric School Bus Evaluation Electric School Bus Evaluation Photo of children boarding school bus . NREL is evaluating the performance of electric and conventional school buses operated by two California school districts. Photo courtesy of School Bus Fleet Magazine NREL is evaluating the in-service

Toward Meaningful Evaluation of Medical Trainees: The Influence of Participants' Perceptions of the Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Watling, Christopher J.; Lingard, Lorelei

2012-01-01

An essential goal of evaluation is to foster learning. Across the medical education spectrum, evaluation of clinical performance is dominated by subjective feedback to learners based on observation by expert supervisors. Research in non-medical settings has suggested that participants' perceptions of evaluation processes exert considerable…

Alkaline fuel cell performance investigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, R. E.; Manzo, M. A.

1988-01-01

An exploratory experimental fuel cell test program was conducted to investigate the performance characteristics of alkaline laboratory research electrodes. The objective of this work was to establish the effect of temperature, pressure, and concentration upon performance and evaluate candidate cathode configurations having the potential for improved performance. The performance characterization tests provided data to empirically establish the effect of temperature, pressure, and concentration upon performance for cell temperatures up to 300 F and reactant pressures up to 200 psia. Evaluation of five gold alloy cathode catalysts revealed that three doped gold alloys had more that two times the surface areas of reference cathodes and therefore offered the best potential for improved performance.

Alkaline fuel cell performance investigation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Martin, R. E.; Manzo, M. A.

1988-01-01

An exploratory experimental fuel cell test program was conducted to investigate the performance characteristics of alkaline laboratory research electrodes. The objective of this work was to establish the effect of temperature, pressure, and concentration upon performance and evaluate candidate cathode configurations having the potential for improved performance. The performance characterization tests provided data to empirically establish the effect of temperature, pressure, and concentration upon performance for cell temperatures up to 300 F and reactant pressures up to 200 psia. Evaluation of five gold alloy cathode catalysts revealed that three doped gold alloys had more than two times the surface areas of reference cathodes and therefore offered the best potential for improved performance.

Expert Advisor (EA) Evaluation System Using Web-based ELECTRE Method in Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satibi; Widodo, Catur Edi; Farikhin

2018-02-01

This research aims to optimize forex trading profit automatically using EA but its still keep considering accuracy and drawdown levels. The evaluation system will classify EA performance based on trading market sessions (Sydney, Tokyo, London and New York) to determine the right EA to be used in certain market sessions. This evaluation system is a web-based ELECTRE methods that interact in real-time with EA through web service and are able to present real-time charts performance dashboard using web socket protocol communications. Web applications are programmed using NodeJs. In the testing period, all EAs had been simulated 24 hours in all market sessions for three months, the best EA is valued by its profit, accuracy and drawdown criteria that calculated using web-based ELECTRE method. The ideas of this research are to compare the best EA on testing period with collaboration performances of each best classified EA by market sessions. This research uses three months historical data of EUR/USD as testing period and other 3 months as validation period. As a result, performance of collaboration four best EA classified by market sessions can increase profits percentage consistently in testing and validation periods and keep securing accuracy and drawdown levels.

Evaluating improvements in landside access for airports.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-10-01

The purpose of this research was to describe the elements that comprise airport access and develop a methodology for identifying and evaluating existing landside access performance and proposed improvements from a passenger perspective. The scope was...

Organisational benefits of a strong research culture in a health service: a systematic review.

PubMed

Harding, Katherine; Lynch, Lauren; Porter, Judi; Taylor, Nicholas F

2017-03-01

Objective The aim of the present study was to determine whether there is an association between having research culture in a health service and better organisational performance. Methods Using systematic review methods, databases were searched, inclusion criteria applied and study quality appraised. Data were extracted from selected studies and the results were synthesised descriptively. Results Eight studies were selected for review. Five studies compared health services with high versus low levels of research activity among the workforce. Three studies evaluated the effect of specific interventions focused on the health workforce. All studies reported a positive association between research activity and organisational performance. Improved organisational performance included lower patient mortality rates (two of two studies), higher levels of patient satisfaction (one of one study), reduced staff turnover (two of two studies), improved staff satisfaction (one of two studies) and improved organisational efficiency (four of five studies). Conclusions A stronger research culture appears to be associated with benefits to patients, staff and the organisation. What is known about this topic? Research investment in the health workforce can increase research productivity of the health workforce. In addition, investment in clinical research can lead to positive health outcomes. However, it is not known whether a positive research culture among the health workforce is associated with improved organisational performance. What does this paper add? The present systematic review of the literature provides evidence that a positive research culture and interventions directed at the health workforce are associated with patient, staff and organisational benefits. What are the implications for practitioners? For health service managers and policy makers, one interpretation of the results could be to provide support for initiatives directed at the health workforce to increase a research culture in health services. However, because association does not imply causation, managers need to interpret the results with caution and evaluate the effect of any initiatives to increase the research culture of the health workforce on the performance of their organisation.

Use of a Food and Drug Administration-Approved Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Simulator to Evaluate and Optimize a Proportional-Integral-Derivative Controller

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

performance . The simulations confirm that the PID algorithm can be applied to this cohort without the risk of hypoglycemia . Funding: The study was... Performance Computing Software Applications Institute, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center, U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command...safe operating region, type 1 diabetes mellitus simulator Corresponding Author: Jaques Reifman, Ph.D., DoD Biotechnology High- Performance Computing

Fiber waveguide sensors for intelligent materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flax, A. R.; Claus, R. O.

1988-01-01

This report, an addendum to the six month report submitted to NASA Langley Research Center in December 1987, covers research performed by the Fiber and Electro-Optics Research Center (FEORC) at Virginia Tech for the NASA Langley Research Center, Grant NAG1-780, for the period from December 1987 to June 1988. This final report discusses the research performed in the following four areas as described in the proposal: Fabrication of Sensor Fibers Optimized for Embedding in Advanced Composites; Fabrication of Sensor Fiber with In-Line Splices and Evaluation via OTR methods; Modal Domain Optical Fiber Sensor Analysis; and Acoustic Fiber Waveguide Implementation.

Telepresence master glove controller for dexterous robotic end-effectors

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fisher, Scott S.

1987-01-01

This paper describes recent research in the Aerospace Human Factors Research Division at NASA's Ames Research Center to develop a glove-like, control and data-recording device (DataGlove) that records and transmits to a host computer in real time, and at appropriate resolution, a numeric data-record of a user's hand/finger shape and dynamics. System configuration and performance specifications are detailed, and current research is discussed investigating its applications in operator control of dexterous robotic end-effectors and for use as a human factors research tool in evaluation of operator hand function requirements and performance in other specialized task environments.

Accelerated loading evaluation of subbase layers in pavement performance.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-04-01

This report documents the research efforts conducted at the Louisiana Transportation Research Center (LTRC) regarding chemical stabilization of the naturally wet and problematic clayey soils typically found as subgrade in south Louisiana and provides...

Evaluative studies in nuclear medicine research. Emission-computed tomography assessment. Progress report 1 January-15 August 1981

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

Potchen, E.J.

Questions regarding what imaging performance goals need to be met to produce effective biomedical research using positron emission computer tomography, how near those performance goals are to being realized by imaging systems, and the dependence of currently-unachieved performance goals on design and operational factors have been addressed in the past year, along with refinement of economic estimates for the capital and operating costs of a PECT research facility. The two primary sources of information have been solicitations of expert opinion and review of current literature. (ACR)

Evaluation of Research Ethics Committees: Criteria for the Ethical Quality of the Review Process.

PubMed

Scherzinger, Gregor; Bobbert, Monika

2017-01-01

Repeatedly, adequacy, performance and quality of Ethics Committees that oversee medical research trials are being discussed. Although they play a crucial role in reviewing medical research and protecting human subjects, it is far from clear to what degree they fulfill the task they have been assigned to. This eventuates in the call for an evaluation of their activity and, in some places, led to the establishment of accreditation schemes. At the same time, IRBs have become subject of detailed legislation in the process of the ongoing global juridification of medical research. Unsurprisingly, there is a tendency to understand the evaluation of RECs as a question of controlling their legal compliance. This paper discusses the need for a quality evaluation of IRBs from an ethical point of view and, by systematically reviewing the major ethical guidelines for IRBs, proposes a system of criteria that should orientate any evaluation of IRBs.

Efficacy of the Multidisciplinary Evaluation for Preschoolers with Suspected Developmental Delays.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Evelyn R.; Stull, Judith

At the Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education, Pennsylvania's largest independent multidisciplinary evaluation program, approximately 300 preschool aged children are evaluated annually to determine developmental performance in the areas of cognition, speech-language, gross and fine motor skills, social-emotional…

Evaluation of interaction properties of geosynthetics in cohesive soils : lab and field pull out tests : technical summary.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2004-07-01

The objective of this research was to evaluate the pullout performance of geogrids and geotextiles in silty-clay soils. The results were correlated for various types of geogrid and geotextile reinforcements. This report presents an evaluation of the ...

Evaluation of warning lights on maintenance of traffic devices and development of possible alternatives.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-07-01

This report documents the efforts and results of a number of studies and evaluations performed by TTI : researchers to evaluate the effect and value of steady-burn warning lights on temporary traffic control : devices used to delineate the correct tr...

76 FR 28056 - National Human Genome Research Institute; Notice of Closed Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-13

... performance, and the competence of individual investigators, the disclosure of which would constitute a.... Agenda: To review and evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of individual... performance, and competence of individual investigators. Place: National Institutes of Health, Building 50...

75 FR 13558 - National Human Genome Research Institute; Notice of Closed Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-22

... performance, and the competence of individual investigators, the disclosure of which would constitute a.... Agenda: To review and evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of individual... performance, and competence of individual investigators. Place: National Institutes of Health, Building 50...

Understanding and Improving High-Performance I/O Subsystems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

El-Ghazawi, Tarek A.; Frieder, Gideon; Clark, A. James

1996-01-01

This research program has been conducted in the framework of the NASA Earth and Space Science (ESS) evaluations led by Dr. Thomas Sterling. In addition to the many important research findings for NASA and the prestigious publications, the program has helped orienting the doctoral research program of two students towards parallel input/output in high-performance computing. Further, the experimental results in the case of the MasPar were very useful and helpful to MasPar with which the P.I. has had many interactions with the technical management. The contributions of this program are drawn from three experimental studies conducted on different high-performance computing testbeds/platforms, and therefore presented in 3 different segments as follows: 1. Evaluating the parallel input/output subsystem of a NASA high-performance computing testbeds, namely the MasPar MP- 1 and MP-2; 2. Characterizing the physical input/output request patterns for NASA ESS applications, which used the Beowulf platform; and 3. Dynamic scheduling techniques for hiding I/O latency in parallel applications such as sparse matrix computations. This study also has been conducted on the Intel Paragon and has also provided an experimental evaluation for the Parallel File System (PFS) and parallel input/output on the Paragon. This report is organized as follows. The summary of findings discusses the results of each of the aforementioned 3 studies. Three appendices, each containing a key scholarly research paper that details the work in one of the studies are included.

Research Productivity and Perceived Teaching Effectiveness: A Survey of Economics Faculty.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Noser, Thomas C.; And Others

1996-01-01

A national study of university economics faculty (n=343) examined the relationship between self-reported research output and teaching evaluation scores. Findings indicated a very weak relationship between research productivity and classroom performance, but institutional and individual characteristics seemed to explain some differences. Faculty…

Stereotype validation: the effects of activating negative stereotypes after intellectual performance.

PubMed

Clark, Jason K; Thiem, Kelsey C; Barden, Jamie; Stuart, Jillian O'Rourke; Evans, Abigail T

2015-04-01

With regard to intellectual performance, a large body of research has shown that stigmatized group members may perform more poorly when negative, self-relevant stereotypes become activated prior to a task. However, no research to date has identified the potential ramifications of stereotype activation that happens after-rather than before-a person has finished performing. Six studies examined how postperformance stereotype salience may increase the certainty individuals have in evaluations of their own performance. In the current research, the accessibility of gender or racial stereotypes was manipulated after participants completed either a difficult math test (Studies 1-5) or a test of child-care knowledge (Study 6). Consistent with predictions, stereotype activation was found to increase the certainty that women (Studies 1, 2, 4, and 5), African Americans (Study 3), and men (Study 6) had toward negative evaluations of their own test performance. These effects emerged when performance-related perceptions were stereotype consistent rather than inconsistent (Studies 1-6) and were found to be most pronounced among those who were highly identified with the stereotyped group (Study 5). Furthermore, greater certainty-triggered by negative stereotypes-predicted lowered domain-relevant beliefs (Studies 1, 2, 3, and 6) and differential exposure to domain-relevant stimuli (Studies 4 and 5). (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Study on corporate social responsibility evaluation system based on stakeholder theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, J.; Deng, Liming

2011-10-01

The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been attracting the attention from many disciplines such as economics, management, laws, sociality and philosophy since last century. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of CSR on performance and develop a CSR evaluation system. Building on the definition of CSR and Stakeholder theory, this article built a path-relationship model of CSR and business operation performance. The paper also constructed CSR evaluation system based on KLD index, GRJ report, CSR accounting account, SA8000, ISO14000 etc. The research provides a basis for future studies about the relationship between CSR and business performance and shed some light on the evaluation of CSR practices.

An Evaluation of the Impact of E-Learning Media Formats on Student Perception and Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kurbel, Karl; Stankov, Ivo; Datsenka, Rastsislau

Factors influencing student evaluation of web-based courses are analyzed, based on student feedback from an online distance-learning graduate program. The impact of different media formats on the perception of the courses by the students as well as on their performance in these courses are examined. In particular, we studied conventional hypertext-based courses, video-based courses and audio-based courses, and tried to find out whether the media format has an effect on how students assess courses and how good or bad their grades are. Statistical analyses were performed to answer several research questions related to the topic and to properly evaluate the factors influencing student evaluation.

Performance of Recycled Hot Mix Asphalt Mixtures

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-05-01

This research project was undertaken to evaluate the performance of recycled pavements in comparison to virgin (control) asphalt pavements. Five projects, each consisting of a recycled section and a control section, were subjected to detailed evaluat...

Performance of recycled mixtures in state of Georgia.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1994-01-01

The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has been constructing recycled asphalt pavements routinely for about four years. This research project was undertaken to evaluate the performance of recycled pavements in comparison to virgin (control) ...

The Utilization of Navy People-Related RDT&E (Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation): Fiscal Year 1983.

DTIC Science & Technology

1984-06-01

emostraion. Tese eserch ool wee deignted and experimental demonstrations wre successfully con- for demonstrations. These research tools wre designated ...Topics 4.02 Instructional Systems Design Methodology Instructional Systems Development and Effectiveness Evaluation .................................... 1...6 53 0 0 67w Report Page 10.07 Human Performance Variables/Factors 10.08 Man-Machine Design Methodology Computer Assisted Methods for Human

The Performance of mHealth in Cancer Supportive Care: A Research Agenda

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Background Since the advent of smartphones, mHealth has risen to the attention of the health care system as something that could radically change the way health care has been viewed, managed, and delivered to date. This is particularly relevant for cancer, as one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and for cancer supportive care, since patients and caregivers have key roles in managing side effects. Given adequate knowledge, they are able to expect appropriate assessments and interventions. In this scenario, mHealth has great potential for linking patients, caregivers, and health care professionals; for enabling early detection and intervention; for lowering costs; and achieving better quality of life. Given its great potential, it is important to evaluate the performance of mHealth. This can be considered from several perspectives, of which organizational performance is particularly relevant, since mHealth may increase the productivity of health care providers and as a result even the productivity of health care systems. Objective This paper aims to review studies on the evaluation of the performance of mHealth, with particular focus on cancer care and cancer supportive care processes, concentrating on its contribution to organizational performance, as well as identifying some indications for a further research agenda. Methods We carried out a review of literature, aimed at identifying studies related to the performance of mHealth in general or focusing on cancer care and cancer supportive care. Results Our analysis revealed that studies are almost always based on a single dimension of performance. Any evaluations of the performance of mHealth are based on very different methods and measures, with a prevailing focus on issues linked to efficiency. This fails to consider the real contribution that mHealth can offer for improving the performance of health care providers, health care systems, and the quality of life in general. Conclusions Further research should start by stating and explaining what is meant by the evaluation of mHealth’s performance and then conduct more in-depth analysis in order to create shared frameworks to specifically identify the different dimensions of mHealth’s performance. PMID:25720295

The performance of mHealth in cancer supportive care: a research agenda.

PubMed

Nasi, Greta; Cucciniello, Maria; Guerrazzi, Claudia

2015-02-13

Since the advent of smartphones, mHealth has risen to the attention of the health care system as something that could radically change the way health care has been viewed, managed, and delivered to date. This is particularly relevant for cancer, as one of the leading causes of death worldwide, and for cancer supportive care, since patients and caregivers have key roles in managing side effects. Given adequate knowledge, they are able to expect appropriate assessments and interventions. In this scenario, mHealth has great potential for linking patients, caregivers, and health care professionals; for enabling early detection and intervention; for lowering costs; and achieving better quality of life. Given its great potential, it is important to evaluate the performance of mHealth. This can be considered from several perspectives, of which organizational performance is particularly relevant, since mHealth may increase the productivity of health care providers and as a result even the productivity of health care systems. This paper aims to review studies on the evaluation of the performance of mHealth, with particular focus on cancer care and cancer supportive care processes, concentrating on its contribution to organizational performance, as well as identifying some indications for a further research agenda. We carried out a review of literature, aimed at identifying studies related to the performance of mHealth in general or focusing on cancer care and cancer supportive care. Our analysis revealed that studies are almost always based on a single dimension of performance. Any evaluations of the performance of mHealth are based on very different methods and measures, with a prevailing focus on issues linked to efficiency. This fails to consider the real contribution that mHealth can offer for improving the performance of health care providers, health care systems, and the quality of life in general. Further research should start by stating and explaining what is meant by the evaluation of mHealth's performance and then conduct more in-depth analysis in order to create shared frameworks to specifically identify the different dimensions of mHealth's performance.

Insight into Evaluation Practice: A Content Analysis of Designs and Methods Used in Evaluation Studies Published in North American Evaluation-Focused Journals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christie, Christina A.; Fleischer, Dreolin Nesbitt

2010-01-01

To describe the recent practice of evaluation, specifically method and design choices, the authors performed a content analysis on 117 evaluation studies published in eight North American evaluation-focused journals for a 3-year period (2004-2006). The authors chose this time span because it follows the scientifically based research (SBR)…

Recent Advances in Resonance Region Nuclear Data Measurements and Analyses for Supporting Nuclear Energy Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dunn, Michael

2008-10-01

For over 30 years, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has performed research and development to provide more accurate nuclear cross-section data in the resonance region. The ORNL Nuclear Data (ND) Program consists of four complementary areas of research: (1) cross-section measurements at the Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator; (2) resonance analysis methods development with the SAMMY R-matrix analysis software; (3) cross-section evaluation development; and (4) cross-section processing methods development with the AMPX software system. The ND Program is tightly coupled with nuclear fuel cycle analyses and radiation transport methods development efforts at ORNL. Thus, nuclear data work is performed in concert with nuclear science and technology needs and requirements. Recent advances in each component of the ORNL ND Program have led to improvements in resonance region measurements, R-matrix analyses, cross-section evaluations, and processing capabilities that directly support radiation transport research and development. Of particular importance are the improvements in cross-section covariance data evaluation and processing capabilities. The benefit of these advances to nuclear science and technology research and development will be discussed during the symposium on Nuclear Physics Research Connections to Nuclear Energy.

How to use bibliometric methods in evaluation of scientific research? An example from Finnish schizophrenia research.

PubMed

Koskinen, Johanna; Isohanni, Matti; Paajala, Henna; Jääskeläinen, Erika; Nieminen, Pentti; Koponen, Hannu; Tienari, Pekka; Miettunen, Jouko

2008-01-01

We present bibliometric methods that can be utilized in evaluation processes of scientific work. In this paper, we present some practical clues using Finnish schizophrenia research as an example and comparing the research output of different institutions. Bibliometric data and indicators including publication counts, impact factors and received citations were used as tools for evaluating research performance in Finnish schizophrenia research. The articles and citations were searched from the Web of Science database. We used schizophrenia as a keyword and defined address Finland, and limited years to 1996-2005. When we analysed Finnish schizophrenia research, altogether 265 articles met our criteria. There were differences in impact factors and received citations between institutions. The number of annually published Finnish schizophrenia articles has tripled since the mid-1990s. International co-operation was common (43%). Bibliometric methods revealed differences between institutions, indicating that the methods can be applied in research evaluation. The coverage of databases as well as the precision of their search engines can be seen as limitations. Bibliometric methods offer a practical and impartial way to estimate publication profiles of researchers and research groups. According to our experience, these methods can be used as an evaluation instrument in research together with other methods, such as expert opinions and panels.

Program Evaluation: Experienced Agencies Follow a Similar Model for Prioritizing Research. Report to the Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate. GAO-11-176

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kingsbury, Nancy

2011-01-01

Amid efforts to improve performance and constrain spending, federal agencies are being asked to expand the use of rigorous program evaluation in decision-making. In addition to performance data, indepth program evaluation studies are often needed for assessing program impact or designing improvements. Agencies can also use their evaluation…

Research on Vehicle-Based Driver Status/Performance Monitoring, Part III

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-09-01

A driver drowsiness detection/alarm/countermeasures system was specified, tested and evaluated, resulting in the development of revised algorithms for the detection of driver drowsiness. Previous algorithms were examined in a test and evaluation stud...

Evaluation of bridge deck sealers.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-06-01

This study focuses on the evaluation of bridge deck sealers commonly used on highway bridge decks and : their relative performance. After reviewing the most up-to-date research findings on chemical sealers used : by state DOTs, four sealer products t...

Evaluation of aggregate sections at Mn/ROAD

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-06-01

This project focuses on the second construction phase of the Minnesota Road Research facility (Mn/ROAD) and evaluates three typical, locally available, surfacing aggregates along with a rollover section from the initial phase for performance. The pro...

Research On Vehicle-Based Driver Status/Performance Monitoring, Part I

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-09-01

A driver drowsiness detection/alarm/countermeasures system was specified, tested and evaluated, resulting in the development of revised algorithms for the detection of driver drowsiness. Previous algorithms were examined in a test and evaluation stud...

Generalized approach for identification and evaluation of technology-insertion options for military avionics systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harkness, Linda L.; Sjoberg, Eric S.

1996-06-01

The Georgia Tech Research Institute, sponsored by the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, has developed an approach for efficiently postulating and evaluating methods for extending the life of radars and other avionics systems. The technique identified specific assemblies for potential replacement and evaluates the system level impact, including performance, reliability and life-cycle cost of each action. The initial impetus for this research was the increasing obsolescence of integrated circuits contained in the AN/APG-63 system. The operational life of military electronics is typically in excess of twenty years, which encompasses several generations of IC technology. GTRI has developed a systems approach to inserting modern technology components into older systems based upon identification of those functions which limit the system's performance or reliability and which are cost drivers. The presentation will discuss the above methodology and a technique for evaluating and ranking the different potential system upgrade options.

Assisting allied health in performance evaluation: a systematic review.

PubMed

Lizarondo, Lucylynn; Grimmer, Karen; Kumar, Saravana

2014-11-14

Performance evaluation raises several challenges to allied health practitioners and there is no agreed approach to measuring or monitoring allied health service performance. The aim of this review was to examine the literature on performance evaluation in healthcare to assist in the establishment of a framework that can guide the measurement and evaluation of allied health clinical service performance. This review determined the core elements of a performance evaluation system, tools for evaluating performance, and barriers to the implementation of performance evaluation. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken. Five electronic databases were used to search for relevant articles: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsychInfo, and Academic Search Premier. Articles which focussed on any allied health performance evaluation or those which examined performance in health care in general were considered in the review. Content analysis was used to synthesise the findings from individual articles. A total of 37 articles were included in the review. The literature suggests there are core elements involved in performance evaluation which include prioritising clinical areas for measurement, setting goals, selecting performance measures, identifying sources of feedback, undertaking performance measurement, and reporting the results to relevant stakeholders. The literature describes performance evaluation as multi-dimensional, requiring information or data from more than one perspective to provide a rich assessment of performance. A range of tools or instruments are available to capture various perspectives and gather a comprehensive picture of health care quality. Every allied health care delivery system has different performance needs and will therefore require different approaches. However, there are core processes that can be used as a framework to evaluate allied health performance. A careful examination of barriers to performance evaluation and subsequent tailoring of strategies to overcome these barriers should be undertaken to achieve the aims of performance evaluation. The findings of this review should inform the development of a standardised framework that can be used to measure and evaluate allied health performance. Future research should explore the utility and overall impact of such framework in allied health service delivery.

Design and evaluation of prosthetic shoulder controller

PubMed Central

Barton, Joseph E.; Sorkin, John D.

2015-01-01

We developed a 2-degree-of-freedom (DOF) shoulder position transducer (sensing shoulder protraction-retraction and elevation-depression) that can be used to control two of a powered prosthetic humerus' DOFs. We also developed an evaluation protocol based on Fitts' law to assess the performance of our device. The primary motivation for this work was to support development of powered prosthetic shoulder joints of a new generation of prosthetic arms for people with shoulder disarticulation and very high-level transhumeral amputation. We found that transducers that provided resistance to shoulder movement performed better than those providing no resistance. We also found that a position control scheme, where effector position is proportional to shoulder position, performed better than a velocity control scheme, where effector velocity is proportional to shoulder position. More generally, our transducer can be used to control motion along any two DOFs. It can also be used in a more general 4-DOF control scheme by sequentially controlling two DOFs at a time. The evaluation protocol has general applicability for researchers and practitioners. Researchers can employ it to compare different prosthesis designs and control schemes, while practitioners may find the evaluation protocol useful in evaluating and training people with amputation in the use of prostheses. PMID:25357185

Effects of handcuffs on neuropsychological testing: Implications for criminal forensic evaluations.

PubMed

Biddle, Christine M; Fazio, Rachel L; Dyshniku, Fiona; Denney, Robert L

2018-01-01

Neuropsychological evaluations are increasingly performed in forensic contexts, including in criminal settings where security sometimes cannot be compromised to facilitate evaluation according to standardized procedures. Interpretation of nonstandardized assessment results poses significant challenges for the neuropsychologist. Research is limited in regard to the validation of neuropsychological test accommodation and modification practices that deviate from standard test administration; there is no published research regarding the effects of hand restraints upon neuropsychological evaluation results. This study provides preliminary results regarding the impact of restraints on motor functioning and common neuropsychological tests with a motor component. When restrained, performance on nearly all tests utilized was significantly impacted, including Trail Making Test A/B, a coding test, and several tests of motor functioning. Significant performance decline was observed in both raw scores and normative scores. Regression models are also provided in order to help forensic neuropsychologists adjust for the effect of hand restraints on raw scores of these tests, as the hand restraints also resulted in significant differences in normative scores; in the most striking case there was nearly a full standard deviation of discrepancy.

Performance Data Report: Space Medicine Division, Human Research Program, Behavioural Health and Performance Research Element

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Shea, Camille; Keeton, Kathryn E.; Schmidt, Lacey L.; Slack, Kelley J.; Patterson, Holly N.; Leveton, Lauren B.; Holland, Albert W.

2012-01-01

This report is the result of a collaborative effort between NASA?s Behavioral Health & Performance (BHP) Research and Operations Group to investigate and determine the availability of data pertaining to behavioral performance (and other pertinent variables) that have been collected by the laboratories at NASA?s Johnson Space Center. BHP?s Operations and Research groups collaborated to systematically identify what types of performance data are needed in relevant BHP performance domains and also to conduct structured interviews with NASA personnel to identify which data do or do not exist currently (and for instances where such data exist, to evaluate the type, quality, accessibility, and confidentiality of those data). The authors defined outcome categories of performance that encapsulate BHP performance domains, mapped BHP Research Risks and Gaps onto those performance outcome categories, and identified and prioritized indicators for each outcome category. The team identified key points of contact (subject matter experts [SMEs]) as potential interviewees, created a template for structured interview questions about sources and accessibility of performance data, and coordinated and conducted structured interviews with the SMEs. The methodology, results, and implications of this effort, as well as forward work needed, are discussed in this report.

Effects of aggregate angularity on mix design characteristics and pavement performance.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-12-01

This research targeted two primary purposes: to estimate current aggregate angularity test methods and to evaluate current : aggregate angularity requirements in the Nebraska asphalt mixture/pavement specification. To meet the first research : object...

Aggregation in Network Models for Transportation Planning

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1978-02-01

This report documents research performed on techniques of aggregation applied to network models used in transportation planning. The central objective of this research has been to identify, extend, and evaluate methods of aggregation so as to improve...

Local research ethics committees of the Mexican Institute of Social Security: results of a national survey.

PubMed

Valdez-Martinez, E; Garduño-Espinosa, J; Martinez-Salgado, H; Porter, J D H

2004-07-01

To identify the structure, composition and work of the local research ethics committees (LRECs) of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) in Mexico. A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed that included all LRECs of the IMSS. A total of 335 questionnaires coded in advance were posted to each LREC secretary. The requested information was from January to December 2001. The response rate was 100%. Two hundred and thirty-eight (71%) LRECs were reported as 'active' during the evaluation period. Although almost all LRECs were composed of diverse professionals, physicians dominated the LRECs' membership. The rejection rate for research projects was lower than 1 per 1000, and less than half of the LRECs held meetings to issue a report of projects' evaluation. LRECs need to foster good ethical research; implementation of an audit system to examine their work might help improve LRECs' performance and accountability.

Hybrid Electric Vehicle Testing | Transportation Research | NREL

Science.gov Websites

Hybrid Electric Vehicle Evaluations Hybrid Electric Vehicle Evaluations How Hybrid Electric Vehicles Work Hybrid electric vehicles combine a primary power source, an energy storage system, and an performance evaluations of hybrid electric vehicles compared to similar conventional vehicles. Learn about

Metrics for Evaluation of Student Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pelanek, Radek

2015-01-01

Researchers use many different metrics for evaluation of performance of student models. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of commonly used metrics, to discuss properties, advantages, and disadvantages of different metrics, to summarize current practice in educational data mining, and to provide guidance for evaluation of student…

Methodology, Methods, and Metrics for Testing and Evaluating Augmented Cognition Systems

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

Greitzer, Frank L.

The augmented cognition research community seeks cognitive neuroscience-based solutions to improve warfighter performance by applying and managing mitigation strategies to reduce workload and improve the throughput and quality of decisions. The focus of augmented cognition mitigation research is to define, demonstrate, and exploit neuroscience and behavioral measures that support inferences about the warfighter’s cognitive state that prescribe the nature and timing of mitigation. A research challenge is to develop valid evaluation methodologies, metrics and measures to assess the impact of augmented cognition mitigations. Two considerations are external validity, which is the extent to which the results apply to operational contexts;more » and internal validity, which reflects the reliability of performance measures and the conclusions based on analysis of results. The scientific rigor of the research methodology employed in conducting empirical investigations largely affects the validity of the findings. External validity requirements also compel us to demonstrate operational significance of mitigations. Thus it is important to demonstrate effectiveness of mitigations under specific conditions. This chapter reviews some cognitive science and methodological considerations in designing augmented cognition research studies and associated human performance metrics and analysis methods to assess the impact of augmented cognition mitigations.« less

Integrated Test and Evaluation Flight Test 3 Flight Test Plan

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marston, Michael Lawrence

2015-01-01

The desire and ability to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) is of increasing urgency. The application of unmanned aircraft to perform national security, defense, scientific, and emergency management are driving the critical need for less restrictive access by UAS to the NAS. UAS represent a new capability that will provide a variety of services in the government (public) and commercial (civil) aviation sectors. The growth of this potential industry has not yet been realized due to the lack of a common understanding of what is required to safely operate UAS in the NAS. NASA's UAS Integration into the NAS Project is conducting research in the areas of Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability, Human Systems Integration (HSI), and Communication to support reducing the barriers of UAS access to the NAS. This research is broken into two research themes namely, UAS Integration and Test Infrastructure. UAS Integration focuses on airspace integration procedures and performance standards to enable UAS integration in the air transportation system, covering Sense and Avoid (SAA) performance standards, command and control performance standards, and human systems integration. The focus of Test Infrastructure is to enable development and validation of airspace integration procedures and performance standards, including the integrated test and evaluation. In support of the integrated test and evaluation efforts, the Project will develop an adaptable, scalable, and schedulable relevant test environment capable of evaluating concepts and technologies for unmanned aircraft systems to safely operate in the NAS. To accomplish this task, the Project will conduct a series of Human-in-the-Loop and Flight Test activities that integrate key concepts, technologies and/or procedures in a relevant air traffic environment. Each of the integrated events will build on the technical achievements, fidelity and complexity of the previous tests and technical simulations, resulting in research findings that support the development of regulations governing the access of UAS into the NAS.

UAS Integration in the NAS Project: Integrated Test and Evaluation (IT&E) Flight Test 3. Revision E

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marston, Michael

2015-01-01

The desire and ability to fly Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) is of increasing urgency. The application of unmanned aircraft to perform national security, defense, scientific, and emergency management are driving the critical need for less restrictive access by UAS to the NAS. UAS represent a new capability that will provide a variety of services in the government (public) and commercial (civil) aviation sectors. The growth of this potential industry has not yet been realized due to the lack of a common understanding of what is required to safely operate UAS in the NAS. NASA's UAS Integration into the NAS Project is conducting research in the areas of Separation Assurance/Sense and Avoid Interoperability, Human Systems Integration (HSI), and Communication to support reducing the barriers of UAS access to the NAS. This research is broken into two research themes namely, UAS Integration and Test Infrastructure. UAS Integration focuses on airspace integration procedures and performance standards to enable UAS integration in the air transportation system, covering Sense and Avoid (SAA) performance standards, command and control performance standards, and human systems integration. The focus of Test Infrastructure is to enable development and validation of airspace integration procedures and performance standards, including the integrated test and evaluation. In support of the integrated test and evaluation efforts, the Project will develop an adaptable, scalable, and schedulable relevant test environment capable of evaluating concepts and technologies for unmanned aircraft systems to safely operate in the NAS. To accomplish this task, the Project will conduct a series of Human-in-the-Loop and Flight Test activities that integrate key concepts, technologies and/or procedures in a relevant air traffic environment. Each of the integrated events will build on the technical achievements, fidelity and complexity of the previous tests and technical simulations, resulting in research findings that support the development of regulations governing the access of UAS into the NAS.

Mediators of Stereotype Threat Induced by Diagnostic Testing by Stereotype Relevant Out-Group Evaluators: The Roles of Evaluator's Racial Fairness and Support on Performance Outcome

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilburn, Grady Akile

2010-01-01

There is an abundance of research that examines the social-psychological phenomenon called stereotype threat. There is not, however, a conclusive understanding of the processes and mechanisms that operate within stereotype threat that produce reduced performance in a negative stereotype relevant area. This dissertation proposes that there are…

Performance Evaluation of a Routing Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-12-01

OF A ROUTING PROTOCOL IN WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS by Cheng Kiat Amos, Teo December 2005 Thesis Advisors: Gurminder Singh John C...Evaluation of a Routing Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network 6. AUTHOR(S) Cheng Kiat Amos, Teo 5. FUNDING NUMBERS 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S...need to be strategically positioned and have topologies engineered. As such, recent research into wireless sensor networks has attracted great

Visuospatial Training Improves Elementary Students' Mathematics Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowrie, Tom; Logan, Tracy; Ramful, Ajay

2017-01-01

Background: Although spatial ability and mathematics performance are highly correlated, there is scant research on the extent to which spatial ability training can improve mathematics performance. Aims: This study evaluated the efficacy of a visuospatial intervention programme within classrooms to determine the effect on students' (1) spatial…

Final Evaluation Report 1976-77. Systemwide Evaluation. Publication Number: 76.70.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Austin Independent School District, TX. Office of Research and Evaluation.

A series of reports describes the activities of the Office of Research and Evaluation and compiles data descriptive of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. This report describes the system-wide evaluation data for the school year 1976-77, which demonstrate improved performance in the basic skills areas of reading and mathematics,…

Screening studies of advanced control concepts for airbreathing engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ouzts, Peter J.; Lorenzo, Carl F.; Merrill, Walter C.

1993-01-01

The application of advanced control concepts to airbreathing engines may yield significant improvements in aircraft/engine performance and operability. Accordingly, the NASA Lewis Research Center has conducted screening studies of advanced control concepts for airbreathing engines to determine their potential impact on turbine engine performance and operability. The purpose of the studies was to identify concepts which offered high potential yet may incur high research and development risk. A target suite of proposed concepts was formulated by NASA and industry. These concepts were evaluated in a two phase study to quantify each concept's impact on desired engine characteristics. To aid in the evaluation, three target aircraft/engine combinations were considered: a military high performance fighter mission, a high speed civil transport mission, and a civil tiltrotor mission. Each of the advanced control concepts considered in the study were defined and described. The concept's potential impact on engine performance was determined. Relevant figures of merit on which to evaluate the concepts were also determined. Finally, the concepts were ranked with respect to the target aircraft/engine missions.

Research to Support Intelligent Data Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lerner, B. T.

1998-01-01

This final report details the contract performance and analysis of research and development results obtained during the contract period. KT-Tech's research and development work results in the areas of registration of remotely sensed data and the test evaluation and porting of the Regional Validation Center software system are presented.

Faculty Research Productivity: Why Do Some of Our Colleagues Publish More than Others?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hesli, Vicki L.; Lee, Jae Mook

2011-01-01

The justification for studying faculty research productivity is that it affects individual advancement and reputation within academe, as well as departmental and institutional prestige (Creamer 1998, iii). Publication records are an important factor in faculty performance evaluations, research grant awards, and promotion and salary decisions. The…

SOIL AND FILL LABORATORY SUPPORT - 1992 RADIOLOGICAL ANALYSES - FLORIDA RADON RESEARCH PROGRAM

EPA Science Inventory

The report gives results of soil analysis laboratory work by the University of Florida in support of the Florida Radon Research Program (FRRP). Analyses were performed on soil and fill samples collected during 1992 by the FRRP Research House Program and the New House Evaluation P...

Research to Support Intelligent Data Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lerner, Bao-Ting

1998-01-01

This final report details the contract performance and analysis of research and development results obtained during the contract period. KT-TECH's research and development work results in the areas of registration of remotely sensed data and the test evaluation and porting of the Regional Validation Center software system, are presented.

VISSR Atmospheric Sounder (VAS) Research Review

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Greaves, J. R. (Editor)

1983-01-01

The VAS, an experimental instrument flown onboard Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES), is capable of achieving mutlispectral imagery of atmospheric temperature, water vapor, and cloudiness patterns over short time intervals. In addition, this instrument provides an atmospheric sounding capability from geosynchronous orbit. The VAS demonstration is an effort for evaluating the VAS instrument's performance, and for demonstrating the capabilities of a VAS prototype system to provide useful geosynchronous satellite data for supporting weather forecasts and atmospheric research. The demonstration evaluates the performance of the VAS Instruments on GOES-4-5, and -6, develops research oriented and prototype/operational VAS data processing systems, determines the accuracy of certain basic and derived meteorological parameters that can be obtained from the VAS instrument, and assesses the utility of VAS derived information in analyzing severe weather situations.

An Overview of Controls and Flying Qualities Technology on the F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pahle, Joseph W.; Wichman, Keith D.; Foster, John V.; Bundick, W. Thomas

1996-01-01

The NASA F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle (HARV) has been the flight test bed of a focused technology effort to significantly increase maneuvering capability at high angles of attack. Development and flight test of control law design methodologies, handling qualities metrics, performance guidelines, and flight evaluation maneuvers are described. The HARV has been modified to include two research control effectors, thrust vectoring, and actuated forebody strakes in order to provide increased control power at high angles of attack. A research flight control system has been used to provide a flexible, easily modified capability for high-angle-of-attack research controls. Different control law design techniques have been implemented and flight-tested, including eigenstructure assignment, variable gain output feedback, pseudo controls, and model-following. Extensive piloted simulation has been used to develop nonlinear performance guide-lines and handling qualities criteria for high angles of attack. This paper reviews the development and evaluation of technologies useful for high-angle-of-attack control. Design, development, and flight test of the research flight control system, control laws, flying qualities specifications, and flight test maneuvers are described. Flight test results are used to illustrate some of the lessons learned during flight test and handling qualities evaluations.

Autonomous Wheeled Robot Platform Testbed for Navigation and Mapping Using Low-Cost Sensors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calero, D.; Fernandez, E.; Parés, M. E.

2017-11-01

This paper presents the concept of an architecture for a wheeled robot system that helps researchers in the field of geomatics to speed up their daily research on kinematic geodesy, indoor navigation and indoor positioning fields. The presented ideas corresponds to an extensible and modular hardware and software system aimed at the development of new low-cost mapping algorithms as well as at the evaluation of the performance of sensors. The concept, already implemented in the CTTC's system ARAS (Autonomous Rover for Automatic Surveying) is generic and extensible. This means that it is possible to incorporate new navigation algorithms or sensors at no maintenance cost. Only the effort related to the development tasks required to either create such algorithms needs to be taken into account. As a consequence, change poses a much small problem for research activities in this specific area. This system includes several standalone sensors that may be combined in different ways to accomplish several goals; that is, this system may be used to perform a variety of tasks, as, for instance evaluates positioning algorithms performance or mapping algorithms performance.

An Overview and Evaluation of Recent Machine Learning Imputation Methods Using Cardiac Imaging Data.

PubMed

Liu, Yuzhe; Gopalakrishnan, Vanathi

2017-03-01

Many clinical research datasets have a large percentage of missing values that directly impacts their usefulness in yielding high accuracy classifiers when used for training in supervised machine learning. While missing value imputation methods have been shown to work well with smaller percentages of missing values, their ability to impute sparse clinical research data can be problem specific. We previously attempted to learn quantitative guidelines for ordering cardiac magnetic resonance imaging during the evaluation for pediatric cardiomyopathy, but missing data significantly reduced our usable sample size. In this work, we sought to determine if increasing the usable sample size through imputation would allow us to learn better guidelines. We first review several machine learning methods for estimating missing data. Then, we apply four popular methods (mean imputation, decision tree, k-nearest neighbors, and self-organizing maps) to a clinical research dataset of pediatric patients undergoing evaluation for cardiomyopathy. Using Bayesian Rule Learning (BRL) to learn ruleset models, we compared the performance of imputation-augmented models versus unaugmented models. We found that all four imputation-augmented models performed similarly to unaugmented models. While imputation did not improve performance, it did provide evidence for the robustness of our learned models.

Solar collector performance evaluated outdoors at NASA-Lewis Research Center

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vernon, R. W.

1974-01-01

The study of solar reflector performance reported is related to a project in which solar collectors are to be provided for the solar heating and cooling system of an office building at NASA's Langley Research Center. The solar collector makes use of a liquid consisting of 50% ethylene glycol and 50% water. A conventional air-liquid heat exchanger is employed. Collector performance and solar insolation data are recorded along with air temperature, wind speed and direction, and relative humidity.

Bond Behavior of Reinforcing Steel in Ultra-High Performance Concrete

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-11-01

Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) has garnered interest from the highway infrastructure community for its greatly enhanced mechanical and durability properties. The objective of this research is to extensively evaluate the factors that affect bo...

Base rate of performance invalidity among non-clinical undergraduate research participants.

PubMed

Silk-Eglit, Graham M; Stenclik, Jessica H; Gavett, Brandon E; Adams, Jason W; Lynch, Julie K; Mccaffrey, Robert J

2014-08-01

Neuropsychological research frequently uses non-clinical undergraduate participants to evaluate neuropsychological tests. However, a recent study by An and colleagues (2012, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 27, 849-857) called into question that the extent to which the interpretation of these participants' performance on neuropsychological tests is valid. This study found that in a sample of 36 participants, 55.6% exhibited performance invalidity at an initial session and 30.8% exhibited performance invalidity at a follow-up session. The current study attempted to replicate these findings in a larger, more representative sample using a more rigorous methodology. Archival data from 133 non-clinical undergraduate research participants were analyzed. Participants were classified as performance invalid if they failed any one PVT. In the current sample, only 2.26% of participants exhibited performance invalidity. Thus, concerns regarding insufficient effort and performance invalidity when using undergraduate research participants appear to be overstated. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Shield evaluation and performance testing at the USMB`s Strategic Structures Testing Laboratory

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

Barczak, T.M.; Gearhart, D.F.

1996-12-31

Historically, shield performance testing is conducted by the support manufacturers at European facilities. The U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) has conducted extensive research in shield Mechanics and is now opening its Strategic Structures Testing (SST) Laboratory to the mining industry for shield performance testing. The SST Laboratory provides unique shield testing capabilities using the Mine Roof Simulator (MRS) load frame. The MRS provides realistic and cost-effective shield evaluation by combining both vertical and horizontal loading into a single load cycle; whereas, several load cycles would be required to obtain this loading in a static frame. In addition to these advantages,more » the USBM acts as an independent research organization to provide an unbiased assessment of shield performance. This paper describes the USBM`s shield testing program that is designed specifically to simulate in-service mining conditions using the unique the capabilities of the SST Laboratory.« less

Procedures for evaluating corrosion-inhibiting admixtures for structural concrete

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2000-06-01

The objectives of this research were to (1) develop procedures for evaluating and qualifying corrosion-inhibiting admixtures (CIAs) and (2) recommend performance criteria for their acceptance. Phase I work included a literature review of CIAs, the re...

CCTV Data Management for Effective Condition Assessment of Wastewater Collection Systems - slides

EPA Science Inventory

The project objectives are: Research current state of condition assessment technology for wastewater collection systems; Evaluate performance and cost of innovative and advanced infrastructure monitoring technologies; Identify and evaluate innovative CCTV technologies; and Prepar...

Operational Evaluation of Do Not Block the Box Campaigns in Georgia

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2018-04-23

The overarching objective of this research is to provide the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) and the Perimeter Community Improvement District (PCID) with an evaluation of the operational performance impacts of implementing a Do Not Blo...

Evaluation of field projects using crumb rubber modified asphaltic concrete.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2007-03-01

In 1994, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) initiated a research project to evaluate different crumb-rubber modified (CRM) applications in which the long-term pavement performance of the CRM asphalt pavements was comp...

Research notes : evaluation of the performance of reference electrodes embedded in reinforced concrete.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-07-01

The objectives of this work were to examine placement strategies for reference electrodes and to evaluate the suitability of graphite reference electrodes as imbedded reference electrodes in reinforced concrete structures that are cathodically protec...

Team research at the biology-mathematics interface: project management perspectives.

PubMed

Milton, John G; Radunskaya, Ami E; Lee, Arthur H; de Pillis, Lisette G; Bartlett, Diana F

2010-01-01

The success of interdisciplinary research teams depends largely upon skills related to team performance. We evaluated student and team performance for undergraduate biology and mathematics students who participated in summer research projects conducted in off-campus laboratories. The student teams were composed of a student with a mathematics background and an experimentally oriented biology student. The team mentors typically ranked the students' performance very good to excellent over a range of attributes that included creativity and ability to conduct independent research. However, the research teams experienced problems meeting prespecified deadlines due to poor time and project management skills. Because time and project management skills can be readily taught and moreover typically reflect good research practices, simple modifications should be made to undergraduate curricula so that the promise of initiatives, such as MATH-BIO 2010, can be implemented.

Remediation Evaluation Model for Chlorinated Solvents (REMChlor)

EPA Science Inventory

A new analytical solution has been developed for simulating the transient effects of groundwater source and plume remediation. This development was performed as part of a Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) research project, which was a joint effort ...

ORD Clean Air Research Program Review and Response

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The objective of this review was to evaluate the relevance, quality, performance, scientific and managerial leadership, and outcomes of the Program and provide guidance and recommendations as to the progress and directions of the Clean Air Research Program

Summary report on the performance of epoxy-coated reinforcing steel in Virginia.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-01-01

From 1992 to 2006, the Virginia Transportation Research Council and its contract researchers conducted a long-term systematic series of investigations to evaluate the corrosion protection effectiveness of epoxy-coated reinforcement (ECR) and to ident...

Performance evaluation and specification of trackless tack : [project summary].

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-09-01

Researchers compared two tracking resistance tests for tack: a track-free time test and a modified dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) tackiness test. : Researchers compared four bond strength tests: interface shear, pull-off, torque, and Arcan. Then, usin...

Evaluation of Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTTP) Climatic Data for Use in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) Calibration and Other Pavement Analysis

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-05-01

Improvements in the Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Programs climate data are needed to support current and future research into climate effects on pavement materials, design, and performance. The calibration and enhancement of the Mechanist...

Communicating with Faculty Using a Diagnostic Performance Appraisal Process.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gibson, Ken

In spite of the many teacher evaluation models available and the extensive research on performance appraisal, few community colleges have effectively come to terms with this difficult task. Many administrators prefer to avoid the interpersonal conflict and the possible legal ramifications of performance appraisal. However, in times of limited…

ASUPT Automated Objective Performance Measurement System.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waag, Wayne L.; And Others

To realize its full research potential, a need exists for the development of an automated objective pilot performance evaluation system for use in the Advanced Simulation in Undergraduate Pilot Training (ASUPT) facility. The present report documents the approach taken for the development of performance measures and also presents data collected…

Analysis of Naïve Bayes Algorithm for Email Spam Filtering across Multiple Datasets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fitriah Rusland, Nurul; Wahid, Norfaradilla; Kasim, Shahreen; Hafit, Hanayanti

2017-08-01

E-mail spam continues to become a problem on the Internet. Spammed e-mail may contain many copies of the same message, commercial advertisement or other irrelevant posts like pornographic content. In previous research, different filtering techniques are used to detect these e-mails such as using Random Forest, Naïve Bayesian, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Neutral Network. In this research, we test Naïve Bayes algorithm for e-mail spam filtering on two datasets and test its performance, i.e., Spam Data and SPAMBASE datasets [8]. The performance of the datasets is evaluated based on their accuracy, recall, precision and F-measure. Our research use WEKA tool for the evaluation of Naïve Bayes algorithm for e-mail spam filtering on both datasets. The result shows that the type of email and the number of instances of the dataset has an influence towards the performance of Naïve Bayes.

Aluminum Lithium Alloy 2195 Fusion Welding Improvements with New Filler Wire

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Russell, C.

2001-01-01

The objective of this research was to assess the B218 weld filler wire for Super Lightweight External Tank production, which could improve current production welding and repair productivity. We took the following approaches: (1) Perform a repair weld quick look evaluation between 4043/B218 and B218/B218 weld filler wire combinations and evaluation tensile properties for planished and unplanished conditions; and (2) Perform repair weld evaluation on structural simulation panel using 4043-B218 and B218/B218 weld filler wire combinations and evaluation tensile and simulated service fracture properties for planished and unplanished conditions.

Deriving evaluation indicators for knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in the context of climate research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Treffeisen, Renate; Grosfeld, Klaus; Kuhlmann, Franziska

2017-12-01

Knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in the field of climate science have captured intensive attention in recent years as being an important part of research activities. Therefore, the demand and pressure to develop a set of indicators for the evaluation of different activities in this field have increased, too. Research institutes are being asked more and more to build up structures in order to map these activities and, thus, are obliged to demonstrate the success of these efforts. This paper aims to serve as an input to stimulate further reflection on the field of evaluation of knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in the context of climate sciences. The work performed in this paper is embedded in the efforts of the German Helmholtz Association in the research field of earth and environment and is driven by the need to apply suitable indicators for knowledge transfer and dialogue processes in climate research center evaluations. We carry out a comparative analysis of three long-term activities and derive a set of indicators for measuring their output and outcome by balancing the wide diversity and range of activity contents as well as the different tools to realize them. The case examples are based on activities which are part of the regional Helmholtz Climate Initiative Regional Climate Change (REKLIM) and the Climate Office for Polar Regions and Sea Level Rise at the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research. Both institutional units have been working on a wide range of different knowledge transfer and dialogue processes since 2008/2009. We demonstrate that indicators for the evaluation must be based on the unique objectives of the individual activities and the framework they are embedded in (e.g., research foci which provide the background for the performed knowledge transfer and dialogue processes) but can partly be classified in a principle two-dimensional scheme. This scheme might serve as a usable basis for climate research center evaluation in the future. It, furthermore, underlines the need for further development of proper mechanisms to evaluate scientific centers, in particular with regard to knowledge transfer and dialogue processes.

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles

PubMed Central

Bostelman, Roger B.; Hong, Tsai H.; Messina, Elena

2017-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV’s). However, performance standards for AGV’s and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance. PMID:28649189

Intelligence Level Performance Standards Research for Autonomous Vehicles.

PubMed

Bostelman, Roger B; Hong, Tsai H; Messina, Elena

2015-01-01

United States and European safety standards have evolved to protect workers near Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGV's). However, performance standards for AGV's and mobile robots have only recently begun development. Lessons can be learned from research and standards efforts for mobile robots applied to emergency response and military applications. Research challenges, tests and evaluations, and programs to develop higher intelligence levels for vehicles can also used to guide industrial AGV developments towards more adaptable and intelligent systems. These other efforts also provide useful standards development criteria for AGV performance test methods. Current standards areas being considered for AGVs are for docking, navigation, obstacle avoidance, and the ground truth systems that measure performance. This paper provides a look to the future with standards developments in both the performance of vehicles and the dynamic perception systems that measure intelligent vehicle performance.

JV Task 120 - Coal Ash Resources Research Consortium Research

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

Debra Pflughoeft-Hassett; Loreal Heebink; David Hassett

2009-03-28

The Coal Ash Resources Research Consortium{reg_sign} (CARRC{reg_sign}, pronounced 'cars') is the core coal combustion product (CCP) research group at the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC). CARRC focuses on performing fundamental and applied scientific and engineering research emphasizing the environmentally safe, economical use of CCPs. CARRC member organizations, which include utilities and marketers, are key to developing industry-driven research in the area of CCP utilization and ensuring its successful application. The U.S. Department of Energy is a partner in CARRC through the EERC Jointly Sponsored Research Program, which provides matching funds for industrial member contributions and facilitates an increased levelmore » of effort in CARRC. CARRC tasks were designed to provide information on CCP performance, including environmental performance, engineering performance, favorable economics, and improved life cycle of products and projects. CARRC technical research tasks are developed based on member input and prioritization. CARRC special projects are developed with members and nonmembers to provide similar information and to support activities, including the assembly and interpretation of data, support for standards development and technology transfer, and facilitating product development and testing. CARRC activities from 2007 to 2009 included a range of research tasks, with primary work performed in laboratory tasks developed to answer specific questions or evaluate important fundamental properties of CCPs. The tasks were included in four categories: (1) Environmental Evaluations of CCPs; (2) Evaluation of Impacts on CCPs from Emission Controls; (3) Construction and Product-Related Activities; and (4) Technology Transfer and Maintenance Tasks. All tasks are designed to work toward achieving the CARRC overall goal and supporting objectives. The various tasks are coordinated in order to provide broad and useful technical data for CARRC members. Special projects provide an opportunity for non-CARRC members to sponsor specific research or technology transfer consistent with CARRC goals. This report covers CARRC activities from January 2007 through March 2009. These activities have been reported in CARRC Annual Reports and in member meetings over the past 2 years. CARRC continues to work with industry and various government agencies with its research, development, demonstration, and promotional activities nearing completion at the time of submission of this report. CARRC expects to continue its service to the coal ash industry in 2009 and beyond to work toward the common goal of advancing coal ash utilization by solving CCP-related technical issues and promoting the environmentally safe, technically sound, and economically viable management of these complex and changing materials.« less

Study of Adaptive Mathematical Models for Deriving Automated Pilot Performance Measurement Techniques. Volume I. Model Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connelly, Edward A.; And Others

A new approach to deriving human performance measures and criteria for use in automatically evaluating trainee performance is documented in this report. The ultimate application of the research is to provide methods for automatically measuring pilot performance in a flight simulator or from recorded in-flight data. An efficient method of…

Technology evaluation report: SITE (Superfund Innovative Technology Evaluation) program demonstration test. The American Combustion Pyretron Thermal Destruction System at the US EPA's (Environmental Protection Agency's) combustion research facility

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

Waterland, L.; Lee, J.W.

1989-04-01

A series of demonstration tests of the American Combustion, Inc., Thermal Destruction System was performed under the SITE program. This oxygen-enhanced combustion system was retrofit to the rotary-kiln incinerator at EPA's Combustion Research Facility. The system's performance was tested firing contaminated soil from the Stringfellow Superfund Site, both alone and mixed with a coal tar waste (KO87). Comparative performance with conventional incinerator operation was also tested. Compliance with the incinerator performance standards of 99.99% principal organic hazardous constituents (POHC) destruction and removal efficiency and particulate emissions of less than 180 mg/dscm at 7% O2 was measured for all tests. Themore » Pyretron system was capable of in-compliance performance at double the mixed waste feedrate and at a 60% increase in batch waste charge mass than possible with conventional incineration. Scrubber blowdown and kiln ash contained no detectable levels of any of the POHCs chosen.« less

Entrepreneur environment management behavior evaluation method derived from environmental economy.

PubMed

Zhang, Lili; Hou, Xilin; Xi, Fengru

2013-12-01

Evaluation system can encourage and guide entrepreneurs, and impel them to perform well in environment management. An evaluation method based on advantage structure is established. It is used to analyze entrepreneur environment management behavior in China. Entrepreneur environment management behavior evaluation index system is constructed based on empirical research. Evaluation method of entrepreneurs is put forward, from the point of objective programming-theory to alert entrepreneurs concerned to think much of it, which means to take minimized objective function as comprehensive evaluation result and identify disadvantage structure pattern. Application research shows that overall behavior of Chinese entrepreneurs environmental management are good, specially, environment strategic behavior are best, environmental management behavior are second, cultural behavior ranks last. Application results show the efficiency and feasibility of this method. Copyright © 2013 The Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Wisconsin mixture characterization using the asphalt mixture performance tester (AMPT) on historical aggregate structures.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-01-01

This research evaluated the stiffness and permanent deformation properties of typical Wisconsin Department of : Transportation (WisDOT) asphalt mixtures using the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester (AMPT) and associated test and : analysis procedures...

77 FR 55849 - National Institute on Aging; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-11

... personnel qualifications and performance, and the competence of individual investigators, the disclosure of...: To review and evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of individual..., and competence of individual investigators. Place: National Institute on Aging, Biomedical Research...

Pavement testing facility : effects of tire pressure on flexible pavement response performance

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1989-08-01

The effects of tire pressure on flexible pavement response and performance were evaluated using data from the first phase of research at the Federal Highway Administration's Pavement Testing Facility. The Accelerated Loading Facility testing machine ...

Performance and cost effectiveness of permeable friction course (PFC) pavements.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2013-02-01

In this project, the research team evaluated the performance of Permeable Friction Courses (PFC) over time and compared it against other types of wearing surface pavement layers. Several pavement sections including Asphalt Rubber (AR) PFCs, Performan...

Effects of Heavy Vehicle Characteristics on Pavement Response and Performance---Phase II

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1991-12-31

The objective of this research was to analyze and evaluate the interaction between heavy vehicle characteristics and pavement performance for application in pavement management. Heavy vehicle (truck and bus) characteristics include tire types (bias p...

A high turndown, ultra low emission low swirl burner for natural gas, on-demand water heaters

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

Rapp, Vi H.; Cheng, Robert K.; Therkelsen, Peter L.

Previous research has shown that on-demand water heaters are, on average, approximately 37% more efficient than storage water heaters. However, approximately 98% of water heaters in the U.S. use storage water heaters while the remaining 2% are on-demand. A major market barrier to deployment of on-demand water heaters is their high retail cost, which is due in part to their reliance on multi-stage burner banks that require complex electronic controls. This project aims to research and develop a cost-effective, efficient, ultra-low emission burner for next generation natural gas on-demand water heaters in residential and commercial buildings. To meet these requirements,more » researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) are adapting and testing the low-swirl burner (LSB) technology for commercially available on-demand water heaters. In this report, a low-swirl burner is researched, developed, and evaluated to meet targeted on-demand water heater performance metrics. Performance metrics for a new LSB design are identified by characterizing performance of current on-demand water heaters using published literature and technical specifications, and through experimental evaluations that measure fuel consumption and emissions output over a range of operating conditions. Next, target metrics and design criteria for the LSB are used to create six 3D printed prototypes for preliminary investigations. Prototype designs that proved the most promising were fabricated out of metal and tested further to evaluate the LSB’s full performance potential. After conducting a full performance evaluation on two designs, we found that one LSB design is capable of meeting or exceeding almost all the target performance metrics for on-demand water heaters. Specifically, this LSB demonstrated flame stability when operating from 4.07 kBTU/hr up to 204 kBTU/hr (50:1 turndown), compliance with SCAQMD Rule 1146.2 (14 ng/J or 20 ppm NOX @ 3% O2), and lower CO emissions than state-of-the art water heaters. Overall, the results from this research show that the LSB could provide a simple, low cost burner solution for significantly extending operating range of on-demand water heaters while providing low NOX and CO emissions.« less

Head-camera video recordings of trauma core competency procedures can evaluate surgical resident's technical performance as well as colocated evaluators.

PubMed

Mackenzie, Colin F; Pasley, Jason; Garofalo, Evan; Shackelford, Stacy; Chen, Hegang; Longinaker, Nyaradzo; Granite, Guinevere; Pugh, Kristy; Hagegeorge, George; Tisherman, Samuel A

2017-07-01

Unbiased evaluation of trauma core competency procedures is necessary to determine if residency and predeployment training courses are useful. We tested whether a previously validated individual procedure score (IPS) for individual procedure vascular exposure and fasciotomy (FAS) performance skills could discriminate training status by comparing IPS of evaluators colocated with surgeons to blind video evaluations. Performance of axillary artery (AA), brachial artery (BA), and femoral artery (FA) vascular exposures and lower extremity FAS on fresh cadavers by 40 PGY-2 to PGY-6 residents was video-recorded from head-mounted cameras. Two colocated trained evaluators assessed IPS before and after training. One surgeon in each pretraining tertile of IPS for each procedure was randomly identified for blind video review. The same 12 surgeons were video-recorded repeating the procedures less than 4 weeks after training. Five evaluators independently reviewed all 96 randomly arranged deidentified videos. Inter-rater reliability/consistency, intraclass correlation coefficients were compared by colocated versus video review of IPS, and errors. Study methodology and bias were judged by Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument and the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies criteria. There were no differences (p ≥ 0.5) in IPS for AA, FA, FAS, whether evaluators were colocated or reviewed video recordings. Evaluator consistency was 0.29 (BA) - 0.77 (FA). Video and colocated evaluators were in total agreement (p = 1.0) for error recognition. Intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.73 to 0.92, dependent on procedure. Correlations video versus colocated evaluations were 0.5 to 0.9. Except for BA, blinded video evaluators discriminated (p < 0.002) whether procedures were performed before training versus after training. Study methodology by Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument criteria scored 15.5/19, Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 showed low bias risk. Video evaluations of AA, FA, and FAS procedures with IPS are unbiased, valid, and have potential for formative assessments of competency. Prognostic study, level II.

An Analysis of the Relationship between School-Level AP® Professional Development Activity and Subsequent Student AP Performance. Research Report No. 2012-8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laitusis, Vytas

2012-01-01

The overarching purpose behind this evaluation was to gauge the impact of AP professional development (PD) on AP student outcomes in a state with a significant rate of PD implementation. The evaluation attempted to predict the level of student AP performance by the number of AP professional development events attended by teachers in that school in…

Systematic review of coaching to enhance surgeons' operative performance.

PubMed

Min, Hyeyoun; Morales, Dianali Rivera; Orgill, Dennis; Smink, Douglas S; Yule, Steven

2015-11-01

There is increasing attention on the coaching of surgeons and trainees to improve performance but no comprehensive review on this topic. The purpose of this review is to summarize the quantity and the quality of studies involving surgical coaching methods and their effectiveness. We performed a systematic literature search through PubMed and PsychINFO by using predefined inclusion criteria. Evidence for main outcome categories was evaluated with the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) system and the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI). Of a total 3,063 articles, 23 met our inclusion criteria; 4 randomized controlled trials and 19 observational studies. We categorized the articles into 4 groups on the basis of the outcome studied: perception, attitude and opinion; technical skills; nontechnical skills; and performance measures. Overall strength of evidence for each outcome groups was as follows: Perception, attitude, and opinion (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation: Very Low, Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument [MERSQI]: 10); technical skills (randomized controlled trials: High, 13.1; Observation studies: Very Low, 11.5); nontechnical skills (Very Low, 12.4) and performance measures (Very Low, 13.6). Simulation was the most used setting for coaching; more than half of the studies deployed an experienced surgeon as a coach and showed that coaching was effective. Surgical coaching interventions have a positive impact on learners' perception and attitudes, their technical and nontechnical skills, and performance measures. Evidence of impact on patient outcomes was limited, and the quality of research studies was variable. Despite this, our systematic review of different coaching interventions will benefit future coaching strategies and implementation to enhance operative performance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of Flexible Force Sensors for Pressure Monitoring in Treatment of Chronic Venous Disorders.

PubMed

Parmar, Suresh; Khodasevych, Iryna; Troynikov, Olga

2017-08-21

The recent use of graduated compression therapy for treatment of chronic venous disorders such as leg ulcers and oedema has led to considerable research interest in flexible and low-cost force sensors. Properly applied low pressure during compression therapy can substantially improve the treatment of chronic venous disorders. However, achievement of the recommended low pressure levels and its accurate determination in real-life conditions is still a challenge. Several thin and flexible force sensors, which can also function as pressure sensors, are commercially available, but their real-life sensing performance has not been evaluated. Moreover, no researchers have reported information on sensor performance during static and dynamic loading within the realistic test conditions required for compression therapy. This research investigated the sensing performance of five low-cost commercial pressure sensors on a human-leg-like test apparatus and presents quantitative results on the accuracy and drift behaviour of these sensors in both static and dynamic conditions required for compression therapy. Extensive experimental work on this new human-leg-like test setup demonstrated its utility for evaluating the sensors. Results showed variation in static and dynamic sensing performance, including accuracy and drift characteristics. Only one commercially available pressure sensor was found to reliably deliver accuracy of 95% and above for all three test pressure points of 30, 50 and 70 mmHg.

Evaluation of Flexible Force Sensors for Pressure Monitoring in Treatment of Chronic Venous Disorders

PubMed Central

Parmar, Suresh; Khodasevych, Iryna; Troynikov, Olga

2017-01-01

The recent use of graduated compression therapy for treatment of chronic venous disorders such as leg ulcers and oedema has led to considerable research interest in flexible and low-cost force sensors. Properly applied low pressure during compression therapy can substantially improve the treatment of chronic venous disorders. However, achievement of the recommended low pressure levels and its accurate determination in real-life conditions is still a challenge. Several thin and flexible force sensors, which can also function as pressure sensors, are commercially available, but their real-life sensing performance has not been evaluated. Moreover, no researchers have reported information on sensor performance during static and dynamic loading within the realistic test conditions required for compression therapy. This research investigated the sensing performance of five low-cost commercial pressure sensors on a human-leg-like test apparatus and presents quantitative results on the accuracy and drift behaviour of these sensors in both static and dynamic conditions required for compression therapy. Extensive experimental work on this new human-leg-like test setup demonstrated its utility for evaluating the sensors. Results showed variation in static and dynamic sensing performance, including accuracy and drift characteristics. Only one commercially available pressure sensor was found to reliably deliver accuracy of 95% and above for all three test pressure points of 30, 50 and 70 mmHg. PMID:28825672

Repeated Low Teaching Evaluations: A Form of Habitual Behaviour?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grayson, J. Paul

2015-01-01

Teaching evaluations have become part of life on Canadian campuses; however, there is no agreement among researchers as to their validity. In this article, comparisons were made between first- and third-year collective evaluations of professors' performance at the University of British Columbia, York University, and McGill University. Overall, it…

Entropy of Linkography: Evaluating the Creativity of Short Animation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Shyan-Bin; Chou, Huey-Wen; Chen, Yui-Liang

2013-01-01

There are important research issues surrounding the best methods for evaluating creativity of animation. This study proposed an approach to evaluate the creativity of short animation by adopting Linkography. This article reported the results of two experiments performed to test this approach. In study 1, participants identified as impressive a set…

Understanding Usefulness in Human-Computer Interaction to Enhance User Experience Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacDonald, Craig Matthew

2012-01-01

The concept of usefulness has implicitly played a pivotal role in evaluation research, but the meaning of usefulness has changed over time from system reliability to user performance and learnability/ease of use for non-experts. Despite massive technical and social changes, usability remains the "gold standard" for system evaluation.…

The Effect of Student Evaluations on Faculty Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartford, Kenneth M.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to understand the behavior of professors as a consequence of receiving student evaluations. To address this purpose, a single research question directed this study: In what ways and to what extent might faculty compromise good pedagogical practices for positive student evaluations of teaching? A qualitative research…

Use of Accountability Indicators to Evaluate Elementary School Principal Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byun-Kitayama, Chiae

2012-01-01

Recently, the federal government has pressured states to add student growth data as a part of the evaluation system. State legislatures in New York and Colorado have passed legislation to revamp teacher and principal evaluation to include student growth data. Numerous researchers acknowledged the critical impact of school principals on student…

Expanded Enlistment Eligibility Metrics (EEEM): Recommendations on a Non-Cognitive Screen for New Soldier Selection

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-07-01

applicants and is pursing further research on the WPA. An operational test and evaluation ( IOT &E) has been initiated to evaluate the new screen...initial operational test and evaluation ( IOT &E) starting in fall 2009. vii EXPANDED ENLISTMENT ELIGIBILITY METRICS (EEEM): RECOMMENDATIONS ON A NON...Evaluation of a Performance Screen for IOT &E ..................................... 49 Approach

Evaluating Administrators with Portfolios: Principals Report Mostly Positive Experiences when Used as Part of a Performance Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Russo, Alexander

2004-01-01

Simple checklists, one-shot interviews, brief site visits and narrative evaluations remain widespread as the tools of assessment. In many school districts, the evaluation includes little or no face-to-face contact, and the principal simply gets his or her evaluation in the mail, leading one researcher to describe them as "infrequent, late,…

A human factors evaluation of the operational demonstration flight inspection aircraft.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-05-01

These reports describe the data collection and analysis efforts performed by the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute's Human Factors Research Laboratory to assist the Office of Aviation System Standards (AVN) in the human factors evaluation of the Oper...

Evaluation of notched wedge pavement joints vs. traditional butt joints for use in Connecticut.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-01-01

Following up on earlier research performed by several states and the : National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) at Auburn University, the : University of Connecticuts Advanced Pavement Lab (CAP Lab) was : charged with evaluating the longitudi...

Continuous Evaluation Of In-Service Highway Safety Feature Performance

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2002-09-01

This report documents the research effort, findings, conclusions, and recommendations of a study to develop a program for the continuous in-service evaluation of highway safety features. The study consisted of two phases and eight tasks. An in-servic...

Developing a GDOT pavement marking handbook using field test deck evaluation and long-term performance analysis : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-12-01

This research project comprehensively reviewed the state departments of transportations (DOTs) practices on : selecting and inspecting pavement marking materials (PMMs) and evaluated pavement marking : retroreflectivity data collected on the Georg...

Ohio Route 50 joint sealant experiment.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2002-03-01

This is the third and Final Report for a research project that entailed the construction and evaluation to date of a stretch of a four-lane highway near Athens, Ohio. The main purpose of this project has been to evaluate concrete pavement performance...

Real-Time Data Capture and Management Evaluation and Performance Measures : Evaluation Framework

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-09-01

Through connected vehicle research, the U.S. DOT Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) is leading an effort to assess the potential for systematic and dynamic data capture from vehicles, travelers and the transportation sy...

Application of imaging techniques to evaluate polishing characteristics of aggregates : final report.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-12-01

Previous research conducted at the University of Florida (UF) to investigate the use of the Aggregate Image Measurement System (AIMS) and Micro-Deval (MD) to evaluate frictional performance of aggregates concluded that the current AIMS system cannot ...

Aircraft flight test trajectory control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Menon, P. K. A.; Walker, R. A.

1988-01-01

Two control law design techniques are compared and the performance of the resulting controllers evaluated. The design requirement is for a flight test trajectory controller (FTTC) capable of closed-loop, outer-loop control of an F-15 aircraft performing high-quality research flight test maneuvers. The maneuver modeling, linearization, and design methodologies utilized in this research, are detailed. The results of applying these FTTCs to a nonlinear F-15 simulation are presented.

Computer-Based Tools for Evaluating Graphical User Interfaces

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Moore, Loretta A.

1997-01-01

The user interface is the component of a software system that connects two very complex system: humans and computers. Each of these two systems impose certain requirements on the final product. The user is the judge of the usability and utility of the system; the computer software and hardware are the tools with which the interface is constructed. Mistakes are sometimes made in designing and developing user interfaces because the designers and developers have limited knowledge about human performance (e.g., problem solving, decision making, planning, and reasoning). Even those trained in user interface design make mistakes because they are unable to address all of the known requirements and constraints on design. Evaluation of the user inter-face is therefore a critical phase of the user interface development process. Evaluation should not be considered the final phase of design; but it should be part of an iterative design cycle with the output of evaluation being feed back into design. The goal of this research was to develop a set of computer-based tools for objectively evaluating graphical user interfaces. The research was organized into three phases. The first phase resulted in the development of an embedded evaluation tool which evaluates the usability of a graphical user interface based on a user's performance. An expert system to assist in the design and evaluation of user interfaces based upon rules and guidelines was developed during the second phase. During the final phase of the research an automatic layout tool to be used in the initial design of graphical inter- faces was developed. The research was coordinated with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center's Mission Operations Laboratory's efforts in developing onboard payload display specifications for the Space Station.

Performance evaluation of automated segmentation software on optical coherence tomography volume data

PubMed Central

Tian, Jing; Varga, Boglarka; Tatrai, Erika; Fanni, Palya; Somfai, Gabor Mark; Smiddy, William E.

2016-01-01

Over the past two decades a significant number of OCT segmentation approaches have been proposed in the literature. Each methodology has been conceived for and/or evaluated using specific datasets that do not reflect the complexities of the majority of widely available retinal features observed in clinical settings. In addition, there does not exist an appropriate OCT dataset with ground truth that reflects the realities of everyday retinal features observed in clinical settings. While the need for unbiased performance evaluation of automated segmentation algorithms is obvious, the validation process of segmentation algorithms have been usually performed by comparing with manual labelings from each study and there has been a lack of common ground truth. Therefore, a performance comparison of different algorithms using the same ground truth has never been performed. This paper reviews research-oriented tools for automated segmentation of the retinal tissue on OCT images. It also evaluates and compares the performance of these software tools with a common ground truth. PMID:27159849

On the use of the h-index in evaluating chemical research

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Background The h index bibliometric indicator for evaluating scientists and scientific institutions plays an increasingly important role in evaluating contemporary scientific research, including chemistry. Results Citations are meaningful. The best way of measuring performance is to use the informed peer review, where peers judge on the base of a bibliometric report, once the limits and advantages of bibliometric indicators have been thoroughly understood. Conclusions Expanded and improved use of bibliometric indicators such as the h index in a useful and wise manner is suggested. PMID:23899251

Research review of potential safety effects of electronic billboards on driver attention and distraction

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1998-03-01

The Strategic Highway Research Program developed and coordinated construction of test sections for flexible pavement maintenance throughout the United States and Canada. Test sites included specific test sections for evaluation of the performance of ...

Heavy vehicle driver workload assessment. Task 4, review of workload and related research

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

This report reviews literature on workload measures and related research. It depicts the preliminary development of a theoretical basis for relating driving workload to highway safety and a selective review of driver performance evaluation, workload ...

Urban Watershed Research Facility at Edison Environmental Center

EPA Science Inventory

The Urban Watershed Research Facility (UWRF) is an isolated, 20-acre open space within EPA’s 200 acre Edison facility established to develop and evaluate the performance of stormwater management practices under controlled conditions. The facility includes greenhouses that allow ...

The Impact of Social Cues on Children's Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dweck, Carol S.; And Others

1976-01-01

Introduces purpose of symposium: to discuss research which explores the factors determining how a child, faced with obtaining some goal or fulfilling some criterion of performance, responds to given instructional or evaluative cues. Delineates variety of research strategies employed. (JH)

NREL Bridges Fuels and Engines R&D to Maximize Vehicle Efficiency and

Science.gov Websites

innovation-from fuel chemistry, conversion, and combustion to the evaluation of advanced fuels in actual -cylinder engine for advanced compression ignition fuels research will be installed and commissioned in the vehicle performance and emissions research, two engine dynamometer test cells for advanced fuels research

75 FR 13764 - Federal Acquisition Regulation; Information Collection; Rights in Data and Copyrights

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-03-23

... clause, which is to be included in all contracts for experimental, developmental, research, or demonstration work (other than basic or applied research to be performed solely by a university or college where... recordkeeping requirements is to ensure that the Government can fully evaluate the research in order to...

"Met" Made Simple: Building Research-Based Teacher Evaluations. Issue Analysis Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

New Teacher Project, 2012

2012-01-01

Groundbreaking new findings from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project hold the potential to answer crucial questions about how to assess teachers' performance. For the past two years, MET researchers have conducted a research project of unprecedented scope, involving 3,000 teachers in six school…

Drugs in the Workplace: Research and Evaluation Data. Volume II. Research Monograph 100.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gust, Steven W., Ed.; And Others

This monograph presents 14 articles on the topics of the nature and extent of drug use by the workforce; drug use and job performance indicators; and drug free workplace program research. These articles are included: (1) Research on Drugs and the Workplace: Introduction and Summary (Steven Gust, Dennis Crouch, J. Michael Walsh); (2) Drug Use…

Function evaluation of asphalt mixture with industrially produced BOF slag aggregate.

PubMed

Zhao, Meiling; Wu, Shaopeng; Chen, Zongwu; Li, Chao

2016-07-04

Laboratory research suggested that basic oxygen furnace (BOF) slag-based asphalt mixture was a functional material. However, the BOF slag aggregate's quality was difficult to control when it was heavily used in entity engineering. The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the functional performances of asphalt mixture containing BOF slag coarse aggregate (BSCA), which was from an industrialized production line. Limestone mixture was a control group. The Marshall method was first adopted to design asphalt mixtures. The performances of limestone asphalt mixture and BOF slag asphalt mixture including fatigue failure resistance and moisture stability were then evaluated and compared. Results showed that the asphalt mixture containing BSCA possessed better durability, which meant the quality of BSCA from industrialized production lines was well controlled and this BSCA can be heavily used in entity engineering.

Performance evaluation of chip seals in Idaho.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-08-01

The intent of this research project is to identify a wide variety of parameters that influence the performance of pavements treated via chip seals within the State of Idaho. Chip sealing is currently one of the most popular methods of maintenance for...

75 FR 56551 - National Institute on Aging; Notice of Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-09-16

... personnel qualifications and performance, and the competence of individual investigators, the disclosure of... competence of individual investigators. Place: National Institute on Aging, Biomedical Research Center, 251... review and evaluate personal qualifications and performance, and competence of individual investigators...

The effects of text messaging on young novice driver performance

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2006-02-01

This project aimed to evaluate, using the advanced driving simulator located at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, the effects of text (SMS) messaging on the driving performance of young novice drivers. Twenty participants drove on a sim...

Monitoring loading and environmental effects on bridge performance : research brief.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-03-01

A pilot project was initiated to assess the performance of the HPS bridge members as well as to evaluate : the response of the structure to actual traffic and environmental loads under in-service conditions : through monitoring of strain, temperature...

BENCH-SCALE PERFORMANCE OF PARTITIONING ELECTRON DONORS FOR TCE DNAPL BIOREMEDIATION

EPA Science Inventory

The objective of the Source Area Bioremediation (SABRE) project, an international collaboration of twelve companies, two government agencies and three research institutions, is to evaluate the performance of enhanced anaerobic bioremediation for the treatment of chlorinated ethen...

Improving the performance of community health workers in humanitarian emergencies: a realist evaluation protocol for the PIECES programme

PubMed Central

Gilmore, Brynne; Adams, Ben Jack; Bartoloni, Alex; Alhaydar, Bana; McAuliffe, Eilish; Raven, Joanna; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Vallières, Frédérique

2016-01-01

Introduction Understanding what enhances the motivation and performance of community health workers (CHWs) in humanitarian emergencies represents a key research gap within the field of human resources for health. This paper presents the research protocol for the Performance ImprovEment of CHWs in Emergency Settings (PIECES) research programme. Enhancing Learning and Research in Humanitarian Action (ELRHA) funded the development of this protocol as part of their Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) call (No.19839). PIECES aims to understand what factors improve the performance of CHWs in level III humanitarian emergencies. Methods and analysis The suggested protocol uses a realist evaluation with multiple cases across the 3 country sites: Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. Working with International Medical Corps (IMC), an initial programme theory was elicited through literature and document reviews, semistructured interviews and focus groups with IMC programme managers and CHWs. Based on this initial theory, this protocol proposes a combination of semistructured interviews, life histories and critical incident narratives, surveys and latent variable modelling of key constructs to explain how contextual factors work to trigger mechanisms for specific outcomes relating to IMC's 300+ CHWs' performance. Participants will also include programme staff, CHWs and programme beneficiaries. Realist approaches will be used to better understand ‘what works, for whom and under what conditions’ for improving CHW performance within humanitarian contexts. Ethics and dissemination Trinity College Dublin's Health Policy and Management/Centre for Global Health Research Ethics Committee gave ethical approval for the protocol development phase. For the full research project, additional ethical approval will be sought from: Université St. Joseph (Lebanon), the Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health in Baghdad (Iraq) and the Middle East Technical University (Turkey). Dissemination activities will involve a mixture of research feedback, policy briefs, guidelines and recommendations, as well as open source academic articles. PMID:27531730

Improving the performance of community health workers in humanitarian emergencies: a realist evaluation protocol for the PIECES programme.

PubMed

Gilmore, Brynne; Adams, Ben Jack; Bartoloni, Alex; Alhaydar, Bana; McAuliffe, Eilish; Raven, Joanna; Taegtmeyer, Miriam; Vallières, Frédérique

2016-08-16

Understanding what enhances the motivation and performance of community health workers (CHWs) in humanitarian emergencies represents a key research gap within the field of human resources for health. This paper presents the research protocol for the Performance ImprovEment of CHWs in Emergency Settings (PIECES) research programme. Enhancing Learning and Research in Humanitarian Action (ELRHA) funded the development of this protocol as part of their Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) call (No.19839). PIECES aims to understand what factors improve the performance of CHWs in level III humanitarian emergencies. The suggested protocol uses a realist evaluation with multiple cases across the 3 country sites: Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon. Working with International Medical Corps (IMC), an initial programme theory was elicited through literature and document reviews, semistructured interviews and focus groups with IMC programme managers and CHWs. Based on this initial theory, this protocol proposes a combination of semistructured interviews, life histories and critical incident narratives, surveys and latent variable modelling of key constructs to explain how contextual factors work to trigger mechanisms for specific outcomes relating to IMC's 300+ CHWs' performance. Participants will also include programme staff, CHWs and programme beneficiaries. Realist approaches will be used to better understand 'what works, for whom and under what conditions' for improving CHW performance within humanitarian contexts. Trinity College Dublin's Health Policy and Management/Centre for Global Health Research Ethics Committee gave ethical approval for the protocol development phase. For the full research project, additional ethical approval will be sought from: Université St. Joseph (Lebanon), the Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Health in Baghdad (Iraq) and the Middle East Technical University (Turkey). Dissemination activities will involve a mixture of research feedback, policy briefs, guidelines and recommendations, as well as open source academic articles. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

Research on Long Tail Recommendation Algorithm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hu, Xuezhi; Zhang, Chuang; Wu, Ming; Zeng, Yang

2017-10-01

Most recommendation systems in the major electronic commerce platforms are influenced by the long tail effect more or less. There are sufficient researches of how to assess recommendation effect while no criteria to evaluate long tail recommendation rate. In this study, we first discussed the existing problems of recommending long tail products through specific experiments. Then we proposed a long tail evaluation criteria and compared the performance in long tail recommendation between different models.

Dynamic online peer evaluations to improve group assignments in nursing e-learning environment.

PubMed

Adwan, Jehad

2016-06-01

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the use of online peer evaluation forms for online group activities in improving group project outcomes. The investigator developed and used a web-based Google Forms® self and peer evaluation form of 2 group assignments' rubric for junior and senior nursing students. The form covered elements of the assignments including: research activity, analysis of the literature, writing of report, participation in making of presentation, overall contribution to the project, and participation in the weekly group discussions. Items were rated from 1 (did not contribute) to 5 (outstanding contribution) in addition to NA when one activity did not apply. The self and peer evaluation process was conducted twice: once after group assignment 1 and once after group assignment 2. The group assignments final products were done in the form of VoiceThread online presentations that were shared with the rest of the class reflecting the groups' work on a health informatics topic of interest. Data collected as the students completed self and peer evaluations for group assignments 1 and 2. Also, optional comments regarding member performance were collected to add contextual information in addition to ratings. Students received credit for completing the peer evaluations and the grade for the particular assignment was affected by their performance based on peer evaluations of their contributions. Students' peer evaluations showed in a color-coded spreadsheet which enabled the course faculty to view real time results of students' ratings after each assignment. The faculty provided timely and tailored feedback to groups or individuals as needed, using positive feedback and commending high performance while urging struggling individual students and groups to improve lower ratings in specific areas. Comparing evaluations of both assignments, there were statistically significant improvements among all students. The mean scores of the entire sample were skewed toward the higher end of the scale, suggesting an overall high performance group. However, analysis of the lower performing individuals showed consistent and statistically significant improvements in all areas of the evaluation criteria. Anonymous peer evaluation activities and timely faculty feedback in e-Learning environment can be a useful tool to faculty to improve group performance over time by engaging the learners within their groups. Peer evaluations provided real time view of group mid-semester formative evaluations that allowed the faculty to provide timely and tailored feedback on student performance which allowed for better outcomes. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Surgery resident selection and evaluation. A critical incident study.

PubMed

Edwards, J C; Currie, M L; Wade, T P; Kaminski, D L

1993-03-01

This article reports a study of the process of selecting and evaluating general surgery residents. In personnel psychology terms, a job analysis of general surgery was conducted using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT). The researchers collected 235 critical incidents through structured interviews with 10 general surgery faculty members and four senior residents. The researchers then directed the surgeons in a two-step process of sorting the incidents into categories and naming the categories. The final essential categories of behavior to define surgical competence were derived through discussion among the surgeons until a consensus was formed. Those categories are knowledge/self-education, clinical performance, diagnostic skills, surgical skills, communication skills, reliability, integrity, compassion, organization skills, motivation, emotional control, and personal appearance. These categories were then used to develop an interview evaluation form for selection purposes and a performance evaluation form to be used throughout residency training. Thus a continuum of evaluation was established. The categories and critical incidents were also used to structure the interview process, which has demonstrated increased interview validity and reliability in many other studies. A handbook for structuring the interviews faculty members conduct with applicants was written, and an interview training session was held with the faculty. The process of implementation of the structured selection interviews is being documented currently through qualitative research.

Improved Transparent Conducting Oxides for Photovoltaics: Final Research Report, 1 May 1999--31 December 2002

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

Mason, T. O.; Chang, R. P. H.; Marks, T. J.

2003-10-01

This subcontract focused on next-generation transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) for improved PV performance. More specifically, there were two research foci: (1) improved Sn-based, n-type TCOs aimed at enhanced CdTe PV cell performance, and (2) novel Cu-based, p-type TCOs applicable to a variety of PV designs. The objective of the research under this subcontract was to identify, explore, evaluate, and develop future generations of photovoltaic technologies that can meet the long-term goal of producing low-cost electricity from sunlight.

Safety Evaluation of Red Light Running Camera Intersections in Illinois

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-04-01

As a part of this research, the safety performance of red light running (RLR) camera systems was evaluated for a sample of 41 intersections and 60 RLR camera approaches located on state routes under IDOTs jurisdiction in the Chicago suburbs. Compr...

Performance of concrete joint sealants in hot climates

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1987-11-01

A research project was initiated in 1979 on project IR-17-1(126) to compare and evaluate several joint sealants. In 1982 another test section on project F 028-1-506 was established to evaluate several other sealants. This report documents the placeme...

Development of the MASW method for pavement evaluation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2016-07-31

The purpose of this research is to establish a recommended procedure for performing multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) on pavements as well as evaluating the ability of MASW to detect a change in shear wave velocity as damage in concrete i...

Association between Measures of Academic Performance and Psychosocial Adjustment for Asian/Pacific-Islander Adolescents.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hishinuma, Earl S.; Foster, Judy E.; Miyamoto, Robin H.; Nishimura, Stephanie T.; Andrade, Naleen N.; Nahulu, Linda B.; Goebert, Deborah A.; Yuen, Noelle Y. C.; Makini, George K., Jr.; Kim, S. Peter; Carlton, Barry S.

2001-01-01

Examines the association between different measures of academic performance and psychological adjustment for a sample of under-researched Asian/Pacific Islander adolescents from Hawaii. Results support the use of the actual quantification of academic performance (i.e. cumulative grade point average or self reported evaluation) in predicting…

The Impact of Providing Performance Feedback to Teachers and Principals. NCEE 2018-4001

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garet, Michael S.; Wayne, Andrew J.; Brown, Seth; Rickles, Jordan; Song, Mengli; Manzeske, David

2017-01-01

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

The Impact of Providing Performance Feedback to Teachers and Principals. Executive Summary. NCEE 2018-4000

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garet, Michael S.; Wayne, Andrew J.; Brown, Seth; Rickles, Jordan; Song, Mengli; Manzeske, David

2017-01-01

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

Learning Capability and Business Performance: A Non-Financial and Financial Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma Prieto, Isabel; Revilla, Elena

2006-01-01

Purpose: There has been little research that includes reliable deductions about the positive influence of learning capability on business performance. For this reason, the main objective of the present study is to empirically explore the link between learning capability in organizations and business performance evaluated in both financial and…

Grading Standards and Student Performance in Community College and University Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedl, John; Pittenger, David J.; Sherman, Michael

2012-01-01

Research was undertaken to determine whether comparable grading standards are used in evaluating student performance at two-year community colleges and four-year universities. Examination of academic records of 417 students who took college level math at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in fall 2009 compared the performance of those who…

Development of Performance Appraisal System for Local School Teachers in Thailand

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Uttaramart, Suphawadee; Tesaputa, Kowat; Sri-am-pai, Anan

2015-01-01

The objectives of this research were: 1) to study current situation and problem in the performance appraisal system of secondary school teachers, under jurisdiction of the Local Administrative Organization (LAO), 2) to develop the performance appraisal system to apply with the LAO school teachers, and 3) to evaluate the application from the…

Performance measurement evaluation framework and co-benefit / tradeoff analysis for connected and automated vehicles (CAV) applications : a survey : a research report from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2017-09-01

A number of Connected and/or Automated Vehicle (CAV) applications have recently been designed to improve the performance of our transportation system. Safety, mobility and environmental sustainability are three cornerstone performance metrics when ev...

Teacher Responses to Pay-for-Performance Policies: Survey Results from Four High-Poverty, Urban School Districts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wells, John

2011-01-01

Policymakers are increasingly adopting "pay-for-performance" policies in which teachers are compensated based on their performance as measured by classroom evaluations and/or student achievement test results. Prior research has produced largely inconclusive findings concerning support among teachers for these policies and their effects…

Faculty performance evaluation in accredited U.S. public health graduate schools and programs: a national study.

PubMed

Gimbel, Ronald W; Cruess, David F; Schor, Kenneth; Hooper, Tomoko I; Barbour, Galen L

2008-10-01

To provide baseline data on evaluation of faculty performance in U.S. schools and programs of public health. The authors administered an anonymous Internet-based questionnaire using PHP Surveyor. The invited sample consisted of individuals listed in the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) Directory of Accredited Schools and Programs of Public Health. The authors explored performance measures in teaching, research, and service, and assessed how faculty performance measures are used. A total of 64 individuals (60.4%) responded to the survey, with 26 (40.6%) reporting accreditation/reaccreditation by CEPH within the preceding 24 months. Although all schools and programs employ faculty performance evaluations, a significant difference exists between schools and programs in the use of results for merit pay increases and mentoring purposes. Thirty-one (48.4%) of the organizations published minimum performance expectations. Fifty-nine (92.2%) of the respondents counted number of publications, but only 22 (34.4%) formally evaluated their quality. Sixty-two (96.9%) evaluated teaching through student course evaluations, and only 29 (45.3%) engaged in peer assessment. Although aggregate results of teaching evaluation are available to faculty and administrators, this information is often unavailable to students and the public. Most schools and programs documented faculty service activities qualitatively but neither assessed it quantitatively nor evaluated its impact. This study provides insight into how schools and programs of public health evaluate faculty performance. Results suggest that although schools and programs do evaluate faculty performance on a basic level, many do not devote substantial attention to this process.

IMPACTS OF DNAPL SOURCE TREATMENT: OVERVIEW OF GWERD RESEARCH

EPA Science Inventory

The Ground Water and Ecosystems Restoration Division (GWERD) is conducting research to evaluate the benefits derived from aggressive DNAPL source treatment. It is assumed that contaminant mass flux from the source zone can be used to estimate the performance of applied remedial ...

Improving the energy density of hydraulic hybrid vehicles (HHVS) and evaluating plug-in HHVS.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-10-01

This report describes analyses performed by researchers at The University of Toledo (UT) in : collaboration with researchers at the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) on the project : Improving the Energy Density of Hydraulic Hybrid Vehicles (HHVs)...

Evaluation of natural language processing systems: Issues and approaches

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

Guida, G.; Mauri, G.

This paper encompasses two main topics: a broad and general analysis of the issue of performance evaluation of NLP systems and a report on a specific approach developed by the authors and experimented on a sample test case. More precisely, it first presents a brief survey of the major works in the area of NLP systems evaluation. Then, after introducing the notion of the life cycle of an NLP system, it focuses on the concept of performance evaluation and analyzes the scope and the major problems of the investigation. The tools generally used within computer science to assess the qualitymore » of a software system are briefly reviewed, and their applicability to the task of evaluation of NLP systems is discussed. Particular attention is devoted to the concepts of efficiency, correctness, reliability, and adequacy, and how all of them basically fail in capturing the peculiar features of performance evaluation of an NLP system is discussed. Two main approaches to performance evaluation are later introduced; namely, black-box- and model-based, and their most important characteristics are presented. Finally, a specific model for performance evaluation proposed by the authors is illustrated, and the results of an experiment with a sample application are reported. The paper concludes with a discussion on research perspective, open problems, and importance of performance evaluation to industrial applications.« less

Applying operational research and data mining to performance based medical personnel motivation system.

PubMed

Niaksu, Olegas; Zaptorius, Jonas

2014-01-01

This paper presents the methodology suitable for creation of a performance related remuneration system in healthcare sector, which would meet requirements for efficiency and sustainable quality of healthcare services. Methodology for performance indicators selection, ranking and a posteriori evaluation has been proposed and discussed. Priority Distribution Method is applied for unbiased performance criteria weighting. Data mining methods are proposed to monitor and evaluate the results of motivation system.We developed a method for healthcare specific criteria selection consisting of 8 steps; proposed and demonstrated application of Priority Distribution Method for the selected criteria weighting. Moreover, a set of data mining methods for evaluation of the motivational system outcomes was proposed. The described methodology for calculating performance related payment needs practical approbation. We plan to develop semi-automated tools for institutional and personal performance indicators monitoring. The final step would be approbation of the methodology in a healthcare facility.

Cockpit Adaptive Automation and Pilot Performance

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parasuraman, Raja

2001-01-01

The introduction of high-level automated systems in the aircraft cockpit has provided several benefits, e.g., new capabilities, enhanced operational efficiency, and reduced crew workload. At the same time, conventional 'static' automation has sometimes degraded human operator monitoring performance, increased workload, and reduced situation awareness. Adaptive automation represents an alternative to static automation. In this approach, task allocation between human operators and computer systems is flexible and context-dependent rather than static. Adaptive automation, or adaptive task allocation, is thought to provide for regulation of operator workload and performance, while preserving the benefits of static automation. In previous research we have reported beneficial effects of adaptive automation on the performance of both pilots and non-pilots of flight-related tasks. For adaptive systems to be viable, however, such benefits need to be examined jointly in the context of a single set of tasks. The studies carried out under this project evaluated a systematic method for combining different forms of adaptive automation. A model for effective combination of different forms of adaptive automation, based on matching adaptation to operator workload was proposed and tested. The model was evaluated in studies using IFR-rated pilots flying a general-aviation simulator. Performance, subjective, and physiological (heart rate variability, eye scan-paths) measures of workload were recorded. The studies compared workload-based adaptation to to non-adaptive control conditions and found evidence for systematic benefits of adaptive automation. The research provides an empirical basis for evaluating the effectiveness of adaptive automation in the cockpit. The results contribute to the development of design principles and guidelines for the implementation of adaptive automation in the cockpit, particularly in general aviation, and in other human-machine systems. Project goals were met or exceeded. The results of the research extended knowledge of automation-related performance decrements in pilots and demonstrated the positive effects of adaptive task allocation. In addition, several practical implications for cockpit automation design were drawn from the research conducted. A total of 12 articles deriving from the project were published.

Effect of final evaluation on job motivation from the perspective of nurses in Ahvaz Hospitals in 2012

PubMed Central

Faraji Khiavi, F; Amiri, E; Ghobadian, S; Roshankar, R

2015-01-01

Background: Increasing nurses’ motivation is among the most important and complex nursing duties. Performance evaluation system could be used as a means to improve the quantity and quality of the human resources. Therefore, current research objected to evaluate the effect of final evaluation on job motivation from the perspective of nurses in Ahvaz hospitals according to Herzberg scheme. Methods: This investigation conducted in 2012. Research population included nurses in Ahvaz educational hospitals. The sample size was calculated 120 and sampling was performed based on classification and random sampling. Research instrument was a self-made questionnaire with confirmed validity through content analysis and Cronbach’s alpha calculated at 0.94. Data examined utilizing ANOVA, T-Test, and descriptive statistics. Results: The nurses considered the final evaluation on management policy (3.2 ± 1.11) and monitoring (3.15 ± 1.15) among health items and responsibility (3.15 ± 1.15) and progress (3.06 ± 1.24) among motivational factors relatively effective. There was a significant association between scores of nurses' views in different age and sex groups (P = 0.01), but there was no significant association among respondents in educational level and marital status. Conclusion: Experienced nurses believed that evaluation has little effect on job motivation. If annual assessment of the various job aspects are considered, managers could use it as an efficient tool to motivate nurses. PMID:28316733

Effect of final evaluation on job motivation from the perspective of nurses in Ahvaz Hospitals in 2012.

PubMed

Faraji Khiavi, F; Amiri, E; Ghobadian, S; Roshankar, R

2015-01-01

Background: Increasing nurses' motivation is among the most important and complex nursing duties. Performance evaluation system could be used as a means to improve the quantity and quality of the human resources. Therefore, current research objected to evaluate the effect of final evaluation on job motivation from the perspective of nurses in Ahvaz hospitals according to Herzberg scheme. Methods: This investigation conducted in 2012. Research population included nurses in Ahvaz educational hospitals. The sample size was calculated 120 and sampling was performed based on classification and random sampling. Research instrument was a self-made questionnaire with confirmed validity through content analysis and Cronbach's alpha calculated at 0.94. Data examined utilizing ANOVA, T-Test, and descriptive statistics. Results: The nurses considered the final evaluation on management policy (3.2 ± 1.11) and monitoring (3.15 ± 1.15) among health items and responsibility (3.15 ± 1.15) and progress (3.06 ± 1.24) among motivational factors relatively effective. There was a significant association between scores of nurses' views in different age and sex groups (P = 0.01), but there was no significant association among respondents in educational level and marital status. Conclusion: Experienced nurses believed that evaluation has little effect on job motivation. If annual assessment of the various job aspects are considered, managers could use it as an efficient tool to motivate nurses.

Affective Change at the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute: Studies of Assessment and of Symbolic Racism

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-09-30

the symbolic racism research has directly assessed value attributions or measured their relation - ship to attitudes or behavior , which seems to be a...of attitude , evaluation, or emotion, while others involve the abil- ity to make complex Judgments, perform complex behaviors , or be characterized by a...adequate choice of the proper behavior to perform. Attitudes , values. Attitudes are evaluations of things, including people, objects, or behaviors

Measuring teacher effectiveness in physical education.

PubMed

Rink, Judith E

2013-12-01

This article summarizes the research base on teacher effectiveness in physical education from a historical perspective and explores the implications of the recent emphasis on student performance and teacher observation systems to evaluate teachers for physical education. The problems and the potential positive effects of using student performance scores as well as establishing a comprehensive evaluation program are explored with supportive evidence that some level of accountability is necessary in our field to make significant change.

Evaluation of a youth agency's supervision practices: A mixed-method approach.

PubMed

Gosselin, Julie; Valiquette-Tessier, Sophie-Claire; Vandette, Marie-Pier; Romano, Elisa

2015-10-01

This research presents the findings from an evaluation and organizational development initiative that was requested by a Canadian youth agency working in a large urban setting. A team of four researchers affiliated with the Center for Research on Educational and Community Services (CRECS) at the University of Ottawa conducted the evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation was to identify the supervision needs and challenges of coordinators and front line staff, assess the efficiency of the current supervision practices, and evaluate the supervisors' and supervisees' satisfaction with these current practices. A literature review was performed to help provide a clear definition of 'supervision' and the different professional roles it encompasses. Additionally, research evidence pertaining both to what contributes to supervision efficacy and supervisor competency was reviewed to distill the most robust findings in the existing literature. The lines of evidence consisted of a document and file review, an online employee survey, group discussions (i.e. focus groups), and interviews with key informants. The results of the evaluation helped the research team formulate recommendations to the agency for the development of enhanced supervision practices across its various service areas. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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

Battery testing at Argonne National Laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Deluca, W. H.; Gillie, K. R.; Kulaga, J. E.; Smaga, J. A.; Tummillo, A. F.; Webster, C. E.

1993-03-01

Argonne National Laboratory's Analysis & Diagnostic Laboratory (ADL) tests advanced batteries under simulated electric and hybrid vehicle operating conditions. The ADL facilities also include a post-test analysis laboratory to determine, in a protected atmosphere if needed, component compositional changes and failure mechanisms. The ADL provides a common basis for battery performance characterization and life evaluations with unbiased application of tests and analyses. The battery evaluations and post-test examinations help identify factors that limit system performance and life and the most-promising R&D approaches for overcoming these limitations. Since 1991, performance characterizations and/or life evaluations have been conducted on eight battery technologies: Na/S, Li/S, Zn/Br, Ni/MH, Ni/Zn, Ni/Cd, Ni/Fe, and lead-acid. These evaluations were performed for the Department of Energy's. Office of Transportation Technologies, Electric and Hybrid Propulsion Division (DOE/OTT/EHP), and Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Transportation Program. The results obtained are discussed.

A framework for evaluating the formation, implementation, and performance of accountable care organizations.

PubMed

Fisher, Elliott S; Shortell, Stephen M; Kreindler, Sara A; Van Citters, Aricca D; Larson, Bridget K

2012-11-01

The implementation of accountable care organizations (ACOs), a new health care payment and delivery model designed to improve care and lower costs, is proceeding rapidly. We build on our experience tracking early ACOs to identify the major factors-such as contract characteristics; structure, capabilities, and activities; and local context-that would be likely to influence ACO formation, implementation, and performance. We then propose how an ACO evaluation program could be structured to guide policy makers and payers in improving the design of ACO contracts, while providing insights for providers on approaches to care transformation that are most likely to be successful in different contexts. We also propose key activities to support evaluation of ACOs in the near term, including tracking their formation, developing a set of performance measures across all ACOs and payers, aggregating those performance data, conducting qualitative and quantitative research, and coordinating different evaluation activities.

In-Memory Business Intelligence: Concepts and Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rantung, V. P.; Kembuan, O.; Rompas, P. T. D.; Mewengkang, A.; Liando, O. E. S.; Sumayku, J.

2018-02-01

This research aims to discuss in-memory Business Intelligent (BI) and to model the business analysis questions to know the performance of the in-memory BI. By using, the Qlickview application found BI dashboards that easily accessed and modified. The dashboards are developed together using an agile development approach such as pre-study, planning, iterative execution, implementation, and evaluation. At the end, this research helping analyzer in choosing a right implementation for BI solution.

USAF Summer Research Program - 1993 Graduate Student Research Program Final Reports, Volume 6, AEDC, FJSRL and WHMC

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-12-01

Mechanical Engineering Associate, PhD Laboratory: PL/VT Division Engineering University of Texas, San Anton Vol-Page No: 3-26 San Antonio, TX 7824-9065...parameters. The modules can be primitive or compound. Primitive modules represent the elementary computation units and define their interfaces. The... linear under varying conditions for the range of processor numbers. Discussion Performance: Our evaluation of the performance measurement results is the

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.

Development of index based pavement performance models for pavement management system (PMS) of LADOTD : tech summary.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2009-03-01

A research study was initiated by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) in conjunction with the : Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to evaluate the overall performance and eff ectiveness of LADOTDs Pavement Manage...

Performance of gravel aggregates in superpave mixes with 100/95 angularity.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2010-04-01

The research conducted in this study evaluated the asphalt mixture performance of various gravel and : crushed stone sources consisting of different levels of crushed face counts, as determined by ASTM D5821. : Along with ASTM D5821, two additional a...

[Agreement between guidelines for pharmaco-economic research and never-before-published health-economics evaluations].

PubMed

Postma, M J; Kwik, J J; Rutten, W J M J; de Jong-van den Berg, L T W; Brouwers, J R B J

2002-06-08

To investigate whether the health-economics research published in Dutch journals is in agreement with the guidelines for pharmaco-economic research as published in 1999 by the Dutch 'College voor zorgverzekeringen' [Healthcare Insurance Board]. Descriptive. A literature search was performed for health-economic evaluations published during 1990-1999 in Dutch journals such as Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde (NTvG), Pharmaceutisch Weekblad and Tijdschrift voor Gezondheidswetenschappen. The resulting 19 studies, primarily published in the NTvG, were compared with the pharmaco-economic guidelines, summarised in 9 criteria. The social perspective was taken in 5 studies (26%), non-related medical costs were excluded in 19 (100%), relevant subgroup analyses were performed in 16 (84%), effectiveness was explicitly differentiated from efficacy in 15 (79%), incremental analysis was performed in 18 (95%), an adequate period of analysis was chosen in 16 (84%), costs, benefits and health gains were discounted in 13 (68%), sensitivity analysis was included in the investigation in 10 (53%), and estimated cost prices were used in 9 (47%). The methodology in recently published Dutch health-economics research was partly in agreement with the later official guidelines for pharmaco-economic studies in the Netherlands.

Making Performance-Based Evaluation Work for You: A Recipe for Personal Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Church, Audrey

2012-01-01

Teacher observation and teacher evaluation are a given in American schools, and Charlotte Danielson's work in teacher effectiveness and professional practice has guided evaluation efforts for many years. There is a new, big kid in town, however. As Race to the Top requires documentation of student growth, and research shows that teacher…

Human Performance Optimization Metrics: Consensus Findings, Gaps, and Recommendations for Future Research.

PubMed

Nindl, Bradley C; Jaffin, Dianna P; Dretsch, Michael N; Cheuvront, Samuel N; Wesensten, Nancy J; Kent, Michael L; Grunberg, Neil E; Pierce, Joseph R; Barry, Erin S; Scott, Jonathan M; Young, Andrew J; OʼConnor, Francis G; Deuster, Patricia A

2015-11-01

Human performance optimization (HPO) is defined as "the process of applying knowledge, skills and emerging technologies to improve and preserve the capabilities of military members, and organizations to execute essential tasks." The lack of consensus for operationally relevant and standardized metrics that meet joint military requirements has been identified as the single most important gap for research and application of HPO. In 2013, the Consortium for Health and Military Performance hosted a meeting to develop a toolkit of standardized HPO metrics for use in military and civilian research, and potentially for field applications by commanders, units, and organizations. Performance was considered from a holistic perspective as being influenced by various behaviors and barriers. To accomplish the goal of developing a standardized toolkit, key metrics were identified and evaluated across a spectrum of domains that contribute to HPO: physical performance, nutritional status, psychological status, cognitive performance, environmental challenges, sleep, and pain. These domains were chosen based on relevant data with regard to performance enhancers and degraders. The specific objectives at this meeting were to (a) identify and evaluate current metrics for assessing human performance within selected domains; (b) prioritize metrics within each domain to establish a human performance assessment toolkit; and (c) identify scientific gaps and the needed research to more effectively assess human performance across domains. This article provides of a summary of 150 total HPO metrics across multiple domains that can be used as a starting point-the beginning of an HPO toolkit: physical fitness (29 metrics), nutrition (24 metrics), psychological status (36 metrics), cognitive performance (35 metrics), environment (12 metrics), sleep (9 metrics), and pain (5 metrics). These metrics can be particularly valuable as the military emphasizes a renewed interest in Human Dimension efforts, and leverages science, resources, programs, and policies to optimize the performance capacities of all Service members.

Best practices for evaluating single nucleotide variant calling methods for microbial genomics

PubMed Central

Olson, Nathan D.; Lund, Steven P.; Colman, Rebecca E.; Foster, Jeffrey T.; Sahl, Jason W.; Schupp, James M.; Keim, Paul; Morrow, Jayne B.; Salit, Marc L.; Zook, Justin M.

2015-01-01

Innovations in sequencing technologies have allowed biologists to make incredible advances in understanding biological systems. As experience grows, researchers increasingly recognize that analyzing the wealth of data provided by these new sequencing platforms requires careful attention to detail for robust results. Thus far, much of the scientific Communit’s focus for use in bacterial genomics has been on evaluating genome assembly algorithms and rigorously validating assembly program performance. Missing, however, is a focus on critical evaluation of variant callers for these genomes. Variant calling is essential for comparative genomics as it yields insights into nucleotide-level organismal differences. Variant calling is a multistep process with a host of potential error sources that may lead to incorrect variant calls. Identifying and resolving these incorrect calls is critical for bacterial genomics to advance. The goal of this review is to provide guidance on validating algorithms and pipelines used in variant calling for bacterial genomics. First, we will provide an overview of the variant calling procedures and the potential sources of error associated with the methods. We will then identify appropriate datasets for use in evaluating algorithms and describe statistical methods for evaluating algorithm performance. As variant calling moves from basic research to the applied setting, standardized methods for performance evaluation and reporting are required; it is our hope that this review provides the groundwork for the development of these standards. PMID:26217378

Evaluating ambulatory care training in Firoozgar hospital based on Iranian national standards of undergraduate medical education

PubMed Central

Sabzghabaei, Foroogh; Salajeghe, Mahla; Soltani Arabshahi, Seyed Kamran

2017-01-01

Background: In this study, ambulatory care training in Firoozgar hospital was evaluated based on Iranian national standards of undergraduate medical education related to ambulatory education using Baldrige Excellence Model. Moreover, some suggestions were offered to promote education quality in the current condition of ambulatory education in Firoozgar hospital and national standards using the gap analysis method. Methods: This descriptive analytic study was a kind of evaluation research performed using the standard check lists published by the office of undergraduate medical education council. Data were collected through surveying documents, interviewing, and observing the processes based on the Baldrige Excellence Model. After confirming the validity and reliability of the check lists, we evaluated the establishment level of the national standards of undergraduate medical education in the clinics of this hospital in the 4 following domains: educational program, evaluation, training and research resources, and faculty members. Data were analyzed according to the national standards of undergraduate medical education related to ambulatory education and the Baldrige table for scoring. Finally, the quality level of the current condition was determined as very appropriate, appropriate, medium, weak, and very weak. Results: In domains of educational program 62%, in evaluation 48%, in training and research resources 46%, in faculty members 68%, and in overall ratio, 56% of the standards were appropriate. Conclusion: The most successful domains were educational program and faculty members, but evaluation and training and research resources domains had a medium performance. Some domains and indicators were determined as weak and their quality needed to be improved, so it is suggested to provide the necessary facilities and improvements by attending to the quality level of the national standards of ambulatory education PMID:29951400

Performance of Environmental Resources of a Tourist Destination

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Despite the apparent importance of destinations’ environmental resources, there appears to be little theoretical and applied research explicitly focusing on destination environmental supply. This research attempts to address this gap in the literature. First, it reviews and evaluates the body of research in tourism environmental resources and proposes a conceptual model to test their performance. The model combines tourism supply–demand view with importance–performance gaps and was used to survey tourism in Slovenia. The results show that the studied destination uses its environmental resources too extensively and that Slovenian environmental tourism experience does not meet visitors’ expectations. This finding challenges Slovenian policy makers, who position Slovenia as a green destination. The proposed model can form the basis for further conceptual and empirical research into the tourism contributions of environmental resources. In its present form, it can be used to examine environmental performance and to suggest policy implications for any destination. PMID:29901033

Evaluation of Flying Qualities and Guidance Displays for an Advanced Tilt-Wing STOL Transport Aircraft in Final Approach and Landing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Frost, Chad R.; Franklin, James A.; Hardy, Gordon H.

2002-01-01

A piloted simulation was performed on the Vertical Motion Simulator at NASA Ames Research Center to evaluate flying qualities of a tilt-wing Short Take-Off and Landing (STOL) transport aircraft during final approach and landing. The experiment was conducted to assess the design s handling qualities, and to evaluate the use of flightpath-centered guidance for the precision approach and landing tasks required to perform STOL operations in instrument meteorological conditions, turbulence, and wind. Pilots rated the handling qualities to be satisfactory for all operations evaluated except those encountering extreme crosswinds and severe windshear; even in these difficult meteorological conditions, adequate handling qualities were maintained. The advanced flight control laws and guidance displays provided consistent performance and precision landings.

Ignitability test method

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bement, Laurence J.; Schimmel, Morry L.

1989-01-01

To overcome serious weaknesses in determining the performance of initiating devices, a novel 'ignitability test method', representing actual design interfaces and ignition materials, has been developed. Ignition device output consists of heat, light, gas an burning particles. Past research methods have evaluated these parameters individually. This paper describes the development and demonstration of an ignitability test method combining all these parameters, and the quantitative assessment of the ignition performance of two widely used percussion primers, the M42C1-PA101 and the M42C2-793. The ignition materials used for this evaluation were several powder, granule and pellet sizes of black powder and boron-potassium nitrate. This test method should be useful for performance evaluation of all initiator types, quality assurance, evaluation of ignition interfaces, and service life studies of initiators and ignition materials.

A Different Approach to the Scientific Research Methods Course: Effects of a Small-Scale Research Project on Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bastürk, Savas

2017-01-01

Selecting and applying appropriate research techniques, analysing data using information and communication technologies, transferring the obtained results of the analysis into tables and interpreting them are the performance indicators evaluated by the Ministry of National Education under teacher competencies. At the beginning of the courses that…

Research in computer science

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ortega, J. M.

1984-01-01

The research efforts of University of Virginia students under a NASA sponsored program are summarized and the status of the program is reported. The research includes: testing method evaluations for N version programming; a representation scheme for modeling three dimensional objects; fault tolerant protocols for real time local area networks; performance investigation of Cyber network; XFEM implementation; and vectorizing incomplete Cholesky conjugate gradients.

The Effects of University-Industry Relationships and Academic Research on Scientific Performance: Synergy or Substitution?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manjarres-Henriquez, Liney; Gutierrez-Gracia, Antonio; Carrion-Garcia, Andres; Vega-Jurado, Jaider

2009-01-01

This paper evaluates whether university-industry relationships (UIR) and academic research activities have complementary effects on the scientific production of university lecturers. The analysis is based on a case study of two Spanish universities. We find that the effects of R&D contracts with industry, and academic research activity on…

Do We See through Their Eyes? Testing a Bilingual Questionnaire in Education Research Using Cognitive Interviews

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sopromadze, Natia; Moorosi, Pontso

2017-01-01

The paper aims to demonstrate the value of cognitive interviewing (CI) as a survey pretesting method in comparative education research. Although rarely used by education researchers, CI has been successfully applied in different disciplines to evaluate and improve question performance. The method assumes that observing people's thought processes…

Research on comprehensive performance evaluation technology of wind turbine based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Huang, Xiangsheng; Zhong, Mingqiu; Li, Ying; Yang, Hongyuan

2018-05-01

High-power of the offshore wind turbine is in the early stage of development, then how to establish a scientific and impartial performance evaluation system of the offshore wind turbine becomes the key to the health development of the industry. This paper adopts the method of multi-level analysis and site testing, which can reduce the impact of human factors on evaluation to the most extent. A more reasonable judging criterion with the relative importance of different factors of the same criterion level is also put forward, which constructs a more scientific and fair evaluation system of the high-power offshore wind turbine.