Analytic Development Research Articles

Usability of CEFR Companion Volume scales for the development of an analytic rating scale for academic integrated writing assessment

"Successful academic writing from sources requires a broad range of competencies. When writing from sources, students are expected to mine source texts for relevant ideas, present these ideas with precision and in necessary depth, have efficient paraphrasing skills and the knowledge of proper source attribution. In order to assess the combination of these skills in writing and to provide diagnostic feedback to the learners, there is a need to design a rating scale where the required skills are operationalized in separate criteria (Knoch 2011). However, this endeavour may be challenging due to the complex nature of the academic integrated writing construct. This article describes the process of analytic rating scale development in the context of German higher education (HE). We address the issues of construct complexity and the operationalization of the construct elements in rating scale criteria by a combination of theory-based, descriptor-based, empirical, and intuitive approaches to scale development (e.g., Chan, Chihiro and Taylor 2015; Kuiken and Vedder 2021), with a particular focus on the usability of relevant scales from the CEFR Companion Volume (CEFR/CV; Council of Europe 2020). Besides the CEFR scales, we also explore the usability of existing scales for integrated writing and relevant taxonomies (e.g., Keck 2006; Shi 2004). Finally, we present qualitative insights of intuitive expert judgement from a workshop with four content experts who trialled and refined the first draft of the rating scale. The ensuing validation of the rating scale is, however, beyond the scope of this paper and the mixed-methods validation study will be reported elsewhere. The rating scale development reported here was part of the DFG-funded research project Modelling of academic integrated linguistic competencies, conducted at the University of Bremen and the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt. The project aim was to evaluate the academic-linguistic preparedness of students taking up English-medium studies in Germany by employing authentic integrated writing tasks and valid assessment procedures. The article offers insights into challenges and critical considerations when developing CEFR-based rating scales for integrated writing, focusing on valid rating criteria, bands, and adapting existing descriptors. "

Text Analytics on Green Economy using Bibliometrix

Environmental damage, global warming and climate change are increasingly serious and frightening, and have caused tremendous negative impacts on the lives of mankind and become a frightening specter for the international community. Environmental damage and socio-environmental crises have been the result of development strategies and policies that are not environmentally friendly and pro-people. The government formulated strategic and operational measures to "green Indonesia" through a green economy approach. This study aims to determine the development of green economy research trends published by leading journals on Islamic financial economics. The data analyzed consisted of 1183 indexed research publications. The data is then processed and analyzed using R-studio and biblioshiny applications to determine the text analytic development of green economy research.

Beyond the Hype of Big Data Analytics Deployment: Conceptualization and Challenges Epistemology

Businesses, government sectors, academia and society have been flooded with data which nowadays have become valuable economic assets. Data and Big Data Analytics (BDA) are vital for the succession of any organization. Big Data Analytics (BDA) delineates the approaches utilized to examine, process, analyze and expose hidden underlying patterns, interesting relations, and intelligence from huge datasets for different purposes. Despite the growth and widespread use of data analytics, the study on this research area is still at the nascent stage. The scenario is seen particularly for the developing countries like Malaysia. Previous literature has recognized data analytic development and its effect but has not yet provided a comprehensive review. This paper intends to conceptualize BDA manifestation, its application, and its challenges epistemology. This study employs a comprehensive review of past literature to serve the purpose. The findings of this paper will enhance the understanding of BDA conception epistemology (definition and application). This concept paper also intends to shed some light on BDA research areas by identifying the challenges surrounding BDA deployment. From the theoretical point of view, this paper contributes to providing BDA taxonomy based on the application in various industries. From the practical perspective, this paper contributes to BDA research field by identifying the obstacles that need to be managed by the BDA adopter for optimum utilization and decision making. From the government perspective, it contributes to Malaysian national agenda to becoming a leading regional BDA solution hub for all sectors and developed nation by the year 2025.

Advancements in assay & analytic development in the vaccines field

Charlotte Barker, Editor, BioInsights, speaks to Jessica White, Vaccine Formulations Team, PATH, about her career in immunology and infectious disease, and her recent work on in vitro inhibition ELISA assaysJessica White is a virologist who has been working at PATH for the past 10 years on the Vaccine and Pharmaceutical formulation technologies and the Chemistry and Manufacturing Controls teams. She has a PhD in Comparative Pathology from University of California, Davis and completed two postdoctoral positions at University of Washington as a research fellow in Infectious Diseases and Immunology and one at PATH in vaccine formulation. Jessica supports the development of vaccine candidates for Shigella, E. coli, Rotavirus, Measles and Rubella, Novel Oral Polio Virus, Non-Salmonella Typhoid, and SARS CoV-2. To improve global access to these critical immunizations, her team specializes in producing novel thermostable and needle-free vaccine formats, such as fast dissolving tablets. Currently, Jessica is leading the work to produce and characterize monoclonal antibodies specific against the SARS CoV-2 variants for use by vaccine manufacturers and researchers.

Adaptive water governance research in social sciences journals: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract Adaptive water governance plays an increasingly important role in sustainable urban development and water governance response to global climate change. To comprehensively understand the research situation and development trend of adaptive water management, this study conducts a systematic literature review of articles published in International Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) journals based on bibliometric analysis. The results show that adaptive water governance as an emerging topic of water governance has an overall growth trend in published articles. The articles on adaptive water governance mainly concentrated on the disciplines of environmental science and environmental studies. Developed countries are a hub for water governance research, and China has the sixth largest number of articles from around the world. The adaptive water governance research has formed a preliminary global collaborative network, but the authors' collaboration needs to be strengthened. The most popular topics of adaptive water governance include South Africa, adaptive management, groundwater, principal component analysis, scenario planning, the analytic hierarchy process, resources, basins, computer experiments, and technology development. This finding suggests that adaptive water governance is a critical driver for sustainable urban development and represents a critical direction in the future research of water governance.

Soil Chemical Pollution and Military Actions: A Bibliometric Analysis

Contrary to the optimistic expectations three decades ago, global military expenditure is increasing rather rapidly, fueled by the increasing intensity of international tensions. As a consequence of this, the military-caused soil pollution gains in importance. On the basis of a bibliometric analysis of 3500 articles, it is obvious that the level of interest in this topic has been rather fluctuating in the last decades, but in the last years, more than two hundred and fifty new publications have been appearing annually. The majority of publications are authored by US, Chinese, and Western European authors. Five main research areas could be identified by the cluster analysis of the following keywords: Heavy metal pollution, water resource pollution, consequences of soil pollution in the food chain, pollution by organic components and soil remediation, and analytic method development. The most central problem of research is heavy metal contamination. The basic topics of research are risk management, water contamination, and the depleted uranium problem. There is a further need to study the possibilities of decreasing of level of chemical pollutants, especially heavy metals.

Helping reviewers assess statistical analysis: A case study from analytic methods.

Analytic methods development, like many other disciplines, relies on experimentation and data analysis. Determining the contribution of a paper or report on a study incorporating data analysis is typically left to the reviewer's experience and good sense, without reliance on structured guidelines. This is amplified by the growing role of machine learning driven analysis, where results are based on computer intensive algorithm applications. The evaluation of a predictive model where cross validation was used to fit its parameters adds challenges to the evaluation of regression models, where the estimates can be easily reproduced. This lack of structure to support reviews increases uncertainty and variability in reviews. In this paper, aspects of statistical assessment are considered. We provide checklists for reviewers of applied statistics work with a focus on analytic method development. The checklist covers six aspects relevant to a review of statistical analysis, namely: (1) study design, (2) algorithmic and inferential methods in frequentism analysis, (3) Bayesian methods in Bayesian analysis (if relevant), (4) selective inference aspects, (5) severe testing properties and (6) presentation of findings. We provide a brief overview of these elements providing references for a more elaborate treatment. The robustness analysis of an analytical method is used to illustrate how an improvement can be achieved in response to questions in the checklist. The paper is aimed at both engineers and seasoned researchers.

Analytical models of short-range order in FCC and BCC alloys

A statistical-mechanics analysis is used to create analytic estimates for the short-range order (SRO) parameters in FCC and BCC solid solution alloys as a function of composition and temperature. As in the classic quasi-chemical method, the analysis assumes pair interactions among atoms at different distances and partitions the entire crystal into a set of identical independent clusters that are then treated like molecules in a gas. This enables analytic development of the probabilities that govern SRO. For binary and ternary alloys, increasingly complex clusters are considered that systematically extend the range of accuracy of the analytic model relative to reference Monte Carlo simulations. The results enable fast assessment of likely SRO using estimated or computed inputs for atom-atom interaction energies.

Recent analytic development of the dynamic $ Q $-tensor theory for nematic liquid crystals

<abstract><p>Liquid crystals are a typical type of soft matter that are intermediate between conventional crystalline solids and isotropic fluids. The nematic phase is the simplest liquid crystal phase, and has been studied the most in the mathematical community. There are various continuum models to describe liquid crystals of nematic type, and $ Q $-tensor theory is one among them. The aim of this paper is to give a brief review of recent PDE results regarding the $ Q $-tensor theory in dynamic configurations.</p></abstract>

Conceptual design of a radial collimator for MIRACLES, the time-of-flight backscattering spectrometer at the European Spallation Source

A parametrized conceptual design for a radial collimator in a neutron backscattering instrument is presented, with application to the characteristic geometry of the MIRACLES spectrometer, that will be constructed at the European Spallation Source (ESS). The analytic development of this design has considered both the forward scattering (sample-analyzer) and backscattering (analyzer-detectors) pathways. All the characteristic dimensions (internal and external radii, slit angle) and figures of merit (such as transmission and estimated background reduction) of the device are calculated as a function of the focal points. Finally, the estimated performance of the final concept has been validated by Monte Carlo simulations.

Атрибутивные дефисные композиты в электоральном речетворчестве американских СМИ: соотношение объективной и прагматической причинности

The article discusses a two-level causal analysis of the attributive composite formation in the US electoral speech creativity. The research material included attributive hyphenated composites from American mass media sources that covered the US election campaigns of 2016 and 2020. The research methodology integrates the approaches of the functional word formation and morphopragmatics, which focus on the problems of wordproduction in real communication, in live speech, in context, and in discourse. It was proved that the occurrence of attributive hyphenated composites in the electoral discourse of American media could be the result of both objective and pragmatic factors. Objective causality lies in the diachronic typological constants of the English language, the ontological conditionality of the nomination by the hyphen complex, and in the features of modern communication. The reasons for the “contraction” of the polylexemic construction into a functional and structural-semantic whole should be sought in the spiral (bidirectional) model of analytic development of the English language, which was associated with semantic compression, “contraction” and inter-level rearrangement at each new turn. The continuous formation of hyphenated composites is the result of a typologically relevant dialectical interaction between analytic discreteness and a new analogical synthesis. Objective factors include, as well the properties of modern verbal communication with its tendency to spatial-temporal compression, the tendency to thicken and condense information. Pragmatic factors are realized on the basis of objective ones and are expressed in the pragmatically-appropriate compression techniques. Different types of compressive linguistic experimentation are in demand, including “continuum” units that border between different language levels. Attributive hyphenated composites represent the transition “lexeme - syntactic construction” in the structural aspect, and “lexeme - text” in the content aspect, being the content “staplers” of the entire US electoral macrodiscourse. An attributive hyphenated composite with a “language creativity charge” is a technique for realizing the persuasive potential of electoral discourse. The conciseness of hyphenated composites and their ability to convey many pragmatic meanings in a “condensed” form is considered as a manifestation of linguistic creative activity and increasing information capacity.

Implementation of mandatory opioid prescribing limits in North Carolina: healthcare administrator and prescriber perspectives

BackgroundRecent increases in state laws to reduce opioid prescribing have demonstrated a need to understand how they are interpreted and implemented in healthcare systems. The purpose of this study was to explore the systems, strategies, and resources that hospital administrators and prescribers used to implement the 2017 North Carolina Strengthen Opioid Prevention (STOP) Act opioid prescribing limits, which limited initial prescriptions to a five (for acute) or seven (for post-surgical) days’ supply.MethodsWe interviewed 14 hospital administrators and 38 prescribers with degrees in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, business administration and public health working across North Carolina. Interview guides, informed by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, explored barriers and facilitators to implementation. Interview topics included communication, resources, and hospital system support. Interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analyzed using flexible coding, integrating inductive and deductive coding, to inform analytic code development and identify themes.ResultsWe identified three main themes around implementation of STOP act mandated prescribing limits: organizational communication, prescriber education, and changes in the electronic medical record (EMR) systems. Administrators reflected on implementation in the context of raising awareness and providing reminders to facilitate changes in prescriber behavior, operationalized through email and in-person communications as well as dedicated resources to EMR changes. Prescribers noted administrative communications about prescribing limits often focused on legality, suggesting a directive of the organization’s policy rather than a passive reminder. Prescribers expressed a desire for more spaces to have their questions answered and resources for patient communications. While hospital administrators viewed compliance with the law as a priority, prescribers reflected on concerns for adequately managing their patients’ pain and limited time for clinical care.ConclusionsHospital administrators and prescribers approached implementation of the STOP act prescribing limits with different mindsets. While administrators were focused on policy compliance, prescribers were focused on their patients’ needs. Strategies to implement the mandate then had to balance patient needs with policy compliance. As states continue to legislate to prevent opioid overdose deaths, understanding how laws are implemented by healthcare systems and prescribers will improve their effectiveness through tailoring and maximizing available resources.

BARRIERS to Early Detection of Deterioration in Hospitalized Infants Using Predictive Analytics.

BARRIERS to Early Detection of Deterioration in Hospitalized Infants Using Predictive Analytics.

The challenges of achieving a 100% renewable electricity system in the United States

<h2>Summary</h2> Understanding the technical and economic challenges of achieving 100% renewable energy (RE) electric power systems is critical, given the increasing number of United States regional and state commitments toward this goal. Although no detailed study of a major utility of large interconnection under 100% RE system has been published, considerable literature explores the potential to greatly increase RE penetration. This literature, combined with real-world experience with increased RE deployment, points to two main challenges associated with achieving 100% RE across all timescales: (1) economically maintaining a balance of supply and demand and (2) designing technically reliable grids using largely inverter-based resources. The first challenge results in a highly nonlinear increase in costs as the system approaches 100% RE, in large part because of seasonal mismatches. The second challenge might require new inverter designs, depending on the mix of RE technologies. Analysis and experience to date point to no fundamental technical reasons why a 100% RE electric power system cannot be achieved, but the economic challenges indicate the need for advancements in several technologies and careful consideration of the suite of options that could be used to achieve equivalent carbon-reduction goals. Previous work also points to the need for analytic tool development, and techno-economic feasibility analysis must also consider the host of regulatory, market, and policy issues that might limit the ability to deploy mixes of resources that are suggested by least-cost modeling exercises.

Statewide Evaluation of Washington's State Innovation Model Initiative: A Mixed-Methods Approach.

The Washington State Innovation Model (SIM) $65 million Test Award from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation is a statewide intervention expected to improve population health, quality of care, and cost growth through 4 initiatives in 2016-2018: (1) regional accountable communities of health linking health and social services to address local needs; (2) a practice transformation support hub; (3) four value-based payment reform pilot projects mainly in state employee and Medicaid populations; and (4) data and analytic infrastructure development to support system transformation with common measures. A mixed-methods study design and data from the 2013-2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Surveys are used to estimate whether SIM resulted in changes in access to care, health behaviors, and health status in Washington's adult population. Semi-structured qualitative interviews also were conducted to assess stakeholder perceptions of SIM performance. SIM may have reduced binge drinking, but no effects were detected for heavy drinking, physical activity, smoking, having a regular doctor checkup, unmet health care needs, and fair or poor health status. Complex interventions, such as SIM, may have unintended consequences. SIM was associated unexpectedly with increased unhealthy days, but whether the association was related to the Initiative or other factors is unclear. Over 3 years, stakeholders generally agreed that SIM was implemented successfully and increased Washington's readiness for system transformation but had not yet produced expected outcomes, partly because SIM had not spread statewide. Stakeholders perceived that scaling up SIM statewide takes time to achieve and remains challenging.

State-Level Evaluation of Washington's State Innovation Models (SIM) Initiative.

The Washington State Innovation Models (SIM) $65 million Test Award from the Center for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services' Innovation Center is a statewide intervention expected to improve population health, quality of care, and cost growth through four initiatives: 1) regional accountable communities of health linking health and social services to address local needs; 2) a practice transformation support hub; 3) four value-based payment reform pilot projects mainly in state employee and Medicaid populations; and 4) data and analytic infrastructure development to support system transformation with common measures. We develop a conceptual model based on diffusion theory and apply the RE-AIM evaluation framework (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) to structure our evaluation. We find that in three years (2016-2018), SIM built the infrastructure for system transformation and increased Washington's readiness for health system change in the next decade. However, the initiatives have not spread statewide, which may take over 10 years.

A Case Report of the Analytic Development of Bundled Payments for the Commercial Market

A Case Report of the Analytic Development of Bundled Payments for the Commercial Market

Geospatial Operations of Discrete Global Grid Systems—a Comparison with Traditional GIS

As the foundation of the next-generation Digital Earth, Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) have demonstrated both theoretical and practical development, with a variety of state-of-the-art implementations proposed. These emerging DGGS platforms or libraries support preliminary operations such as quantization, cell-level navigation, and conversion between cell addresses and geographical coordinates, while leaving the other more complicated functions unexplored. This paper discusses the functional operations in a DGGS environment, including the essential operations defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Abstract Specification, and the extended operations potentially supported by DGGS. The extended operations are discussed in comparison to the traditional GIS, from the aspects of database techniques, data pre-processing and manipulation, spatial analysis and data interpretation, data computation, and data visualization. It was found that with the OGC-required operations and pre-processing operations as the baseline of development, some function algorithms can facilitate the algorithm development of other analytical functions. Several future research directions regarding the data modeling uncertainties, extended analytic algorithm development, and database and computation technologies are presented. This paper provides a comparison between DGGS and traditional GIS operations and can serve as a reference for future DGGS operation development.

Analytical evaluation of TPM performance based on an economic criterion

PurposeTotal productive maintenance (TPM) has been widely recognized as a strategic weapon for improving manufacturing performance. Evaluate efficiency of TPM implementation is considered as a key element in order to motivate staff and to give decision-makers more confidence.Design/methodology/approachThis study consists in developing a new method of evaluating TPM implementation, relying on analytical models and considering two preventive maintenance strategies: periodic and age-dependent.FindingsThe preventive maintenance period and TPM period defined as decision variables are obtained simultaneously by maximizing the expected profit under TPM implementation. A numerical example is presented and a sensitivity study is developed to validate the proposed models.Originality/valueThe aim of this research is to quantify, through analytic development, the impact of TPM implementation in a company by calculating and comparing the profit made with and without TPM.

Synthesis of Viscoelastic Behavior Through Electromechanical Coupling

Viscoelasticity is a property of materials that present elastic and viscous behavior when they experience deformation. The simplest model that can represent the viscoelastic behavior is generally called the Standard Linear Solid model or Zener model. Based on the Zener model, the objective of this paper is to present the concept and the design of equivalent electromechanical systems that permit the emulation of viscoelastic behavior. Besides, the possibility of harvesting the energy normally wasted as heat in viscoelastic materials is also considered. The methods applied in this paper are based on the analytic development of equations in time and frequency domain, including optimization and numerical simulations. Equivalent equations were derived considering the mechanical and electromechanical analogy. These equations were verified by correlating known results from the literature. New results for white noise excitation were obtained and optimization of power harvesting was performed. The proposed electromechanical system is equivalent to the Zener system if its mechanical damping is small when compared to the equivalent electrical damping effect. Resulting in viscoelastic behavior without the need of viscoelastic materials, electromechanical equivalent Zener systems also allow energy recovery whilst maintaining vibration isolation.