Conventional Evaluation Models Research Articles

Spatiotemporal comprehensive evaluation of water quality based on enhanced variable fuzzy set theory: A case study of a landfill in karst area

Water quality assessment is a crucial step in water resource management and pollution prevention, and is essential for achieving sustainable development. Current methods for evaluating water quality often fall short of meeting the needs of water resource management due to the lacks of accuracy and applicability. In this paper, an enhanced water quality evaluation system was established by Principal Component Analysis / Factor Analysis (PCA/FA), Analytic Hierarchy Process / Entropy Weight Method / Game Theory (AHP/EWM/GT) and Variable Fuzzy Set Theory (VFST). The accuracy of this method was verified by evaluating the water quality of a landfill in a karst area and comparing with the conventional evaluation models. The results indicated that the highest influence on groundwater quality in the study area came from human factor, dissolved solid factor, biological factor, and nutritional factor. The quality of surface water and groundwater in the study area was primarily Grade Ⅱ, accounting for 62.5% and 75%, respectively. The predominant groundwater type was HCO3-Ca·Mg, which was strongly affected by karstification. The NH3-N and TP in the surface water had the highest variability, and the variation coefficients of K+, Na+, Ca2+, Cl−, NH3-N, NO3−, TDS, and TH in the groundwater were greater than 1. The surface water quality gradually improved between 2018 and 2019. Overall, the groundwater quality in the southern and central regions was inferior to that in the northern and surrounding areas. There could be a hydraulic link between the surface water and landfill in the research location, while karstification and leachate primarily impacted the groundwater. The water quality evaluation method established in this study can make a significant contribution to water resource management, which has important practical significance for environmental protection and indirect social value to the public.

Creating a space for student voice in an educational evaluation

ABSTRACTEvaluation research focusing on educational initiatives that impact on the learning and lives of young people must be challenged to incorporate ‘student voice’. In a context of conventional evaluation models of government-led initiatives, student voice is a compelling addition, and challenges the nature of traditional forms of evaluation. It requires a student-first approach where young people actively report on their experiences, rather than being represented by others. This paper presents an evaluation that draws on large-scale ‘student voice’ contribution. Using the context of a mental health programme that was piloted in secondary schools in Aotearoa New Zealand, this paper explores the importance of a student voice agenda in evaluations. More than 2500 students participated through national surveys and an in-depth case study across five school sites. By foregrounding student voice as an evaluation tool, the ethics of student involvement becomes complex. When authentic student ‘data’ can change or challenge official thinking, students’ voice(s) can either be foregrounded or silenced. Commissioned evaluations are often fraught with wider political agendas, but evaluation researchers have a duty to ensure student voice is represented if it is to inform ongoing government policy that impacts on the lives and learning of young people.

Towards Systemic Evaluation

Problems of conventional evaluation models can be understood as an impoverished ‘conversation’ between realities (of non‐linearity, indeterminate attributes, and ever‐changing context), and models of evaluating such realities. Meanwhile, ideas of systems thinking and complexity science—grouped here under the acronym STCS—struggle to gain currency in the big ‘E’ world of institutionalized evaluation. Four evaluation practitioners familiar with evaluation tools associated with STCS offer perspectives on issues regarding mainstream uptake of STCS in the big ‘E’ world. The perspectives collectively suggest three features of practicing systemic evaluation: (i) developing value in conversing between bounded values (evaluations) and unbounded reality (evaluand), with humility; (ii) developing response‐ability with evaluand stakeholders based on reflexivity, with empathy; and (iii) developing adaptive rather than mere contingent use(fulness) of STCS ‘tools’ as part of evaluation praxis, with inevitable fallibility and an orientation towards bricolage (adaptive use). The features hint towards systemic evaluation as core to a reconfigured notion of developmental evaluation. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

원전 안전필수 계측제어시스템의 주기적 자동고장검출기능에 따른 고장허용 평가모델

This study suggests a generalized availability and safety evaluation model to evaluate the influences to the system`s fault tolerant capabilities depending on automatic fault detection function such as the automatic periodic testings. The conventional evaluation model of automatic fault detection function deals only with the self diagnostics, and supposes that the fault detection coverage of self diagnostics is always constant. But all of the fault detection methods could be degraded. For example, the periodic surveillance test has the potential human errors or test equipment errors, the self diagnostics has the potential degradation of built-in logics, and the automatic periodic testing has the potential degradation of automatic test facilities. The suggested evaluation models have incorporated the loss or erroneous behaviors of the automatic fault detection methods. The availability and the safety of each module of the safety grade platform have been evaluated as they were applied the automatic periodic test methodology and the fault tolerant evaluation models. The availability and safety of the safety grade platform were improved when applied the automatic periodic testing. Especially the fault tolerant capability of the processor module with a weak self-diagnostics and the process parameter input modules were dramatically improved compared to the conventional cases. In addition, as a result of the safety evaluation of the digital reactor protection system, the system safety of the digital parts was improved about 4 times compared to the conventional cases.

Application of Probabilistic Neural Network in the Rolling Rhythm Evaluation of Hot Strip Mill

In this paper, the probabilistic neural network and prediction thought are combined to evaluate hot rolling rhythm. An evaluation model of hot rolling rhythm based on PNN network is established. To verify the validity of the model and predicted results, the PNN network model is applied to practical production of a hot strip mill and proves to be a model of simple structure, fast calculation, high prediction accuracy and strong generalization ability, which is able to substitute for the conventional evaluation model based on the empirical formula and empirical data.

International cooperation: The pathway for cattle genomics

• Genomic selection tools are radically changing the way dairy cattle genetics is organized worldwide by providing the means to reduce generation intervals and accelerate genetic progress. As a result, young genomically selected bulls are quickly replacing progeny-tested bulls in the top lists. • To achieve moderate reliabilities in genomic predictions, large reference populations of progeny-tested animals have to be assembled, and this number increases dramatically for traits with low heritability. International cooperation becomes imperative, both for joining databases of genotypes and for obtaining phenotypic information translated into the respective national scale (Interbull multiple-trait across-country evaluation estimates). • Keeping the Interbull conventional international evaluations (based on national conventional estimated breeding values) as a source of phenotypic information for the national genomic predictive models requires maintaining conventional evaluation models at the national level. • Interbull is establishing a new framework to incorporate genomics into international evaluations. The main actions include intensifying networking opportunities; validating national genomically enhanced breeding values; and developing genomically enhanced multiple-trait across-country evaluations, Intergenomics, and a genomic data repository. to express their estimated breeding values (EBV) in the scales adopted by the importing countries. Without a common basis for comparing breeding animals from different origins, the genetic merit of bulls used for artifi cial insemination has been derived from their progeny information, obtained, in most cases, only in the country of origin of the bull while ignoring differences in trait defi nition, evaluation model, measurement scale, management practices, environmental conditions, genetic makeup, and selection goals. Members of the scientifi c community and the dairy breeding industry acknowledged this challenge as early as 1975, and after years of cooperative work, the International Bull Evaluation Service (Interbull) was created in 1983 (Philipsson, 2005). The objective was to support the dairy industry with accurate genetic information on bulls of the major dairy breeds for use by importers and exporters, thereby facilitating selection of the best genetics for different countries, environments, or breeding goals. Interbull was developed as a joint effort of the International Committee for Animal Recording; the European Federation of Animal Science, or EAAP; and the International Dairy Federation to become the main international forum for the development and standardization of methods and procedures in dairy cattle evaluation. The information exchange promoted by Interbull has clearly helped participating countries improve national systems and benefi t greatly from the international genetic evaluations carried out by the Interbull Centre. As a cooperative action between the participating countries, Interbull does not compete with the national genetic evaluation centers, but is rather an auxiliary service. The authority over publication of breeding values in national scales remains with each of the countries. This very successful partnership among competitors, exporters, and importers is a result of permanent and intense networking, making all the actors involved jointly responsible for the choice of methods and for the quality of the results obtained. The Interbull international evaluations are computed by a linear multiple-trait across-country evaluation (MACE) of national conventional EBV from the participating countries (Schaeffer, 1994). In MACE, bull progeny contributions from different countries are treated as different traits, with genetic correlations lower than unity. Consequently, the use of foreign information is accounted for by considering genotype-environment interaction, as well as differences in modeling, the genetic base, and trait defi nitions. Currently, Interbull MACE evaluations yield international EBV (IEBV) for a range of 34 traits and 6 breeds, expressed on as many as 30 national scales (currently, data from 73 populations are included) that are used extensively worldwide for semen marketing. Interbull has been a reference for international cooperation since 1983 at both the scientifi c and the industry levels, but the dawn of genomic selection in dairy cattle has taken this cooperation to a completely new level. The aim of this article is to present how dependent the “genomic

Evaluating the organizational performance of Taiwanese hospitals using the analytic hierarchy process

Enhanced living standards and educational levels have fostered a strong public health consciousness, fuelling the development of the medical sector. Effective hospital operations definitely contribute to the maturation of the home care, pharmaceutical health food sectors. Therefore, such sectors must have the capability not only to assess the operations and organizational performance of hospitals. However, conventional evaluation models for organizational performance are generally too subjective and are aimed mainly at eliminating defects rather than providing information regarding competition or cooperative sectors, knowledge of which are vital to enhancing organizational performance or operations. The inability of home care, pharmaceutical or health food sectors to evaluate the organizational performance of hospitals makes it impossible not only to understand hospital operations, but also to select an appropriate hospital to cooperate with. Therefore, this study presents an optimal operating model capable of effectively monitoring the organizational performance of hospitals in relation to the medical sector, enabling administrators or decision makers to identify the most appropriate hospitals for cooperation or invest in nearby stores of interest such as pharmacies or health food stores. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)-based decision-making method can provide decision makers in related medical sectors or hospital administrators with a valuable reference for evaluating organizational performance of hospitals to identify the most appropriate hospitals for cooperation or invest in nearby stores of interest such as pharmacies or health food stores. Importantly, the proposed model can assist the medical sector to assess the organizational performance of hospitals, making it highly applicable for academia and commercial purposes.

Stakeholder conflict in an alternative sentencing program: Implications for evaluation and implementation

Conventional approaches to evaluation research, what Chen and Rossi (1980, p. 109) refer to as the goal-fixed typically focus on identifying officially stated program goals, selecting a subset of measurable outcome measures, and assessing whether or not the program achieved the narrowly defined effects implied in the outcome measures. This conventional approach, however, has been increasingly questioned. Chen and Rossi (1980), in formulating what they term the multi-goal, theory-driven evaluation fault the conventional approach and attribute the common finding of no effects to this approach. By narrowing the evaluation focus to a small set of officially defined program goals, the evaluation study often fails to look for other program effects that may be predicted by social science theory or prior research. For example, the common finding of diversion programs leading to an increase in the net of social control (Austin & Krisberg, 1981; see Palumbo & Peterson, this volume), cannot be discerned f rom formal p rogram goals, but evaluation research informed by bureaucratic or conflict theory may build such questions into the study. As an alternative to the official-goal-fixed-approach, Chen and Rossi suggest that researchers take a multigoal, theory-driven approach to evaluation. Under this model, the evaluator does not merely investigate the effects of the program on administrator or policy maker defined goals, but attempts to design a study sensitive to evaluating the effects of the program on multiple goals and based on a theoretical understanding of the problem. A similar criticism of the conventional evaluation model, and a similar alternative approach to evaluation, is suggested by evaluators distinguishing between microand macro-evaluation (Bickman, 1987; Shadish, 1987). Most evaluation research, and particularly the official goal-fixed approach, focuses narrowly on program goals and program effects. Did the program achieve what it was supposed to achieve? This ignores broader macrolevel questions of whether the program affected either the social problem in question or the implications for social policy. For example, while an evaluation of a drug enforcement program may shed light on whether the program increased arrests of drug offenders, it typically ignores the macro-level question of whether or not the program affected the level of drug use or crime in a community or society as a whole (see Palumbo & Peterson, this volume; Schlegel & McGarrell, 1991). A third school of thought that raises questions of the conventional evaluation model is the constructionist approach to evaluation (Best, 1989; Guba& Lincoln, 1989). Briefly, the constructionist theorist questions the idea of an objective and consensually agreed upon definition of social problems and program objectives and goals. Rather, definitions of problems and the goals and objectives of programs intended to address the problems vary among different stakeholders. An example that illustrates both the role of multiple stakeholders and the