Design Quality Assessment Research Articles

Quantifying Lithium-Ion Battery Rate Capacity, Electrode Structuring, and Transport Phenomena Using E-I Measurements

The specific energy of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) can be enhanced through various approaches, one of which is increasing the proportion of active materials by thickening the electrodes. However, this typically leads to the battery having lower performance at a high cycling rate, a phenomenon commonly known as rate capacity retention. One solution to this is perforating the electrode, by creating channels or corrugations in the active electrode material, either as holes or as channels. This is known to reduce the rate capacity retention effect, but in order to engineer this better, a simplified transport process analysis needs to be established. In this paper, we propose a classic electrochemical analysis based on voltage–charge cycling measurements in order to obtain a classical mass transport coefficient, hm, that is further used as a main indicator for electrode design quality assessment. We also demonstrate theoretically and experimentally how the mass transfer coefficient, hm, can be determined and how it changes as the electrode layer thickness increases, with and without electrode corrugations.

Dynamic evolution of particulate and gaseous emissions for typical residential coal combustion

Residential coal combustion still accounts for half of the heating energy consumption in many developing countries. The dynamic variation during the combustion process importantly determines the combustion facility design and appropriate air quality assessment, which was omitted in conventional studies. This study investigated the emissions of particulate and gaseous pollutants during the combustion process for typical coal types using online monitoring. During the first pyrolysis stage with temperature climbing, the organic aerosols (OA) and gases reached peak concentration. The second fierce combustion stage had the highest temperature and produced the highest cumulative emissions, particularly a substantial amount of black carbon for coals with higher volatile content. Using higher-quality coals will undoubtedly reduce PM emissions, by a factor of 10 from bituminous to anthracite coal. However, more ultrafine particles (d < 0.1 μm) from cleaner coal may pose additional health risks. Anthracite and honeycomb coal had approximately twice the energy content and emitted more CO2 per unit mass of fuel and had more persistent SO2 emissions throughout the burnout stage. The oxygenation of OA and organic gases remained increased during combustion, suggesting the pyrolysis products underwent oxidation before being emitted. The investigation of the coal combustion process suggests the importance of reducing volatiles to control PM emissions, but the potential negative synergistic effects between PM reduction and increased carbon emissions should also be considered.

Unlocking inclusive education: A quality assessment of software design in applications for children with autism

Digital technologies are an essential resource for maximizing education opportunities, yet the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed learning inequities, particularly among underrepresented groups such as children with autism. In this study, we have evaluated the quality of a distinctive dataset of multiplatform software applications, encompassing both assistive and mainstream software, first-hand acquired from special education professionals and families of children with autism. Through a heuristic evaluation based on a system indicators, and an in-depth analysis, we aimed to (1) assess the quality and effectiveness of assistive technologies in supporting the education of children with autism; (2) determine the adaptability of mainstream applications to the unique educational needs of children with autism; and (3) explore the features and constraints of applications targeting children with ASD, categorized according to the needs they cover. The resulting quality ranking, organized by cognitive domains, provides insights into the engagement and effectiveness of applications supporting the learning of children with autism. Furthermore, the findings delineating the functionalities and limitations of these applications contribute to the identification of necessary software engineering best practices. These practices align with user-centered design principles and drive the development of accessible software, thereby fostering high-quality inclusive education for children with autism.

Design quality assessment and investigation of visitors satisfaction of the Jordan Museum using Post-Occupancy Evaluation

AbstractThe Jordan Museum is the most important modern archeological museum in Jordan. This paper assesses the quality of design and the visitors' satisfaction with the Jordan Museum. Also, it investigates which of the selected performance elements contribute most to visitors' satisfaction. Investigative Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) was used within a mixed methodology approach. A questionnaire was used for the quantitative part, complemented by other qualitative methods. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the design quality and visitors' satisfaction. Stepwise regression was used to detect which performance elements predict overall visitors' satisfaction. The design quality of the museum was rated as good, and its permanent galleries were exceptionally rated as excellent. The visitors were generally satisfied with the museum. Visitors were satisfied with the interior and exterior finish but were not impressed with the heavy use of stone in the façade. The simplicity of the museum layout made navigation easy, and visitors were satisfied with wayfinding. This paper is the first to use POE to assess the Jordan Museum. The findings can be used to enhance the management and operation of the Jordan Museum. Also, important performance elements can be developed into guidelines to guarantee effective museum designs in the future.

Aesthetic feature design and aesthetic quality assessment for group photograph

Aesthetic feature design and aesthetic quality assessment for group photograph

Determining quality indicators for projects of information protection of information activity objects

The design and analysis of the effectiveness of modern integrated information protection systems (IIPS) is complicated by the influence of the designer's subjective decisions regarding methods and means of protection, the need to determine the quality criteria for the functioning of the designed objects. The work is aimed at improving the technology of automated design of IIPS by determining the quality of projects. When creating a database (DB) of objects with such "qualitative" performance indicators of information protection systems, it is possible to compare existing and new protection objects and to adjust the protection projects of existing objects. Moreover, the ontological properties of active and threat-resistant objects are taken into account. To illustrate the use of the methodology for determining and comparing the quality of projects, an example of comparing the quality of projects obtained in different ways is given. One way currently operating involves the use of expert evaluation of the quality of protection projects for existing facilities. The second way is intended for objects defined as objects of protection of the general structure (OPGS) and involves a principally objective assessment of design quality using known quality diagrams and control of Ishikawa and Pareto design consequences. As a result of the given example, it was determined that the quality of projects according to quality diagrams and control of design consequences should increase by more than two times. The proposed method of comparing the quality of information protection projects for different objects or different protection projects of one object allows to improve the process of creating information protection projects. At the same time, it is possible to exclude the human controller from the process of determining the reliability of object protection. It also allows you to automate the design process, reduce the time and cost of design costs

EDAS-aided intelligent decision-making in interior decoration design quality assessment using 2-tuple linguistic pythagorean fuzzy sets

Interior decoration design can refine its functions, improve environmental quality, improve spatial form, and is closely related to buildings, structures, equipment, etc. The quality of interior decoration design directly affects a series of issues such as safety, quality, cost savings, environmental protection, and aesthetic practicality of the project, and the quality inspection of interior decoration design can control the safety, quality, cost savings, environmental protection, and aesthetic practicality of the interior decoration project in advance, reducing the occurrence of safety and quality accidents during construction and use, And it plays a proactive role in cost saving and environmental protection of decoration projects, and can also provide reasonable suggestions in terms of aesthetics, practicality, etc., so as to make indoor decoration projects safer and more perfect. The quality evaluation of interior decoration design is a classical multiple attribute group decision making (MAGDM) problem. This paper extends the EDAS method to the 2-tuple linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy sets (2TLPFSs). On the basis of the original EDAS method, 2-tuple linguistic Pythagorean fuzzy EDAS (2TLPF-EDAS) method based on the Hamming distance and Euclid distance is built for MAGDM. The information entropy method is used to obtain the weight information based on the score function and accuracy function under 2TLPFSs. Finally, a case study for quality evaluation of interior decoration design show that the new method proposed in this paper is reasonable.

M-StruGAN: An Automatic 2D-Plan Generation System under Mixed Structural Constraints for Homestays

Existing methods for generating 2D plans based on intelligent systems usually require human-defined rules, and their operations are complex. GANs can solve these problems through independent research and learning. However, they only have generative design research based on a single constraint condition, and whether they can generate a qualified design scheme under many constraints is still unclear. Therefore, this paper develops the M-StruGAN generative model based on the structural design framework of a GAN. Its application research is extended to the 2D-plan layout generation of homestay based on the constraints of hybrid structures, and the feasibility of the method is comprehensively verified through three aspects: image synthesis quality assessment, scheme rationality assessment, and scheme design quality assessment. Experimental results show that the quality of the drawings generated by M-StruGAN is qualified, designers have a high degree of acceptance of the design results of M-StruGAN, and M-StruGAN completed the learning of the critical points of the 2D layout. Finally, through the human–computer interaction application of M-StruGAN, it can be found that compared with traditional design methods, M-StruGAN based on pix2pixHD has high-definition image quality, higher design efficiency, lower design cost, and more stable design quality.

A Quality Assessment of the ARM-Net Registry Design and Data Collection

BackgroundRegistries are important in rare disease research. The Anorectal Malformation Network (ARM-Net) registry is a well-established European patient registry collecting demographic, clinical, and functional outcome data. We assessed the quality of this registry through review of the structure, data elements, collected data, and user experience. Material and methodsDesign and data elements were assessed for completeness, consistency, usefulness, accuracy, validity, and comparability. An intra- and inter-user variability study was conducted through monitoring and re-registration of patients. User experience was assessed via a questionnaire on registration, design of registry, and satisfaction. ResultsWe evaluated 119 data elements, of which 107 were utilized and comprised 42 string and 65 numeric elements. A minority (37.0%) of the 2278 included records had complete data, though this improved to 83.5% when follow-up elements were excluded. Intra-observer variability demonstrated 11.7% incongruence, while inter-observer variability was 14.7%. Users were predominantly pediatric surgeons and typically registered patients within 11–30 min. Users did not experience any significant difficulties with data entry and were generally satisfied with the registry, but preferred more longitudinal data and patient-reported outcomes. ConclusionsThe ARM-Net registry presents one of the largest ARM cohorts. Although its collected data are valuable, they are susceptible to error and user variability. Continuous evaluations are required to maintain relevant and high-quality data and to achieve long-term sustainability. With the recommendations resulting from this study, we call for rare disease patient registries to take example and aim to continuously improve their data quality to enhance the small, but impactful, field of rare disease research. Level of EvidenceV.

Pelatihan Penyusunan Rancangan Penelitian Tindakan bagi Guru Bimbingan dan Konseling SMA di Kabupaten Tanggamus

Guidance and Counseling Teachers should be accustomed to conducting action research. In fact, BK teachers have not been able to design and carry out research in accordance with the rules and principles of an action research. This training aims to improve the ability of BK teachers to design action research in the field of guidance and counseling. The training was carried out in Tanggamus District using a work-assignment learning method in the form of a workshop and was attended by 40 high school guidance and counseling teachers. The activity begins with briefing and continues with the practice of preparing research proposals in a guided manner. Evaluation of the achievement of activities is carried out to check the level of teacher skills in preparing action research designs correctly using the Action Research Design Quality Assessment Form. The results of the activity showed that in general the skills of the participants had improved. They have been able to formulate the title, problem, objective, and research methodology correctly. Participants categorized as "Highly Skilled" = 15%, "Skilled" = 35%, and "Sufficiently Skilled" = 27.50%, "Less Skilled" = 17.50%, the rest, around 5% are still in the category " Very Unskilled.” Based on the results of the evaluation of activities, it is recommended that this kind of training be followed up by increasing the intensity of the debriefing and expanding the target audience.

Performance-Driven Yield Optimization of High-Frequency Structures by Kriging Surrogates

Uncertainty quantification is an important aspect of engineering design, as manufacturing tolerances may affect the characteristics of the structure. Therefore, the quantification of these effects is indispensable for an adequate assessment of design quality. Toward this end, statistical analysis is performed, for reliability reasons, using full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulations. Still, the computational expenditures associated with EM-driven statistical analysis often turn out to be unendurable. Recently, a performance-driven modeling technique has been proposed that may be employed for uncertainty quantification purposes and can enable circumventing the aforementioned difficulties. Capitalizing on this idea, this paper discusses a procedure for fast and simple surrogate-based yield optimization of high-frequency structures. The main concept of the approach is a tailored definition of the surrogate domain, which is based on a couple of pre-optimized designs that reflect the directions featuring maximum variability of the circuit responses with respect to its dimensions. A compact size of such a domain allows for the construction of an accurate metamodel therein using moderate numbers of training samples, and subsequently, it is employyed to enhance the yield. The implementation details are dedicated to a particular type of device. Results obtained for a ring-slot antenna and a miniaturized rat-race coupler imply that the cost of yield optimization process can be reduced to few dozens of EM analyses.

Design quality assessment of campus facilities through post occupancy evaluation

PurposeThis study aims to present the design quality assessment of facilities on a university campus in Saudi Arabia.Design/methodology/approachForty-nine standardized design quality indicators (DQIs) have been adopted for the study. These were classified into relevant categories including: “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance,” “Furniture, Utilities and Spaces” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” A web-based survey was used to obtain responses from 207 respondents. The survey was designed based on a Likert scale of satisfaction and was analyzed to obtain the satisfaction indices (SI) as well as Design Quality Scores (DQS).FindingsOccupants were dissatisfied the “level of noise generated from within the space,” “amount of natural light from daylighting systems” and “ease of control of air ventilation systems” among others. The DQS revealed that residential buildings had the highest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety, and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.” Administrative buildings had the best design quality in terms of “furniture, utilities and spaces.” Academic buildings had the lowest design quality in terms of “Indoor Environment, Safety and Maintenance” and “Privacy, Appearance and Surrounding Areas.”Originality/valueUltimately, the study demonstrated how the adoption of a standard set of DQIs could facilitate the standardization of design quality evaluation in the property sector as well as identify best practices through comparison and benchmarking.

Architectural design quality and social sustainability in building certification systems

Abstract The main objective of the study is to examine to what extent the architectural design quality and social sustainability are taken into account in building certification systems. The following most commonly used building assessments in Europe (focus on Germany, Slovakia and Czech Republic) have been investigated: BREEAM, LEED, CESBA, LEVEL(s), DGNB, BNB, BNK, NaWoh, SBToolCZ and WELL. After extensive research of chosen certification systems and various sources on topics such as conditions of well-being, sociocultural indicators, assessment of social performance of sustainable buildings and design quality assessment, the main social and architectural design quality aspects were determined and used for further analysis and final evaluation. Studied aspects are divided into the following categories: user satisfaction and quality of life (building-related), sustainable and healthy lifestyle (building-related), architecture – design quality (building-related), innovation and social responsibility (external). The article contains a summary of results with overall evaluation and comparison of certification systems including weighting of studied categories in selected building assessments. Furthermore, indicators used in building certifications associated with the quality of life and the quality of architectural expression and their weighting are described and presented.

Environmental Attributes Review of Muara Angke Fish Market and Auction, Jakarta, Indonesia

Environmental attributes as a design quality assessment material have been put forward since 1980. Muara Angke Fish Market and Auction is the largest fish auction facility in Indonesia. Its development has received attention from the community for a long time. This article intends to examine the quality of the Muara Angke design by using environmental attributes proposed by Weisman in 1980. The study was conducted by first determining the attributes to be used, namely activity, accessibility, and sociality. The research method is descriptive qualitative by examining these three aspects at Muara Angke Fish Market and Auction. Market facilities and fish auction in Muara Angke are considered feasible in terms of activities and sociality. However, accessibility needs to be improved. The combination of one-door access and linear circulation is suitable to reach all points, but the absence of distribution of circulation paths between sellers, buyers, and goods makes the main route congested, especially in the active phase of the market, namely at night.Keywords: Activity, Accessibility, Environmental Attributes, Muara Angke Fish Market and Auction, Sociality

Formulating a GIS-based geometric design quality assessment model for Mountain highways

Highways play an important role in China’s economic development, especially in mountainous regions. In reality, design of mountainous highways can be a challenging task due to complex geological and topographic conditions. From the safety perspective, it is also important that road geometric design defects and potential accident blind spots can be reasonably identified from the design. To this end, this study formulated an innovative Geographic Information System (GIS)-based geometric design quality assessment model for mountain highways. First, a fault tree analysis (FTA) was conducted to identify a series of highway design risk factors. Second, a decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique was employed to derive the factors’ weight and sensitivity. Third, road driving suitability, traffic safety sensitivity, design risk factors, and effective distance were taken into account to formulate a design quality assessment model. Forth, two case studies based on a mountainous highway located in southwest China were conducted to validate this model. The case studies established that improving geometric design quality can significantly improve the road traffic safety of mountainous highways. It is also revealed that the existence of steep slopes, tunnels, and rapid horizontal and vertical alignment change can considerably compromise the geometric design quality (GDQ), therefore, configuring these parameters is worth of further investigation. Last but not least, this study provides essential knowledge to the regime of accident prevention, high-risk road section location and mapping, traffic safety management, and design of smart transport systems.

Novel fusion strategies for continuous interval-valued q-rung orthopair fuzzy information: a case study in quality assessment of SmartWatch appearance design

The notion of Yager’s q-rung orthopair fuzzy set (QROFS) have gained considerable and continuously increasing attention as a useful tool for imprecision and uncertainty representation due to its capability to discard the constraints on the membership and nonmembership functions as generally required by its intuitionistic fuzzy counterpart. Among the generalizations and variants established in the past few years, the interval-valued QROFSs (IVQROFSs) have been diffusely considered to be a powerful generalization of the interval-valued fuzzy sets. The continuous ordered weighted averaging (COWA) operator has been extended successfully to some special cases of IVQROFSs, including interval-valued intuitionistic and Pythagorean fuzzy sets. Thus, to expand on previous studies, several continuous IVQROF (C-IVQROF) aggregation operators are proposed in this study. First, the dual C-GOWA operator is defined on the basis of the continuous generalized ordered weighted averaging (C-GOWA) operator and Yager class of fuzzy negation. Subsequently, the C-IVQROFOWA operator with two independent parameters is constructed, and the weighted C-IVQROFOWA operator is then proposed for aggregating a collection of IVQROFSs. The C-IVQROFOWA operator and its weighted version can model commendably the attitudinal characteristics of the decision-maker. Second, a parameter optimization model and its algorithm-solving strategy driven by consensus measures are built to develop a group decision-making method. Finally, a case study to evaluate the SmartWatch design alternatives is provided to demonstrate the proposed approach, and the results of a comparative analysis verify the rationality and efficiency of the proposed operators.

Оцінювання якості проектування інтерфейсу користувача віртуальної лабораторії для технічних спеціальностей

Оцінювання якості проектування інтерфейсу користувача віртуальної лабораторії для технічних спеціальностей

Proactive Design Quality Assessment Tool for Building Projects

AbstractBuilding projects have become increasingly complex in recent decades for various reasons, including continuously improving technology, ongoing demand for more sophisticated design, and larg...

Community Based Interventions for Problematic Substance Use in Later Life: A Systematic Review of Evaluated Studies and Their Outcomes.

Problematic substance use (PSU) in later life is a growing global problem of significant concern in tandem with a rapidly ageing global population. Prevention and interventions specifically designed for older people are not common, and those designed for mixed-age groups may fail to address the unique and sometimes complex needs of ageing communities. We report findings from a systematic review of the empirical evidence from studies which formally evaluated interventions used with older people and reported their outcomes. Nineteen studies were included, of which thirteen focused solely on alcohol-related problems. Eight interventions utilised different types of screening, brief advice and education. The remaining drew on behavioural, narrative and integrated or multi-disciplinary approaches, which aimed to meet older people’s needs holistically. Quality assessment of study design helped to review evaluation practice. Findings point to recommendations for sustainable and well-designed intervention strategies for PSU in later life, which purposefully align with other areas of health and well-being and are delivered in locations where older people normally seek, or receive, help. There is further scope for engagement with older people’s own perspectives on their needs and help-seeking behaviours. Economic evaluation of the outcome of interventions would also be useful to establish the value of investing in targeted services to this underserved population.

Mold design optimization and quality assessment of steel castings through integrated simulations and experiments

The quality of steel castings was analyzed in this paper through integrated simulations and experiments. The standard tensile specimens were considered as actual cast products. These specimens were prepared using a multi-cavity mold which was initially designed using standards and foundry practices followed by its optimization in casting simulation software MAGMA Soft. The specimens produced with the optimized mold were then tested under tension until fracture. Porosity predicted in casting simulations was integrated to finite element simulations of tensile testing. Simulated and experimental results were compared, discussed, and conclusions drawn. Some specimens indicated discrepancy in the simulated and experimental stress-strain behavior; however, porosity was not found responsible for this disagreement as confirmed through X-ray imaging and by comparing the simulated and actual porosities. It is concluded that the quality of cast specimens is compromised due to ineffective heat treatment which should be done in a more controlled manner for improved quality and performance of castings produced using multi-cavity molds.