Different Types Of Evaluations Research Articles

Evaluating building circularity in the early design phase

Facing circular transition challenges, building circularity should be evaluated in the early design phase to reduce the risks of circular and environmental performance problems found in later project phases. However, due to the current design workflow, such practice is hindered because there is not enough information to evaluate building circularity in detail in the early design phases. An improved workflow to emphasize circularity more in the early design phase is thus needed. This research explores the current workflow and designs an improved workflow by developing an automated decision support system to assess early design phase building circularity with limited available information, aiming to improve the working efficiency and efficacy. This automated system helps in data-driven decision-making by integrating different data sources and presenting the calculated results interactively with business intelligence interfaces. The interfaces involve different types of evaluations based on the data availability in both schematic design and detail design sub-phases. It also visualizes the data quality and future scenarios. This system has been designed based on interviews and literature studies, and verified and validated with practitioners. This study serves as a starting point to rethink the workflow to improve circularity with currently available technology.

RUSSIAN SOLDIERS AND OFFICERS SEEN BY FRENCH WITNESSES OF THE CRIMEAN WAR (1853–1856) IN THE NOVEL BY L. BOUSSENARD “LE ZOUAVE DE MALAKOFF”: A LINGUOIMAGOLOGICAL ASPECT

The paper focuses on the means of verbalization of linguoimagology. The author analysed the linguistic characteristics of the interpretation of the perception of Russians by French soldiers during the Russo-Turkish war (1853–1856). L. Boussenard’s novel “Le Zouave de Malakoff” (in 5 parts), which describes the war, was specifically selected for analysis. The author pays a lot of attention to the description of the battles of the Russians. L. Boussenard assesses the events of the Crimean War, and the reader has the opportunity to consider them with the eyes of the Frenchman, as if involved in the campaign. This work fully covered the events of the mid-19th century that took place on the Crimean peninsula where the Russian, Turkish, Sardinian, French, and British armies were fighting. 
 On analyzing different aspects of discourse, it should be noted that from the linguoimagological standpoint the French vision of the Russians is presented in an ambivalent way. The author uses features with a positive connotation, as well as features containing negative attitudes in their semantics. The author conveyed different types of evaluations in his work. The writer used alliteration, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, occasional phrases, and repetitions. In general, the description of attacks and the retreat of armies is given in the present tense. With this stylistic feature, the author makes the reader the witness, thus more colourfully revealing both the details of the battles and the nature of the parties involved.

Professional financial statement users’ perceived value of carbon accounting disclosures and decision context

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how professional financial statement users use carbon accounting information in their decisions and whether this use is sensitive to changing the decision context from an investment to a donation.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 173 US professional financial statement users, the authors conduct an experiment that manipulates an investment or donation choice to evaluate how differing levels of carbon sequestration affect decision-making across contexts.FindingsCarbon sequestration information affects users’ donation decisions but does not affect investment decisions. Variation in the reliability of the information and whether the information is linked to strategy do not affect users’ decision-making.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is performed by an experiment and informs our understanding of the relevance to users of carbon sequestration disclosure. Results indicate that carbon sequestration disclosure has value for donation but not investment decisions. The authors interpret this as evidence of some value of this type of disclosure in professional financial statement users’ decision-making but not for a financially focused evaluation.Originality/valueThis paper provides unique insights into the effect of reporting carbon sequestration on decision-making. There has been significant research on the broader topic of corporate sustainability, and capital markets research indicates that the market values increased sustainability disclosure. This study extends the research by examining a specific component of carbon disclosure that is not currently widely reported and by the use of information for different types of evaluations. The results find evidence that the value of this type of carbon disclosure does not stem from a purely financial perspective but instead, from other nonpecuniary factors.

Visual explanation of black-box model: Similarity Difference and Uniqueness (SIDU) method

Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) has in recent years become a well-suited framework to generate human understandable explanations of ‘black- box’ models. In this paper, a novel XAI visual explanation algorithm known as the Similarity Difference and Uniqueness (SIDU) method that can effectively localize entire object regions responsible for prediction is presented in full detail. The SIDU algorithm robustness and effectiveness is analyzed through various computational and human subject experiments. In particular, the SIDU algorithm is assessed using three different types of evaluations (Application, Human and Functionally-Grounded) to demonstrate its superior performance. The robustness of SIDU is further studied in the presence of adversarial attack on ’black-box’ models to better understand its performance. Our code is available at: https://github.com/satyamahesh84/SIDU_XAI_CODE.

Domestic Violence Current Legal Status: Psychiatric Evaluation of Victims and Offenders.

Domestic Violence Current Legal Status: Psychiatric Evaluation of Victims and Offenders.

Axiological aspect of confrontational communicative strategies in american political discourse

The aim of this paper is to analyze how the axiological aspect of confrontational communicative strategies is realized in American political discourse. The problem of intensified conventional and destructive elements in American political speech requires thorough linguistic investigation as political discourse is becoming more subjective and negative. The evaluation category allows discourse participants to construct some hierarchy of objects based on the “good vs. bad” predicates. The author analyzes different types of evaluations and their realizations in confrontational strategies, e.g. instrumental, technical, conductive, utilitarian, medical, hedonic evaluations. The paper puts special focus on construction of evaluation act, which includes the subject of speech, the object of speech and the predicate. The subject of speech is expressed through personal pronouns, appeals to authority or majority. The object of speech can be specified directly (using, for example, proper nouns, familiar constructions and verbal labels) or indirectly (using deixis). The predicate is expressed through nouns, adjectives, modal and emotional verbs and infinitives. The negative evaluation comprises such typical means as modified personal pronouns, contextual metaphors, pun, indexical phrases etc., which are used for confrontational speech tactics of mockery, discrediting, exposing, prosecution, negative analysis and vulnerability.

A hierarchical and process-oriented framework for disassemblability evaluation in product maintainability design

Disassemblability evaluation is an important part of product maintainability design. Currently, the disassemblability evaluation of complex products is not systematic and complete. The main problems include (1) the existing methods are limited to individual components, ignoring the evaluation of the whole product; and (2) most studies focus on the single disassembly operations rather than a complete process. To address these problems, this paper proposes a hierarchical and process-oriented evaluation framework. Firstly, from the levels of component and product, a two-level evaluation index system is constructed, and the selected evaluation indexes reflect the features of both current operation and previous disassembly process. Secondly, based on Look-up Table, virtual maintenance, and simple algebraic operations, the evaluation indexes are quantified successively. Thirdly, a hierarchical evaluation procedure is presented, which includes two levels and four types of evaluations. Based on the synthetic application of different types of evaluations, the disassemblability of a product can be fully evaluated and understood. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed framework is verified by a case study of an electronic cabin.

Study on methods for evaluating employees performance in the context of digitization

Abstract This paper highlights the main elements of a doctoral research regarding the efficiency of workers evaluation process in the workplace. Based on the global competition, organizations are in continuous quality improvement of their processes to stay competitive. The focus is on motivating and constantly offering constructive feedback to the employees by evaluating them on the following criteria: job description requirements, operational objectives and behavioral objectives. The aim of this study is to confirm that in the context of digitization, both evaluation based on objectives and 360-degree evaluation have its advantages and disadvantages and to analyze the impact of it in organization’s performance. Since this process is divided in two parts (mid-year review and final review), an interesting research question would be how useful is to offer feedback to employees at the middle of the evaluation period and its impact on the final review. The first part of the paper will focus on defining the evaluation process and its scope, pursue by an analysis of 360-degree evaluation, evaluation based on objectives, and the evaluation process in the digital era. It would be a challenge to discover the inclination of organizations for different types of evaluations as well as perception differences between employees and employers. Many researches consider that one of the used methods implemented in companies is the evaluation based on objectives. A larger documentation on this subject would delimit the types of evaluations to help companies to easily choose the type that fits its culture. For this purpose, we will perform an outline on the existing literature by analyzing authors’ opinions on this subject and identifying advantages and disadvantages of the two types of evaluation specified above.

The Design and Implementation of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC): English for Pre-Diploma Students

Higher institutions are being reshaped to include technology-based syllabus in their curriculum design. It is worth to note that the emerging of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has triggered the university’s curriculum reviewers to include the platform in the syllabus contents. An English MOOC for Pre-Diploma was developed. To evaluate the course developed, the study aims to determine students’ perceptions on the MOOC course. The data were collected via survey and there were 186 respondents involved. Three main areas of the course evaluation were evaluated: 1) Content Evaluation, 2) Instructional Evaluation and 3) Technical Evaluation. The study revealed that content evaluation has the mean value of 4.25 (SD=0.68), technical evaluation with the mean value of 4.24 (SD=0.71) and instructional evaluation with the mean value of 4.14 (SD=0.70). The average mean value reported for three different types of evaluations is 4.21 (SD=0.70). The finding indicates that the respondents are most likely strongly agreed with the course content, instructional and technical part, thus, has effectively helped the users to learn the English language by using MOOC platform.

When Similarity Beats Expertise-Differential Effects of Patient and Expert Ratings on Physician Choice: Field and Experimental Study.

BackgroundIncreasing numbers of patients consult Web-based rating platforms before making health care decisions. These platforms often provide ratings from other patients, reflecting their subjective experience. However, patients often lack the knowledge to be able to judge the objective quality of health services. To account for this potential bias, many rating platforms complement patient ratings with more objective expert ratings, which can lead to conflicting signals as these different types of evaluations are not always aligned.ObjectiveThis study aimed to fill the gap on how consumers combine information from 2 different sources—patients or experts—to form opinions and make purchase decisions in a health care context. More specifically, we assessed prospective patients’ decision making when considering both types of ratings simultaneously on a Web-based rating platform. In addition, we examined how the influence of patient and expert ratings is conditional upon rating volume (ie, the number of patient opinions).MethodsIn a field study, we analyzed a dataset from a Web-based physician rating platform containing clickstream data for more than 5000 US doctors. We complemented this with an experimental lab study consisting of a sample of 112 students from a Dutch university. The average age was 23.1 years, and 60.7% (68/112) of the respondents were female.ResultsThe field data illustrated the moderating effect of rating volume. If the patient advice was based on small numbers, prospective patients tended to base their selection of a physician on expert rather than patient advice (profile clicks beta=.14, P<.001; call clicks beta=.28, P=.03). However, when the group of patients substantially grew in size, prospective patients started to rely on patients rather than the expert (profile clicks beta=.23, SE=0.07, P=.004; call clicks beta=.43, SE=0.32, P=.10). The experimental study replicated and validated these findings for conflicting patient versus expert advice in a controlled setting. When patient ratings were aggregated from a high number of opinions, prospective patients’ evaluations were affected more strongly by patient than expert advice (meanpatient positive/expert negative=3.06, SD=0.94; meanexpert positive/patient negative=2.55, SD=0.89; F1,108=4.93, P=.03). Conversely, when patient ratings were aggregated from a low volume, participants were affected more strongly by expert compared with patient advice (meanpatient positive/expert negative=2.36, SD=0.76; meanexpert positive/patient negative=3.01, SD=0.81; F1,108=8.42, P=.004). This effect occurred despite the fact that they considered the patients to be less knowledgeable than experts.ConclusionsWhen confronted with information from both sources simultaneously, prospective patients are influenced more strongly by other patients. This effect reverses when the patient rating has been aggregated from a (very) small number of individual opinions. This has important implications for how to present health care provider ratings to prospective patients to aid their decision-making process.

Evaluating financial education initiatives in South Africa: The importance of multiple evaluation approaches

Background: Given the low levels of financial literacy in South Africa, financial education projects have a significant role to play in reducing some of the demand side barriers to financial inclusion. Measuring the impact of a financial education project is important to assess whether the project achieves its ultimate objectives, for justifying scaling up and for policy design. However, impact evaluations alone are not sufficient in describing the success or failure of a project.Objectives: This study aims to show that, particularly in a South African context, where investment in financial education interventions is mandated by the Financial Sector Codes, impact should not be the only criterion assessed when evaluating financial education projects.Research method and design: This study was informed by a literature review, a synthesis of team experience on a range of financial education projects in South Africa and the development of case studies.Results: Describing the success or failure of a project needs to go beyond impact and explore factors such as project relevance, design and quality. In order to verify these other factors, different types of evaluations are necessary at the various stages of the project’s life-cycle.Conclusion: Expanding the learning objective beyond the exclusive identification of whether financial behaviour was achieved is particularly important where financial education projects, and the monitoring and evaluation thereof, is mandated. In the African context, where resources are scarce, money for monitoring and evaluation should be selectively channelled into determining project relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and then only impact.

A fuzzy method for the selection of customized equipment suppliers in the public sector

The acquisition of customized equipment usually requires the selection of a technology supplier to accomplish a developmentproject. This requires the evaluation of the suppliers’ proposals that may be assessed by different evaluators in different ways(single numerical values, intervals or linguistic values). In the public sector, this process may require the prior publication ofthe scoring rules in a request for proposal (RFP). This may force the evaluators to assign weights in advance to characteristicswhose technical significance is known but whose significance for the evaluation is unknown. An inappropriate assignation ofweights in the evaluation may lead to wrong conclusions. The objectives of the research were the implementation of a methodfor the evaluation of offers, including the adaption of weights as part of the evaluation process without violating the principles oftransparency and non-discrimination that are generally required by the legislation; the integration of quantitative and qualitativecriteria in a flexible procedure; and the verification for possible rank reversals. This paper proposes the use of trapezoidal fuzzynumbers (TFN) for the simultaneous implementation of different types of evaluations, incorporates variable weights analysis(VWA) for the subsequent adjustment of weights, and proposes a simple method for the detection of rank reversal. A numericalexample is presented using data from an actual case.

Pharmacognostic studies of stem, roots and leaves of Malva parviflora L.

To establish quality control parameters of a locally occurring medicinal plant, Malva parviflora which is utilized as folk medicine in Sialkot area in Pakistan. In pharmacognostic studies different types of evaluations were carried out that focus on microscopic, macroscopic, fluorescence analysis and organoleptic evaluations. The distinguishing characters of stem were the presence of parenchyma, cork cells, irregular shape calcium oxalate crystals, simple and compound starch granules and fusiform fibers with pits. Root microscopic characters were presence of simple and spherical starch granules with rounded or slit hilum, groups of lignified xylem fibers, reticulate vessels, and sieve tissues. Leaves microscopy indicated the presence of paracytic stomata, lignified fibers having pits, spiral and annular vessels, numerous sclereids while in fruit microscopy epicarp, thin walled cells endocarp, thin walled parenchyma and collenchyma of mesocarp and abundant thick walled endospermic cells containing aleurone grains and micro rosette crystals. Macroscopic study of leaves showed, 5-7 lobed reniform-shape, glabrous-surface, reticulate-venation in the leaves. Macroscopic features of roots showed type of root-taproot, surface-glabrous and stem was 1-10 dm tall simple to branched and may be prostrate or ascending. Similarly fruit was of schizocarp type. This study provides the scientific data for the proper identification and establishment of standards for the use of Malva parviflora.

A parametric approach to evaluate fuzzy quantities

In this paper we present a new general framework to face the problem of evaluating fuzzy quantities. A fuzzy quantity is a fuzzy set that may be non-normal and/or non-convex. It is based on the idea of “interval approximation of a fuzzy number”. The classical approach followed for fuzzy numbers is not pursuable in a fuzzy quantity context but anyway our proposal produces an interesting general formulation that offers the opportunity to create many different types of evaluations as it depends on several parameters.

Development of oxazolidines derived from polyisobutylene succinimides as multifunctional stabilizers of asphaltenes in oil industry

The aim of the research presented herein was to develop novel multifunctional stabilizers of asphaltenes (Asph) for the control of fouling in different stages of petroleum industry. Novel stabilizers were obtained from the reaction between polyisobutenyl succinic anhydride (PIBSA), 2-(2-aminoethylamino)ethanol (AEAE) and an R-substituted aldehyde, resulting in three 2-R-(polyisobutylenesuccinimidyl)oxazolidines as prototypes of multifunctional Asph stabilizers, where R is –H (P1), –C5H11 (P2) or –ortho(OH)C6H4 (P3). Compounds P1-3 were characterized by FTIR, 1H, 13C and 2D NMR spectroscopies, and assessed in four different types of evaluations: (i) Asph dispersion by UV–vis, (ii) displacement of Asph onset precipitation, at ambient conditions, (iii) inhibition of electric field induced deposition of Asph, and (iv) displacement of Asph onset precipitation, at reservoir conditions. All the latter individual efficiencies were included in a multifunctional development factor (MDF) resulted in 0.626 for P1, 0.326 for P2, and 0.679 for P3, where the higher value corresponded to the highest efficiency. For comparison purposes, two commercial stabilizers of Asph were also evaluated, resulting in MDF of 0.012 and 0.162, being P1-3 clearly better multifunctional chemicals. Best novel prototype was selected for industrial evaluation by taking into account technical and economic criteria, thus P1 compound was chosen as active component of DAIM chemical and was successfully assessed at industrial scale in a production well of Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX) to control Asph fouling. The continuous injection of DAIM produced important benefits to the oil well productivity, such as the decrease of the frequency of cleaning operations from 11 to 4 in a one-year evaluation period and the reduction of production rate decay from −1.48 to −0.032m3/day, ca. 46times less in comparison when the well was operated without Asph stabilizer.

Levels of Valence

The distinction between the positive and the negative is fundamental in our emotional life. In appraisal theories, in particular in the component process model of emotion (Scherer, 1984, 2010), qualitatively different types of valence are proposed based on appraisals of (un)pleasantness, goal obstructiveness/conduciveness, low or high power, self-(in)congruence, and moral badness/goodness. This multifaceted conceptualization of valence is highly compatible with the frequent observation of mixed feelings in real life. However, it seems to contradict the one-dimensional conceptualization of valence often encountered in psychological theories, and the notion of valence as a common currency used to explain choice behavior. Here, we propose a framework to integrate the seemingly disparate conceptualizations of multifaceted valence and one-dimensional valence by suggesting that valence should be conceived at different levels, micro and macro. Micro-valences correspond to qualitatively different types of evaluations, potentially resulting in mixed feelings, whereas one-dimensional macro-valence corresponds to an integrative “common currency” to compare alternatives for choices. We propose that conceptualizing levels of valence may focus research attention on the mechanisms that relate valence at one level (micro) to valence at another level (macro), leading to new hypotheses, and addressing various concerns that have been raised about the valence concept, such as the valence-emotion relation.

Utility of Implicit Personality: Effects of Achievement Motivation and Evaluations on Creativity

Implicit personality is a widely used concept in psychology but has yet to find little acceptance by management researchers. I describe implicit personality and its and relationship to existing personality concepts, and then provide a test of theory using an implicit measure of achievement motivation. I theoretically link achievement motivation to individual creative performance and describe how this relationship is moderated by expectations of different types of evaluations. This theory is then tested in a laboratory study with a measure of implicit achievement motivation. Results suggest achievement motivation, measured implicitly, is related to creative performance and is moderated by expectation of evaluation. This effect holds when controlling for other factors previously tested as predictors of creativity and an explicit measure of achievement motivation. Previous studies testing the link between achievement motivation and creativity had found no effect when using explicit measures. The major implications of this study are that achievement motivation is an important predictor of creative performance and that management researchers should give more credence to the utility of implicit personality.

Cost-Effectiveness of Different Types of Evaluations Before Sports Participation in Young Athletes

Cost-Effectiveness of Different Types of Evaluations Before Sports Participation in Young Athletes

Evaluating Youth Programs: An Overview of Practitioner Led Evaluations

Youth programs are prime contexts for the intentional facilitation of positive development. However, not all youth programs achieve positive outcomes equally. In order to promote the identification and dissemination of the characteristics and processes of effective youth programs, increased focus needs to be given to program evaluation. This article briefly reviews the main tenets of evaluation science in order to provide practitioners a roadmap for conducting their own evaluations. This includes an overview of different types of evaluations and key issues to consider when constructing an evaluation strategy such as targeting outcomes and developing program logic models.

Report of Colloquium II: The Theory and Practice of Graduate Medical Education—How Do We Know When We Have Made a “Good Doctor”?

Participants of the second colloquium of the Residency Review and Redesign in Pediatrics (R(3)P) Project considered 3 primary questions: What is a "good doctor"? How do we make one? and How do we know when we have made one? Experts from other countries and other medical specialties helped participants wrestle with these most basic questions. Participants emerged with a better feeling of the utility of different types of evaluations needed to determine resident competence. It was clear that the complexity of the task requires faculty education and development. Most important, it requires the ongoing commitment of all of pediatrics as we seek to link education directly to better health outcomes for children, adolescents, and young adults.